Follow from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

I watched a very interesting movie the other day that was a documentary about an art dealer in Los Angelos. This guy followed street artists around the world filming them as they painted pictures that were commentary on the culture or just interesting art. He made hours and hours of film, but in the end, he never made a movie. Instead, when this art scene became lucrative, he took on the persona of a street artist and became Mr. Brainwash. Mr. Brainwash started making mass duplications of street art, and the people of LA bought it in made organized group thinking mobs.

It reminded me of something else. Bill Hybels created an effective model of seeker friendly church and Rick Warren used the same research to copy him. Then Andy Stanley copied these guys. They built substantially business like organizations that had church as one component of what they do, then came their Mr. Brainwashes. People like Steven Furtick above.

But they have gone to far. They aren't selling art. They are selling religious experiences, like relics and indulgences that were sold to build Vatican City (lovely place, but not very theologically sound). In the sermon preceding Steven's baptism of over 1500 people in mass, people crowd around the stage with signs that say, "I Was Baptized At Elevation Church."

Oh dear. If you have to say, "This isn't emotional manipulation," well, it most probably is.

The way the mega church with multiple satellites is working is a mega personality is surrounded by multiple satellites and then this guy teaches or preaches. Its good in that you can get some really good teaching (like Andy Stanley), but its bad when you start seeing folks doing mass things like this.

I was reminded of this by my friend from Russia when we visited a Mega Church in Seattle Washington. His words still ring as a forewarning, "Doesn't this seem sort of like the idea of what the prophet would be like with the anti-Christ?" Yes, all it would take would be replacing that teacher up there with another person saying something different. And its only a matter of time when that will happen. Creating Mega means creating momentum and all of this is psychological and sociological. It doesn't really matter if what the Mega Teacher is saying is theologically true, wise, or good, apparently.

It just matters that the mega man is relevant, hip, fashionable, enigmatic, and can create systematic hype. It just so happens that the original "artists" are still out there and you can find some original stations of creativity, but as the Mr. Brainwashes keep popping up, the true art is quickly being diluted.