Jesusdale Mall

So, another megachurch is highlighted in my hometown of the Twin Cities. The article link (http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/13808038.htm) will soon expire, but basically, the story is on the weekly attendance at a new, $24m local church building being 8,000. The article highlights (with intended negative responses, doubtlessly) that the church is waiting on its cup holders to arrive to install in chairs.

The evangelical church is so funny to me sometimes. We seem to spend oodles of time and money saying how different we are from the world, yet we tend to take the world's influences in all the wrong ways, then justify them because it's 'in the name of Jesus' (or, more appropriately, in the name of evangelism...but that's for another post). The article is jam-packed with references to all sorts of consumer-driven implementations in the church building: cup-holders, coffee shop, big-screen projection, etc.

When I first read the article, I was bit perplexed. I had been predicting that the age of the megachurch was on the wane...at least in the North Central US. I honestly believed that postmoderns (though very consumeristic) wouldn't ultimately stand for their spirituality to be so indistinguishable from their weekday lives. I really thought that the struggle with intimacy that oft plagues the megachurch would eventually erode it away in a culture that longs for belonging, especially tribal (small group) belonging.

But, this new church has proven me wrong. ...but it won't stop me from praying for such things to happen!