Photographer Joe Johnson has a new exhibit in Boston’s Gallery Kafayas that displays photos of empty megachurches.
If you’ve never been to a church like this before, you should see some of these photos. It’s unbelievable how decked out they are:

That one is a children’s ministry.
One setup (“Instruments, St. Louis MO”) looks likes the set of the musical Rent.
Another picture, the one with all the empty seats (Titled: “Seating, Temperance MI”), just gives me the creeps.
The Boston Globe says this of the exhibit:
[Johnson’s] stunning and provocative images of the mammoth churches lay bare the cogs and gears that create their spectacle-driven services. With all the sets, smoke machines, light effects, and huge plasma screens, the churchgoing experience has ironically turned, in places like this, into something resembling a heavy-metal concert or a Las Vegas stage show, complete with stadium seating.
You can see more of the images here.
It makes you wonder whether the money is really as well spent as it could be.
Are these extravagant churches really necessary?
Could they accomplish their goals without all the extravagance?
Who are church leaders trying to impress with all this, anyway?
How much of this is to help churchgoers have a “better experience,” and how much is really just part of the arms race with other megachurches?
(via Articles of Faith)
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