'In the Goofy parking lot': growth churches as a novel religious form for late capitalism

Title: 'In the Goofy parking lot': growth churches as a novel religious form for late capitalism
Creator: Maddox, Marion
Relation: Social Compass Vol. 59, Issue 2, p. 146-158
Publisher Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0037768612440954
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
Resource Type: journal article
Date: 2012
Description: Literature on megachurches (Protestant churches with attendance over 2000) concentrates on numbers at the expense of an associated, but more instructive, characteristic: an overriding commitment to growth. Churches of any size can adopt a growth-oriented theology, style and organisational structure. In such churches, the growth imperative is likely to apply not only to congregational membership but also to church buildings and collection receipts; to the television ministry and other forms of outreach; to the pastor’s book and CD sales; and to individual members’ businesses, incomes, houses and possessions. In each dimension of religious life, at both individual and corporate level, the gospel of growth demarcates a novel Christian form, attuned to the ethos of late capitalism.
Subject: capitalism; church growth; growth; megachurches; Ninian Smart; prosperity gospel; protestantism
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1059404
Identifier: uon:16595
Identifier: ISSN:0037-7686
Language: eng
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