Territorial Bloggings

In today’s Chicago Tribune, I read a particularly disquieting article about what seems to be an emerging trend — franchising churches!

The article (to which I link here, with full attribution to the Chicago Tribune, so hopefully they won’t sic their lawyers on me, as I think this reasonably falls within the Fair Use gray area…) talks about this latest trend in the neo-evangelical/Methobapticostal/nondenominational circles, which has been labeled “multi-site churches.” It seems that as they expand to “satellite” locations, these churches are feeling the need to keep control of their “brand” & the brand experience, so as to ensure proper brand loyalty.

Willow Creek pastor Jim Tomberlin (who was hired away from a Colorado Megachurch to oversee Willow Creek’s “mult-isite” expansion program) states, When Starbucks opens up a Starbucks, people expect it to be Starbucks, not a mom-and-pop coffee shop. There’s a lot of meaning in the Willow brand.

I find these next three quotes to be quite ironic…

Jim Hilmer, a Florida marketing consultant and a former executive for Blockbuster and the the Leo Burnett ad agency, is impressed by the trend. “I think it’s very inventive for the church world,” he said. “Most churches are pretty staid and tradition-bound.”

In the business world, they call this kind of thing franchising. In evangelicalism, it’s known as the multi-site church, and it is a growing trend with a similar aim: providing consistent quality and service wherever you go.”

“We all do the same message, but it will sound and feel a little different at each location just because of the multicultural aspect,” said New Life pastor Mark Jobe.

So, I guess it’s ok, if not downright imperative, to have a consistent branding and “experiential” message, so long as it’s packaged, innovative, and new/different every week. But it’s bad, “staid,” “tradition-bound,” and legalistic if that consistency is extended from week to week, as when we use the historic liturgy in the Divine Service.

Ohhhhh, I see…

FEH!!!

Please, come Lord Jesus, and spare me from any more of this scheiss!

-ghp