Franchising Church, pt. 3

I stopped by the public library yesterday to catch up on some reading. I picked up the latest edition of Christianity Today and was surprised to see an article by Bob Smietana titled "High-Tech Circuit Riders: Satellite churches are discovering a new way to grow the body of Christ."

Although I had originally planned on using this third post to describe the advantages of franchising church, I am going to put that off for later. Instead I will use this post to briefly comment on the article in Christianity Today.

Here is a review and preview of the posts in this series on Franchising Church:
Part 1 - Franchising Church - Introduction
Part 2 - The Dangers of Franchising Church
Part 3 - Comments on Christianity Today article
Part 4 - Advantages of Franchising Church
Part 5 - A Suggested Approach to Franchising Church

Now, back to the CT arcticle.

First, this article confirms the trend that of the multi-campus approach. Even the number of 1,000 churches looks to me like a conservative figure. But even if that number is true, it will only increase rapidly as churches embrace this pragmatic approach.

Second, I was heartened to see that Professor Eddie Gibbs of Fuller Seminary expressed some of the same concerns I have stated in my previous posts on this subject. If this phenomena is going to be here permanently, I like his idea of having the "virtual" message supplemented with a commentary by a "live" pastor who is known personally by that particular congregation.

Third, I was disappointed that he didn't really address the whole multi-campus, interstate possibility and, eventual, reality. Perhaps he didn't find much on it or simply hadn't put two and two together.

Finally, I was fascinated by the historical connection sociologist Roger Finke made between this trend and the Methodist circuit riders of yesteryear.

All in all, I was pleased that this issue was further brought into the light by CT and that Smietana presented both the testimonial side and the critical side of the issue.