Franchising Your Church

In August, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece about a new trend in American Christianity. To quote from the August 15 article, written by Andrew Park, "American megachurch pastors are starting up video-based branches overseas to spread their faith, and their faces, to places where evangelical Christianity is just taking hold, using Starbucks as their model for rapid expansion. But here at home, where houses of worship are already as plentiful as suburban strip centers, the same strategy of high-tech franchising is emerging, despite objections from many Christians that it's the wrong way to reach new converts.

You read it correctly. Many churches are operating multiple campuses with many of them as video venues where the service is available on screen and the congregation needs to do little more than watch. According to the WSJ article, somewhere between 2000 to 2500 churches have multiple campuses now, with estimates of more than 30000 in a few years.

The rationale for this is simple. With many people in our country not involved in church anywhere, the lure of a "big-name, high-powered" preacher appearing at a screen near you might be enough to get the bodies in the seats. Also, the "building and grounds costs" of such a church campus are relatively modest. To their credit, I guess, at least most of these churches have an "on-site" minister to address pastoral care issues, but this person does not do the preaching.

So, does this sound like church to you? Would you attend such a church? Would you rather attend a church like this than a traditional service? Does this further elevate the status of celebrity ministers? Is this a good thing?