If popularity is next to godliness, Eagle Brook Church is the holiest place in Minnesota.
The Lino Lakes church became the state’s largest this month, with weekly attendance of 8,000.
And that’s without the cup holders.
The new $24 million building is designed to make worship as comfortable as possible, and movie-theater-style cup holders soon might draw even more people.
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Critics of megachurches say high-volume big-box religion cheapens the value of worship because it appeals to the consumer culture. Instead of being quiet places of prayer and reflection, megachurches mimic the architecture and noise of malls, theaters and sports arenas.But megachurch leaders say the style isn’t important — it’s the message. And preaching to empty pews doesn’t accomplish anything, Anderson said. He said millions have found megachurches an alternative to stuffy, traditional churches.
Being un-churchly is exactly the point of Eagle Brook. First-timers could be excused for thinking they were in a mall or a high school, with bright, open spaces and a lack of religious decoration.
“That’s our cafe on the left,” said Anderson, as he gave a tour of the building in December.
Next to Cafe 5000 is the religious bookstore, Beyond Books. Next to that is the Box Office, offering tickets for events aimed at nonmembers.
“That’s so you can check out the church without feeling you have to join,” Anderson said.
Inside, the sanctuary looks like a large theater, with comfortable movie-style seats with armrests. The razzle-dazzle services include comedy sketches, rock music from an 11-piece band and staging that would fit right in at the Guthrie Theater. There are no pews, no Bibles, no hymnals, no stained-glass windows.
The church is designed to feel homey. Which brings us to the cup holders.
“Our little coffee shop is humming on Sunday mornings,” Anderson said. “It’s a huge hit.”
But church leaders figured it was difficult to stand, sit or praise the Lord with your hands in the air while worrying about dumping a hot latte onto fellow Christians. So they decided to add cup holders — anything to boost their reputation for putting people at ease.
“You can’t underestimate the value of energy and buzz,” Anderson said. “Those things bring people through the door.”
Take up your latte and follow me (or not, whatever makes you comfortable)
Comments
6 responses to “Take up your latte and follow me (or not, whatever makes you comfortable)”
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Mercy!
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We have cup holders at our church -but ours are for communion glasses.
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This sort of stuff just annoys me to no end.
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Russell, when I read stuff like this I’m ready to take back all those nice things I said about our liberal, permissive society. 😉
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‘”You can’t underestimate the value of energy and buzz,’ Anderson said. ‘Those things bring people through the door.’”
You’re bringing them in the door, I guess. But the real question is what happens once they are there?
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I went to Eagle Brook Church for a year and really enjoyed the music. I also occassionaly heard a message that I got something from, but many of the messages were not very deep and lacked what I needed to really grow in Christ. The other big issue at this church was that most of the people are very clickish and lack Christ’s love. I think this may be because most of the people that attend this church are young or immature in their faith. After attending for a year, we looked around for a while to find a church that would help us grow and had friendly people that shared Christ’s love with everyone. This led us to finding Real Life Church in Roseville. It has great music as well and the messages are still seeker friendly, but have a greater depth and I have really started to grow in this church. It has a ton of people in their 20s and 30s, so its easy to make connections with alot of people and the church provides alot of event to encourage this. Well, I hope God leads you to the right church. Good luck.
A Thinking Reed 
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