A Dog in the Audience (Or, Kensington, Part II [Or, A Deconstruction of the Christian Megachurch {Or, Improperly Nested Brackets and Things}])
I know. What a bold title. An audacious title. To level such accusations and observations against a church body shows a blatant lack of respect for the parishioners, and my Christian brothers and sisters. But I tell you, kind reader, there was a Dog in the audience. No, seriously, there was a Seeing Eye training dog in the audience. A golden retriever puppy (Maybe? We stupidly sat in the balcony because no one informed us of a puppy in the main auditorioum. Strike 1, Kensington!). The dog laid happily in the aisle way as the trainer petted him (except for the one bark that came during the announcement). Jealous for sure.
As we drank our cappuccinos at the Great Lakes Café on the upper-level of Kensington, the conversation mainly focused on the dog in the audience. I mean, hello, puppy! But we also discussed the community, the odd quirks, and the environment we observed during our two weeks (only one for Brother Jordan). Last week I addressed the message, now I’m gonna talk about the elephant in the room: the megachurch feel.
According to the Hartford Institute of Religious Research, Kensington boasts an average attendance of 11,099 people (I assume spread out over the campuses) and also is in the handy-dandy megachurch directory the Hartford Institute constructed. The average attendance beats out Keith Butler’s church by 99 people for the highest total in Michigan (I’m not measuring overall reach and influence, which with Rob Bell’s popularity as an author, I assume Mars Hill would win). While impressive, its just numbers and I want to address my views on the larger tenets that are assumed when the stereotypical megachurch gets addressed. (A Deconstruction on the Christian MegaChurch? Postmodernism for the win!)
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