What do we do with, and where do we classify, the newish Protestant form, the modern mega-church, which our culture has been noting for a half century? Think of one that is in the news, as some are every week, this time in St. Louis, covered last Tuesday by Jesse Bogan, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bogan wrote of the recent firing of the Rev. Darrin Patrick, inventor of a church called “The Journey,” which is related to the Missouri Baptist Convention, a form not related to any specific denomination. The responsible and suffering leaders there specified charges:
Patrick lacked self-control, he was manipulative, a misuser of power, who built his own identity through ministry and media platforms, and—oh, yes—“not adultery, but ‘inappropriate meetings, conversations, and phone calls with two women.’” With the last charge he did himself in with his mega-parishioners, and found himself “mega-ly” in the press. To his credit, we note that Bogan did not dwell on that dooming factor. He listened carefully to the larger testimony.
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