The “Pragification” of Church

I recently had the opportunity to go to Mont Saint Michel. It is an amazing place. A medieval village that resembles a mountain rising out of the floor of a tidal bay. It is an impressive sight, beautiful and pleasing, all the more for the wonder at the achievement. How did people manage to build such a place? Of course, today it is a bit of a sad place as well. The tiny village built to host a monastery is instead, host to thousands of tourists. One can imagine a time in which this marvel was only available to those willing to trek for miles across pastures and a treacherous muddy and quicksand filled bay, to arrive at a village only to pray. Instead, there is a convenient, free shuttle every five minutes to drive guests across a bridge to a couple of streets chocked full of postcard shops and candy stores.

This phenomenon has been dubbed “Pragification” or “Disneylandization” by some. The way that amazing places are slowly becoming amusement parks for tourists. Losing all of the reason that existed for their creation, along with the unique culture that created these places, they are becoming carbon-copy experiences. Instead of merely attracting crowds for their splendor; they are repackaged to increase, please, and fleece as many tourists as possible. These tourists do not experience something strange and new. They are comforted and soothed by the same coffee, candy, rubber-duckies, and conveniences they find everywhere, as they merely arrive, view things through a phone screen, and leave.

All of this reminded me of a similar phenomenon that has afflicted the church. Instead of being a place that attracts crowds through the beauty and marvel of God’s grace and transformed people, the church has become a commodity marketed to the masses. Instead of displaying the Kingdom of God, it has been asking itself, “what do non-believers want?” The seeker-sensitive church approach is akin to the Pragification of the church. The sad part is, that the church should attract people. However, it should attract them through its transformative purpose, not through an effort to tickle the fancy of the lost.