{"id":718,"date":"2006-09-13T07:27:28","date_gmt":"2006-09-13T15:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/archives\/2006\/09\/13\/life-church-down-the-road\/"},"modified":"2009-06-26T19:54:45","modified_gmt":"2009-06-27T03:54:45","slug":"life-church-down-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/09\/13\/life-church-down-the-road","title":{"rendered":"Life Church Down The Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been think\u00ading about LifeChurch.tv<\/a> late\u00adly (check the Wikipedia arti\u00adcle on them<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In case you\u2019re not famil\u00adiar with the church, it\u2019s one of the best-known exam\u00adples of the mul\u00adti-site church move\u00adment. At present, Life Church uses live video feeds to simul\u00adta\u00adne\u00adous\u00adly have the same ser\u00advice in Okla\u00adhoma, Ari\u00adzona, Texas, and Ten\u00adnessee. They also stream the ser\u00advice over the inter\u00adnet.<\/p>\n

They both start new church\u00ades and acquire exist\u00ading church\u00ades (that\u2019s their lan\u00adguage, not mine. They are very clear that they are not propos\u00ading merg\u00aders \u2014 they are propos\u00ading acqui\u00adsi\u00adtions \u2014 lis\u00adten to Kevin Pen\u00adry<\/a>). If you\u2019d like to be acquired you can sign up online<\/a> ask the dust divx movie online<\/a><\/em> .<\/p>\n

One thing I want to praise them for: they make their resources avail\u00adable online for free<\/a>. They\u2019re clear\u00adly very King\u00addom-mind\u00aded.<\/p>\n

But some\u00adthing about LifeChurch\u2019s approach wor\u00adries me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll explain what it is after some nec\u00ades\u00adsary dis\u00adclaimers:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I have no fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal the\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal prob\u00adlem with mul\u00adti-site church\u00ades. If you think it\u2019s okay for a sin\u00adgle-site church to have two ser\u00advices on a Sun\u00adday morn\u00ading then you\u2019re incon\u00adsis\u00adtent to oppose mul\u00adti\u00adple-site church\u00ades. Once you cede the split\u00adting of the con\u00adgre\u00adga\u00adtion it\u2019s all just a mat\u00adter of degree (if this is not clear to you then spend some time think\u00ading through your prob\u00adlems with mul\u00adti-site church\u00ades and how they are also applic\u00ada\u00adble to a church that has an 8:00am ser\u00advice and an 11am ser\u00advice).\n<\/li>\n
  2. There are a lot of ways to do mul\u00adti-site church and there is cer\u00adtain\u00adly diver\u00adsi\u00adty with\u00adin the move\u00adment. My con\u00adcerns about LifeChurch\u2019s approach don\u2019t apply to all the ways mul\u00adti-site is done.\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here\u2019s my con\u00adcern: if LifeChurch\u2019s phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy becomes the norm (an excel\u00adlent test of the sound\u00adness of a phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy) then we lose some\u00adthing vital to the health of the church.<\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s say LifeChurch con\u00adtin\u00adues to grow and spreads into 10 or 15 states. They reach 100,000 in aggre\u00adgate atten\u00addance. 200,000. 500,000. 1,000,000. These num\u00adbers are not unrea\u00adson\u00adable \u2014 mul\u00adti-site church\u00ades seem to be scale-free net\u00adworks<\/a> and thus will exhib\u00adit the win\u00adner-take-all phe\u00adnom\u00ade\u00adnon. The largest mul\u00adti-site will be about twice as large as its next-great\u00adest neigh\u00adbor and so on down the line.<\/p>\n

    In effect, LifeChurch (or some\u00adone like it) will become the Wal-Mart of church\u00ades soon, and just like Wal-Mart the over\u00adwhelm\u00ading nature of their dom\u00adi\u00adnance will be sur\u00adpris\u00ading and will take a while to sink in. And just like Wal-Mart, that will bring some good and some bad along with it.<\/p>\n

    What hap\u00adpens when the pri\u00adma\u00adry leader of the Amer\u00adi\u00adcan gigachurch laps\u00ades into stu\u00adpid\u00adi\u00adty, heresy, or moral fail\u00adure? How does that affect Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty in Amer\u00adi\u00adca?<\/p>\n

    This isn\u2019t an unre\u00adal\u00adis\u00adtic con\u00adcern \u2014 evan\u00adgel\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adism has a his\u00adto\u00adry of each of these blun\u00adders. And the high\u00ader-pro\u00adfile a per\u00adson is the more prone they seem to be to falling into one or more of these.<\/p>\n