It’s a famous quote by Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan, going way back to 1964:

The medium is the message. – Marshall McLuhan

Nowhere was the truth of this observation more evident than in a 27-second segment of a sermon by J.D. Greear of Summit Church in North Carolina. J.D. came to the church in 2001 when it had about 300 members. Now they are a multi-campus operation with over 10,000 folks in attendance weekly. It’s a powerful ministry. But even gifted and blessed pastors can say silly things such as what happened a couple of weeks ago.

 J.D. got onto his folks a little for “arriving late” and “leaving early.” (By the way, at every contemporary worship service I have attended anywhere in the country, a sizable number of folks come in late.) Anyway, J.D. went on to say, “You treat church like a religious show.” After which the camera pans back to show a man on a large stage in a large meeting room. The top two pictures are from the 27-second post. The bottom picture is from the church’s website.

Uh…looks like a show to me. David Platt is lead pastor of McLean Bible Church in Virginia. Another good guy leading an apparently effective ministry. David has written, and I’m sure he actively fights against, this description of most churches:

Church is a performance at a place with programs run by professionals. – David Platt

And it’s not just J.D. and his mega-church or other mega-churches. In most churches of any size, folks file in, listen to some music where some may or may not join in singing, then they listen to one person talk for 15 – 45 minutes or more, and file out. If the medium is the message, what’s the message? The message could be that church is a place where I come to watch someone else do ministry, not a place where I am equipped to do ministry in my sphere of influence.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,… (Ephesians 4.11 – 13, ESV, emphasis mine)