Skip to main content
Culture

McDenominations?

I was interested to read Terry Mattingly’s review of Jon Mark Yeats and Thomas White’s book Franchising McChurch. Mattingly states,

Today’s megachurches offer members new options.

Grandmother may attend a service with hymns or—as baby boomers turn 60-something—folk music or soft rock. Pre-teens will bop to Hanna Montana-esque praise songs in their services, while other young people get harder rock. Over in the “video cafe,” evangelical moms and dads can sip their lattes while musicians build the right mood until it’s time for the sermon. That’s when the super-skilled preacher’s face appears on video monitors in all of the niche services at the same time.

This trend—multiple, niche services on one campus—requires changing the traditional meaning of words such as “worship,” “church” and “pastor.”

But it is one thing for a single megachurch to offer its members a “have it your way” approach to church life at one location, said Yeats. The next step is for the “McChurch” model to evolve into “McDenomination,” 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.

This trend is “very free market” and “also very American,” he said.

“In these franchise operations, you don’t say you’re a Southern Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or whatever,” Yeats explained. “No, you say you attend the local branch of so-and-so’s church. The whole thing is held together by one man. That’s the brand name, right there. . . .

“If 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’s a whole new way of doing church.”

This review caught my attention because it was just recently that Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Wash., announced Mars Hill’s plan to expand from its current seven campuses in the greater Seattle area with 8,000 attendees to 100 campuses with 50,000 attendees. These additional campuses would not be limited to the greater Seattle area. In fact, Mars Hill just launched its newest campus in Albuquerque, N.M., 1,500 miles away.

Their document “Mars Hill Global: 50,000 for Jesus” states the following:

Mars Hill Church is a single church that meets in various campuses. Our multi-campus approach began as an effort to accommodate growth, and has since become a unique form of church planting in its own right.

In some ways, a local campus functions much like an independent church, with its own staff, elder team, and programs. A campus pastor leads the effort as the visible presence from the pulpit (preaching roughly ten Sundays every year) and as the authority for all campus matters.

The campus model allows people to participate in the ministry of Mars Hill Church and benefit from Pastor Mark’s teaching and other resources, while at the same time experiencing many of the benefits of a smaller church, such as intimate community, neighborhood ties, and proximity.

Also, the campus model allows pastors and local leaders to do ministry and spread the gospel without having to deal with the many administrative tasks—managing HR and budgets, building websites and databases—that hinder many churches. It also provides a way for smaller, dying churches to reinvigorate their local ministry by joining the mission of Mars Hill.

In his video explaining the church’s uses of video technology and multi-campus church polity, Driscoll says,

There are men like Paul who do have influence over many churches. He holds the office of apostle. We believe in addition to that there is a lesser gift of apostle where someone has influence as a movement leader and church planting overseer over many churches scattered geographically.

It seems that Driscoll views himself in this way, as possessing this “lesser gift of apostle.”

What do you think? How does this jive with your understanding of Biblical church polity?

  • For more on this topic, please read Ken Field’s well-written article “The Multisite Church” in the latest edition of the Baptist Bulletin.

6 Comments

  • David King says:

    I really enjoy Mark Driscoll’s preaching ministry, but that quote “we believe in addition to that there is a lesser gift of apostle…” is very concerning. Is he saying that the apostolic era is still upon us and thus there should be the accompanying signs and wonders with those gifted men.

    Is he as Paul put, “as one born out of time?” Thanks for posting this article and I look forward to hopefully some discussion on this latest movement!

    I also agree that Ken Field’s article on the Multisite Church was excellent. Kuddos Ken and thanks!

  • Greg Long says:

    Driscoll distinguishes between the office of apostle (the twelve) and the gift of apostle as well as between apostles in a primary sense and apostles in a secondary sense (see http://athousandtongues.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/spiritual-gifts-apostles-by-mark-driscoll/).

    I agree on the one hand that there were capital-A Apostles of Jesus Christ who were limited to the Twelve and Paul as well as small-a apostles who were simply messengers or people sent by a church (Barnabas, etc.).

    However, I do not agree that the gift of apostleship is in effect really at all today, being part of the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20).

  • Brian Dare says:

    I think this multiple site congregations are concerning. I think we really need to do some work defining theologically, what exactly the term local church means, and if we in any way violating it with these methods. It used to be the congregation would pressure the pastor to preach like “Pastor So and So.” What will be next? Will our parishioners instead start asking if “Pastor So and So” can be our off-site pastor?

    I think some of these discussions will also lead us to beg the question of multiple services. Our church does have multiple services, and I’m not opposed to it. However, I have wondered if multiple services is the best representation of what “ekklesia” stands for. Thoughts?

  • Greg Long says:

    I agree with your thoughts, Brian. I believe 9 Marks (Mark Dever) has some resources questioning the model of multi-site churches as well as multiple services.

  • I have to admit that I am conflicted. Several years ago (probably about 15 or so) I was teaching on Eph.4 and made the statement that the apostle mentioned here is a little “a” apostle. The stricter sense of this word is, of course, the original 12 + Paul. But others were also called apostles (Barnabas, Silas & Timothy, and a few others). So I take it that a “church planter” can fit this bill. In that I do agree with Mark. I am also conflicted about the multi-site thing. I am excited to see the kingdom grow and as long as there is a local man (pastor) serving that body what can be wrong in using modern technology? I also see nothing wrong with multiple services. I did not read Mark Dever’s material on that but do find it disconcerting that he would find fault with it (if, in fact, he does). I do see some problems with multi-site and the pastor’s ego. I have met Craig Groeschel and find him a very humble man and interested in growing the kingdom. I will not name any negative names. So, having written all of this…am I off-base?

Leave a Reply