R 11/19 Megachurches as a strategy for (re-)popularizing Christianity

For Thursday, you will read a selection from Kimon Howland Sargeant’s study of seeker churches. “Seeker churches” are roughly synonymous with “megachurches,” a term you may have heard before. (It would be more precise to say that seekers churches aspire to become megachurches.) However, what makes a seeker church a “seeker church” is not so much its size as its religious style.

Write two short paragraphs in response to the following analysis questions (one paragraph for each question). If you’ve chosen today to submit an extra Graded Reading Analysis, respond to the same questions, but at greater length (and perhaps more than just two paragraphs).

1. Seeker churches operate with certain assumptions about what is “good” or “bad” in religion–in other words, they operate with certain assumptions about what Americans today find desirable or undesirable in a religion. To the extent that seeker churches attract large followings, it would appear that their assumptions hold true, at least for many Americans. Judging from Sargeant’s description, what specific qualities or practices do seeker churches assume that Americans find desirable vs. undesirable in religion?

2. Sargeant argues that seeker churches are “an effective institutional response” (p. 11) to the fact that American culture has shifted toward voluntarism and consumerism. According to Sargeant, what has happened in American society in the past several decades that promote or demonstrate a shift toward voluntarism and consumerism? How are seeker churches adapting to that shift?