Church Membership

Has organized religion become more of an entertainment vehicle than a spiritual one? I have just read an article about churches in America today. That is, which religious denominations are successful and which are not. In today's world the denominations or church sites with the most glitz and entertainment value have the most members and the biggest financial success. Also, multiple sites are the new normal for fast-growing and large churches. The Mc Donald's franchise format has hit religion.Need an example? Well, One of the chain churches is Life Church tv based in Edmond, Okla., but having 13 locations, reaching 26,776 people in average weekend worship attendance.

Wow! That's a lot of burgers...err parishioners. Of the top ten churches in the U.S., nine of them have branches in addiction to the main, often opulent looking church. Traditional congregations like those of the Catholic and Protestant denominations act independently financially and even in day to day operating procedure, despite also being centrally controlled,Someone once said, "Humanity without religion is like a serial killer without a chain saw."

In the case of some of the bigger churches it seems to be that way. masses are circuses of entertainment, doctrine loosely extracted from Biblical scripture, music ever present, even entertainment acts booked during services. And the social calendar of members can be long and entirely non spiritual. I wonder if reality TV has turned into "reality religion" (thankfully, without an American idol gospel singing contest), one which seeks first, not to impart theology, but rather to entertain in order to grab as many donating members as possible.

After all, the list of top ten financially successful churches today include none from traditional religious denominations (who still continue to put the church going membership in attendance to sleep each Sunday).With total church membership getting bigger in the U.S. and shouldn't that translate to a nicer society, where people care for others, at least, as much as they care for themselves?

I don't see that these days. Reality Religion seems to breed a different ethic. Somewhere along the line, the traditional messages of grace, kindness, peace and love aren't being transmitted to the faithful sitting in the pews, probably because the entertainment of the services and church functions consumes most of the membership's time. It makes you wonder why people go to church at all. Oh.... for the entertainment value, of course.