Just Take a Look at ME Now

Back to my adventures in The Church That Trump Built. I noticed something else sriking about the service. It's a common feature now in larger auditoriums (autidoriae?) and, I think, a symptom of a theological DVT in the church today.

On either side of the platform, suspended from the ceiling, was an enormous monitor displaying the lyrics for the praise songs (with appropriate floral backgrounds) as we entered. Later, as the preacher took center stage, the cameras zoomed in on him. Sitting half-way back and to stage left, I still had a pretty good view of the man; but found myself constantly distracted by the massive Oz-like apparition to either side of him. That's when a thought struck me, and I've been mulling on it ever since: just why in the name of Charles Stanley do we need two jumbotrons in a church?

"Well," someone says, "it's so the people in the balconies [there were two] can see the preacher." But that would be my point: why do we have to SEE the preacher? Isn't he up there to proclaim the truth of the Word of God?

If this were a rock concert I could see the need for a clear view: you paid to be entertained, and you don't want to miss the show. But since when is church about being entertained? Let me suggest that we went astray at some point (I blame it on Finney, but then, I blame most of our modern churchianity on Finney). For decades Fundarnmentalism has been more about the centrality of the preacher than the centrality of preaching, and that has been the movement's fatal flaw.

Don't see the difference? Look up on the big screen(s).