The McDonaldization of the Church (Paperback)

The McDonaldization of the Church springs out of a sociological thesis developed by George Ritzer (McDonaldization of Society). The image of McDonaldization refers to the epitome of modernity: the fast-food process and assembly line. Drane takes up Ritzer's image and reworks the metaphor for the church. In Drane's view the McDonaldization process refers to a predictable theology, predictable church service, with slick simplistic formulae for evangelism and apologetics.

Drane sees the western church as suffering from a crisis of stagnation, and illustrates his points with adequate statistical data about Britain, North America and Australia. Drane sees the church as caught up in the modernity paradigm with an excessive emphasis on cognition at the expense of personal creativity, community and a deep, searching spirituality. He sees the church as largely being hamstrung. It is not coping well with societal change, especially as manifested in post-modernity.

He indicates that there are 7 major people groups inside the West that exist, and shows how the church is only touching just one group in the population. He diagnoses a difficult state of affairs with respect to theological rationalism, ecclesiology, worship, church growth fads and evangelistic formulas.

Drane notes how the church is not on the shopping list of today's seeker. Today's spiritual seeker opts for a do-it-yourself or self-spirituality where institutional religion can be dispensed with. One poignant illustration of this is in New Age. Another is the spontaneous public response to Princess Diana's death. Drane says there are pointed messages in these phenomena for the church, but few seem to be subtle enough to discern this.

Drane moves from diagnosis, to provoke discussion on ways we could reimagine the church for post-modernity. He explores the power of the non-verbal in communication and demonstrates the role of mime, drama, humour, story-telling in the Bible. He illustrates what he has personally found rewarding in ministry with his wife.

Drane develops his earlier theses about the relationship between worship and evangelism. He acknowledges that for some Christians the McDonaldization approach to church is all thye can handle. He does not dismiss out of hand the role of Hybel's model or the Alpha outreach method.However he notes that for the majority of non-Christians this sort of church-life and discipleship is simplistic and inadequate.

Drane does not pretend to have all the answers and eschews offering a recipe. To do so would be to fall into the very trap that McDonaldization processes stimulate. He exhorts us as Christians to explore and rediscover long forgotten models of worship, communication and discipleship.

Not all readers will warm to Drane's thesis. However that does not mean you can dismiss him out of hand. Here is a mind alive and in tune with post-modernity. Here is a lively invitation to reflect and to act. Whether you agree or not with Drane, readers must face up to the challenges he sets forth. Those who cannot cope with change will see themselves fossilized and redundant in a world wide awake to spiritual meaning. The disturbing trend is that the church is not on the menu as most see it as unspiritual and irrelevant. This is a book to buy, read, digest and then move forward on. It is time to engage with the post-modern world.

The McDonaldization of society is the view that corporations are trying to fit us into a pre-packaged rationalist system, left over from the modernist age, despite our post-modernist veneer. Drane's contention is that the church (which should be challenging and liberating) is essentially trying to do the same. That we are haemorrhaging congregations because, in this post-modernist world, people value choice and do not want to be boxed in to the limited choices that the church provides.

In doing this, Drane is not merely targeting one form of churchmanship. McDonaldized formulae transcend cultural barriers, so that an evangelical setting with a pastor talking from the front each week is as formulaic, in his view, as a high church service with carefully scripted liturgy.

Drane concludes with a chapter that looks at the church of the future, through community & mystery, words & images and mission. Drane resists providing a prescriptive blueprint, but highlights strengths that the church would do well to play to.

This book is well-written and engaging and provides a broad view of the church and the world through which it moves. There is much to consider here and many jumping off points for churches to discuss their own positions. My only criticisms would be that some aspects of the personal journey that Drane is undoubtedly on do not convince me (clowning) and the references to the novels of Douglas Coupland (which I have never read) do not seem to add very much. Even so, I have no hesitation in recommending this challenging and thought-provoking book.