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Rise of MegachurchesAre they straying too far from their religious mission?

Since the 1970s, the number of so-called megachurches

— churches that attract at least 2,000 people to weekly

services — has been exploding in the United States

and abroad, particularly in Latin America, Africa and

Asia. Many of the more than 1,200 U.S. megachurches sit on large

suburban campuses and boast vast sanctuaries with multiple large

TV screens and other high-tech amenities. Several serve meals at

their own sprawling food courts and cafés and offer gymnasiums

and other facilities. Megachurches are typically Protestant evangelical

and espouse conservative positions on social issues. Church leaders

are often charismatic ministers who preach the “prosperity gospel,”

stressing personal fulfillment and success as much as theology. Some

researchers suggest megachurches are a unique, collective response

to people’s needs amid sweeping cultural and societal changes.

But critics say megachurches are straying from their traditional

religious mission by focusing on helping parishioners get rich

rather than worshipping God.

I

N

S

I

D

E

THE ISSUES ......................771

CHRONOLOGY ..................779

BACKGROUND ..................780

CURRENT SITUATION ..........784

AT ISSUE ..........................785

OUTLOOK ........................787

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................790

THE NEXT STEP ................791

THISREPORT

A 10-story-high flag hangs on Memorial Day at theCrystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.,

founded by Dr. Robert H. Schuller.

CQResearcherPublished by CQ Press, a division of Congressional Quarterly Inc.

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CQ Researcher • Sept. 21, 2007 • www.cqresearcher.comVolume 17, Number 33 • Pages 769-792

RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR

EXCELLENCE ◆ AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD

770 CQ Researcher

THE ISSUES

771 • Do megachurches dilutethe Christian message?• Do megachurches blurthe line between churchand state?• Are megachurches be-coming too worldly?

BACKGROUND

780 Recent SurgeMost of the 1,200 U.S.megachurches were founded in the past 25 years.

781 Big-Box ApproachMegachurches fit the suburban mold.

783 Filling SeatsMegachurches make economic sense.

CURRENT SITUATION

784 Business 101Megachurch pastors know how to market their message.

787 Church PoliticsCourts are lowering thebarrier between churchand state.

OUTLOOK

787 Mirroring SocietyExperts predict churcheswill continue growing.

SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS

772 Most Megachurches Are inthe South, WestNew England has lowestnumber.

772 Top 10 Megachurch StatesCalifornia and Texas havethe most members.

773 From Big to Truly ‘Mega’More than 25 percent ofmegachurches have morethan 4,000 members.

774 Most Megachurches areDenominationalBaptists are the largest group.

775 The Megachurch DifferenceSupport groups are amongthe key activities.

776 Houston’s LakewoodChurch Is BiggestAverage attendance is 30,000.

779 ChronologyKey events since 1972.

780 ‘Reverse’ Missionaries Aim at Developed NationsNigerian church is active inNew York.

782 Preaching the ProsperityGospelCritics say black megachurchesabandon social justice.

784 Megachurches OutpacingNation’s GrowthRise has been dramatic.

785 At IssueAre megachurches too big?

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

789 For More InformationOrganizations to contact.

790 BibliographySelected sources used.

791 The Next StepAdditional articles.

791 Citing CQ ResearcherSample bibliography formats.

RISE OF MEGACHURCHES

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Rise of Megachurches

THE ISSUESUniversal Pictures de-

voted more than$200 mi l l ion to

“Evan Almighty,” a comedyreleased in June about a con-gressman who gives up pol-itics to build an ark. Most ofthat money went into pro-duction, but a fair share ofit was spent on marketing —much of it devoted to reach-ing out to spiritual leadersand church groups.

Universal hasn’t yet made aprofit on the film, but its strat-egy appeared to make sense.Alerting church groups aboutreligious-themed films has paidoff in recent years, translatinginto a $370 million domesticgross for “The Passion of theChrist” and $300 million for“The Chronicles of Narnia.”Mel Gibson’s “Passion” pro-vided the marketing model,with megachurches — com-monly defined as those that at-tract more than 2,000 parish-ioners on any given Sunday— buying big blocks of tick-ets and generating word ofmouth among the faithful.

Saddleback Church in Lake Forest,Calif., home of prominent pastor andbest-selling author Rick Warren, host-ed a screening for 4,500 pastors andseparately purchased 17,000 tickets forits congregants. Two members of amegachurch in Plano, Texas, boughtout 6,000 seats at a local 20-plex sochurchgoers could watch “Passion’s”local premiere. A church in Costa Mesa,Calif., even canceled its weekend ser-vices during the film’s 2004 opening,sending its parishioners to watch onany of 10 rented screens. 1

Hollywood producers aren’t alonein looking to rake in what are some-

times called “Passion dollars” fromparishioners. Megachurches have be-come a prime distribution and mar-keting channel, with companies in-cluding McDonald’s, Ford, Chrysler,Target and Coca-Cola lining up to spon-sor conferences and outreach efforts,as well as offering free samples andtest drives directly to worshipers.

“Forty-three percent of this countryis in church — that’s a big chunk offolks,” said Jonathan Bock, presidentof Grace Hill Media, which helps Hol-lywood studios reach out to the faithcommunity. “You get into the once-a-month [attendee], that’s two-thirds ofthe country.” 2

Megachurches in particularare proving to be fertileground for products, servicesand messages that cross theline that divides the sacred fromthe secular. Twenty-five yearsago, there were only 74 church-es in the United States that at-tracted more than 2,000 peo-ple per week. Today, there aremore than 1,200. 3 Megachurch-es have been growing in sizeand influence at the same timethat the line between churchand state has been fading, ac-cording to religious scholarsand historians.

It’s not just their sheer num-bers and explosive growththat have made megachurch-es friendly to marketers. Themessages preached in differ-ent megachurches can varyas much as they do in small-er churches. Megachurches,however, are particularly con-ducive to secular messagesby their very nature.

They tend to feature thelatest communications tech-nology — everything fromhigh-quality video screens tosophisticated in-house broad-casting centers. They offer not

only religious services within their sanc-tuaries but also recreational and diningservices in other parts of their facilities,including Starbucks cafés, Subway sand-wich shops and top-flight gymnasiums.

Megachurches, in other words, al-ready tend to resemble the secularcommercial world and imitate com-mercial strategies for communicatingtheir messages. “We do attempt to har-ness the full potential of modern tech-nology and business strategies to com-municate with our members and ourcommunity,” said Bill Hybels, found-ing and senior pastor of Willow CreekCommunity Church, a trend-settingmegachurch in South Barrington, Ill. 4

BY ALAN GREENBLATT AND TRACIE POWELL

AP P

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Housed in a former sports arena, Pastor Joel Osteen’sLakewood Church in Houston is reportedly the largest

and fastest-growing in the country, with 52,000 Englishand Spanish-speaking worshipers. There are more than1,200 megachurches in the United States, many servingmiddle-class suburban congregations with a “prosperity

gospel” promoting personal fulfillment and success.

772 CQ Researcher

But such harnessing has led manycritics to wonder whether megachurch-es have strayed away from core Chris-tian messages and toward somethingthat is altogether too worldly.

“In this country, the Christian faithhas succumbed to consumerism,”

says Os Guinness, a social scientistin Northern Virginia and the authorof numerous books about faith andsociety. “One of the reasons Chris-tianity is so strong numerically butso weak culturally in this country isthe watering down of the message.”

Despite offering such strong criti-cism, Guinness notes that he findsnothing wrong either with the size ofmegachurch congregations or their useof modern marketing, psychology orcommunications techniques. “Themegachurch movement’s aim is laud-able — to reach out to people andbring them to Christ,” he says.

Such ambiguity seems to color manydiscussions about megachurches.Their growth itself is evidence thatthey are fulfilling many people’sneeds. Their preachers are often high-ly charismatic and learned. Equally im-portant is their flexibility — their will-ingness to offer multiple services notonly on Sundays but also throughoutthe week. In addition, megachurchestypically offer many other convenientoptions, such as free day care andother programs for youth.

“They offer a lot of the things thatchurches have always offered — stufffor your kids to do and groups foryou to be in and high-production-valueworship services,” says Mark Chaves,a Duke University professor of soci-ology, religion and divinity. “Smalleror even average-sized churches usedto be able to do that,” he says, buthe notes that building and staff costshave made such programs unafford-able for many smaller congregationsin recent years.

It’s difficult to know whether fre-quently heard complaints thatmegachurches offer up “theology lite”are true, says Scot McKnight, a pro-fessor of religious studies at NorthPark University in Chicago. He hasn’tseen a formal study that compares mes-sages in megachurches with those insmaller churches.

“What we do know that dispels thisidea,” McKnight says, “is that increas-ing numbers of [traditional] pastors areusing the messages and adapting themessages of megachurch pastors.”

But critics say the messagesmegachurch pastors are sending outoften seem to be more about personal


Sources: Scott Thumma and Dave Travis, Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn From America’s Largest Churches, Jossey-Bass, 2007, and John N. Vaughan, Church Growth Today, www.megachurches.net

Most Megachurches Are in the South, West

The South and Far West have the highest percentage of America’s megachurches; New England has the lowest.

N.Y.

OhioNeb.

Texas

Va.

Minn.

Iowa

Mo.

Calif.

Nev.

Ore.

Colo.

Wash.

Idaho

Mont.

Utah

Ariz. N.M.

Wyo.

N.D.

S.D.

Alaska

Okla. Ark.

La.

Ill.

Miss.

Tenn.

Ga.

Hawaii

Conn.

Mass.

R.I.

MaineVt.

W.Va. N.J.

Del.Md.

Ala.

Fla.

Wis.

Mich.

Ind.Pa.

N.C.

S.C.

N.H.

Kan.Ky.

D.C.

Concentration of Megachurches(by percentage and region)

Top 10 States with Most Megachurch Members

California and Texas had the most megachurch members in 2001; megachurch-goers represent less than 2 percent of the population of any state.

State Megachurch Attendance

California 364,612Texas 267,818Georgia 130,494Florida 112,913Illinois 81,802

State Megachurch Attendance

Tennessee 69,319Arizona 57,280Michigan 56,501Colorado 48,613Minnesota 46,051

19%

6%

18%

14%6%

8%

1%6%

23%


fulfillment and prosperity than findingcommunion with Christ. They alsocomplain that some megachurch pas-tors have crossed the line not onlyseparating the sacred from the secu-lar in terms of letting private compa-nies appeal to parishioners, but alsothe line separating church from state.

Some megachurch pastors havebeen prominent players in political de-bates, spreading campaign messagesfrom their pulpits and lobbying hardon issues such as opposition to gaymarriage.

At the same time, even their crit-ics recognize there is a broad spec-trum of both messages and ap-proaches among the nat ion ’smegachurches. Many are indistin-guishable except in size from tradi-tional churches in terms of their ap-proach to the Gospel and theirinteraction with secular entities.

“My read is not that they’re be-coming secularized but that they arehighly adaptable and are not boundby what we think of as traditionallyreligious,” says Nancy Ammerman, asociologist at Boston University’s Schoolof Theology. “They’re not bound tothe notion that you have to have aparticular Book of Prayers or liturgy,or even that church always has to beon Sunday morning.

“In some ways, you might say they’remore sacrelizing than secularizing, inthat they take any place and any timeas available to have a religious service.”

As megachurches’ influence onAmerican religious practice and thewider culture continues to grow, hereare some of the questions people areasking:

Do megachurches dilute theChristian message?

In 2005, Christmas fell on a Sun-day. A small number of megachurch-es — but a number that included Wil-low Creek and other influentialcongregations — closed their doorsthat day. Others held fewer services

than usual, enabling parishioners tostay home with family rather than at-tend church.

Willow Creek, which draws as manyas 20,000 worshipers on a typical Sun-day and is among the nation’s largestchurches, produced a DVD for the oc-casion featuring a contemporary Christ-mas story. “What we’re encouraging peo-ple to do is take that DVD and in thecomfort of their living room, with friendsand family, pop it into the player andhopefully hear a different and more per-sonal and maybe more intimate Christ-mas message, that God is with us wher-ever we are,” Cally Parkinson, WillowCreek’s communications director, told TheNew York Times. 5

For some, Christian churches clos-ing their doors on Christmas Day ex-emplified the notion that megachurch-es may have strayed from Jesus’teachings in favor of making the com-fort of their parishioners paramount.“I see this in many ways as a capit-ulation to narcissism, the self-centered,me-first, I’m-going-to-put-me-and-my-immediate-family-first agenda of the

larger culture,” Ben Witherington III,professor of New Testament interpre-tation at Asbury Theological Seminaryin Wilmore, Ky., told the Times. “IfChristianity is an evangelistic religion,then what kind of message is thissending to the larger culture — thatworship is an optional extra?”

Indeed, many megachurches, inspiredby the examples of Saddleback Church’sWarren and others, take what is knownas a “seeker-friendly” or “seeker-sensitive”approach. That is, they avoid men-tioning difficult topics such as sin andjudgment in hopes of not scaring peo-ple off. Instead, they stress God’s loveand mercy. In addition, manymegachurches preach what has beencalled the “prosperity gospel,” promot-ing personal fulfillment and success.

In Surprise, Ariz., Pastor Lee Mc-Farland grew a congregation fromscratch that now draws 5,000 souls onweekends with sermons that are lighton liturgy and heavy on what he calls“successful principles for living,” suchas how to discipline children, reachprofessional goals and debt reduction

From Big to Truly ‘Mega’

A majority of the nation’s more than 1,200 megachurches have 2,000-2,999 members, but more than 25 percent boast 4,000 or more.

Source: Scott Thumma and Dave Travis, Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn From America’s Largest Churches, Jossey-Bass, 2007

Megachurch Distribution by Congregation

Size2,000-2,999

53.8%3,000-3,999

19.1%

5,000-9,999

12.0%

4,000-4,999

11.1%

10,000+

4.0%

774 CQ Researcher

— even how to shake an addictionto pornography. “If Oprah and Dr. Philare doing it, why shouldn’t we?” heasked. “We should be better at it be-cause we have the power of God tooffer.” 6

Leaders of fast-growing churches saytheir popularity doesn’t necessarily trans-late into shallow theology. They say theirsuccess is based on the potency of theirmessage, not its weakness. “They’re notmarketing just to grow numerically, be-cause then you just become a business,”George Barna, author of numerous bookson religion, told the Los Angeles Times.“You may do marketing that brings peo-ple in, but they’re not going to stay un-less there’s something deep and mean-ingful spiritually.” 7

The fact that basic concepts of Chris-tianity such as sin and repentance areoften missing from megachurch vo-cabularies that include terms such as

weight loss, counseling and rock climb-ing leads cr i t i cs to compla inmegachurches are serving up tepid,lowest-common-denominator fare.

“Clearly, they have done to church-ing what Wal-Mart did to merchan-dising,” says James B. Twitchell, a Uni-versity of Florida English professor whohas wr i t ten two books aboutmegachurches, including the new Shop-ping for God. “They are the low-costdeliverer of salvation.”

But Chaves, the Duke sociologist,notes that although some megachurch-es seem to water down their messagesto appeal to their vast audiences, manyothers do not. “Although some ofthem are into the prosperity gospel,others are more traditional, such asBaptist messages,” he says.

Many church leaders themselveshave noticed that younger worshipersseem to want a more substantive mes-

sage. Robert B. Whitesel, who teach-es church management at IndianaWesleyan University, says that whilebaby boomers embraced the produc-tion values and personal-fulfillmentmessages megachurches have becomeknown for, younger worshipers arelooking for their church experience tobe more “authentic” and “spiritual.”

The trend is not l imited tomegachurches. Larry Hollon, head ofthe United Methodist Church’s mar-keting and outreach arm, similarly notesthat people born during the 1960s and’70s “want a more traditional under-standing of religion and faith.

“The contemporary worship thatwe’ve come to see in the past cou-ple of decades appeals to the babyboomer, but younger generations con-nect with a more traditional style ofworship,” Hollon said. “Quite frankly,that’s surprising to us.” 8

In addition to adapting their mes-sages and services to appeal to ayounger, perhaps more theologicallyrigorous generation, megachurches in-cluding Willow Creek are presentingmore small-scale-gathering opportuni-ties, including meals and Bible studyclasses, as an alternative to their some-times overwhelming main services.

“Megachurches don’t want a kindof ‘no-accountability’ Christianity,” saysMcKnight of North Park University.“They want people in small groups,in Bible study, not treating church likeentertainment.”

Ammerman, the Boston Universitysociologist, points out that megachurch-es, because of their size, can offer anynumber of intimate experiences. Peo-ple can sometimes choose from up to30 different social-outreach ministriesif they want to do work in their com-munity, she says. A larger megachurch,she adds, may offer 50 different Biblestudy groups, each designed to ap-peal to a different demographic group.“They may have a group tailored for30-year-old divorced women with threechildren,” she quips.


Most Megachurches Are Denominational

Two-thirds of the megachurches in the United States are affiliated with a religious denomination; Baptists are the largest group. A third of megachurches are nondenominational.

Note: Percentages do not add to 100 because minor megachurch denominations are not included.


0% 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Fellowship

Vineyard Christian

Evangelical Lutheran

Church of Christ

Four Square

Christian

Calvary Chapel

United Methodist

Assemblies of God

Unspecified Baptist

Southern Baptist

Nondenominational 34%

16.0%

10.0%

6.0%

5.0%

4.4%

4.2%

1.2%

1.0%

1.0%

1.0%

1.0%


In general, Ammerman contends,megachurches are not likely to offera significant variation from more tra-ditional pastoring messages due sim-ply to their size. Although the pros-perity gospel has been very visible insome of the large churches, it canalso be heard in some smaller church-es — and not heard at all in manymegachurches.

“I think the difference is not in mes-sage, it really is in form,” Ammermansays. “It’s not whether people want tohear that Jesus can change your life.It’s whether people want to have theoption of going to church on Thurs-day night or being part of somethingreally big.”

Do megachurches blur the linebetween church and state?

When the Kansas legislature met inspecial session in 2005 to consider,among other things, new restrictionson abortion clinics, Joe Wright andTerry Fox — both megachurch pas-tors in Wichita — walked around thecapitol like they owned the place.Hanging around before lunch one dayoutside the state Senate chamber, thetwo men offered up hugs and hand-shakes with the effortless familiarity ofthe most seasoned lobbyists.

They were in Topeka to make itclear that, in the wake of their tri-umph in forcing a vote on a consti-tutional ban against gay marriage, theyplanned to keep using their influenceon a variety of political issues to come.For the most part, they found a warmwelcome. “Topeka, in my opinion, isa very dark place, and these peoplebring some light into this building,”said Republican state Sen. Peggy Palmer.“They keep us on the right path, andI appreciate their help.”

Palmer had good reason to feelsupportive. She attends Wright’s Cen-tral Christian Church — as did twoother sitting Kansas legislators — andWright had encouraged her to makea run for the Senate the year before

against a veteran incumbent. Angeredby the legislature’s refusal to move thegay-marriage issue onto the 2004 bal-lot, Wright, Fox and other Wichita pas-tors joined with allies throughout thestate’s religious community to registertens of thousands of new voters. Theypublished voter guides and helpedelect enough conservative legislatorsto force a referendum on gay mar-riage, which passed easily in 2005.

When Wright and Fox started com-ing regularly to the capitol to lobbyagainst gay marriage, some senatorscalled them “the Taliban” and “the twoayatollahs from Wichita.” But they heardlittle name-calling on their return visit.Honored-guest status at the legislaturewas particularly gratifying for Wright,who hasn’t always been a popular fig-

ure there. He prompted a walkout backin 1996 when he opened that year’sHouse session with a prayer in whichhe told the members, among other things,that they had “abused power and calledit politics . . . polluted the air with pro-fanity and pornography and called itfreedom of expression.”

“The thing legislators understand isthe power of who’s got the votes,”Fox says. “When we first came uphere, some were friendly, most werecordial at best, but after the successof the marriage amendment, they notonly will see us, they’ll buy our lunchanytime.” 9

Wright and Fox may have been rel-ative newcomers to partisan politics,but it wasn’t entirely surprising the twoWichita preachers would become so

The Megachurch Difference

Support groups are viewed as key activities by nearly two-thirds of megachurch congregations, compared with 15 percent in other churches. In another major difference, nearly 40 percent of megachurch congregations said fundraising was a key activity, compared with 20 percent of other churches. Meanwhile, religious education is considered a key activity among 90 percent of other churches compared with 71 percent of megachurches.


Percentage of congregations that consideredthe following as key activities

0

20

40

60

80

100%

Fundraisingactivities

Choirs orother musicprograms

Community/social-service

activities

Evangelismor

recruitmentactivities

Support groups

(12-step,wellness,

parenting, etc.)

Fellowships,club or

other socialactivities

Study or discussion

groups

Prayer,meditation

or faithsharinggroups

Religiouseducation

classes

All churches Megachurches only

90%

71%

59%66% 69%

79%

52% 51%

15%

60%

40%

58%

35%40%

53% 54%

20%

39%

776 CQ Researcher

engaged. Abortion is the issue thatsparked the modern conservative move-ment in Kansas and was a crucial, mo-bilizing force for religious activistsaround the country. During the 1991“Summer of Mercy,” thousands of abor-tion protesters descended on Wichita,leading to 2,700 arrests.

The issue has remained an impor-tant dividing line within the Kansas Re-publican Party ever since. But religiousleaders have found other issues onwhich they’ve made their opinionsknown. In addition to the gay-marriagefight, Kansas has been the scene forrecurring battles since 1999 over theteaching of creationism or intelligentdesign as alternatives to the Darwin-ian theory of evolution. 10

The state’s church leadership is notonly aroused but sophisticated, withsome 1,200 ministers in constant elec-tronic communication about politicalissues. Of course, many of their parish-ioners are engaged as well.

Not surpris ingly, pastors ofmegachurches — who can preach tomore potential voters from their pul-pits than anyone else — hold the great-est sway. “If we represent the num-bers we do in this state and we paytaxes, we ought to have a voice likeeverybody else,” says Jerry Johnston, apolitically prominent conservativemegachurch pastor in Overland Park.

In 2004, megachurches were a cor-nerstone of Republican strategy forturning out the vote in the presiden-

tial election. The Bush-Cheney cam-paign urged megachurch pastors tosupply it with their directories to easevoter registration and contact efforts.“For the first time, we didn’t just en-gage businesspeople or Second Amend-ment supporters. We engaged peoplewho said they were motivated first andforemost by their values, and thesepeople were often churchgoers,” saidGary Marx, a Bush-Cheney liaison tosocially conservative groups. “We askedthem to reach out to their communi-ty, and their community is themegachurch.” 11

But not everyone feels that politicsproperly falls within the purview ofpreachers. “I’m uncomfortable withmy preacher telling me how to vote,


Houston’s Lakewood Church Is Nation’s LargestWith an average weekly attendance of 30,000, Lakewood Church in Houston is the country’s largest megachurch. Along with California, Texas has five megachurches that boast weekly congregations of at least 15,000 people.

Source: Hartford Institute for Religion Research

Church Pastor Location Average weekly Denominationattendance

Lakewood Church Joel Osteen Houston, Texas 30,000 Nondenominational

Saddleback Valley Rick Warren Lake Forest, Calif. 22,000 Southern BaptistCommunity Church

Willow Creek Community Bill Hybels South Barrington, Ill. 20,000 NondenominationalChurch

Fellowship Church Ed Young Grapevine, Texas 19,500 Southern Baptist

Southeast Christian Church Dave Stone Louisville, Ky. 18,757 Christian

The Potter’s House T.D. Jakes Dallas, Texas 18,500 Nondenominational

Calvary Chapel Robert Coy Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 18,000 Calvary Chapel

New Birth Missionary Baptist Eddie Long Lithonia, Ga. 18,000 Unspecified Baptist

Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa Chuck Smith, Sr. Santa Ana, Calif. 16,500 Calvary Chapel

Second Baptist Church Edwin Young Houston, Texas 16,000 Southern Baptist

Church of the Harvest Clarence McClendon Los Angeles, Calif. 15,000 Nondenominational

Harvest Christian Fellowship Greg Laurie Riverside, Calif. 15,000 Calvary Chapel

West Angeles Church of Charles Blake Los Angeles, Calif. 15,000 Church of God in ChristGod in Christ

North Point Community Church Andy Stanley Alpharetta, Ga. 15,000 Nondenominational

Prestonwood Baptist Church Jack Graham Plano, Texas 15,000 Southern Baptist

World Changers Ministries Creflo Dollar College Park, Ga. 15,000 Nondenominational


and mine doesn’t,” says Sheila Frahm,a former lieutenant governor and Re-publican U.S. senator from Kansas.“Our country was built on the sepa-ration of church and state.”

The separation issue is being raisedacross the country. The influence ofthe Christian right on Republican pol-itics — and the effort among the cur-rent Democratic presidential candidatesto talk openly about their faith — havebeen among the most well-documentedstories in contemporary politics.

“In the last generation, the Repub-lican Party has been extraordinarilysuccessful at linking being a Republi-can with being a good Christian,”Boston University’s Ammerman says.

Indeed, determining whether peo-ple regularly attend church or con-sider themselves secular is as good apredictor of how they are likely tovote as their stance on almost any par-ticular issue. In 2004, 74 percent ofwhite evangelicals voted for Republi-cans in House races, compared withjust 25 percent who supported De-mocrats. Democrats sliced that marginslightly in 2006 but made greater in-roads among Catholics and churchgo-ers in general. 12

But Ammerman and other ob-servers point out that not all religiousvoters — and not all Christians — votealike. They also detect a slight wan-ing of Christian conservative influence.There has been a backlash against re-ligious influence on a variety of is-sues, from the teaching of intelligentdesign to efforts to keep alive TerriSchiavo, a brain-dead Florida woman.

“God is not a Republican or aDemocrat. That must be obvious, butit must be said,” said Jim Wallis, aleading evangelical and founder andpresident of Sojourners/Call to Renewal,a progressive organization concernedwith the intersection of faith and pol-itics. “There has been this hijacking ortakeover of the Republican Party byits right wing and hijacking of religionby the religious right.” 13

It’s not surprising that liberals havegrown wary of the Christian right.But even many Christian conserva-tives seem fed up with their role incontemporary politics. “Lots of indi-vidual people have come in and goneout,” Ammerman says. “They come

in for a while, get disillusioned andgo out again.”

Evangelicals and other churchgoershave certainly shed their historic re-luctance about organized political en-gagement over the past 30 years, dri-ven by anger over the Supreme Court’s

Pastors with Power

Televangelist and best-selling author Joel Osteen (top), here with his wifeand co-pastor Victoria, is senior pastor of 30,000-member LakewoodChurch in Houston, the nation’s largest, housed in a former basketballarena. Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of The Potter’s House church in Dallas,has been called one of the nation’s most influential new religious leadersby Time magazine.

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1973 decision legalizing abortion, aswell as by religious leaders such asthe late Jerry Falwell, founder andhead of the Moral Majority, who con-vinced them that such participationdoes not amount to consorting withthe devil. Yet many have grown frus-trated by failures and by the types ofcompromises inherent in politics.

“The problem with aligning yourchurch with a political party is that al-most invariably the party screws up,”says the University of Florida’s Twitchell.“Aligning yourself with politics is abad idea when you’re in the businessof trying to reveal the truth.”

And, for all the attention that po-litically active preachers such as Wright,Fox and Johnston have received inKansas and other states, the reality isthat most of their brethren have shiedaway from direct participation in thepartisan arena.

“Only 16 percent of [megachurch-es] surveyed claim they partnered withother churches in political involvementin the past five years,” according to aHartford Institute for Religion Researchstudy. “And 76 percent of churchessay they have never done this.” 14

Are megachurches becoming tooworldly?

Megachurches have become morethan just testing grounds for movieswith religious themes. In addition tousing the megachurch “audience” asa means of building buzz, some pro-ducers nowadays are screening moviesin megachurches themselves, ratherthan at traditional movie theaters.“We’ve got a theater chain sitting herethat’s empty most of the week,” saidPeter Lalonde of Cloud Ten Pictures,referring to the projection and videoquality available at megachurches. 15

Lalonde’s company produces moviesbased on the best-selling “Left Behind”series. Its first two offerings bombedat the box office, but the third picture,starring Academy Award winner LouisGossett, Jr., found a more welcoming

home when it opened directly in 3,200churches. “I tell everyone, the most im-portant 10 minutes of this movie is noton film. It’s when the pastor goes upafterwards and shares the Gospel withthe people who are there and invitesthem to make a decision for Christ,”Lalonde said. 16

Many pastors indeed have embracedreligious films as an opportunity tocommunicate a Christian message withtheir flock, and perhaps a wider audi-ence. The question some people askabout megachurches, though, is whethertheir open-door policy toward manycommercial projects goes too far, turn-ing sermons into sales opportunities.“It’s a very intriguing bit of synergy,with churches and their messages aboutthe next world getting integrated withcommercial messages about this world,”says Twitchell.

Bishop T. D. Jakes, of The Potter’sHouse, a megachurch in Dallas, con-vinced companies such as Ford, Coca-Cola and Bank of America to sponsorhis popular annual Megafest religiousfestival. 17 Coca-Cola and McDonald’shave long given out free samples ofnew products to 18,000-member NewBirth Missionary Baptist Church inLithonia, Ga. And Chrysler last yearoffered test drives of its vehicles atfour of the nation’s largest blackmegachurches. “We try to go out toour best prospects in their environ-ment, where they’re already engaged,”said David Rooney, director of Chryslerbrand marketing, “and in the African-American community, one of the op-portunities is the church.” 18

Some ministers lauded the carcompany for sponsoring a gospel tourand for giving parishioners free tick-ets — along with a $5 donation to acancer center — for every test drive.But one Brooklyn church, while par-ticipating in the promotion, didn’t allowtest drives on its property. Thechurches didn’t want to appear to be“in it for the money,” according toSenior Pastor A. R. Bernard.

Megachurches offer many services— and now one of them, it seems,is retail commerce. “With 330,000churches in America, it’s potentiallythe largest distribution network in thecountry,” said A. Larry Ross, presidentof a Dallas marketing firm with manyevangelical clients. “But most pastorsare all about changing lives, so they’regoing to be resistant if it’s a productthat does not have an evangelisticmessage.”

Many megachurches not only hostcorporate visitors making sales pitch-es but also offer commercial servicesthemselves, running bistros, gymnasi-ums and even nightclubs on site. Suchventures have opened them up to crit-icism that their enterprises are too en-trepreneurial and they don’t focusenough on theology.

“It’s blurring the lines,” says BarryHarvey, a professor of contemporarytheology at Baylor University in Waco,Texas, the world’s largest Baptist uni-versity. “The church is essentially be-coming indistinguishable from itsbiggest competitor, the mall. To allowthe commercial enterprise to comeinto the church is to allow the desirefor accumulating things, buying things,to dominate even the relationshipwith God.”

But some observers say such crit-icism rings false. The restaurantsmay have gotten fancier, they say,but they are essentially just offer-ing an opportunity for fellowship,like humble church suppers of old.“In the old days, 30 or 40 yearsago, they had potluck dinner on thegrounds, and people would bringfood to the church,” says MikeBuster, Executive Pastor at Preston-wood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas,which houses an upscale café. “Thisis our version of dinner on thegrounds, providing an opportunityto meet and connect with churchfamily and enjoy food and fellow-ship the Baptist way.”


Continued on p. 780


Chronology1970s Modern-daymegachurch movement takesroot.

1973Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade deci-sion legalizing abortion spurs conser-vative pastors to develop an activist,politically interventionist Gospel, ledby the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

1975Bill Hybels launches Willow CreekCommunity Church with only 125people in attendance. In three yearsit grows to 2,000 members and re-locates on 90 acres of farmland inSouth Barrington, Ill.

1979Falwell, by now the pastor of theThomas Road Baptist Church inLynchburg, Va., helps found theMoral Majority.

•

1980s Megachurchpastors build grander churches,begin merging fundamentalistdoctrine and involvement inpolitical affairs.

1980Dr. Robert H. Schuller builds thedramatic, all-glass Crystal Cathedralin Garden Grove, Calif., signalingthe beginning of the modernmegachurch movement. His“Tower of Power” television min-istry eventually reaches 20 millionpeople in 180 countries.

•

1990s The number of megachurches explodes, attracting media and scholarlyattention.

1995Pastor Creflo Dollar moves hisWorld Changers Church Internation-al, a prominent African-Americanmegachurch, to an 8,500-seat sanc-tuary outside Atlanta.

•

2000s Megachurcheswield influence in politics andpublic life.

2000Religious Land Use and Institution-alized Persons Act prohibits localgovernments from applying land-use laws to religious buildings,enabling megachurches to continueto get bigger. . . . Africa countssome 350 million Christians —roughly a 30-fold increase sincethe dawn of the 20th century.

2001Jamal-Harrison Bryant founds Em-powerment Temple in Baltimore,holding first service in a bankbuilding’s lobby; within six yearsthe church boasts 10,000 members

2002Rick Warren publishes The PurposeDriven Life, based on his sermonsat Saddleback Valley CommunityChurch.

2004Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of theChrist,” marketed heavily tomegachurches, takes in more than$26 million on its opening day,eventually grossing nearly $400million.

2005Hartford Institute for Religion Re-search study counts more than 1,200megachurches in the U.S. . . .African-American megachurch BishopT. D. Jakes appears with President

George W. Bush at a memorial forvictims of Hurricane Katrina at theWashington National Cathedral.

2006In February, 86 evangelical Christ-ian leaders urge Congress to limitcarbon-dioxide emissions to com-bat global warming. . . . In June100 black ministers gather at aDallas summit and denouncemegachurches, saying many haveabandoned Jesus’ emphasis on so-cial justice in favor of a gospel ofwealth. . . . Warren concludes 13-nation tour of Asia in July. . . .Chrysler launches gospel tour inOctober featuring singer Patti Labelle,as part of a promotion that includestest drives for parishioners at majorblack megachurches.

2007On May 6 Dollar begins broadcast-ing his sermons live via satellite toa community center in Battle Creek,Mich., as part of a plan to broad-cast into churches in all 50 states. . . Moral Majority founder Falwelldies on May 15. . . . Kingway In-ternational Christian Center in Lon-don announces plans to open a9,000-seat church, the largest inBritain. . . . Supreme Court rules onJuly 25 that a group of taxpayerscould not sue to block the Bushadministration from directing federalgrants to religious organizations. . . .On Aug. 30 the Taliban releases thelast of two-dozen South KoreanChristian missionaries who hadbeen held hostage for six weeks inAfghanistan. . . . D. James Kennedydies; the influential televangelistpresided over the 10,000-memberCoral Ridge Presbyterian Church inFort Lauderdale. . . . Simon &Schuster plans Oct. 15 release ofBecome a Better You, the latestbook by Houston megachurch pas-tor Joel Osteen, with an initial print-ing of 3 million copies.

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And although some commercialmessages can certainly be crass — a2002 Chevrolet promotion featured thetagline “What Would Jesus Drive?” —the corporate sponsorships are differ-ent in scale but not in kind from thelocal business advertisements long foundprinted as part of church bulletins.

Megachurches, says Boston Uni-versity’s Ammerman, simply offer peo-ple a variety of ways of interactingwith each other and their religiousbrethren. “It’s very much a communi-ty center,” she says.

“What they’re trying to do,” saidNorth Park University’s McKnight, “iscreate a space that permits differentkinds of activities — conversation,fellowship. I applaud [the chance for]the younger generation to thinkabout building buildings for church-es that can be used other than oneday a week.” 19

BACKGROUNDRecent Surge

S uper-sized churches have beenaround since at least the late

1800s, when 5,000 people gatheredweekly at Charles Spurgeon’s ParkStreet Chapel in London, attracted byhis dynamic sermons.

In the United States, similarly, anumber of notable early preachersbuilt enormous congregations, oftenemerging as important voices in thebroader culture. Abolitionist preach-er Henry Ward Beecher becameknown as “the most famous man inAmerica” with his widely reprintedsermons preaching love and forgive-ness, which drew thousands weekly

to Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church in themid-19th century. Aimee SempleMcPherson traveled far in spreadingthe word through revival meetingsbut in 1923 established the AngelusTemple in Los Angeles, which seat-ed 5,300 and was generally packed.She grew an even larger audiencethrough radio. Similarly, Billy Graham,well-known as a spiritual adviser topresidents throughout the post-WorldWar II era, reached thousandsthrough his traveling “crusades,” butmillions more through an active broad-cast ministry.

Today’s megachurches also arefounded, more often than not, bycharismatic individuals. These pop-ular pastors differ from their fore-bears, however. Although therehave always been large congrega-tions, the scale and scope of today’smegachurches is without precedent,with some 1,200 megachurches


Continued from p. 778

The celebrations were muted after the Taliban freed 19South Korean Christian missionaries in September fromcaptivity in Afghanistan. The hostages’ return was, of

course, a happy occasion, but they also were widely criticizedfor proselytizing in a Muslim country in the face of govern-ment warnings not to.

“The Protestant churches need to stop their hitherto egocentricand unilateral missionary style of pushing for their own religion,without respecting the specific, different beliefs and cultural char-acteristics of those whom they intend to convert,” editorialized TheKorea Times, an English-language daily in Seoul. 1

The oldest hostage, Yoo Kyung-shik, spoke of the group’scontrition upon its return to Seoul. As part of the release agree-ment, South Korea promised to block more missionaries fromtraveling to Afghanistan.

Although the group’s ordeal and the tense negotiations thatled to its release triggered anger in some precincts, many ap-plauded the group’s efforts. South Korea has become the world’ssecond-largest source of missionaries, after the United States, withsome 17,000 people spreading the Word in 170 countries. 2

Asian, Latin American and African countries have long playedhost to Christian missionaries from the industrialized West. Butnow developing nations are starting to send their own apos-

tles into the world — not just to poor countries such asAfghanistan but to the United States and Europe as well.

These so-called reverse missionaries are preaching theGospel where it has fallen out of fashion. In London, a churchfounded by a Nigerian immigrant is building an auditorium atits new home that seats 8,000 — or 5,500 more than St. Paul’sCathedral. 3 “When we became Christians in the East, we readthe Bible and it said, ‘Go out into the world and spread theGospel,’ ” says Ravi Chandran, a missionary pastor from Sin-gapore who runs a church in Denmark — one of about 150run by foreigners there. “And guess what? We came back tothe West!” 4

Many of these missionaries hail from megachurches. The freedKoreans all belong to the 5,000-member Saemmul PresbyterianChurch, which is far from that country’s largest. In part, suggestsScott Thumma, a professor of the sociology of religion at Con-necticut’s Hartford Institute for Religion Research, huge churchesthrive in foreign capitals because of the density of population.“The megachurches there can be 10 times as large because youcan move 10,000 people in and 10,000 people out if you don’thave to deal with cars and parking ramps,” Thumma says.

The new wave of foreign missionaries differs from the tra-ditional way Christianity spreads overseas. Often the Gospel

‘Reverse’ Missionaries Aim at Developed NationsSouth Korea has 17,000 people in 170 countries.


averaging more than 3,500 wor-shipers every week. Nearly all ofthem were founded or have achievedtheir most significant growth withinthe last 25 years.

“There have been some that sizewith similar activity levels, but not theproliferation of them and the con-centration of them throughout thecountry,” says Scott Thumma, a rec-ognized expert on megachurches andcoauthor of a new book, BeyondMegachurch Myths.

Although the great preachers of thepast often founded movements thatspread their teachings well beyondtheir home congregations, they did notestablish the vast, systematic networksof influence that the best-knownmegachurch pastors oversee today.Consider Saddleback Church’s Warren,author of The Purpose-Driven Life,which has sold more than 25 millioncopies. 20

Warren has not only suppliedother pastors with thousands of freecopies of his book. He also has trainedsome 300,000 ministers through sem-inars and Internet classes, while wellmore than 10,000 churches have of-fered his 40 Days of Purpose study-group course.

“For Purpose-Driven church lead-ers, he has developed an ‘evangelismstrategy’ that includes a casual dresscode, convenient parking, brightlights, live bands, short prayers andsimple sermons that accentuate thepositive,” reported Time magazine ina 2004 profile. “The result, he says,will lead not only to filled pews but,ultimately, more saved souls.” 21

Only a few other contemporarypastors can rival Warren’s influence.Hybels, at Willow Creek, also haspublished many influential works andconducted extensive training of otherpastors. The Willow Creek Associa-

tion, founded in 1992 to spread hischurch’s core philosophies, now boastsnearly 12,000 member churches. 22

In general, many networks and con-sultants share spiritual and manage-ment strategies, offering instructional“podcasts for pastors” and even pro-viding advice about what color tiesto wear during services.

Big-Box Approach

S everal reasons help explain whymegachurches have flourished in

recent years. In general, megachurch-es have become part of mostly sub-urban developments. Increasingly,people no longer tend to think oftheir community as being limited totheir immediate neighborhood andits schools, parks and shops. Instead,they are ready to travel widely within

has been spread through smaller “cell groups,” which meet inhomes and other modest surroundings.

“Pastors in the United States have more of an infatuation withsize and who can build the biggest church,” says Donald E.Miller, director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture atthe University of Southern California, Los Angeles. “Rather thanmeasure success by size, these global churches measure successby how many daughter churches they can start.”

Many of those daughter churches are now in the UnitedStates. In New York City alone, more than 100 churches con-duct services in African tongues. 5 The most prominent Africanchurch in this country, however, seeks to reach not immigrantsbut English speakers.

The Redeemed Christian Church, which was founded inNigeria, operates more than a dozen branches in New YorkCity, with more than 200 parishes nationwide. The church isbuilding a new national headquarters and conference centeron 500 acres in rural Texas, north of Dallas. 6

Despite its success, the church has not always received awarm welcome. Its largest U.S. congregation — a 2,000-memberchurch in Bowie, Md. — was vandalized with racist graffiti lastyear that included swastikas, the letters “KKK” and anti-blackepithets.

“It was a real shock because we have been good neighbors,”says Bado Adeyokunnu, the church’s pastor. “We have been ablessing in the community. We feed people in the community.” 7

“A society that will not embrace the Holy Spirit of God isencouraging Satanic influences,” said Ajibike Akinkoye, chiefexecutive of the Redeemed Christian Church’s media opera-tions. “We are not introducing Jesus Christ to America, but thissociety has become a post-Christian society, and that is a dan-gerous thing.” 8

1 Choe Sang-Hun, “Freed by Taliban, 19 Korean Hostages Will Face Reliefand Anger Back Home,” The New York Times, Sept. 2, 2007, p. A10.2 Choe Sang-Hun, “Freed Koreans Are Contrite Amid Growing Criticism,”The New York Times, Sept. 3, 2007, p. A5.3 “The £70 Million Mega-Church,” The London Evening Standard, May 18,2007.4 Kevin Sullivan, “Foreign Missionaries Find Fertile Ground in Europe,” TheWashington Post, June 11, 2007, p. A1.5 Daniel J. Waken, “In New York, Gospel Resounds in African Tongues,”The New York Times, April 18, 2004, p. A1.6 Simon Romero, “A Texas Town Nervously Awaits a New Neighbor,” TheNew York Times, Aug. 21, 2005, p. A18.7 Ovetta Wiggins, “Racial Slurs Startle Commuters,” The Washington Post,April 26, 2006, p. B4.8 Rachel Zoll, “African Churches Discover America,” The Associated Press,April 23, 2006.

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a suburban region. Driving to amegachurch out near the Interstatefalls within that general pattern.

“Driving to a regionally based in-stitution that’s very big and offers kindof one-stop shopping, if you will, isthe way we do lots of things,” sayssociologist Ammerman at Boston Uni-versity. “A megachurch becomes a typ-ical, comfortable way of doing thingsfor people who are used to drivingto the regional mall or the regionalsports stadium.”

While megachurches are virtuallyeverywhere, they do tend to locatenear Interstates or other major high-ways out in suburban or exurbanareas, and are most often located in

fast-growing Sun Belt states. Churchgrowth reflects not only the growthof the surrounding population butalso may be a byproduct of it. Thatis, the megachurch provides an an-chor to people living in communi-ties where they don’t otherwise haveroots. “Exurban cities tend not to haveimmediately recognizable townsquares,” writes Johnathan Mahler ofThe New York Times, “but many havesome kind of big, new structure wherenewcomers go to discuss their livesand problems and hopes: themegachurch.” 23

Typically, that big, new structure israther ordinary looking and almosthard to tell apart from office build-

ings or warehouses. This architectur-al anonymity seems to be intentional.“We want the church to look like amall,” said McFarland, the Arizonamegachurch pastor. “We want you tocome in here and say, ‘Dude, where’sthe cinema?’ ” 24 This embrace of theeveryday is part of the typicalmegachurch’s message — that religionis part of the whole of life, not some-thing that comes around once a weekon Sundays.

Amplifying that message is the ef-fort by most megachurches to pro-vide more than inspiration to parish-ioners. Megachurches act as de factocommunity centers, providing day care,athletic facilities, counseling and


C reflo Dollar is looking to spread his message far be-yond his megachurch ministry in suburban Atlanta. Hehosts a syndicated television show and operates a pub-

lishing house and record label. Earlier this year, he announcedplans to open satellite World Changer churches in every state— with the goal eventually to open 500 in all.

Dollar preaches what is known as “prosperity gospel,” help-ing people lead not only spiritually fulfilling but also financiallyrewarding lives.

“I define prosperity as total prosperity,” he said. “We takethe word of God and bring it down to a practical level to letthem see that it is relevant and can be applied in every areaof life.” 1

It’s not unusual for megachurch pastors to preach the pros-perity gospel. But because Dollar is African-American — as aremost of his congregants — some critics charge that he hasabandoned the black church’s historical mission as an agentfor broader social justice.

“The message of many churches has been co-opted by Amer-ican capitalism,” acknowledged Frederick Haynes III, who spreadsthe gospel of prosperity at his 8,000-member African-Americanchurch in South Dallas. “A megachurch should not just beknown for the traffic jam it creates on Sunday, but for doingsomething more in the community.” 2

There are basically two types of African-American megachurch-es, says Scott Thumma, coauthor of the 2007 book BeyondMegachurch Myths. One is the inner-city megachurch, which tendsto be activist, for the most part, and attached to a predominant-ly African-American denomination.

“The newer version,” he says, “tends to be suburban, pastor-driven and really focused on prosperity gospel, health and wealth.”

African-American churches have long been seen as a posi-tive, progressive influence within their communities. A recentstudy from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, indicates that themore young blacks, in particular, are involved with the church,the safer their neighborhoods will be.

“The relationship between religious involvement and seri-ous crime is inversely related,” according to Baylor sociologistByron R. Johnson. “That is, the higher the religious involve-ment, the lower the level of serious crime.” 3

Some critics charge that the newer megachurches, with theiremphasis on material wealth, threaten the African-Americanchurch’s historic role as a progressive force.

“The prosperity gospel is a distortion of longstanding commit-ments black churches have had to the social well-being of theblack community,” said R. Drew Smith, scholar in residence at theLeadership Center of Morehouse College in Atlanta. “Historically,where black churches emphasized prosperity, they were generallyreferring to black prosperity in a collective sense, as opposed tothis individual focus within the contemporary prosperity gospel.” 4

Dollar’s own lavish lifestyle has been dubbed the “gospelof bling.” Some days he travels on his Lear jet, other times heflies in his helicopter, or he might decide to drive around inone of his two Rolls-Royces. Still, Dollar maintains that his mes-sage has been distorted, that he is concerned about helpingothers embrace God.

Despite the prominence of liberal black preachers such asJesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, says Boston University sociol-

Preaching the Gospel of ProsperityCritics say black megachurches abandon social justice.


schooling as well as occasional ex-tras such as surfing programs and carrepair. They are designed to competewith other potential destinationsseven days a week.

University of Florida megachurchcritic Twitchell says megachurches“clearly are meeting consumer de-mand.” He says churches don’t like todiscuss the notion that they are com-peting with each other for attendance,but megachurches clearly havelearned from modern marketing tech-niques. “They’ve taken the efficienciesof mass production into a realm thathas always been competitive, but notquite this effective.”

Filling Seats

D uke sociologist Chaves agrees thateconomics has a lot to do with

megachurch growth. Megachurches areable to offer programs beyond the strict-ly religious in a way smaller churchesno longer can afford. “There’s been aneconomic shift,” Chaves says. “The run-of-the-mill 150- to 200-person churchcan no longer afford a youth minister,musicians, high-quality programming forall ages. That has led to people shift-ing from smaller to larger churches.”

More than a third of the nation’smegachurches are nondenominational,according to the Hartford Institute. That

means they can keep the money thatthey raise at home, using it for pro-gramming, production and ministries,rather than sending portions of their col-lections to a hierarchical church bureau-cracy elsewhere. In 1970, Chaves says,about 8 percent of Southern Baptists at-tended the largest 1 percent of church-es. Today, an estimated 15 percent ofBaptists attend the biggest churches.

“There’s an unwritten code involvedin this,” says North Park University’sMcKnight. “You can enter into the churchto the degree that you want. There’s aguaranteed anonymity, if you want it.”

If you enter a church with 120 peo-ple, he says, you can’t walk in thedoor without people knowing you are

ogist Nancy Ammerman, African-American churchgoers and leaderstend to be more conservative thanthe black population as a whole —which is one reason, she suggests,that they draw added attention andcriticism.

“Dollar pioneered a way of chang-ing how African-Americans thinkabout what church is, preaching moreself-help,” Ammerman says. “Godwants you to be happy and healthyand wealthy, and here are things youcan do to get there.”

It’s not uncommon, after all, forconservative voices of all races andbackgrounds to argue that the best way out of poverty is per-sonal responsibility and effort.

“We live in a capitalistic world, and people in general wantto believe in the promise of capitalism, people want to believethat there is a way out of poverty,” said Marc Lamont Hill, as-sistant professor of urban education and American studies at Tem-ple University in Philadelphia. “In many ways, these leaders aretelling people to dream.” 5

It’s possible that black churches will learn to marry theirtwin messages, promoting personal prosperity without aban-doning their traditional commitment to help those who are lessfortunate. In summer 2007, the Southern Christian LeadershipConference, a civil rights group founded by the Rev. Martin

Luther King Jr. and others in 1957, in-cluded the panel “Financial Empower-ment: Building Wealth” during its golden-anniversary convention, alongside moreaccustomed topics such as voter educa-tion and conflict resolution. 6

Meanwhile, however, many black preach-ers remain critical of African-Americanmegachurches that ignore black churches’historic role in earlier social-justice battles.

“The church has prospered, but neigh-borhoods surrounding them have not,” saidMark Whitlock, a pastor in Irvine, Calif.,who provides neighborhood-outreach train-ing to other African-American clergy. “Thechurches must go beyond the walls.” 7

1 Margaret Ramirez, “Prosperity Gospel Comes to Chicago,” Chicago Tri-bune, Aug. 17, 2007, p. 1.2 “Black Leaders Blast Megachurches, Say They Ignore Social Justice,” TheAssociated Press, June 29, 2006.3 Byron R. Johnson, “The Role of African American Churches in ReducingCrime Among Black Youth,” CRIAD Report, Baylor University Center forReligious Inquiry Across the Disciplines, 2006, p. 8.4 Ramirez, op. cit.5 Sumathi Reddy, “Minister Rich in Spirit,” The Baltimore Sun, Dec. 3, 2006,p. 1A.6 Jenny Jarvie, “Civil Rights Group Says It’s ‘Here to Stay,’ ” Los AngelesTimes, Aug. 6, 2007, p. A8.7 Stephen Clark, “Black Clergy Pass the Mantle of Social Consciousness,”Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2006, p. B2.

“I define prosperity as total prosperity,”says Atlanta-area minister Creflo Dollar.

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a stranger. That’s not an issue in amegachurch that seats 2,000 or more.For a generation accustomed to large,fairly anonymous institutions, saysThumma of the Hartford Institute, “Theyfind the megachurch to be ‘home.’They are willing to drive past dozensof other congregations, fight to find aparking space, follow the signs to getto the nursery and worship in a com-munal setting with 5,000 other rela-tively anonymous persons, just likethey do every day of their lives.”

But to attract such large crowds,megachurches have to be more thancomfortable. They not only offer ex-tras such as day care and free park-ing but also, to put it in secular terms,when it comes to the main event theycan be counted on to put on a goodshow. “They’ve taken advantage of allthe innovations in music and video tomake it very unstressful in church,”says Twitchell. “A lot of music, nohymns and they make it very easy tosee the ministers.”

Megachurch ministers speak quiteopenly about their use of technology inspreading the Gospel. They study eachother’s offerings in terms of message,

facilities and management and argue itis all in service of the larger goal ofbringing more souls to salvation.

“If there is a common messageshared by all megachurches, it is thatthey want to portray what they do asmore vital than other congregations,somehow better than ‘ordinary’ Chris-tianity,” says Thumma. “The imagethese congregations want to portrayis, ‘This is your parents’ religion, butbigger and better.’ The choirs are su-perb, the preaching is first-rate, thechurch-school choices are over-whelming and their attendance andbaptisms are climbing.”

CURRENTSITUATION

Business 101

I n order to run such large opera-tions, megachurch pastors need to

know business as well as the Bible.

Students taking many theological cours-es now have to pass business cours-es in order to graduate, according toJohn N. Vaughan, founder of ChurchGrowth Today, a Missouri-basedmegachurch research center and con-sultantcy. “They must know how tosuccessfully market their message tosave souls,” Vaughan says.

Megachurch pastors are certainly ex-perts at marketing, spreading their mes-sages to thousands in their sanctuaries,the Internet and broadcasting. Theirchurch complexes may comprise sev-eral buildings spread across dozens ofacres, offering worshipers a choice ofcontemporaneous services in a numberof different styles. “At the really bigones, you can choose a jazz service ora contemporary service or a traditionalservice,” says author and social scientistGuinness. “You can literally choose theone you want.”

Church members and guests aregreeted by large lobbies and well-litsigns that guide them on their wayalong courtyards that often offer re-freshments, says Thumma. The sanc-tuaries are usually spacious with com-for tab le sea t ing bu t sparse lydecorated, containing a minimum ofreligious symbols. “The sermon, prob-ably delivered from a clear, plexiglass,removable podium,” says Thumma,“conveys a biblical but practical, non-dogmatic, this-worldly message.”

Both the sermon itself and thelack of religious decoration, he con-tinues, are meant to convey that re-ligion is not something that standsapart from the concerns of this worldand daily life. Megachurch pastorsapproach their enterprises like CEOs,while so much about both their ser-vices and ancillary church activitiesconveys a connection with both con-temporary and commercial life.“They have used, for better or worse,the best modern ideas in terms ofmessages and marketing and so on,”says Guinness.

Continued on p. 786

Megachurches Outpacing Nation’s Growth

Since 1900, the nation’s population quadrupled while the number of megachurches increased 121-fold. In 2005 there were four mega-churches for every million people — 30 times more than in 1900.


No. of Megachurches Per Million People, 1900-2005

Year Population Number of Megachurches per (in millions) megachurches million people

1900 76 10 0.13

1970 205 50 0.24

1980 227 150 0.70

1990 250 310 1.20

2000 275 800 2.90

2005 300 1210 4.00

no


At Issue:Are megachurches too big?Yes

yesRUTH TUCKERFORMER PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY,CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY; AUTHOR, LEFT BEHIND IN A MEGACHURCHWORLD

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER, AUGUST 2007

m egachurches are a blight on the landscape of Ameri-ca — as physical structures and as authentic expres-sions of religion. Their sprawling campuses, consum-

ing vast tracts of land beyond the suburbs, are comprised ofbuildings and parking lots that are put to full use only one day aweek. They draw worshipers who drive their SUVs dozens ofmiles each way. Their large auditoriums utilize air-conditioning,heating and other utilities far beyond normal per capita use. Theirtax-exempt status is supported by all of us.

Although megachurches declare that their message is biblical,in line with historic Christianity, they unconsciously — if notconsciously — promote a religion of materialism and status toself-absorbed consumers. Stars fill the stage. Worship is a show.Pews are filled with people who have abandoned the old, red-brick church in the neighborhood or the white clapboardchapel amid rolling farmland.

There are exceptions to the rule. Megachurches do not al-ways follow the above pattern — particularly certain urbanmegachurches that have reclaimed run-down inner-city neigh-borhoods. Consider Living Word, in Chicago’s Forest ParkMall, only recently considered an eyesore and a so-calleddeadmall. Now the mall is filled with spiritual life and eco-nomic vibrancy. Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York is anotherexample of a church that has reversed urban blight.

But whether they are sprawling campuses beyond the sub-urbs or re-designed downtown malls, megachurches suck thelife out of smaller neighborhood churches. Like a Wal-Mart thatlures customers from the family-owned shoe store on the townsquare, the megachurch attracts customers. It offers everythingin the realm of religion — and more — that a middle-classfamily could want. The little neighborhood church, like theshoe shop, closes its doors. It simply cannot compete.

This little “left-behind” church is often romanticized — asin the fiction of Jan Karon’s Mitford series. But the smallchurch has as many moral malfunctions (per capita) as do themegachurches. It has also bought into a materialistic lifestyle,though it is often more dream than reality. It has grown in-ward and has become complacent in many instances. Maybeit deserves to die, so the reasoning goes.

No one can deny the “success” of the megachurches. Thelittle churches are left behind — sometimes in a mode ofslumber. They must wake up and take up the cross and fol-low Jesus, ever aware of the biblical admonition, “When I amweak, then I am strong.”No

EDDIE GIBBSPROFESSOR OF PRACTICAL THEOLOGYFULLERTON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY; AUTHOR, CHURCHNEXT

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER, AUGUST 2007

s ome megachurches are criticized because they havemainly drawn their attendees from other churches. Oth-ers come under fire because of their undue focus on a

high-visibility, celebrity preacher and their promoting of “con-sumer” religion, which does not forge authentic Christian com-munity. There is some basis in fact for these criticisms, and Ifully understand and appreciate the concerns articulated bysome highly respected and close friends and colleagues. How-ever, one might balance these concerns with the positive contri-butions of megachurches.

Megachurches have played a strategic role during the pastthree decades of high population mobility, especially inareas of the country where there has been extensive subur-ban development. Entrepreneurial leaders with a vision forthese burgeoning communities have established churchesthat are attractive and readily accessible to previouslychurched people moving into the area — people searchingfor a worship experience that has cultural relevance and arange of high-quality programs that meet their personal andfamily needs. If such churches had not been established, itis questionable whether these people would have reconnect-ed with a church at all.

Megachurch leaders with ability, integrity and a messagethat brings hope and purpose have high public profiles thatmay extend beyond their region to the national and interna-tional level. They may have access to leaders in political, fi-nancial and military circles that would be out of reach of thesmall church pastor. For instance, last year, just before Christ-mas, Tim Russert, moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” con-ducted an hour-long interview with Pastor Rick Warren, ofSaddleback Community Church in Southern California.

A most significant distinction among megachurches is be-tween “parasite” churches and those that seek to attract peo-ple who have given up on church or have little or no knowl-edge of the Christian message. The latter are more concernedabout life transformation taking place than on a Sunday morn-ing head count.

According to recent surveys, the majority of megachurches arenot independent but belong to a traditional denomination. Theyconduct a wide range of social and relief ministries and seek toestablish branch congregations. While these megachurches strug-gle to retain the “under 35s,” the aging Boomer generationmeans they will continue to play a significant role in the nation’sreligious life.

786 CQ Researcher

Megachurch pastors say that whatmight be called their side offerings —day-care facilities, soccer fields, cafésand the like — are merely an attemptto provide further opportunities for fel-lowship among their flock. Some oftheir neighbors, however, complain thatmegachurches can take their foraysinto business a bit too far. After all,megachurches, like any other religiousorganization, operate as tax-exemptnonprofits.

Competing restaurateurs and otherbusinesses don’t seem to mind themegachurch operations, but some localgovernments worry such enterpriseswill eat into their tax base. With thisin mind, some churches have soughtways to give back to their communi-ties, Thumma says. “Some churchesare trying to offset most of these [con-cerns] by donating land for parks,” headded. “Or they open their tennis courtsor soccer field to the public.”

Local governments have also oc-casionally sought to block newmegachurch construction or expan-sion due to worries about their im-pact on traffic, parking and othersuch issues. “We [Americans] left Eu-rope for religious freedom, and nowwe have zoning ordinances that pre-vent the ability to practice your faith,”said David C. Watkins, a lawyer fora Korean Catholic church whose plansto construct a 24,000-square-foot homewere put on hold this year by Rock-leigh, N.J. “It’s more sophisticated,but it’s still discrimination.” 25

Such zoning disputes have becomefairly common, but in recent yearschurches nearly always have prevailed,thanks to the Religious Land Use andInstitutionalized Persons Act. Enactedin 2000, it bars governments from im-posing “land use regulation in a man-ner that imposes a substantial burdenon the religious exercise of a person,including a religious assembly or in-stitution,” unless there is a compellinggovernment interest in doing so.


Continued from p. 784

Mega-Amenities

The state-of-the-art sanctuary at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano,Texas, features two mammoth TV screens (top). The 15,000-memberchurch also boasts a gymnasium and fitness center (center) and a full-service food court (bottom).

Court

esy

Pre

stonw

ood B

aptist

Churc

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all)


Local governments have foundthat a high bar to reach. “Basically,the law makes it easier [for church-es] to get relief in the federal courtsif their building plans are challenged,said Samuel E. Wynkoop, former di-rector of the Prince George’s County(Maryland) Department of Environ-mental Resources. 26

Church Politics

C ourts in recent years have tend-ed to look favorably on argu-

ments from the religious communitythat they have been excluded fromthe public square. Some courts haveissued rulings that some critics com-plain threaten to melt the barriers be-tween church and state.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Courtruled, 5-4, that a group of taxpayerscould not sue to block the Bush ad-ministration’s faith-based initiatives,through which religious groups werecounseled at White House seminarson ways to receive federal grants. 27

In 2001, the court ruled that pub-lic schools must make their facilitiesavailable to religious activities on thesame basis as any other after-schoolprograms. 28 A year later, the courtgave the green-light to a school-voucher program that mainly benefit-ed religious schools in Cleveland. 29

John Witte, Jr., director of the Cen-ter for the Study of Law and Religionat Emory University, says court rul-ings have led to a retreat from “strictseparationism,” with Congress and statelegislatures now building into statutesspecial accommodations and exemp-tions for religious groups, “which cer-tainly do benefit megachurches andother strong religious organizationsespecially.

“While part of this might beviewed as religious affirmative ac-tion, designed to undo decades oftreating religion as undeserving of

government support,” Witte contin-ues, “part of this has given religiousgroups unusual new political powerand access, with all the dangers thatentails.”

Religious leaders have certainlymade their presence felt in politicsand government in recent years, en-joying unusual access to the BushWhite House. Many megachurch pas-tors, along with other religious lead-ers, actively campaigned for PresidentBush in 2004, distributing voter guidesto their congregations and spreadingmostly pro-GOP messages from theirpulpits. “Praying for a candidate inand of itself does not present diffi-culties,” said IRS spokesman FrankKeith at the end of that campaign sea-son, when questions about whetherpoliticized churches were putting theirtax-exempt status at risk. 30

Organized religious groups havetended to favor the GOP since theSupreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wadedecision legalizing abortion. Large-scale mobilization efforts led by con-servative pastors, including Falwell andPat Robertson, founder of the 700Club, have also encouraged church-goers to side with Republican causes.Democratic presidential candidates innext year’s race, including Sens.Hillary Rodham Clinton of New Yorkand Barack Obama of Illinois, haveconsciously sought to neutralize thisRepublican advantage by reaching outto the faith community.

Church groups also have bandedtogether to take the lead on issuesother than gay marriage and abor-tion. Christian organizations provid-ed early and persistent voices tryingto point out and stop the genocidein the Darfur region of Sudan. Agroup of 86 evangelical leadersbanded together last year to pressureCongress to limit carbon-dioxide emis-sions as a means of curtailing glob-al warming. 31 The faith communi-ty, however, is hardly unanimous inits views about climate change.

A single 2,000-person church ismuch easier to mobilize for socialand political action than 10 200-member churches, says Duke’sChaves. Politicians are more likely towant to address the larger congre-gations, while their pastors will findit easier to gain the ear of policymakers.

For all the attention given to reli-gious voters, Chaves argues that thepolitical activism of a very fewmegachurches, or their pastors, skewsthe public view of how politically ac-tive these churches are. It’s much moretypical for churches not to participatein politics, he says.

“The ones that do are so big thateven if only 10 percent of megachurch-es are active, then that would be a lotof people,” Chaves says. “It’s just thatthere are a lot more who aren’t.”

OUTLOOKMirroring Society

T here has been a pronouncedcounter reaction to megachurch-

es in recent years. Known variouslyas house churches, organic church-es or churches without walls, gath-erings of small groups to worship inprivate settings are, in the view ofsome, a return to the earliest daysof Christianity.

Such gatherings enable people toget together in intimate groups andshare their thoughts and prayers,rather than all sitting face-forward lis-tening to a single individual preach.

“People are creating a new form ofchurch, and it’s really exciting,” saidCalifornia-based author and researcherBarna. “We predict that by the year2025 the [megachurches’] market sharewill be cut in half.” 32

788 CQ Researcher


That great a sea-change may soundfar-fetched, but a 2006 survey by hisfirm found that 9 percent of U.S. adultsattend house churches weekly — aninefold increase from the 1990s —and some 70 million Americans haveexperienced a home church. 33

Megachurches are nothing if notadaptable, and many are now en-deavoring to provide more intimateexperiences by forming “cell groups,”size-limited Bible study groups, youthgroups and ministries.

For the most part, however, thereappear to be relatively few takers. Asingle megachurch may offer 80 smallgroups of various kinds, but it’s rarefor more than 30 percent of churchmembers at any given megachurch toparticipate in any of them, accordingto Gibbs, at Fuller Theological Semi-nary in Pasadena. 34

Still, it’s clear megachurch congre-gants are more than passive viewers ofbig-screen presentations. Megachurchesrequire enormous numbers of volun-teers to keep their doors open. WillowCreek, for example, requires 1,000 vol-unteers a week to conduct its servicesin South Barrington, Ill. 35 There and

at other churches, parishioners also vol-unteer through church ministries or enjoynetworking at the myriad athletic anddining facilities that amplify both thespiritual and social experience of be-longing to their church.

According to Duke University’sChaves, the growth of megachurcheshas not been the result of their abil-ity to bring new people into the flock.Overall church attendance has not in-creased during the megachurch boom,suggesting that people are shifting fromsmaller churches to larger ones. Thatsort of consolidation is happeningamong churches in general, he says,not just in megachurches.

“In every denomination on whichwe have data,” he writes, “people arebecoming increasingly concentrated inthe very largest churches, and this istrue for small and large denomina-tions, for conservative and liberal de-nominations, for growing and declin-ing denominations.” 36

As megachurch expert Thummawrites in Beyond Megachurch Myths,the megachurch phenomenon isgoing to continue into the foresee-able future. By 2010, Thumma and

coauthor Dave Travis predict thenumber of megachurches will haveincreased by 50 percent, to 1,800.The number of churches that draw1,000 or more worshipers but fallshort of the megachurch “cut-off” of2,000 attendees has been growingrapidly as well.

After all, megachurches mirror manyother aspects of American society,such as retailing, that have experi-enced enormous consolidation. “Asmembers of this society continue tobe raised in and nurtured by thesemega-institutional realities,” they write,“it seems very unlikely that the entireU.S. population will reject this formof church that has so much in com-mon with the rest of our large-scaleworld.” 37

For that reason, Chaves predicts,“For some more years, we will see in-creasing concentration of people inbigger churches.

“There’s a limit to it — we’re notall going to wind up in one big church— but I don’t know what that limitwill be.”

Notes

1 Bob Baker and William Lobdell, “A Tie-inMade in Heaven,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 30,2004, p. A1.2 Sara Ivry, “Makers of Comedy Film Aim forReligious Audience,” The New York Times,May 28, 2007, p. C3.3 Mark Chaves, “Supersized,” Christian Cen-tury, Nov. 28, 2006, p. 20.4 Fara Warner, “Prepare Thee for Some Se-rious Marketing,” The New York Times, Oct.22, 2006, Sect. 3, p. 1.5 Laurie Goodstein, “When Christmas Fallson Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off,”The New York Times, Dec. 9, 2005, p. A1.6 Jonathan Mahler, “The Soul of the NewExurb,” The New York Times, March 27, 2005,Sect. 6, p. 1.7 Barbara Bradley, “Marketing That New-TimeReligion,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 10, 1995,p. 30.8 Warner, op. cit.

About the AuthorsAlan Greenblatt is a staff writer at Governing magazine.He previously covered elections, agriculture and militaryspending for CQ Weekly, where he won the National PressClub’s Sandy Hume Award for political journalism. He grad-uated from San Francisco State University in 1986 and re-ceived a master’s degree in English literature from the Uni-versity of Virginia in 1988. His recent CQ Researcher reportsinclude “The Partisan Divide” and “Media Bias.”

Tracie Powell is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.,and a 2007-08 American Political Science Association Con-gressional Fellow. She has been a reporter for the AustinAmerican-Statesman and the Augusta Chronicle, where shewon the Georgia Associated Press’ Freedom of InformationAward. Her work also has appeared in Newsweek, People andThe American Prospect. She graduated from the University ofGeorgia with a bachelor of arts in journalism.


9 Alan Greenblatt, “Church and State,” Gov-erning, July 2005.10 For background see Marcia Clemmitt, “In-telligent Design,” CQ Researcher, July 29, 2005,pp. 637-660.11 Mahler, op. cit. For background see DavidMasci, “Religion and Politics,” CQ Researcher,July 30, 2004, pp. 637-660.12 Alan Cooperman, “Democrats Win BiggerShare of Religious Vote,” The Washington Post,Nov. 11, 2006, p. A1.13 Lisa Anderson, “Christian Middle Seekinga Turn at the Bully Pulpit,” Chicago Tribune,Sept. 21, 2006, p. 1.14 Scott Thumma, Dave Travis and WarrenBird, “Megachurches Today 2005: Summaryof Research Findings,” Hartford Institute forReligion Research, www.hartfordinstitute.org/megachurch/megastoday2005_summaryre-port.html.15 Rob Walker, “God Is in the Distribution,”The New York Times, Nov. 13, 2005, Sect. 6,p. 38.16 Alan Cooperman, “Coming Soon to a ChurchNear You,” The Washington Post, Oct. 21, 2005,p. A1.17 “Onward, Christian Shoppers,” The Econ-omist, Dec. 3, 2005.18 G. Jeffrey MacDonald, “Chrysler TakesLatest Pitch to Church,” Chicago Tribune,Dec. 24, 2006, p. 3.19 Cathleen Falsani, “Church Playing it Cool,”Chicago Sun-Times, March 4, 2007, p. A16.20 Josh Getlin and K. Connie Kang, “Left Be-hind? Not This Book Series,” Los Angeles Times,April 3, 2007, p. A1.21 Sonja Steptoe, “The Man With the Purpose,”Time, March 29, 2004, p. 54.22 Manya A. Brachear, “The Father of WillowCreek,” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 6, 2006, p. 1.23 Mahler, op. cit.24 Ibid.25 John Chadwick, “Church and Real Estate,”The Bergen Record, Feb. 19, 2007, p. A1.26 Hamil R. Harris, “Officials Wary of NewLand Use Law,” The Washington Post, Oct. 5,2000, p. M12.27 Linda Greenhouse, “Justices Reject Suit onFederal Money for Faith-Based Office,” TheNew York Times, June 26, 2007, p. A18. Thecitation is Hein v. Freedom from ReligionFoundation, Inc., 551 U.S. —- (2007).28 Linda Greenhouse, “Justices Reject Ban onReligious Group at Primary School,” The New

York Times, June 12, 2001, p. 8. The citation isZelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002).29 Jan Crawford Greenburg, “Top Court BacksVouchers,” Chicago Tribune, June 28, 2002,p. 1. The citation is Good News Club v. Mil-ford Central School, 533 U.S. 98 (2001). Forbackground see Kenneth Jost, “School Vouch-ers Showdown,” CQ Researcher, Feb. 15, 2002,pp. 121-144.30 Dana Milbank, “The Devout Need Not Fearan Audit,” The Washington Post, Oct. 31,2004, p. A4.31 Frank James, “Evangelicals Launch Envi-

ronment Crusade,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 9,2006, p. 1.32 Quoted in David Haldane, “Seeking theLiving Word — in Their Living Rooms,” LosAngeles Times, July 23, 2007, p. A1.33 Ibid.34 Mahler, op. cit.35 Russell Chandler, “Customer Poll Shapesa Church,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 11, 1989,p. A1.36 Chaves, op. cit.37 Scott Thumma and Dave Travis, BeyondMegachurch Myths (2007).

FOR MORE INFORMATIONCandler School of Theology, Bishops Hall, Suite 10, Emory University, Atlanta,GA 30322; (404) 727-6322; http://candler.emory.edu.

Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California, 825Bloom Walk, Suite 439, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1481; (213) 740-8562,www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc.

Center for the Study of Growing Churches, P.O. Box 47, Bolivar, MO 65613;(417) 326-3212; www.churchgrowthtoday.org.

Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University School of Law,310 Gambrell Hall, 1301 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322-2770; (404) 712-8710;www.law.emory.edu/index.php?id=1570.

Fuller Theological Seminary, 135 North Oakland Ave., Pasadena, CA 91182;(625) 584-5200; www.fuller.edu.

Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary, 77 Sherman St.,Hartford, CT 06105-2260; (860) 509-9543; http://hirr.hartsem.edu.

J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies, Baylor University, One BearPlace, Suite 97308, Waco, TX 76798-7308; (254) 710-1510;www.baylor.edu/church_state/splash.php.

The Leadership Center at Morehouse College, 830 Westview Dr., S.W., Atlanta,GA 30314; (404) 614-8565; www.morehouse.edu/centers/leadershipcenter/index.html.

People For the American Way, 2000 M St., N.W., Suite 400, Washington, DC20036; (202) 467-4999; www.pfaw.org.

Pew Forum for Religion & Public Life, 1615 L St., N.W., Suite 700, Washington,DC 20036-5610; (202) 419-4550; www.pewforum.org.

Sojourners: Christians for Justice and Peace, 3333 14th St., N.W., Suite 200,Washington DC 20010; (202) 328-8842; www.sojo.net.

Texas Freedom Network, P.O. Box 1624, Austin, TX 78767; (512) 322-0545;www.tfn.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

790 CQ Researcher

Books

Ellingson, Stephen, The Megachurch and The Mainline:Remaking Religious Tradition in the Twenty-first Cen-tury, The University of Chicago Press, 2007.An assistant sociology professor at Hamilton College ex-

amines how Lutheran churches in the San Francisco area tryto compete with megachurches, sacrificing hymns in favorof rock music and scrapping traditional white robes andstoles for Hawaiian shirts.

Guinness, Os, Dining With the Devil: The MegachurchMovement Flirts with Modernity, Baker Books, 1993.An author specializing in faith, society and public policy

examines the then-nascent megachurch movement and askskey questions, such as, Should churches’ missions be formedby the Word or by the world?

Loveland, Anne C., and Otis B. Wheele, From Meetinghouseto Megachurch: A Material and Cultural History, 2003.Two emeritus professors at Louisiana State University trace

how evangelical megachurches evolved from multiple modelsand influences.

Thumma, Scott, and Dave Travis, Beyond MegachurchMyths: What We Can Learn From America’s LargestChurches, Jossey-Bass, 2007.An academic (Thumma) and a consultant explore the phe-

nomenon of contemporary church growth while debunking anumber of “myths” that have accumulated about megachurches.

Warren, Rick, The Purpose Driven Church: Growth With-out Compromising Your Message & Mission, Zondervan,1995.The best-selling Christian author and founder of one of the na-

tion’s largest churches outlines his “purpose-driven” life theology.

Articles

“Onward, Christian Shoppers,” The Economist, Dec. 3, 2005.Corporations are embracing megachurches as a marketing

opportunity and ready-made distribution channel.

Chaves, Mark, “Supersized,” Christian Century, Nov. 28,2006, p. 20.A Duke University sociologist examines the megachurch

movement and the economic reasons behind it.

DiIulio, John D. Jr., “Spiritualpolitique,” The WeeklyStandard, May 14, 2007.The former head of President Bush’s Office of Faith-Based

Initiatives discusses how Christianity is growing and becomingrevivified in developing countries.

Holley, Joe, “Harnessed the Political Power of Evangelicals,”The Washington Post, May 16, 2007, p. A1.Holley examines how the late Jerry Falwell, who built one

of the first megachurches, convinced evangelicals to engagein — and influence — American politics.

Mahler, Jonathan, “The Soul of the New Exurb,” The NewYork Times Magazine, March 27, 2005, p. 30.Mahler examines how megachurches are serving not just as spir-

itual homes but community centers in fast-growing communities.

Ramirez, Margaret, “Prosperity Gospel Comes to Chicago,”Chicago Tribune, Aug. 17, 2007, p. 1.Famed Atlanta megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar is ex-

panding to other cities, but critics argue his “prosperitygospel” message betrays the black church’s historic role.

Reddy, Sumathi, “Minister Rich in Spirit,” The BaltimoreSun, Dec. 3, 2006, p. 1A.Reddy’s profile of a prominent Baltimore pastor examines

the controversies surrounding black megachurches in general.

Sullivan, Kevin, “Foreign Missionaries Find Fertile Groundin Europe,” The Washington Post, June 11, 2007, p. A1.Churches from places such as Ghana and South Korea are

sending thousands of missionaries to European countries.

Van Biema, David, and Jeff Chu, “Does God Want Youto Be Rich?” Time, Sept. 18, 2006, p. 48-56.This cover story delves into the controversy over “prosperity

theology,” the belief promoted in some megachurches that Godwants all Christians to be wealthy.

Warner, Fara, “Prepare Thee for Some Serious Marketing,”The New York Times, Oct. 22, 2006, Sect. 3, p. 1.Megachurches are shifting their internal strategies as part of

a larger trend of churches attempting to provide more intimate,spiritually rigorous programming.

Zoll, Rachel, “African Churches Discover America,” TheAssociated Press, April 23, 2006.So-called reverse missionaries from Nigeria have opened

hundreds of churches in the United States.

Studies

Thumma, Scott, Dave Travis and Warren Bird,“Megachurches Today 2005: Summary of Research Find-ings,” http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megasto-day2005summaryreport.pdf.The most recent survey of large congregations by the Hart-

ford Institute for Religion Research and the Leadership Net-work finds 50 percent more megachurches than previouslythought, located in all but five states.

Selected Sources

Bibliography


Church and State

Chorneau, Tom, “Conservatives Hope California ChurchStrategy Builds Momentum for Schwarzenegger,” The As-sociated Press, Nov. 5, 2005.With support from megachurches, backers of an abortion

initiative are planning a substantial push to motivate Christianvoters to go to the polls.

Dionne Jr., E. J., “Message from a Megachurch,” TheWashington Post, Dec. 5, 2006, p. A29.By inviting Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to speak about AIDS

at his megachurch, Pastor Rick Warren sent the signal thathis megachurch is not under the influences of the RepublicanParty.

Gergen, David, “Dueling for Values,” U.S. News & WorldReport, May 23, 2005, p. 72.An increasing number of Christian conservatives have been

moving into politics, stimulated by favorable Supreme Courtrulings on abortion, school prayer and other issues.

Faith and Teachings

The Associated Press, “Megachurches Have Wrong Focus,Black Leaders Say,” Houston Chronicle, July 2, 2006, p. B5.Several prominent black leaders, including Al Sharpton and

Jesse Jackson, have said that megachurches have abandonedJesus Christ’s emphasis on social justice by preaching agospel of wealth and self-help.

Goodstein, Laurie, “When Christmas Falls on Sunday,Megachurches Take the Day Off,” The New York Times,Dec. 9, 2005, p. A1.In keeping with their “family friendly” approach, many

megachurches have decided not to hold services when Christ-mas falls on a Sunday.

Grossman, Cathy Lynn, “Dissatisfaction, Yearning MakeChurchgoers Switch,” USA Today, April 23, 2007, p. 6D.Many worshipers have switched to megachurches because

they say their old churches failed to engage their faith, ac-cording to a new study.

Growth and Commercialization

“The Glue of Society,” The Economist, July 16, 2005.Megachurches have become popular because their founders

have made them attractive to mildly religious individuals.

Lampman, Jane, “Megachurches’ Way of Worship Is On theRise,” The Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 6, 2006, p. 13.Researchers have identified 1,210 American megachurches

with an average weekly attendance of 3,612.

Salmon, Jacqueline L., and Hamil R. Harris, “ReachingOut With the Word — and Technology,” The WashingtonPost, Feb. 4, 2007, p. A1.Megachurches are beginning to televise their sermons and

build satellite campuses in order to accommodate their grow-ing congregations.

Van Sickler, Michael, “Houses of God? Try SprawlingCampuses of Worship Events,” St. Petersburg Times,Aug. 28, 2005, p. 1A.A new evangelical awakening has reshaped America’s re-

ligious landscape through a surge in the construction ofmegachurches.

Prosperity Ministry

Fulbright, Leslie, “Singing the Praises of God and Prosper-ity,” The San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 23, 2006, p. B1.Creflo Dollar, a nationally known prosperity preacher in

suburban Atlanta, told an audience in Oakland that beingrich should not be considered a sin.

Singletary, Michelle, “When Pay Seems Too Charitable,”The Washington Post, Nov. 6, 2005, p. F1.One drawback of attending a megachurch is having to defend

the size of the pastor’s personal finances.

Zoll, Rachel, “Fraud Plaguing Churches, Congregants,”The Washington Post, Sept. 10, 2006, p. A10.Preaching of the “prosperity gospel,” which teaches that

the truly faithful are rewarded with wealth, is partly to blamefor recent religion-related fraud.

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MLA STYLEJost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher

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Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher,

November 16, 2001, 945-968.

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