In our recent pilgrimage of seeing what passes for church in America, Molly and I visited Cross Timbers Church this past week (the Keller Campus). It was very weird for me. Worship was live (and God-honoring), but come time for the sermon, a screen came down and the pastor was projected on it. He preached on sex. It wasn't that great (ouch).
They're quick in assimilation, though. Barely 24 hours after we visited, a girl from Cross Timbers called my cell phone, asking if we enjoyed our visit and if I had any questions. I just had one issue I'm still trying to process through; so I inquired.
Cory: Why isn't a live person preaching? You had a live worship pastor. Why not a teaching pastor?
Carla: Pastor Toby is so gifted that this lets everyone hear him without having to drive to Argyle [their main campus].
Cory: According to the bulletin, the satelite campus we were at takes in over $130,000 per week. I assume you have more than a few pastors on staff, right?
Carla: Oh yes. They're great men of god. They're very down to earth. You'd like them.
Cory: Why doesn't one of them preach? I assume the lead pastor has discipled some of these guys. If he can trust a bunch of different worship pastors (at various campuses), why aren't there a few guys he can trust to teach?
Carla: I'm not qualified to answer that. Can I have someone else call you?
Multi-site church is kind of like franchising a pastor/church via video feed. It enables one charsimatic leader to expand his influence (almost without limit). It enables his church to spread quickly, like a new product brand. If a local church has the cash to set it up, it enables limitless satellite campuses to exist under the authority of a single mother ship, even worldwide (a friend of mine in Portland is in one that projects their pastor to a campus in New Zealand, among others). Oh yeah ... it apprently brings in $$$.
I discovered this 1-minute video on the Cross Timbers web site (Matt Chandler's on it too) 
not just endorsing this new "multi-site" church movement, but presenting Slough and Chandler as new spokesmen/gurus for it. Apparently, it's the way of the future. The two (along with multi-site another pastor from Cali) will host a conference this May where, for a mere $300 per shepherd, they'll teach you how to bless people with video of yourself preaching in satelites from sea to shining sea (Coast 2 Coast).
Maybe I'm behind the times. I see nothing wrong with sermons at the click of a mouse. I'm all for using technology to increase excellence in worship. I just don't see a lot of good coming from this (at the very least, it's encouraging and enabling personality cults).
Something about it just seems wrong ... (I'd love you guys to edify me on this biblically). At our campus, there was virtually no oversight during communion. When the pastor told people to raise their hands if they ever experienced a certain trial, no one did. They knew their pastor was preaching to them live, but they also seemed to know, it really didn't matter what they did, b/c he couldn't hear or see them.
Our experience rated slightly above sitting at home and watching "church" on TV. People could've been having a food fight with the communion elements and the virtual pastor would've just kept on preaching like all was wonderful.
It felt like seeing sheep without a shepherd. The experience is haunting me.
As an aside, Cross Timbers was the third church we've visited inside two months where the children's church experience = a romper room filled with video games, toys, and a couple of adults overseeing the mayhem (contradictory statement, I know). Both Hannah and Judah (who are not dim) strained to tell me a single thing they learned after an hour in their care (other than how to play Wii, that is).
Last month, my nine-year-old son memorized Ephesians 6 ... no thanks to the church.
Hopefully the adults fare better.
