Posted on 02/03/2006 4:49:33 PM PST by LouAvul
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A new survey on U.S. Protestant megachurches shows they are among the nation's fastest-growing faith groups, drawing younger people and families with contemporary programming and conservative values.
The number of megachurches, defined as having a weekly attendance of at least 2,000, has doubled in five years to 1,210. The megachurches have an estimated combined income of $7.2 billion and draw nearly 4.4 million people to weekly services, according to "Megachurches Today 2005."
The study, released Friday, based its findings on 406 surveys from megachurches. It was written by Leadership Network, a nonprofit church-growth consulting firm in Dallas, and the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, which did a similar survey in 2000.
Leadership Network's clients are large churches in the U.S. and Canada looking to grow or maintain growth with new ideas and methods. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research is part of the nondenominational Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.
"When you add up all that megachurches are doing from books to video to the networks of connection across the nation, you can't say this phenomena of more than 1,200 megachurches is anything but really one of the most influential factors of American religion at this point in time," said Scott Thumma, researcher for the study and sociology professor at Hartford Seminary.
The South has the most share with 49 percent, including Texas with 13 percent. California led the nation with 14 percent but is part of a declining western region with 25 percent, seven percentage points lower than five years ago.
While large churches have flourished throughout history, early records show that the U.S. had about six large churches in the early part of the 20th century. That number grew to 16 by 1960 and then in the 1970s, they began to proliferate and draw public attention.
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
It seems to me that God is more concerned with the depth of a church than its size. Some churches, following some formula that a "church consultant" came up with, no longer talk about "the blood of Christ" because it *offends* some people. IMHO, some churches need to be "preached-down" to the core through the teaching of solid truth.
The "mega church" I attend is sound on doctrine but also enjoys a strong time of worship with a good preacher to boot! I have loved my church for over 20 years and find it to be wonderful for me and my teens too. There is so much more they can do with a larger budget to keep families together Sunday morning and the rest of the week.
I think that is one advantage. I do understand the concern for the "seeker friendly" churches--these tend to be large because they do not preach a true gospel message.
You are right. It is not the size that should be of concern as much as what is being taught and lived by every day. The bottom line is this: we need to be in the church family that God leads us to be a part of. If that happens to be a large church that is okay. If you feel led to be an active part of a smaller church-go for it!
We go to a Mega-church. Very sound on doctrine, but it wasn't always a "mega-church." When we started 18 years ago there were only a handful of people. It just grew, and even though sister churches have split off, it still continues to grow.
I think according to the definition of "mega church," the early church, on the day of Pentecost, could be classified as a "mega church" since according to Acts 2:41, 3000 were added to the church on that single day.
I agree that there is not much of a foundation in many non-denominational churches, especially those who won't tell you who they are in their church name. They are extremely good at caring for people and getting great results. There is much to learn from them on this. So is the Salvation Army and the Mormons. But in the end, doctrine get short shrift and this is never good. Btw, infant Baptism and the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is denied in most non-denominational churches.
Sound expository Bible teaching and real heart-felt worship have now been replaced with a marketed product--a consumer oriented Gospel.
I especially loved the way many were closed on Christmas, very telling of where their hearts are.
Only nine replies on a "Mega-church-bashing thread"?
Most of the Megachurches are preaching sound doctrine. That is why they have become megachurches.
Size is no measure of sound teaching--if so Full Gospel Central Church in Seoul Korea(hundreds of thousands of members) would be the standard of the world--it has many doctrinal problems.
"Size is no measure of sound teaching"
Neither is smallness. Different churches have different attributes.
Some seeker churches have become large, but many have remained small or have disappeared due to the lack of sound doctrine. Many people will start out in a seeker friendly church and change to a different church with sound doctrine as their faith matures.
Spome people like big churches with sound doctrine. I am one of them.
One of the benefits I have found in my Megachurch is that it is full of Christian activists. Really high energy Christians, fully engaged in the outside world, bringing Jesus to those who have not yet seen His light.
Actually, the church refers to itself as "The Fellowship of Excitement". We (members) refer to it as "The Fellowship of Exhaustion".
Sorry, but the reason some have become megachurches is that they have followed certain principles -- principles straight out of Harvard business school -- on how to "succeed" as an organization. The scandal of the megachurch movement is that it is possible to become big, without the necessity of following the Holy Spirit.
ping
As I was just telling my husband... My beeber is stuned.
The church I grew up in had 4 pastors: 2 for the youth, one for music and a senior pastor. I visited the site online the other day just out of curiosity and found that they now support 11 pastors. One of the pastors is the discipleship minister (my old youth leader). He directs their 28 discipleship groups. They moved the church in 2002 (?) to the new location which supports a congregation of 7,000 members.
read the down-grade documents by charles spurgeon and ashamed of the gospel by john macarthur.
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