While there has been historical precedence for a preacher to travel between multiple locations to preach a sermon, like back in the days of the Methodist "Circuit Rider," over time, the horse had been replaced by the car. Could it be that air travel is now being used for riding the circuit?
Even though there's been a lot of buzz in our times about video teaching, I did find 3 preachers who are travelling by plane between two widely-separated cities on a weekly basis:
Matthew Barnett of Dream Center in Los Angeles and New York City - [cf. press release]
Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia and Irvine, California - "After preaching two services in Gainesville on Sunday morning, Franklin and his family and key staff members ... fly 2,300 miles west to Orange County, Calif..." [cf. Gainesville Times]
Creflo Dollar of World Changers Church - "... commute back and forth between Atlanta and New York ..." [cf. The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism]
And I'm pretty sure that these three aren't Methodist, though they are definitely undoubtedly pioneering.
Know of others flying weekly to preach at multiple locations? What do you think? Could this be the start of a new trend?
// DJ Chuang, Director at Leadership Network [photo credit: roygearhart.org]
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