Works Cited

Edwards, Tyler. "We're Called to Make Disciples, Not Converts." RELEVANT Magazine.

Relavent Media Group, 21 Apr. 2015. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

This Periodical Article is from A christian Website. This Piece talks about how many Christians

and churches but a heavy focus on gaining converts. They create a more palatable version

of the truth and the actual message and life changing message of Christianity (according

to the article) is lost in trying to make it easy to understand. He uses biblical quote to talk

about how christianity doesnt call for people simply get people to believe in the Christ,

but instead sends Christians to make deep disciples devoted fully to the faith.

ONe of the largest criticisms of growth oriented churches is their heavy focus on simply

increasing attendance. Many more traditional church leaders feel that the approach of

many Mega Churches creates inauthentic Christians and that large churches like this

creates a lack of accountability for individual attendees. I want to explore how using a

business model can add to this. Many Senior pastors of corporate mega churches Talk

about how their version of profit or capital is lives changed or souls. This mindset

can be dangerous as it can reduce a person and their life to simply a number or a spiritual

dollar bill of sorts.

Maddox, M. "'In the Goofy Parking Lot': Growth Churches as a Novel Religious Form for

Late Capitalism." Social Compass 59.2 (2012): 146-58. Web.

This article is focuses on the Corporate Mega Church. It spends the first of the article elaborating

on the 7 dimensions of the modern Seeker oriented Megachurch with Charismatic

leaders. It spends the second half of the piece defining the term corporate mega Church. It

talks about how the New Mega Church often functions more like a corporation than a

traditional church. Maddox (The author) quotes Senior Pastors of some of the worlds

largest churches talking about their relationships with Business executives and their

openness about structuring their churches like a corporation.

Maddox crafts an extremely concise and effective definition of the corporate megachurch that

fits very well into the ideas I am trying to portray. Diving into individual portions of her

definition of Corporate Megachurches found on pg 155 will give me logical transitions

and connections from the beginning of the inquiry to the conclusion. Her overall analysis

of the Megachurch as a capitalist organization also provides some good insight into the

development of this cultural trend and I plan to use that to help give my audience a true

understanding of the culture inside of a megachurch.

Mecklenburg Community Church. "Welcome to Meck." HOME | Mecklenburg Community

Church. Mecklenburg Community Church, 2017. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

Mecklenburg.org is the website for my Discourse community, Mecklenburg Community church.

 This website serves as the online front door of the church as has information about the

history of the church as well as its missions. It also includes many pictures of the churchs

members and the building itself. When it comes to basic information on my discourse

community, Mecklenburg.org is the most direct source of information.

The information on this web page will be used to give people a more specific idea of how my

Church shares many similiarities to a corporation. From the website design to the information

within the many tabs. Much of what one could find on the website could also be found on many

business websites. I also want to talk about the mission statements of my church and how

growth oriented it is.

"Repentantpastor.com." Repentantpastor.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

Repentant Pastor is a website created by former leaders of a MegaChurch (Mars Hill Church)

that dissolved in the blink of an eye in 2014. It includes the leaders confession for the

hurt they had caused people as well as the stories of many people who were hurt by the

church. These letters and confession also shed light on the Abuse and mistreatment of

the staff and congregation committed by the Senior Pastor Mark Driscoll.

This website and series of letters will allow me to show the damage that a heirarchal business-

like structure can have on a church. Giving one person unlimited power not only allows

that person the ability to say and do unthinkable things, but also creates an environment

of acceptance for morally egregious acts. I will combine these moral failures with

reports of embezzlement by other Corporate Mega Church pastors to talk about how
 Business structured Churches allow for easier corruption as there is far less accountability

within the church for the church leaders.

Sanders, George. "Religious Non-Places: Corporate Megachurches and Their

Contributions to Consumer Capitalism." Critical Sociology 42.1 (2016): 71-86. Web.

This Article, is a rather dense look at the Corporate megachurch. It spends much time defining

the corporate mega church as well as elaborating on why it is a social nonplace, a term it

istates was developed by Marc Auge in 2008. The portion of the article that delves into

the term corporate mega church, go into the history of corporate megachurches and

elaborates on what the term corporate mega church means. It also spends time talking

about the rapic growth of megachurches. When the author discusses why the church is

considered a nonplace he also comments upon the way that Megachurches can very

easily become no more remarkable than a movie theater or a shopping mall due to its lack

of community, history and identity.

I originally planned to use this article simply as a diving board into the world of Corporate mega

chruches; however, the commentary on the lack of community created by having such a

large and growth driven organization was quite intriguing and will be the guide for

discussing why an entrepenureal spirit can lead to spiritual disonnnectivity. I still plan to

use some of the information in this journal entry to give an indepth explanation of the
 broad term for my discourse community.

Warhurst, C., D. Van Den Broek, R. Hall, and D. Nickson. "Lookism: The New Frontier of

Employment Discrimination?" Journal of Industrial Relations 51.1 (2009): 131-36.

Web.

This academic journal entry is a comprehensive look on the topic of lookism. It defines the

concept and goes in depth on the origins and effects of lookism while also examining

different countries efforts to counter-act lookism. It also mentions the reasons why

lookism can be considered a form of discrimination along with using statistical data to

show that both employers and employees of many organizations either have some

understanding that lookism is present in not only society as a whole but within their

specific Industry.

While this article is strictly about business, I want to use this article to talk about

lookism within the church. I will be comparing the structure of many Contemporary

Mega churches to the structure of a business and one of the issues that causes is the

entrance of lookism into the church. THer are statistics about the hospitality industry that

I also believe will be relevant to my paper as I believe many parts of a corporate

megachurch function as if they were a part of the hospitality industry.

White, James Emery. "Three Ways Meck Could Have Been Much Bigger Than It Is... That
 I Regret." Church and Culture. Serious Times, 10 Oct. 2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

This blog post by James emery white Discusses the ways in which he wishes he had pushed for

growth at Mecklenburg Community Church, (White is the Founding and Senior Pastor of

the Church). Parts one and two of the Church talk more about specific decisions he made

when it came to hiring and disunity within the church. His last regret is that he wishes he

had pushed the church to be younger. He recalls an event where he realized that his

church was no longer the young church. He talks about how the church will naturally get

older and unless seriousm intentional action takes place, the church will become relatable

to younger people.

This post, as well as many others under the website Church and Culture give a direct

insight to the desires and leadership of my communities Leader, the Churchs senior

pastor. This article was chosen in particular for the way it addresses skewing young. I

want to talk about how this desire to skew young so that it can be relatable (AKA

marketable) for young people often isolates older and more experienced members. I want

to talk about how it leads to discrimination and occasionally exclusion simply due to a

leader's inability to be Cool or relevant.