It all began at the University of Southern California. I was a student leader of the local campus Christian group, and Ray—who had recently left Campus Crusade staff—took me and my future wife Suzanne under his wing. He was also involved with the JC Light & Power House, a student discipleship center in Los Angeles.
This was 1968, 41 years ago!
From the first day I knew there was something special about Ray, something that made me want to follow him. He had integrity. In his quiet, consistent way Ray called me on to follow Christ, wherever that might lead.
Well, at first it led my new wife Suzanne and me to Eastport, Maine, the eastern-most city in the nation. We taught for one year, thawed out, and then planned to head back home to California.
Or so we thought.
We only had enough money to make it to Mansfield, Ohio, where Ray had recently moved to lead a L'Abri-inspired ministry center called Grace Haven. I wasn’t about to ask my parents or Suzanne’s parents for any help. So we sublet an apartment and I got a job in town. By the time we could head out again for the West Coast, Ray had convinced us to join the Grace Haven staff as “householders,” staff members who host students and provide the common meal every third night.
We wouldn’t return home to California until 1984!
Our years at Grace Haven were a baptism of ministry, with all the ups and downs a young pastor faces when he’s called by God to serve. It was the height of the Jesus People movement, and we had Jesus People coming out of our ears, which made for some crazy times. It seemed like everyone was getting high on Jesus, and a few were getting high on other things.
Ray was with us all the way—coaching, correcting, encouraging, challenging… even forgiving. He also humbled me. My first official job as an intern pastor Grace Haven was to tend my own flock, a literal flock of 100 chickens. It was humorous, really—though I failed to see much humor in it back then—but it also had a serious point: leaders must serve. So this was a test. I actually grew to love those chickens!
Ray also encouraged me to enroll in seminary, which changed my life. Between my Francis Schaeffer L’Abri studies and Ashland Theological Seminary, God built a theological and philosophical base in my life that has gotten me through the past 35 years of joyful and sometimes stormy ministry.
My Mansfield years were about more than studying. Ray would take me with him on his famous ministry trips all over the country. Unless you’ve travelled with Ray, you wouldn’t understand how unique these trips can be. Ray is a big man—six feet, five inches tall. He’s also a very strong man. When he travelled he never stopped, day and night. His days started with an early breakfast and ended with late-night coffee; in between were more meetings and travel. After my first road trip with Ray to the East Coast, I got sick and slept for three days!
In addition to working hard, I learned about being people focused. Ray does that best. When you are talking with Ray, you feel like you are the most important person in the world. He taught me the value of valuing people, of being a good listener, of caring about what they care about.
He even taught me, over a piece of strawberry pie at the L&K restaurant, how to enter a room and honor the people who are there. He bought me that pie, which I loved, and as I was finishing up he pointed out some flaw in my character that needs to be corrected. Ouch! Then he coached me on how to change it and, most important, modeled it for me.
To this day whenever I eat a piece of fresh strawberry pie I think of those life changing conversations in an L&K booth with Ray.
No testimony about Ray would be complete without a good Eunice Nethery story or two. After all, she, with the help of the Holy Spirit, made Ray the man he is today. Eunice profoundly influenced my wife Suzanne. She still liberally quotes Eunice aphorisms on motherhood and what it means to be a Christian woman to younger women.
And when I need a word of wisdom, encouragement, or just a listening ear, I know I can call 419-526-0251 and Eunice will pick up with an engaging ear and encouraging words. I’ve been doing it for 40 years! And many, many other people have been doing it too.
I moved away from Mansfield back in 1977 to pursue my calling, but Ray never left me. We’ve remained close as I made a stop in Michigan to plant my first church and then return home to California, where I’ve been a pastor and writer.
Along the way, Ray has heard it all—the victories, discouragements, defeats, and miracles. Every step of the way he’s pointed me to Christ, to faith, to consistency, to integrity. And he’s done it with words, but more important, he’s done it with actions. Ray is my integrity standard.
“Keep on keeping on,” he told me when I was a pup pastor. “Finish well.” I’ve held on to those words, and at times they’ve held me back from doing something foolish or impulsive or immature.
“If you do the right thing, and by that I mean what God wants you to do, and it costs you everything, DO IT ANYWAY!” That’s maturity; that’s the life of Christ in you. That’s Ray Nethery!
NOTE: This is a tribute that I wrote for Ray and Eunice Nethery for their upcoming retirement celebration as leaders of Grace Haven Ministry Center, Mansfield, Ohio. They faithfully served the ministry for 40 years. They "finished well."
Friday, February 6, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Megachurches and Wal-Marts
In the summer of 2005 I spent two months in France, my first sabbatical after 36 years in the ministry. Living in post-Christian Europe was sobering. The church has been marginalized; foundational spiritual and intellectual truths of Christianity have been usurped by radical secularism and materialism. Islam is lurking in the shadows.
Figures on European church attendance are abysmal—under 10% in France, Sweden, and the Netherlands. And while regular church attendance in Ireland is 60%, that is a significant drop from 85% in 1975. In England weekly Anglican attendance is 2% of the population.
Church attendance statistics are important, because they are objective measures of faith vitality. And while there is a widespread belief that you can “believe without belonging,” hard data suggests otherwise.
Dr. David Voas at the University of Manchester in England says, "The dip in religious belief is not temporary or accidental, it is a generational phenomenon—the decline has continued year on year.” He adds, "The fact that children are only half as likely to believe as their parents indicates that, as a society, we are at an advanced stage of secularization."
Voas observes that the importance of belief in God in England fell by 5.3% to 32.5% between 1991 and 1999. This compared with a fall of 3.5% in church attendance over the same period—the proportion of people who believe in God is declining faster than church attendance.
Every major Christian religion except Islam is declining in Western Europe, according to the Center for the Study on Global Christianity at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Not coincidentally, anti-Semitism is again rearing its ugly head, especially in countries like France and the Netherlands, which boast large Muslim immigrant populations.
Leave no doubt: European Christianity is a dim light in the public square.
What about America?
As I wandered the idyllic French countryside, I wondered if the future of Christianity is as bleak in North America. My conclusion: I think so. Let me explain.
First, let’s be clear about something: North American Christianity is already declining. Televangelist scandals, Catholic clergy pedophile crises, and the secularization of mainline Protestant denominations are eroding church attendance and finances. Since 1990, Americans claiming to be Christians have fallen from 88.3% to 79.8% of the population.
Further, these negative trends have muted Christianity’s spiritual, ethical, and moral voice. Televangelists are on the lunatic fringe of popular culture; “recovering (lapsed) Catholics” are ubiquitous; and the average age of many mainline congregations is, as one pastor jokingly quipped, deceased. (An Episcopal priest recently told me that the average age of his congregation went from 70 to 69 over the past year, concluding—tongue in cheek—“We’re starting to reach the younger generation!”)
And while many historic Christian denominations struggle, heterodox religions like Mormonism, and Eastern religions (including Buddhism and Hinduism), are growing at alarming rates.
Like Europe, North American atheism and agnosticism are on the rise, accounting for 15% of the population—up from 8.4% in 1990. Muslims represent only 0.6% of the US population—insignificant compared to Europe, which runs above 10% in many countries. Still, Muslim presence in America has doubled over the past 15 years.
But is the light of Christ in North American that dim? Many think not.
1,200 points of light
There’s always the hope of evangelicalism and its “1,200 points of light,” better known as the megachurch movement. In 2005 the Hartford Institute reported there are 1,210 Protestant churches in the United States with weekly attendances over 2,000—the benchmark of megachurches—nearly double the number of congregations of that size five years earlier.
In 1900 there were only six megachurches; by 1960 there were 16—though they were not well known in the broader culture. That all changed in the 1970s with churches like Dr. Robert Schuler’s Crystal Cathedral and his Hour of Power national television production.
Over 25% of all megachurches have been founded since 1990, with the average attendance growing from 2,600 in 1946 to 3,440 today. A typical megachurch annual budget tops $6M, with “mega-megachurches” (over 10,000 attendance) averaging $24M and 131-member paid staffs. In the early 1990s I served on a megachurch staff with 150 full- and part-time employees—larger than the average attendance in a typical American evangelical church!
In sum, today there are more megachurches with more people attending them, taking in more money, adding more staff, and offering more programs. I suspect they will continue growing, probably at a greater rate.
Overwhelmingly evangelical
Megachurches are overwhelmingly evangelical. Thirty-four percent are non-denominational; 26% are affiliated with a variety of Baptist denominations; the rest are from small, emerging denominations (like Calvary Chapel and Vineyard), and Pentecostals (most notably Assemblies of God). The exception to the “mainline Protestant” trend is among the United Methodists, though almost all the Methodist megachurch congregations are evangelical.
The perception in the secular media is that megachurches are middle-class white bread, which isn’t always true. I recently visited the Brooklyn (NY) Tabernacle, a 10,000-member plus, multi-ethnic congregation known for its Grammy Award winning choir. Led by Pastor Jim Cymbala, the Tabernacle has helped revitalize inner-city Brooklyn. Cymbala’s vision from the beginning—he came to a tiny church in 1971—was to reach the various subgroups of their multi-ethnic community. He has attained that goal; the Brooklyn Tabernacle is one of the most ethnically diverse churches in America.
Another perception is that megachurches are overwhelmingly politically conservative. In fact, research shows that few megachurches are openly politically active, though according to surveys their memberships tend to vote Republican. They would be better described as morally conservative, openly opposing abortion and gay marriage.
Megachurch pastors like Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, and Joel Osteen are clarion voices in American culture, and their congregations—with regular weekly attendances topping 30,000—are the great cathedrals of modernity, meeting on multimillion dollar campuses that offer a smorgasbord of spiritual, educational, physical, and even dietary programs. The pastors are icons of success and wealth, top-selling authors and television personalities, even power-brokers who advise Presidents and billionaires.
Megachurches and Wal-Marts
What accounts for the rise of evangelical megachurches and their influential pastors? Not to discount the work of the Holy Spirit and gifted leadership, I believe there are cultural and economic trends that inevitably led to this unique experiment in American Christianity, and some of these same factors could be megachurches’ undoing.
A remarkable similarity exists between megachurches and megastores—perhaps best symbolized by the ubiquitous Wal-Mart Super Centers. Wal-Mart controls one in every five retail sales in America—a staggering $312 billion in 2005—with an aim to double their sales within the next five years. Smiling greeters welcome 176 million customers to Wal-Marts every week. The reasons for Wal-Mart’s success are obvious: A better selection of high quality goods at lower prices in a one-stop shopping environment.
The reasons for the ascendancy of megachurches are quite similar to Wal-Mart’s keys. Simply stated, megachurches do church better than their small- and middle-sized church counterparts. Their virtues—which are obvious to the most casual observer—are considerable:
Music Choices
As a critical bonus, in many megachurches you have the choice of multiple worship services offering a variety of music styles. A few years ago I visited North Coast Community Church in Vista, CA, that simultaneously offered soft folk worship in a coffee house environment (the muffins were great); a high-brow traditional service with grand piano; an edgy post-modern, twenty-something gathering; and contemporary music in the main meeting room. The alternative gatherings heard Pastor Larry Osborne’s message, via live video feed. North Coast even offers services at two remote sites, so people don’t have to drive far to church.
One megachurch in Chicago, New Life Community, has thirteen sites scattered around the city, all preaching the same message each Sunday—in English and Spanish. When you open New Life’s webpage, you are asked to “Click Here to Find a New Life Location Near You.”
Megachurches offer an exciting spiritual experience in a pressure-free environment. You can attend and connect in a small group or sub-ministry, or you can remain anonymous for years.
I served on the Anaheim Vineyard’s staff for ten years. One Sunday my wife introduced herself to a woman in the congregation, asking how long she had been attending. “Two years. And this is the first time anyone even asked me my name.” We were appalled, until we realized it was her choice. There were literally hundreds of sub-groups in the church. She chose her anonymity. In fact, I suspect she attended the church precisely because she could come and go as she pleased.
In megachurches, you can connect with thousands while maintaining your autonomy. This appeals to people raised in consolidated schools, shopping at Costco, eating McDonald’s hamburgers, sipping Starbucks cappuccinos, and listening to their favorite music on I-Pods.
Bottom line, megachurches are a natural byproduct of a consumer-driven, individualistic, mass society. They are religious Wal-Marts, and like Wal-Mart, their immediate future looks bright.
The Law of Unintended Consequences
Sometimes the obvious solution to one problem can create multiple problems later—especially when the environment changes. Sociologists refer to this as the Law of Unintended Consequences, which holds that most human actions have at least one unintended consequence, usually negative. In the case of megachurches—and Wal-Marts—there are many unintended consequences that accompany their successes.
Articles and books have been written about how Wal-Marts close small businesses, destroy downtown centers, bankrupt suppliers, and eliminate competition.
Did Sam Walton intend this when he founded Wal-Mart? I doubt it. I think he just wanted to build a better retail store in order to sell more goods at a better price, thus earning a bigger profit. It’s not my purpose to champion or critique Wal-Mart, but its unintended consequences are fact, as writers like Barry C. Lynn in Harper’s Magazine (“The Case for Breaking Up Wal-Mart”) have argued.
Megachurches have a similar impact to Wal-Mart on smaller churches. Last year 4,000 new churches were planted in the United States; 7,000 shut their doors. I suspect many of them failed in the wake of a growing megachurch.
Several years ago I chatted with a pastor in Michigan whose church grew to 5,000 within five years of its founding. His said, “We have shut the doors of dozens of area churches.” He expressed no sympathy for the failed churches or their pastors.
This explains how, as megachurches grow in number and attendance, overall evangelical church attendance in America is flat lining. I suspect the vast majority of megachurch growth is from church transfer. It certainly was in the Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship back in the early 90s. In 1993 I conducted an internal survey of our congregation and was dismayed to discover only 3% came as a result of evangelism, despite Pastor John Wimber’s emphasizing personal evangelism and repudiation of church transfer growth.
Do I believe most local church closings are bad? No. As C. Peter Wagner once told me, there are far too many unhealthy churches that should have closed their doors years ago. The closing of some smaller churches is a positive unintentional consequence of megachurches.
Mont Saint-Michel
But not all unintended consequences will be as positive. Like medieval cathedrals of old, there are cracks in megachurch foundations that could someday be catastrophic. Perhaps the story of an historic French cathedral illustrates my concerns.
During my sabbatical I took a trip to Normandy and Mont Saint-Michel, one of the most visited tourist sites in Europe. Mont Saint-Michel was built on a tidal island by St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, when the archangel Michael appeared to him—thus the name, Mont Saint-Michel (Saint Michael Mount in English). Construction of the fortress abbey began October 16, 708, continuing for centuries.
I stayed one night on the island and spent the better part of a day in the abbey. While an impressive structure, it is also a symbol of what the church has become in modern Europe—Christ without a message, without influence, without a face. Literally without a face: every statue and icon in Mont Saint-Michel is defaced.
What happened?
The downfall, from which European Christianity has never recovered, was the 18th century French Revolution. At that time the church and monarchy were the preeminent cultural, moral, and financial institutions of Europe; they were also working hand-in-hand. What the King declared, the Bishop enforced. This was an alliance that would prove fatal for both.
The King lost touch with the people, which led to his violent overthrow. Europe’s social ills were many; the church’s complicity in the average person’s oppression and misery was scandalous.
When Louis XVI was guillotined in 1793, Christ symbolically lost his head in churches like Mont Saint-Michel and Notre Dame Cathedral. As a final triumph of “reason over faith,” Mont Saint-Michel was transformed into a prison for pastors, ironically renamed Mont Libre. In 1863, due largely to the efforts of Victor Hugo, the prison closed its doors. The abbey was back; the church’s influence gone.
What does this have to do with Christianity in North America?
A political-religious alliance
As I said above, there is a strong cultural perception that megachurches are overwhelmingly politically conservative. In fact, editorials have been written on how evangelicals—and in particular evangelical megachurches pastors like the late Dr. James Kennedy of the 10,000-member Coral Ridge (FL) Presbyterian Church—tipped the 2000 and 2004 elections for George W. Bush. (Jerry Falwell was credited with helping Ronald Reagan win the Presidency back in the 1980s, as Falwell’s obituaries highlighted.)
This was evident just prior to the November 2006 mid-term elections when Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and Senior Pastor of New Life Church, a megachurch in Colorado Springs, suffered a moral failing. I was in Europe when the story broke, and the sordid affair was reported as political news. Haggard, a social and political conservative and ally of President Bush, was thoroughly discredited.
The European media’s message rang clear: The nominal head of American evangelicalism, in league with the ruling Republicans, is morally bankrupt.
Although the perception of evangelicalism’s conservative political activism is over-stated—right or wrong, perception is reality. Much like the church-monarchy alliance of 18th-century France, most secularized Americans believe evangelicalism is a threat to their way of life and political beliefs.
A majority of America’s secular elite—academics, the media, radical feminists, homosexuals, politicians—see evangelical megachurches as formidable political enemies. This is a culture war with profound implications for the future of our nation and Christianity.
American Idol Christianity
Unfortunately, it is impossible to have a megachurch without a megapastor—the Hartford Institute describes megachurches as having a “charismatic, authoritative senior minister”—which can tend to create a passive Christian culture. I refer to this recent trend as “American Idol Christianity”—the medieval concept that superstar leaders are the exclusive spokespeople for Christ.
John Wimber opposed the idea that rank-and-file believers should abdicate their influence and ministry to a small group of spiritual superstars. His strongly believed that all believers have the gifts and abilities to influence others, but we need to be equipped to do it. The structure of most megachurches works against equipping average believers, even when the senior pastor passionately embraces it.
There is no better example of this than Bill Hybel’s Willow Creek Community Church, which, through its Willow Association, has promoted its vision of large, programmatic, consumer-driven churches across America and Europe.
Yet Bill Hybel’s himself, as far back as 1993, when I attended a small leadership conference at Forest Home Conference Center (CA), admitted frustration over his model of the church. His stated goal was to transform seekers into “devoted followers of Christ,” but he was falling short of that goal.
I suspect his frustration simmered for many years, culminating with a multi-year study of the Willow ministry, the results which were published in a book, Reveal: Where Are You?, co-authored by Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek.
The insights and conclusions of the study helped explain why expectations were unfulfilled at Willow Creek. Hybels worked on the assumption that increasing levels of participation and frequency in programs produced spiritual maturity—in effect, making devoted Christ followers. Here’s what Hybel’s concluded at the 2008 Willow Leadership Summit:
"Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for. …We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own."
In other words, had they emphasized equipping believers to grow and to do the work of the ministry, Willow Creek would be a healthier church today.
Or would it have? I wonder if the large organizational structure and nature of a charismatically led congregation militates against average believers doing the work of the ministry and being true self-feeders. After all, folks are attracted to churches like Willow Creek because of what they can get—the programs and charismatic leadership—not what they can give.
While I applaud Hybels’ bold, honest and courageous self-analysis and willingness to change, I’m not convinced that moving away from a seeker-driven model will produce a greater release of the ministry in the congregation.
What I fear is that the intrinsic nature of megachurches works against producing devoted followers of Christ.
Megachurches will probably continue to grow in number and influence, mimicking consolidation and growth of most other institutions in Western culture. My prayer is that a new model, one that somehow captures the foundational biblical truths of discipleship, equipping, and the ministry of every believer, can emerge among them. Until that happens, I suspect megachurches will fall short of their potential of fulfilling the Great Commission.
NOTE: An edited version of this article will be published as Appendix D in the new edition of Power Evangelism, due to be released in May 2009 by Regal Books.
Figures on European church attendance are abysmal—under 10% in France, Sweden, and the Netherlands. And while regular church attendance in Ireland is 60%, that is a significant drop from 85% in 1975. In England weekly Anglican attendance is 2% of the population.
Church attendance statistics are important, because they are objective measures of faith vitality. And while there is a widespread belief that you can “believe without belonging,” hard data suggests otherwise.
Dr. David Voas at the University of Manchester in England says, "The dip in religious belief is not temporary or accidental, it is a generational phenomenon—the decline has continued year on year.” He adds, "The fact that children are only half as likely to believe as their parents indicates that, as a society, we are at an advanced stage of secularization."
Voas observes that the importance of belief in God in England fell by 5.3% to 32.5% between 1991 and 1999. This compared with a fall of 3.5% in church attendance over the same period—the proportion of people who believe in God is declining faster than church attendance.
Every major Christian religion except Islam is declining in Western Europe, according to the Center for the Study on Global Christianity at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Not coincidentally, anti-Semitism is again rearing its ugly head, especially in countries like France and the Netherlands, which boast large Muslim immigrant populations.
Leave no doubt: European Christianity is a dim light in the public square.
What about America?
As I wandered the idyllic French countryside, I wondered if the future of Christianity is as bleak in North America. My conclusion: I think so. Let me explain.
First, let’s be clear about something: North American Christianity is already declining. Televangelist scandals, Catholic clergy pedophile crises, and the secularization of mainline Protestant denominations are eroding church attendance and finances. Since 1990, Americans claiming to be Christians have fallen from 88.3% to 79.8% of the population.
Further, these negative trends have muted Christianity’s spiritual, ethical, and moral voice. Televangelists are on the lunatic fringe of popular culture; “recovering (lapsed) Catholics” are ubiquitous; and the average age of many mainline congregations is, as one pastor jokingly quipped, deceased. (An Episcopal priest recently told me that the average age of his congregation went from 70 to 69 over the past year, concluding—tongue in cheek—“We’re starting to reach the younger generation!”)
And while many historic Christian denominations struggle, heterodox religions like Mormonism, and Eastern religions (including Buddhism and Hinduism), are growing at alarming rates.
Like Europe, North American atheism and agnosticism are on the rise, accounting for 15% of the population—up from 8.4% in 1990. Muslims represent only 0.6% of the US population—insignificant compared to Europe, which runs above 10% in many countries. Still, Muslim presence in America has doubled over the past 15 years.
But is the light of Christ in North American that dim? Many think not.
1,200 points of light
There’s always the hope of evangelicalism and its “1,200 points of light,” better known as the megachurch movement. In 2005 the Hartford Institute reported there are 1,210 Protestant churches in the United States with weekly attendances over 2,000—the benchmark of megachurches—nearly double the number of congregations of that size five years earlier.
In 1900 there were only six megachurches; by 1960 there were 16—though they were not well known in the broader culture. That all changed in the 1970s with churches like Dr. Robert Schuler’s Crystal Cathedral and his Hour of Power national television production.
Over 25% of all megachurches have been founded since 1990, with the average attendance growing from 2,600 in 1946 to 3,440 today. A typical megachurch annual budget tops $6M, with “mega-megachurches” (over 10,000 attendance) averaging $24M and 131-member paid staffs. In the early 1990s I served on a megachurch staff with 150 full- and part-time employees—larger than the average attendance in a typical American evangelical church!
In sum, today there are more megachurches with more people attending them, taking in more money, adding more staff, and offering more programs. I suspect they will continue growing, probably at a greater rate.
Overwhelmingly evangelical
Megachurches are overwhelmingly evangelical. Thirty-four percent are non-denominational; 26% are affiliated with a variety of Baptist denominations; the rest are from small, emerging denominations (like Calvary Chapel and Vineyard), and Pentecostals (most notably Assemblies of God). The exception to the “mainline Protestant” trend is among the United Methodists, though almost all the Methodist megachurch congregations are evangelical.
The perception in the secular media is that megachurches are middle-class white bread, which isn’t always true. I recently visited the Brooklyn (NY) Tabernacle, a 10,000-member plus, multi-ethnic congregation known for its Grammy Award winning choir. Led by Pastor Jim Cymbala, the Tabernacle has helped revitalize inner-city Brooklyn. Cymbala’s vision from the beginning—he came to a tiny church in 1971—was to reach the various subgroups of their multi-ethnic community. He has attained that goal; the Brooklyn Tabernacle is one of the most ethnically diverse churches in America.
Another perception is that megachurches are overwhelmingly politically conservative. In fact, research shows that few megachurches are openly politically active, though according to surveys their memberships tend to vote Republican. They would be better described as morally conservative, openly opposing abortion and gay marriage.
Megachurch pastors like Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, and Joel Osteen are clarion voices in American culture, and their congregations—with regular weekly attendances topping 30,000—are the great cathedrals of modernity, meeting on multimillion dollar campuses that offer a smorgasbord of spiritual, educational, physical, and even dietary programs. The pastors are icons of success and wealth, top-selling authors and television personalities, even power-brokers who advise Presidents and billionaires.
Megachurches and Wal-Marts
What accounts for the rise of evangelical megachurches and their influential pastors? Not to discount the work of the Holy Spirit and gifted leadership, I believe there are cultural and economic trends that inevitably led to this unique experiment in American Christianity, and some of these same factors could be megachurches’ undoing.
A remarkable similarity exists between megachurches and megastores—perhaps best symbolized by the ubiquitous Wal-Mart Super Centers. Wal-Mart controls one in every five retail sales in America—a staggering $312 billion in 2005—with an aim to double their sales within the next five years. Smiling greeters welcome 176 million customers to Wal-Marts every week. The reasons for Wal-Mart’s success are obvious: A better selection of high quality goods at lower prices in a one-stop shopping environment.
The reasons for the ascendancy of megachurches are quite similar to Wal-Mart’s keys. Simply stated, megachurches do church better than their small- and middle-sized church counterparts. Their virtues—which are obvious to the most casual observer—are considerable:
- Clean, modern campuses that look more like office buildings than ancient Cathedrals—or even like the Presbyterian Church down the street. In this age of secularism, Americans are strangely comforted by the sanitized feel of conference-center churches. It also helps that they have big parking lots.
- Dynamic speakers with relevant, engaging messages that equip people to cope with the everyday trials of modernity—marriage and children, business stress, personal finances, sex, addictions, emotional trauma. Mega pastors are usually supported by research staffs that pepper their messages with compelling statistics and engaging anecdotes.
- Their messages are supplemented with high quality live dramas, video presentations, and rocking bands or majestic choirs, utilizing millions of dollars worth of sound, lighting, and staging props. Some churches have a theater-production feeling, others a weekly Pentecostal revival—but all of them are engaging and exciting.
- Megachurch programming is outstanding, starting with sizzling and safe children’s and youth ministries—the first concern of most parents in a culture that’s seen an explosion of child abuse in recent years. Computer tracking, video taping, and professional staff background checking put parents at ease. For adults, state-of-the-art sub-ministries promise you will grow spiritually, overcome addictions, lose weight, and find new friends.
- Finally, a healthy distance from senior pastors allows members to admire them without the messy complications of knowing them personally and learning about their human shortcomings. One megachurch pastor I know has a policy of not having meals with church members, joking that when he does they usually leave the church within a few months. Smaller church pastors don’t have this luxury.
Music Choices
As a critical bonus, in many megachurches you have the choice of multiple worship services offering a variety of music styles. A few years ago I visited North Coast Community Church in Vista, CA, that simultaneously offered soft folk worship in a coffee house environment (the muffins were great); a high-brow traditional service with grand piano; an edgy post-modern, twenty-something gathering; and contemporary music in the main meeting room. The alternative gatherings heard Pastor Larry Osborne’s message, via live video feed. North Coast even offers services at two remote sites, so people don’t have to drive far to church.
One megachurch in Chicago, New Life Community, has thirteen sites scattered around the city, all preaching the same message each Sunday—in English and Spanish. When you open New Life’s webpage, you are asked to “Click Here to Find a New Life Location Near You.”
Megachurches offer an exciting spiritual experience in a pressure-free environment. You can attend and connect in a small group or sub-ministry, or you can remain anonymous for years.
I served on the Anaheim Vineyard’s staff for ten years. One Sunday my wife introduced herself to a woman in the congregation, asking how long she had been attending. “Two years. And this is the first time anyone even asked me my name.” We were appalled, until we realized it was her choice. There were literally hundreds of sub-groups in the church. She chose her anonymity. In fact, I suspect she attended the church precisely because she could come and go as she pleased.
In megachurches, you can connect with thousands while maintaining your autonomy. This appeals to people raised in consolidated schools, shopping at Costco, eating McDonald’s hamburgers, sipping Starbucks cappuccinos, and listening to their favorite music on I-Pods.
Bottom line, megachurches are a natural byproduct of a consumer-driven, individualistic, mass society. They are religious Wal-Marts, and like Wal-Mart, their immediate future looks bright.
The Law of Unintended Consequences
Sometimes the obvious solution to one problem can create multiple problems later—especially when the environment changes. Sociologists refer to this as the Law of Unintended Consequences, which holds that most human actions have at least one unintended consequence, usually negative. In the case of megachurches—and Wal-Marts—there are many unintended consequences that accompany their successes.
Articles and books have been written about how Wal-Marts close small businesses, destroy downtown centers, bankrupt suppliers, and eliminate competition.
Did Sam Walton intend this when he founded Wal-Mart? I doubt it. I think he just wanted to build a better retail store in order to sell more goods at a better price, thus earning a bigger profit. It’s not my purpose to champion or critique Wal-Mart, but its unintended consequences are fact, as writers like Barry C. Lynn in Harper’s Magazine (“The Case for Breaking Up Wal-Mart”) have argued.
Megachurches have a similar impact to Wal-Mart on smaller churches. Last year 4,000 new churches were planted in the United States; 7,000 shut their doors. I suspect many of them failed in the wake of a growing megachurch.
Several years ago I chatted with a pastor in Michigan whose church grew to 5,000 within five years of its founding. His said, “We have shut the doors of dozens of area churches.” He expressed no sympathy for the failed churches or their pastors.
This explains how, as megachurches grow in number and attendance, overall evangelical church attendance in America is flat lining. I suspect the vast majority of megachurch growth is from church transfer. It certainly was in the Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship back in the early 90s. In 1993 I conducted an internal survey of our congregation and was dismayed to discover only 3% came as a result of evangelism, despite Pastor John Wimber’s emphasizing personal evangelism and repudiation of church transfer growth.
Do I believe most local church closings are bad? No. As C. Peter Wagner once told me, there are far too many unhealthy churches that should have closed their doors years ago. The closing of some smaller churches is a positive unintentional consequence of megachurches.
Mont Saint-Michel
But not all unintended consequences will be as positive. Like medieval cathedrals of old, there are cracks in megachurch foundations that could someday be catastrophic. Perhaps the story of an historic French cathedral illustrates my concerns.
During my sabbatical I took a trip to Normandy and Mont Saint-Michel, one of the most visited tourist sites in Europe. Mont Saint-Michel was built on a tidal island by St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, when the archangel Michael appeared to him—thus the name, Mont Saint-Michel (Saint Michael Mount in English). Construction of the fortress abbey began October 16, 708, continuing for centuries.
I stayed one night on the island and spent the better part of a day in the abbey. While an impressive structure, it is also a symbol of what the church has become in modern Europe—Christ without a message, without influence, without a face. Literally without a face: every statue and icon in Mont Saint-Michel is defaced.
What happened?
The downfall, from which European Christianity has never recovered, was the 18th century French Revolution. At that time the church and monarchy were the preeminent cultural, moral, and financial institutions of Europe; they were also working hand-in-hand. What the King declared, the Bishop enforced. This was an alliance that would prove fatal for both.
The King lost touch with the people, which led to his violent overthrow. Europe’s social ills were many; the church’s complicity in the average person’s oppression and misery was scandalous.
When Louis XVI was guillotined in 1793, Christ symbolically lost his head in churches like Mont Saint-Michel and Notre Dame Cathedral. As a final triumph of “reason over faith,” Mont Saint-Michel was transformed into a prison for pastors, ironically renamed Mont Libre. In 1863, due largely to the efforts of Victor Hugo, the prison closed its doors. The abbey was back; the church’s influence gone.
What does this have to do with Christianity in North America?
A political-religious alliance
As I said above, there is a strong cultural perception that megachurches are overwhelmingly politically conservative. In fact, editorials have been written on how evangelicals—and in particular evangelical megachurches pastors like the late Dr. James Kennedy of the 10,000-member Coral Ridge (FL) Presbyterian Church—tipped the 2000 and 2004 elections for George W. Bush. (Jerry Falwell was credited with helping Ronald Reagan win the Presidency back in the 1980s, as Falwell’s obituaries highlighted.)
This was evident just prior to the November 2006 mid-term elections when Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and Senior Pastor of New Life Church, a megachurch in Colorado Springs, suffered a moral failing. I was in Europe when the story broke, and the sordid affair was reported as political news. Haggard, a social and political conservative and ally of President Bush, was thoroughly discredited.
The European media’s message rang clear: The nominal head of American evangelicalism, in league with the ruling Republicans, is morally bankrupt.
Although the perception of evangelicalism’s conservative political activism is over-stated—right or wrong, perception is reality. Much like the church-monarchy alliance of 18th-century France, most secularized Americans believe evangelicalism is a threat to their way of life and political beliefs.
A majority of America’s secular elite—academics, the media, radical feminists, homosexuals, politicians—see evangelical megachurches as formidable political enemies. This is a culture war with profound implications for the future of our nation and Christianity.
American Idol Christianity
Unfortunately, it is impossible to have a megachurch without a megapastor—the Hartford Institute describes megachurches as having a “charismatic, authoritative senior minister”—which can tend to create a passive Christian culture. I refer to this recent trend as “American Idol Christianity”—the medieval concept that superstar leaders are the exclusive spokespeople for Christ.
John Wimber opposed the idea that rank-and-file believers should abdicate their influence and ministry to a small group of spiritual superstars. His strongly believed that all believers have the gifts and abilities to influence others, but we need to be equipped to do it. The structure of most megachurches works against equipping average believers, even when the senior pastor passionately embraces it.
There is no better example of this than Bill Hybel’s Willow Creek Community Church, which, through its Willow Association, has promoted its vision of large, programmatic, consumer-driven churches across America and Europe.
Yet Bill Hybel’s himself, as far back as 1993, when I attended a small leadership conference at Forest Home Conference Center (CA), admitted frustration over his model of the church. His stated goal was to transform seekers into “devoted followers of Christ,” but he was falling short of that goal.
I suspect his frustration simmered for many years, culminating with a multi-year study of the Willow ministry, the results which were published in a book, Reveal: Where Are You?, co-authored by Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek.
The insights and conclusions of the study helped explain why expectations were unfulfilled at Willow Creek. Hybels worked on the assumption that increasing levels of participation and frequency in programs produced spiritual maturity—in effect, making devoted Christ followers. Here’s what Hybel’s concluded at the 2008 Willow Leadership Summit:
"Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for. …We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own."
In other words, had they emphasized equipping believers to grow and to do the work of the ministry, Willow Creek would be a healthier church today.
Or would it have? I wonder if the large organizational structure and nature of a charismatically led congregation militates against average believers doing the work of the ministry and being true self-feeders. After all, folks are attracted to churches like Willow Creek because of what they can get—the programs and charismatic leadership—not what they can give.
While I applaud Hybels’ bold, honest and courageous self-analysis and willingness to change, I’m not convinced that moving away from a seeker-driven model will produce a greater release of the ministry in the congregation.
What I fear is that the intrinsic nature of megachurches works against producing devoted followers of Christ.
Megachurches will probably continue to grow in number and influence, mimicking consolidation and growth of most other institutions in Western culture. My prayer is that a new model, one that somehow captures the foundational biblical truths of discipleship, equipping, and the ministry of every believer, can emerge among them. Until that happens, I suspect megachurches will fall short of their potential of fulfilling the Great Commission.
NOTE: An edited version of this article will be published as Appendix D in the new edition of Power Evangelism, due to be released in May 2009 by Regal Books.
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