I finished reading “I Sold My Soul on eBay” this afternoon. It’s an interesting follow-up read after finishing “Jim & Casper Go To Church” just the other week.
In his book, Mehta talks about his eBay auction in which Jim Henderson purchased the ability to send Mehta to churches of his choosing for a specified length of time. Hemant posted his experiences and findings on a website and then eventually wrote this book as a follow-up (money-maker?) to the entire experiment.
The only big surprise I had through reading the book was that Hemant admitted his love for the mega-church experience. I think I expected him to be turned-off to the large, impersonal-ness that is often associated with the mega-church situation.
I don’t know if I agree with Mehta’s consistency of writing that “he is at the center of every church’s target-audience”. As an atheist, his belief (or disbelief, rather) that there IS no God places him in a category of NOT the kind of person I would expect for a church to minister to on a Sunday-morning. I might add that Hemant visited churches in a geographically-similar area (surrounding his Chicago address) with some mega-church visits in other locations. I can’t help but wonder what experience he would’ve had smaller-sized churches in other areas of the country, too…
All in all, I enjoyed the book – I was challenged even as a youth pastor to realize the importance of keeping in check the idea that not everyone in my ministry is from the same background or has the same knowledge-base as me or any other student peer!
Resources: Off The Map | Friendly Atheist
