Monday, August 08, 2005

Bread and Circuses

Where would the gospel be without "a good show?"
Many evangelical churches see 13-year-old hearts and minds as the ultimate battlefield in the culture wars. If Jesus is competing with 50 Cent for the soul of today's youth, megachurches like Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, are making sure the Lord is not outgunned. Their junior high worship area features a million-dollar sound system and mammoth movie screens that play to an audience of as many as 1,000 teenagers on Sundays. Prestonwood's executive pastor, Mike Buster, makes no apologies for the slick production values. It takes a good show to expose kids to the good word, he says, because there is so much competition from what he calls a "perverted" teen culture in the U.S.
[Quote is from page two of the Time article.]

P.S. Anybody want to argue that Awana bucks and other such children's church gimmicks are anything more than a poor man's version of Prestonwood's approach?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No defense of Awana here.

Interesting article from Time. One of the things about that set-up that is sad and concerning is the apparent separation from the rest of the church, essentially just a church of jr. highers somehow within a church, or something.

The picture of the Church we give kids is really important!