The Holy Post 577: How Church Became Theater & the Evangelical Imagination with Karen Swallow Prior
Worship Music Is Centrally Controlled
- A handful of megachurches dominate modern worship music and shape song selection across congregations.
- This centralized influence reduces local churches' incarnational creativity and formative responsibility.
Write Music For Your Local Church
- Develop and use local, context-specific songs tied to teaching and community life.
- Prioritize writing and curating music that forms your congregation, not just copies popular anthems.
Worship Narrowed To Musical Consumption
- Worship has been narrowed to song selection and emotive performance, squeezing out broader formative practices.
- That narrowing lets market forces dictate theology through repeated lyrical exposure.
A new survey of worship leaders finds that four megachurches have cornered the worship music market. Should we care who is writing the songs we sing in church, and what gets lost when market forces influence local ministries? A sermon clip has gone viral showing a megachurch pastor scolding people who arrive late or leave early because they are treating the "church like it's a religious show instead of a welcoming family." But are people acting like church is a show because that's the model church leaders have created? We explore the history of how churches came to copy theaters and its impact on the church's mission and power. Then, Phil talks to Karen Swallow Prior about her new book, "The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis." She explains how the current crisis in evangelicalism finds its roots in trying to preserve Victorian values rather than biblical ones. Also this week: a celebrity bear is above the law.
Patreon Bonus:
Holy Post Office - How do you justify the O.T God who commanded Israel to annihilate other nations, with the New Testament themes of loving our enemies?
https://youtu.be/IMEMzA8rJZQ
0:00 - Intro
1:49 - Show Starts
4:10 - Theme Song
4:27 - Sponsor - Hiya Health
5:36 - Animal News
14:05 - How we choose worship music in church
34:55 - JD Greear's recent viral clip
56:03 - Sponsor - AG1
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57:32 - Sponsor - Blueland
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58:38 - Interview Intro
Karen Swallow Prior
1:03:36 - How Victorian literature influenced Evangelicalism
1:12:20 - Evangelicialism and Empire
1:24:43 - Broadening our imagination
1:36:43 - End Credits
Links mentioned in news segment:
Hank the Tank: Fugitive burglar bear captured in California
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66429736
Few worship leaders avoid Hillsong, Bethel songs — despite controversies and scandal
JD Greear's sermon clip - https://twitter.com/laurchas22/status/1687426921586622464
Other resources:
The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis by Karen Swallow Prior
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