Cheeseburger, fries and chocolate shake with a side of church? That's what one Indiegogo proposal wants to put on the menu.

The McMass Project, launched on the crowd-funding website this week, hopes to inspire church innovation with its plan to open a McDonald's franchise within a house of worship.

"By combining a church and a McDonald's we can create a self-sustaining, community-engaged, popular church, and an unparalleled McDonald's restaurant," the McMass team explains on Indiegogo.

On its own website, The McMass Project notes that around 3 million Americans leave organized religion every year. Attendance shifts have caused thousands of churches to close. By bringing McDonald's to a church, the team explains, faith leaders could capitalize on the restaurant's popularity, drawing in some of the 70 million people eating at the restaurant every day.

"Churches and McDonald's are perfect partners," The McMass Project claims. "Churches are community centers, but need to attract people and support themselves financially. McDonald's are profitable, and draw constant crowds, but need great, centrally located spaces."

For those who might be turned off by the combination of greasy food and a sacred space, The McMass Project offers a humanitarian explanation: McDonald's is committed to bringing communities together.

"Nine million families stay together because of the Ronald McDonald House," the website reports.

Although unique for its fixation on the golden arches, The McMass Project is not the first off-the-wall solution to widespread decline in church attendance.

In October, Deseret News National reported on the "Detroit Mass Mob," a group that arranges monthly visits to historic church buildings. The "mobbers" wanted to experience beautiful, old parishes as they were meant to be seen: alongside hundreds of fellow worshippers.

Other churches try a similar tactic to The McMass Project, building cafés or coffee shops to add an extra perk for churchgoers. As Coffee4Missions, a company dedicated to supplying faith communities with coffee grounds, notes, "church coffee shops have been almost ubiquitous in the evangelical megachurch community landscape" in recent years.

According to a 2013 Gallup poll, self-reported weekly church attendance in the United States has varied between 37 percent and 49 percent since 1950. The biggest decline occurred between the late 1950s and early 1970s, a stretch that witnessed a 9 percent drop.

Even if year-to-year shifts have been less dramatic over the last decade, empty pews have many faith leaders feeling nervous about the future of their churches. After all, Pew Research Center reported in 2012 that "One-fifth of the U.S. public — and a third of adults under 30 — are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in (the organization's) polling."

But maybe all the religious "nones" want is a Big Mac.

By Nov. 20, The McMass Project had raised $76 toward its $1 million goal. The campaign will expire on Jan. 16, 2015.

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Email: kdallas@deseretnews.com Twitter: @kelsey_dallas

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