Religious Non-Places: Corporate Megachurches and Their Contributions to Consumer Capitalism

Abstract

The corporate megachurch represents a pecuniarily driven institution that both emphasizes marketing for the purposes of constant growth, and focuses on the manufacture and delivery of consumer-centric goods and services. This article draws on the theory of the non-place as conceptualized by Augé, who argues that the non-place is a direct effect of contemporary capitalism’s incessant incursion into ever more areas of life. The non-place refers to any variety of transitory sites that lack historical, cultural, or geographic reference points, and while they seem to be everywhere one is left with the sense of being ‘nowhere’ in particular. One such place that lacks distinguishing features and fails to provide any contextual reference is the corporate megachurch. Because of its strategic work to distance itself from traditional Christian churches and focus instead on creating homologies with entertainment, self-help, and retail, the non-place church normalizes the banality of consumer capitalism.

Praktik Akuntansi Betawian dalam Perspektif Kuasa dan Pengetahuan

“…Sistem ini mengefisiensikan biaya dan meningkatkan laba sehingga meningkatkan nilai perusahaan. Selanjutnya suatu masyarakat yang sudah diwarnai oleh sifat mental kapitalis akan tampak pada kehidupan yang diarahkan pada penguasaan hasil produksi, penghematan uang, dan mekanisme persaingan (Sanders, 2016).…”

“…Kekayaan sebagai simbol status dalam sistem kapitalis menjadikan pengukurannya tidak lagi pada kualitas manusianya, tetapi lebih pada jumlah atau kuantitas harta yang dimilikinya. Pengembangan dalam sistem kapitalis adalah ditimbulkannya semangat individualistis, baik dalam berkonsumsi maupun berproduksi (Sanders, 2016;Badua & Racca, 2017). Sistem kapitalis tidak lagi memandang kejujuran sebagai ukuran solidaritas dan keluhuran berperilaku.…”

Sincere Performance in Pentecostal Megachurch Music

“…64-65). Further, while the constitutive features of Hillsong churches' worship performances are based upon standardized pop-rock tropes, the aesthetic of the megachurches, themselves, is in keeping with contemporary secular commercial architecture, deliberately not signaling themselves as traditional places of worship (Sanders 2016).…”

“…Its network of churches now includes several "campuses" in Cape Town, centered on the Century City campus: a "megachurch" attracting several thousand worshippers to its multiple Sunday services, housed in what was once Africa's largest nightclub. Hillsong is very much a "growth church" (Maddox 2012), with a clear corporate-style vision of expansion (Sanders 2016), but since Pentecostals are promiscuous worshippers, especially in the African context this article is focused on, conventional measures of the size of a Hillsong congregation are not necessarily accurate, as Hillsong may not be the primary denominational affiliation of many, or even most, who attend a given service.…”

“…Drawing on the ideas of Guy Debord, Sanders (2012Sanders ( , 2016 suggests that, with its emphasis on technologically facilitated bodily experiences and visual excitement, the modern individualist consumer culture of the "spectacle" most aptly describes the culture of the megachurch. This is the same approach taken by Wade andHynes (2013, 2016), along with the critical Pentecostal insider Harrison (2017), trailing behind at a rather nervous distance.…”