McChurch history 101<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the beginning, revival preachers used their dynamic voices and dramatic sermons -- framed with entertaining gospel music -- to attract large crowds and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/06\/mcchurch-history-101\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"McChurch history 101\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the beginning, revival preachers used their dynamic voices and dramatic sermons -- framed with entertaining gospel music -- to attract large crowds and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/06\/mcchurch-history-101\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-29T09:00:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/06\/mcchurch-history-101\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/06\/mcchurch-history-101\/\",\"name\":\"McChurch history 101\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-29T09:00:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-06-29T09:00:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"In the beginning, revival preachers used their dynamic voices and dramatic sermons -- framed with entertaining gospel music -- to attract large crowds and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/06\/mcchurch-history-101\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/06\/mcchurch-history-101\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/06\/mcchurch-history-101\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"McChurch history 101\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":1639,"date":"2009-06-29T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T09:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=1639"},"modified":"2009-06-29T05:00:03","modified_gmt":"2009-06-29T09:00:03","slug":"mcchurch-history-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/06\/mcchurch-history-101\/","title":{"rendered":"McChurch history 101"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This formula worked in weeklong revivals and, when tried, it started working in regular Sunday services. Big preachers drew big crowds and created bigger and bigger churches. Then along came the big media, which helped create a youth culture that exploded out of the 1950s and into the cultural apocalypse that followed. Church leaders tagged along.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the \u201960s and \u201970s, we started drinking deep at the well of pop culture and we\u2019ve been doing it ever since,\u201d said church historian John Mark Yeats of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Tex. \u201cThe goal was to use all of that to reach the young. Evangelicals ended up with own youth subculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Big churches created bigger stand-alone youth programs and then children\u2019s programs wired to please these media-trained consumers. Youth programs developed their own music, education and preaching, all driven by the style and content of entertainment culture.<\/p>\n

Then these young people became adults and began to build and operate their own churches, argue Yeats and his seminary colleague Thomas White, in their sobering book, \u201cFranchising McChurch.\u201d<\/a> For churches that want to grow, the evolving approach to faith that White and Yeats call \u201ctheotainment\u201d seems like the only game in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of countless children\u2019s ministries across the United States. \u2026 Most children\u2019s Sunday schools quit reading and studying the Bible long ago. Instead, children view cartoon adaptations of the text along with numerous activities that keep them entertained while Mom and Dad worship without distraction,\u201d argue White and Yeats, who have worked in local churches, as well as classrooms.<\/p>\n

This strategy is cranked up another notch in youth ministries. In many communities, the \u201creligiously oriented youth, savvy shoppers that they are, simply attend the church that has the greatest concentration of entertaining events. \u2026 If they buy into Christianity through entertainment, the show must go on to keep them engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

This has been going on for decades, noted Yeats. The \u201cJesus rock\u201d of the \u201970s moved out of music festivals and into Sunday services. This created a \u201cContemporary Christian Music\u201d industry that helped churches hip-hop from one cultural style to the next, while striving to find their stylistic niches \u2014 like stations on an FM radio dial. Sanctuaries turned into auditoriums and, finally, into theaters with semi-professional sound systems and the video screens preachers needed to display all of those DVD clips that connected with modern audiences.<\/p>\n

That was the \u201990s. Today\u2019s megachurches offer members new options. <\/p>\n

Grandmother may attend a service with hymns or \u2014 as Baby Boomers turn 60something \u2014 folk music or soft rock. Pre-teens will bop to Hanna-Montana-esque praise songs in their services, while the young people get harder rock. Over in the \u201cvideo cafe,\u201d evangelical Moms and Dads can sip their lattes while musicians build the right mood until its time for the sermon. That\u2019s when the super-skilled preacher\u2019s face appears on video monitors in all of the niche services at the same time.<\/p>\n

This trend \u2014 multiple, niche services on one campus \u2014 requires changing the traditional meaning of words such as \u201cworship,\u201d \u201cchurch\u201d and \u201cpastor.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it is one thing for a single megachurch to offer its members a \u201chave it your way\u201d approach to church life at one location, said Yeats. The next step is for the \u201cMcChurch\u201d model to evolve into \u201cMcDenomination,\u201d with the birth of national and even global chains of church franchises united, not by centuries of history and doctrine, but by the voice, face, beliefs and talents of a single preacher, backed by a team of multimedia professionals.<\/p>\n

This trend is \u201cvery free market\u201d and \u201calso very American,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these franchise operations, you don\u2019t say you\u2019re a Southern Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or whatever,\u201d Yeats explained. \u201cNo, you say you attend the local branch of so-and-so\u2019s church. The whole thing is held together by one man. That\u2019s the brand name, right there. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your church joins one of these operations you get the video feed, you get the media, you get the music and, ultimately, you get to listen to the dynamic man himself, instead of your own sub-standard preacher. It\u2019s a whole new way of doing church.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"