The McDonaldization of the Church
Ok, the first book I'd like to talk about is The McDonaldization of the Church: Consumer Culture and the Church's Future by John Drane. Drane took a book by George Ritzer called The McDonaldization of Society and adapted it to look specifically at the churches today. McDonaldization is the process where many aspects of society are becoming increasingly streamlined and tailored to deliver the most "oomph" for the least amount of work/cost. Ritzer sees it as the most dominant force in Western civilization, touching everything from bank tellers, to television shows to sex workers (really).McDonaldization to Ritzer and Drane means four things: Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability, and Control.
Efficiency is not bad in and of itself. It just means identifying the best means to achieve a particular end. It shows up in the church in our reliance upon rational systems. As Drane puts it, "We love rationalized systems, and try to apply them to everything from our theology to the way we welcome visitors to our Sunday services." (Drane p.41) The problem with an unmonitored emphasis on efficiency is the fact that relationships are NOT efficient in any way, shape, or form. In a fast food restaurant, "Hi, welcome to..." really means "keep it moving".
Calculability is all about size and quantity. I think it's pretty easy to see where the church can get caught up in calculability. Ever heard of a little church called Willow Creek? How about Saddleback? No? Well, if you've ever been a minister and talking to other ministers of any kind, they will always ask how big your church is. They may be polite about it, but we all want to know so we can judge how we are doing. It will also show up in our thinking about how long or short a church service should be. Too long or too short and the church has done something wrong.
Predictability is defined by George Ritzer as such: "In a rational society people prefer to know what to expect in all settings and at all times. They neither want nor expect surprises... In order to ensure predictability over time and place, a rational society emphasizes such things as discipline, order, systemitization, formalization, routine, etc. It is these familiar and comfortable rituals that make fast-food restaurants attractive to legions of people" (Drane p. 48) Drane sees the most disturbing part of this in our discipleship systems. Do we expect that people, once discipled, will all look like each other? What's the basis for this thought?
Control can be seen easily in any fast-food chain or supermarket. They are designed specifically for you to move in a certain direction and then move away quickly. Seats at McDonald's are not comfortable because they don't want you to stay, it's a matter of control. Issues of power and control, especially in the church, are always plaguing our culture. It goes hand in hand with Predictability, where we can try to stop anyone or anything that appears out of the ordinary or even contrary to our teaching.
These categories are not new, nor are they the products of McDonalds. They are simply easily identified in fast-food chains everywhere. I want to offer critique but not necessarily in the way that says these four things are all evil. I just think it is important to recognize the ways in which our culture affects us, even when we don't know it. We are so bound by this model that we design much of our lives to try to fit into these categories. We then get so frustrated with that attempt because our lives just aren't as clean-cut as that. I can't fit you into four categories, and I certainly won't even try.
Please offer any comments, this is my first go at it, and I'd like it to be a place for conversation, not just me talking. I'll offer more personal/devotional stuff, too, if people are interested.
posted by Wayj @ 10:06 PM
4 Comments:
I have been thinking a lot about streamlining, etc. (b/c of my job in the construction industry with deadlines, budgets, etc.) and find it very interesting to apply the same principles to the church. Something that i haven't quite identified, bothers me alot about churches and maybe it's the McDonaldization that gives some church experiences that annoying quality that i couldn't specifically identify. It's much too similar to the rest of our lives - our careers, today's successful industries, advertising, and now even our relationships (speed dating, internet chat rooms, text messaging, etc!)!
This trend really blurs the line between churches, the body of Christ, etc. and all of the other aspects of society. There isn't always a clear difference in a church and the firm i work for. Maybe if churches were ultra-"un-mcdonaldized" in a sense, they would grow to be much more comfortable and welcoming rather than the well-oiled machines that some of them are.
How does this happen??? I have no ideas for making this shift directions because we as individuals are so unbelievably streamlined and focued and faster and more efficient, etc. i think it's just a reflection of our society as a macrocosm personifying the individual microcosms that we are. whatever is going on with the individuals is going to drive the whole and eventually become its identity.
is that what churches should do? adapt to today's society so that people are as comfortable as they are in a drive-thru? Maybe so? i just hate to think that it's the right way.
Well, Drane seems to think that the worst part of McDonaldization is that it actually kills community. The church is no longer a community of faith, it's a one-stop shopping experience.
Ritzer and Drane were at Fuller a few months ago to talk about McDonaldization and Ritzer has a pretty dismal view that it's going to take over the whole world. He sees instances of McD. in almost all aspects of society.
I think that we should always adapt and contextualize our worship, but the church in the West has adopted these ideas wholeheartedly since Henry Ford and even before. Charles Finney in the 19th c. was famous for making revivals a simple matter of putting the right things in the right places. People who had been surveyed earlier in the week and judged "close" would be sat up front and stuff like that.
I think we need to contextualize enough to where we can witness to our culture, but when it directs us and we don't even know it, we're in trouble!
Yeah, I think a lot of what I post will be on this theme of recovering community. Thanks for posting,I think others are having problems trying to comment and I'm working with admin to fix it.
i studied the original book you speak of called the mcd.ization of society. i think i came to the conclusion that these qualities were killing the spirit of society. the certainly tend to harden me.
ministering to college students in lisbon, i have discovered much of what i hate about the way society has influenced me. it took me until now to really be comfortable walking at the pace portuguese tend to walk to their destinations. time is a marker, not the deadline here and it is so refreshing. my world has been one where time is everything. efficience and control have ruled over my ablitiy to have joy and to build community. we have the opportunity to expand and impact community every moment we live, but we tend to miss it because we live life in a hurry.
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