I have followed Bob Hyatt's blog for awhile now, and greatly admire the work he's done in planting a church in Portland. I think we'll probably use the Lent prayer guide he put together as an aid to a fruitful Lenten season at Christ Community.
Bob has an interesting post up (Franchise Ahoy!) about the idea and practice of video-venue churches, where "franchise" churches are planted in various cities with video sermons preached by a pastor in another location (often now another state). His post is about the possibility of Mars Hill planting a video church in Portland, piping in Mark Driscoll's preaching every Sunday, despite the fact that Mark's church-planting network (Acts 29) already has 2-4 churches in Portland that have been planted already.
Bob predicts that if it goes unchecked, this "franchise" mentality of church planting will eventually lead to the complete Wal-Martization of the church and the "death of preaching." I love the comment he made on a Facebook group dedicated to getting a Mars Hill video church in Portland:
"As someone who has planted and is planting churches in PDX, I can assure you- my problem isn't thinking that there are too many churches in Portland. I'm passionate about seeing as many real churches planted as possible. But a franchised video church with elders who live in another state, 3 hours away? No- thank you."
What do you think? Video churches? The death of preaching, really? Begs the question of what a "church" is, too, don't you think?

