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Face to faith .. transcendence not on the menu
Guardian ^ | 22 January 2010 | H E Baber

Posted on 01/25/2010 11:59:29 AM PST by Lee N. Field

Last Sunday we drove up to Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Orange County, a collection of affluent, politically conservative suburbs south of LA. The model of a modern megachurch, Saddleback boasts over 112,000 "unchurched occasional attenders" as ...

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Current Events; Evangelical Christian; Religion & Culture; Worship
KEYWORDS: quotidian; saddleback; seeker
As a navel-gazer, I was depressed by Saddleback. It seemed the butt end of Christianity: stripped of history and icon­ography, wholly immersed in its secular surroundings, constructed according to a business model and promoted by motivational speakers – bland, cheerful, dull.

We drove away, past immaculate housing estates and strip malls iterating chain restaurants and shops, replicated in every suburb from coast to coast. I wondered why anyone would want to live in that charmless place, much less to get more of the same at church.

A Brit visits American megachurchianity.

From a linky at Team Pyro.

1 posted on 01/25/2010 11:59:31 AM PST by Lee N. Field
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To: Gamecock

Ping to Gamecock for his list.


2 posted on 01/25/2010 12:00:44 PM PST by Lee N. Field ("And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" Gal 3:29)
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To: Lee N. Field

A single visit to a mega church is not enough to write this article.

She should stick with philosophy.


3 posted on 01/25/2010 12:39:21 PM PST by texmexis best
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To: Lee N. Field

A local United Methodist Church built a much larger sanctuary for itself. Well, to do, they could afford it. My wife’s relatives are members. It is almost bare of any Christian symbols, looking very much like a public school auditorium. The relatives have taken to going back to the old place, now a chapel. which retains the look of a low Episcopal Church. There is, bTW, at least in my experience, a greater sense of transcendence in a plain, clap-board Baptist Church, where the congregation is fully engaged in worship than these huge places where entertainment seems to be the main thing.


4 posted on 01/25/2010 12:52:20 PM PST by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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To: Lee N. Field; DocRock; del4hope; Alex Murphy; Gamecock; Dr. Eckleburg; jude24; Ottofire; ...
Ping to Gamecock for his list.

My list? You must mean the YBPDLNPL!

The YBPDLNPL is generally published infrequently, but based on the exploits of the megachurch pastors posts can spike for a period of time. If you would like on or off of this list please FReepmail me

5 posted on 01/25/2010 1:03:26 PM PST by Gamecock (We always have reasons for doing what we do.)
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To: texmexis best
A single visit to a mega church is not enough to write this article.

Sure it is. It was enough to demonstrate that what she saw was not church.

Incidentally, i also disagree with some of the author's conclusions.

6 posted on 01/25/2010 9:25:40 PM PST by Calvinist_Dark_Lord ((I have come here to kick @$$ and chew bubblegum...and I'm all outta bubblegum! ~Roddy Piper))
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To: Calvinist_Dark_Lord

The reason I posted that comment is that I go to a Mega church but it did take a while to figure it out.

The mega church of which I am a member is quite conservative, BTW.


7 posted on 01/26/2010 7:28:31 AM PST by texmexis best
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