I had made a pledge to spend my limited time over this Holy Week to visit only liberal churches to see how traditional they are in their worship style. However, I could not resist the temptation to visit the newly opened branch of CedarCreek Church at Toledo. I had quite some incentives.
As an engineer turned sociologist, I'm always interested in studying the influence of technology and modernity in everything (religion included). I was already familiar with how technology works in this corporate-style church from my visits to their main campus last year, explained here. However, there's one more level of technology involved in their satellite campuses.
They have a "hope and dream to start an additional location each year through 2010". And they are supposed to have the same service over their five weekend services in all locations. Each campus has its own music band and live music, but what they sing is exactly the same as others. And an important part of this standardized service is broadcasting the message (sermon) from their main campus. You got it, wireless communication and live digital broadcasting. And the engineer inside me kicked real hard.
I've been a member of a cyberchurch for a couple of years. And I'm also familiar with televangelism. And as an electrical engineer spending most of my professional life with Information Systems, I'm no stranger to videoconferencing. However, experiencing modern technology (by way of online live sermons) in person in a church (outside cyberworld) is different. And this reminds me of my last post on CedarCreek where I had written about technophobic people lamenting about the adverse impact of technology on communal celebrations in Christianity.
Furthermore, the location of this new branch was very suggestive. Unlike the main campus at Perrysburg, located in a big compound of its own, this one is located in Deveaux Village Shopping Center. Yes, a shopping center. So, you can shop for food, toys, apparel ... and you can also shop for God. All together at a convenient place.
For those of you, who are not familiar with the location, Deveaux Village was a dead shopping mall. I had passed by the place once last summer and I felt like passing by a desolate town in old Western movies. And with CedarCreek opening a branch here, it's supposed to help revitalize the area and bring business to the neighborhood. Read more here and here.
So basically, God (and His religion) could be beneficial not only to the realm of spirituality, but also to the material world and business (and who knows, maybe vice versa). Whatever I try to distance myself from the cynicism of the authors in Consuming Religion, Selling God, or Shopping for God (or like-minded anti-modernity philosophers), I feel there's some element of truth in their arguments.
I was also keen to see how this McDonaldization of religion works in a real church (pun intended). When you visit fast food chains or department stores, it's not merely about the standardized procedures, coined McDonaldization; different locations have identical (or very similar) appearance and layout. Over my short Midwest tour last semester, I visited Meijer and Wal-Mart stores in Indiana and Illinois. I didn't have difficulty finding the items I was looking for; I was already familiar with their stores in Toledo. And if you look at the satellite images of Kroger stores, you can easily recognize them from nearby businesses. Here, the church looked like all other shops in the mall. I had to read the signs to locate my shop.
I had written in my first post on CedarCreek about the importance of volunteers in such corporate churches. And this could be verified by looking at their Toledo campus blog. Last July, they decided to build their new branch in Deveaux Village. And now it's finished (and as an engineer, I have to say well-done). Entering the church (which was the last shop in the shopping center), I was greeted by a welcome team member that I had met over Martin Luther King Day celebration at the Savage Hall this January. He was quick to propose me (a conservative Muslim) to help them as a volunteer for their Bible study group. I mentioned about my heavy courseload (15 credits) and the offer was immediately cancelled (sic).
Unlike the main campus, there wasn't any guided tour available. However, the inner layout of the church was more or less like Perrysburg location. Numerous welcome team members, information desk, several flyers and brochures, free coffee and pop, a childcare facility, a coffee shop (where you can purchase cookies and other yummies), and of course a bookstore (with luxurious books).
And just like the main campus, I was annoyed seeing police officers in and around the church. When you go to a church you want to feel some spirituality and peace. And seeing armed police officers is hardly conducive to that. But maybe that's an undesirable necessity. There are people who don't respect places of worship (mosques, churches, synagogues, or temples). There are those who may assault such places out of stupidity and bigotry. Or there are those who may rob for money or something. And this may be the reason for strong security at a rich place like this. Still, seeing security or police officers in a place of worship is annoying to me.
And there's just one point I have to complain, technically speaking. Trying to appear high-tech, they start a countdown, five minutes before the service begins. This reminds you of space shuttle launches and gives you the sense that you're going to participate in something that high-tech. It also lets you know how much time you have and make you leave the coffee-shop for auditorium. That's not bad.
Then, you see a flash intro on the screen(s) showing the synchronization of the three campuses on a satellite link. This will add more excitement about being present in a real-time event. As part of this synchronization procedure, you see a satellite view locating the campuses one by one and zooming in on each, followed by (purported) system messages reporting the status of synchronization for each campus. Looks good, eh?
There's a little problem here. You see the same sequence for the Whitehouse campus. However, there's no service there on Saturday (at least, not for now). As an electrical engineer (specialized in control systems), I found myself a little bit cheated by watching a bogus show of synchronization while there was actually none taking place.
The service consisted of (more or less) the same elements that I had written about last year. And the quality of the rock concert (worship) was almost as good as the original one in the main campus (the same dancing lights, mist and stuff). There was excellent mix of songs with the scenes projected on the screen. Watch this video clip to get an idea about their mix of Miracle Maker with the Passion of Christ. And their performance was great.
I'm an old-fashioned guy and expect church services over Easter Vigil to be solemn and somber, but these extremely loud rock songs worked very well with the scenes. Although I'm not a Rock type person and although (as a Muslim) I don't believe in the crucifixion of Jesus, if the objective of this service were some contemplation over what happened to him, their performance might have served the purpose. Conservative anti-contemporary Christians may disagree. Is it about sensation and emotion? or is it more about deep thoughts and worship over this night? I admit that as a conservative Shia Muslim, I have similar issues about Ashura ceremonies. Read here for more.
Then, came the live broadcast message. Pastor Lee (senior pastor at the main campus and one of the founders of CedarCreek), explained how Jesus has saved us from God's judgment (sic). And he told us about the ABC of friendship with God: Admitting our sins, repenting and asking for God's forgiveness; Believing that Jesus was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was resurrected from the dead; and Committing ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Although he believed that we should not be judgmental, he was skeptical (he emphasized, skeptical not judgmental) about televangelists. Please, what should make me think differently about a church whose website domain ends with .tv and adopts similar practices and strategies for customer retention (and somehow similar conservative messages) as all megachurches and televangelists?
As an engineer turned sociologist, I'm always interested in studying the influence of technology and modernity in everything (religion included). I was already familiar with how technology works in this corporate-style church from my visits to their main campus last year, explained here. However, there's one more level of technology involved in their satellite campuses.
They have a "hope and dream to start an additional location each year through 2010". And they are supposed to have the same service over their five weekend services in all locations. Each campus has its own music band and live music, but what they sing is exactly the same as others. And an important part of this standardized service is broadcasting the message (sermon) from their main campus. You got it, wireless communication and live digital broadcasting. And the engineer inside me kicked real hard.
I've been a member of a cyberchurch for a couple of years. And I'm also familiar with televangelism. And as an electrical engineer spending most of my professional life with Information Systems, I'm no stranger to videoconferencing. However, experiencing modern technology (by way of online live sermons) in person in a church (outside cyberworld) is different. And this reminds me of my last post on CedarCreek where I had written about technophobic people lamenting about the adverse impact of technology on communal celebrations in Christianity.
Furthermore, the location of this new branch was very suggestive. Unlike the main campus at Perrysburg, located in a big compound of its own, this one is located in Deveaux Village Shopping Center. Yes, a shopping center. So, you can shop for food, toys, apparel ... and you can also shop for God. All together at a convenient place.
For those of you, who are not familiar with the location, Deveaux Village was a dead shopping mall. I had passed by the place once last summer and I felt like passing by a desolate town in old Western movies. And with CedarCreek opening a branch here, it's supposed to help revitalize the area and bring business to the neighborhood. Read more here and here.
So basically, God (and His religion) could be beneficial not only to the realm of spirituality, but also to the material world and business (and who knows, maybe vice versa). Whatever I try to distance myself from the cynicism of the authors in Consuming Religion, Selling God, or Shopping for God (or like-minded anti-modernity philosophers), I feel there's some element of truth in their arguments.
I was also keen to see how this McDonaldization of religion works in a real church (pun intended). When you visit fast food chains or department stores, it's not merely about the standardized procedures, coined McDonaldization; different locations have identical (or very similar) appearance and layout. Over my short Midwest tour last semester, I visited Meijer and Wal-Mart stores in Indiana and Illinois. I didn't have difficulty finding the items I was looking for; I was already familiar with their stores in Toledo. And if you look at the satellite images of Kroger stores, you can easily recognize them from nearby businesses. Here, the church looked like all other shops in the mall. I had to read the signs to locate my shop.
I had written in my first post on CedarCreek about the importance of volunteers in such corporate churches. And this could be verified by looking at their Toledo campus blog. Last July, they decided to build their new branch in Deveaux Village. And now it's finished (and as an engineer, I have to say well-done). Entering the church (which was the last shop in the shopping center), I was greeted by a welcome team member that I had met over Martin Luther King Day celebration at the Savage Hall this January. He was quick to propose me (a conservative Muslim) to help them as a volunteer for their Bible study group. I mentioned about my heavy courseload (15 credits) and the offer was immediately cancelled (sic).
Unlike the main campus, there wasn't any guided tour available. However, the inner layout of the church was more or less like Perrysburg location. Numerous welcome team members, information desk, several flyers and brochures, free coffee and pop, a childcare facility, a coffee shop (where you can purchase cookies and other yummies), and of course a bookstore (with luxurious books).
And just like the main campus, I was annoyed seeing police officers in and around the church. When you go to a church you want to feel some spirituality and peace. And seeing armed police officers is hardly conducive to that. But maybe that's an undesirable necessity. There are people who don't respect places of worship (mosques, churches, synagogues, or temples). There are those who may assault such places out of stupidity and bigotry. Or there are those who may rob for money or something. And this may be the reason for strong security at a rich place like this. Still, seeing security or police officers in a place of worship is annoying to me.
And there's just one point I have to complain, technically speaking. Trying to appear high-tech, they start a countdown, five minutes before the service begins. This reminds you of space shuttle launches and gives you the sense that you're going to participate in something that high-tech. It also lets you know how much time you have and make you leave the coffee-shop for auditorium. That's not bad.
Then, you see a flash intro on the screen(s) showing the synchronization of the three campuses on a satellite link. This will add more excitement about being present in a real-time event. As part of this synchronization procedure, you see a satellite view locating the campuses one by one and zooming in on each, followed by (purported) system messages reporting the status of synchronization for each campus. Looks good, eh?
There's a little problem here. You see the same sequence for the Whitehouse campus. However, there's no service there on Saturday (at least, not for now). As an electrical engineer (specialized in control systems), I found myself a little bit cheated by watching a bogus show of synchronization while there was actually none taking place.
The service consisted of (more or less) the same elements that I had written about last year. And the quality of the rock concert (worship) was almost as good as the original one in the main campus (the same dancing lights, mist and stuff). There was excellent mix of songs with the scenes projected on the screen. Watch this video clip to get an idea about their mix of Miracle Maker with the Passion of Christ. And their performance was great.
I'm an old-fashioned guy and expect church services over Easter Vigil to be solemn and somber, but these extremely loud rock songs worked very well with the scenes. Although I'm not a Rock type person and although (as a Muslim) I don't believe in the crucifixion of Jesus, if the objective of this service were some contemplation over what happened to him, their performance might have served the purpose. Conservative anti-contemporary Christians may disagree. Is it about sensation and emotion? or is it more about deep thoughts and worship over this night? I admit that as a conservative Shia Muslim, I have similar issues about Ashura ceremonies. Read here for more.
Then, came the live broadcast message. Pastor Lee (senior pastor at the main campus and one of the founders of CedarCreek), explained how Jesus has saved us from God's judgment (sic). And he told us about the ABC of friendship with God: Admitting our sins, repenting and asking for God's forgiveness; Believing that Jesus was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was resurrected from the dead; and Committing ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Although he believed that we should not be judgmental, he was skeptical (he emphasized, skeptical not judgmental) about televangelists. Please, what should make me think differently about a church whose website domain ends with .tv and adopts similar practices and strategies for customer retention (and somehow similar conservative messages) as all megachurches and televangelists?
10 comments:
I am a fan of Cedar Creek, although I do not attend (I have family on staff at the Toledo Campus). I found your post to be very well written, insightful, and objective. Not everything HAS to be positive about a church. If it is negative, then don't try and hide it, call it negative. That's the only was to address an issue. I came accross your post as the result of a search for a Cedar Creek blog, but I believe that I will be reading more of you.
I appreciate where you are coming from as a conservative Muslim. I myself am Christian (conservative....eh, I'm on the fence), but God has been challenging me to challenge everything that I have been taught since I was a boy. I love Jesus, but I think that He has been taught all wrong. It's not about Jesus (He even says that), it's about getting to God. That is where I wish that I could tap into the passion and dedication of the Muslim faith. I appreciate your religious objectivity, and I wish Christians could be as objective as you are.
Part of my objectivity comes from my profession as a sociologist, and before that being a control systems engineer (which is not very different from sociology in nature). To be able to analyze a system (a powerplant, factory or religion or anything), you must understand it first. And to get an accurate understanding, you must leave your judgments and bias at the door. Otherwise, any analysis you make on a flawed understanding would be equally flawed. That's the lesson I learned from nonsensical (at times stupid) analyses about Islam in Western world.
Another part of my objectivity comes from my upbringing. I grew up in a very religious, yet open-minded family. If you read my other posts where I've written about evangelicals, I've mentioned about my education in an evangelical Shia Muslim school. While I'm grateful to them for what I've learned there (math, physics, chemistry, computer and also religion) what eventually kept me away from their exclusivist views of Islam was my family upbringing. Not that I've given up on my strong convictions as a conservative Muslim. I just look at the followers of other religions in a different light.
The problem is in all religions, to define a religious identity for their followers, they have to demonize all other religions so that they can sell their commodity to their followers as the only way to salvation. And sometimes to advertise for their own brand, they have to resort to sheer lies about others. Time and again, I receive puzzled looks when I tell my Christian friends that we Muslims believe in Jesus and his second-coming (along with some other theological details). If you search my blog for the word Jesus, you will find more on this.
True, as a conservative Muslim, I still believe that Islam (the way I understand it) is the best way to salvation. But I stop short of judging the followers of other religions. Judgment is God's job, not mine.
In the meantime, I'm not oblivious to the fact that I'm a Muslim, primarily because I've been born into a Muslim family in a Muslim country (and I thank God for both). I've not merely inherited my religion. I've got sophisticated education to galvanize my beliefs. Yet, I understand that if I had been born in a different place of the world and had got education in a different religion, I would had been practicing a different religion and would had been proud of a different faith. And sadly, this is a simple fact that many people cannot realize or we would have a better world free of religious bigotry.
As for Cedar Creek and positive/ negative issues there, I'm not shy about that. I've had strong criticism of their practices and specifically their ideology in my other posts. In the meantime, I've tried to remain objective as a requirement of my profession. Also, I've tried to stay away from CedarCreek-bashing prevalent among some anti-modernity Christians. Another good thing about CedarCreek and its pastors is their open-mindedness about my criticism.
Mehrad,
You said in your reply, "The problem is in all religions, to define a religious identity for their followers, they have to demonize all other religions so that they can sell their
commodity to their followers as the only way to salvation. And sometimes they have to resort to sheer lies to advertise for their own brand."
You nailed it on that one! Very well put. If we could just put judging one another aside, and LEARN from each other, we may just see that no one has a "monopoly" on God. And the lies. That is manipulation, and I believe that if you have to manipilate in order to convert, then your belief system carries no merit, or power for that matter, at all.
I am sure that your objectivity has not come without a price from your peers, as would happen in any religion, and I respect you for that, and I hope to learn more from you.
James
As for my peers, it depends on whom you're referring to. Surely, I've paid the price for thinking differently. Yet, my pluralist views (or objectivity) on religion have not come at the price of watering down my own beliefs. In my personal life, I've been a practicing Muslim, kinda orthodox, even if annoying in a non-religious setting in the US or even my former workplaces in Iran as an engineer (openly religious people are not welcome in any business/corporate setting anywhere in the world).
Interestingly, people like me are equally disliked by fanatics on both sides of the spectrum, religious fanatics or anti-religion fanatics (so called secular humanists). Speaking in an American context, faith or intellectuality (depending on which side of the spectrum you're standing) has a narrow litmus test of your stance on abortion and homosexuality. As a conservative Muslim, I'm against both. I cannot say with certainty whether a certain homosexual would go to hell or not; God would determine that (maybe the person repents and God accepts the repentance). But certainly, homosexuality is an abomination in all religions and I find it disgusting that some people try to reconcile between this and faith just to appear progressive. Ditto for being pro-choice (even the word sounds disgusting to me).
Alot of Christianity has that "progessive" trend to it, save the conservatives. Does the Muslim faith also have it's "progressive" believers? Please forgive my ignorance of the Muslim faith. That ignorance comes as a result of the narrow minded teaching that we should shun other religions and stay in our own little Christian club. Like you said earlier, objectivity comes as a result of investigation and education.
Also, do you think that there is or ever will be a point to where we will no longer be Muslim or Christian or Hindu or Catholic, but we will all just be one people going after God? I understand that there are cultural differences, but that is all they are, cultural. I find other cultures to be intriging (did i even spell that right?)and beautiful, not to be feared or shunned. Why can't that spill over into our religions?
James
There are progressivists in all religions. All reforms in religions take place that way. The question is where's the limit of progressivism? Can you change a religion under the pretext of reform or progressivism? And who is in a position to determine where's the limit of reform?
That's where my conservative side kicks in. I don't believe in changing the religion just because popular demands require so. If you do that, it's a religion of your creation, not God's religion. Basically, religion is here for people to obey God's rule not the other way around. For example if you change the religion to accommodate some sin that has just become prevalent (e.g. homosexuality), is that still God's religion?
Surely, religion is not summarized in a single issue like this. But still, the question persists: where's the limit for change in religion without changing the religion? And who's in a position to determine that? These are not easy questions. But such questions should be answered by professionals, not just anybody who jumps the bandwagon, just because progressivism has become trendy. I've written about that elsewhere (One Faith at SIU).
As to your second question, yes. There'll be a time when all people will have one faith. And that's when Jesus comes back. And that's when our last Imam comes back. And he and Jesus will work together fighting corruption in this earth. And then, all religious differences will go away. All people will worship the same God together without branding each other. Prophets have no conflict with each other. They have been sent by the same God. If there's any conflict, that's between people purporting to be followers of those prophets.
Again, I've written about this elsewhere. But I guess this discussion (while interesting) is not related to my post on Cedar Creek.
No, this is definitely not related to Cedar Creek, this was just the forum. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions in detail, and like I said, I'll be reading more of you.
God Bless
You're always welcome to put comments here or on my other posts or contact me via Email if you have questions that are not directly related to a post.
Today I visited Cedar Creek and found the "Questions about Catholics" resources in the bookstore. As a Catholic, I was highly offended that the Cedar Creek Executive Pastor Steve Hutmacher would put together such a bias anti-Catholic document together when he admitted that he is "no expert." He interviewed one priest, one former priest, and a panel of former Catholics. I took a copy of the resource home and have been fuming all day. Really, I just went there with my future husband as he is not Catholic. We had already hit Catholic mass first, so this was service number two. I'm all for a good message so I went with an open mind and heart - but to be anti a religion in an attempt to recruit members? It's not acceptable. My morning was spent in the Catholic Church praying for all and then I went to Cedar Creek listening to rock music and watching videos. I'm not into the "show." I agree with the countdown as over the top, the police in the lobby, and I think it's lame to lure people in with Mountain Dew. Disparaging my Religion? Actually, today's service was anti-any religion (that's how it started Jesus>Religion video) and it is shameful. How about let's all be decent to each other? The world will be a better place.
"How about let's all be decent to each other? The world will be a better place." Amen.
The point you have raised is a problem among evangelical churches (or congregagtions for that matter, it's not limited to Christianity). The root cause, as I've written in the above comments and other posts in my blog, is evangelicals' claim to what they perceive as absolute truth. When people believe they're in possession of the absolute truth, it sounds obvious that everybody else should be wrong.
The anti-Catholics bias however, is not limited to evangelicals. I've seen mild Protestants and Baptists holding to such biases. In this specific case, it sounds annoying to me because they have located their Toledo Campus (on Sylvania Ave) in a Catholic neighborhood because of their tolerance and acceptance (in their own words).
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