Megachurches drawing a big flock

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Megachurches drawing a big flock

Large congregations rely on conservative values, strong pastors, study finds

By John Blake, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 1, 2006

As megachurches continue to sprout across the country, a new study concludes that many of the common assumptions about these large houses of worship are simply not true.

The study, Megachurches Today 2005, also concludes that they are not a passing religious fancy. The number of congregations of over 2,000 members has increased by nearly 50 percent since 2000.

I was surprised at just how many megachurches are out there," said Scott Thumma of the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, who performed a similar study in 2000 before undertaking the current survey.

Georgia has 73 megachurches, behind only California, Texas and Florida.

"I thought I had a halfway decent handle on it," Thumma said. "We had about 850 megachurches in our database when we started but now the list is up to 1,210. Who knows, there could well be up to 1,300."

The conclusions were based on an eight-month survey of 400 megachurches undertaken by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research — a research arm of the seminary — and the Leadership Network, a church growth consulting firm based in Dallas. The findings are based on answers supplied by the churches themselves.

The survey reveals that virtually all megachurches share common traits of a dynamic senior pastor, emphasis on conservative values, and building small groups to offset its size.

They also know how to make worship entertaining. Roughly 80 percent use electric guitars and drums while nearly all use visual projection equipment for sermons and song aids.

The Rev. Randy Mickler, senior minister of Mount Bethel United Methodist Church in Marietta, said his church offers a full orchestra and a praise band and uses everything from dance and dramatic skits to movie clips to bolster worship. His church has 8,000 members.

"You name any instrument and it'll be here," Mickler said. "The churches that are growing are the ones using every technique available."

Among the megachurch myths that the study "debunks," Thumma said, are:

All megachurches are nondenominational. Reality: Most are affiliated with a denomination.
Megachurches water down theology. Reality: Most have high spiritual expectations.
They are extensions of the Republican Party. Reality: The majority are not politically active.

The survey also says megachurches don't dwell on raising money, except when engaged in a building or capital campaign.

"We don't get up every Sunday and show a thermostat and say this is how much we raised," said the Rev. Michael Youssef, senior pastor of The Church of the Apostles. "Our focus is on worship. We don't know who gives what. We trust God. He's going to provide."

The Church of the Apostles, which towers over I-75 near West Paces Ferry Road, started with 28 people meeting in a local school. It now has at least 3,000 people attending its services and recently paid for the construction of a $70 million brick building.

Yet Youssef said he rarely talks about raising money from the pulpit.

Megachurches have also been characterized as offering "seeker-friendly" theology that waters down faith. Yet the survey's respondents challenge that claim. About 78 percent of the congregations surveyed said their church "holds strong beliefs and values" and most of them report devoting considerable energy to tithing and personal Scripture study.

Youssef's church became a haven, for example, for some Anglicans who felt that the Episcopal Church was becoming too liberal in recent years.

"I just opened the doors and began to meet the spiritual hunger and needs of the people," Youssef said. "We all need to know that we are forgiven and we all need to have our identity somewhere."

One of the results that most surprised Thumma, however, was the survey's findings on diversity.

Most megachurches said they were serious about becoming more racially inclusive and 36 percent reported having a 20 percent or more minority presence in their congregation. Ten percent claimed to have no majority racial group.

Thumma said the size of megachurches may actually help build diversity.

"It's easy to slip in and hang out and experiment and see what it's like in a megachurch," he said. "But it's much harder to slip in when they're only 25 other folks in the church and you're of another race."

Thumma was also surprised to find that most aren't "mega." Only 16 percent have 5,000 or more members, and most have congregations in the 2,000-member range.

Since the growth of big churches took off in the early 1990s, several authors and religious scholars criticized megachurches for offering a "gospel lite" theology designed not to offend. Others predicted that megachurches would implode from their size and that people would return to smaller congregations. Thumma's survey doesn't bear out those criticisms.

"This is not a phenomenon that is on the way out," he said. "If anything, it's still on the increase."

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