How did the phenomenon of "Megachurches" come about?

Question

Megachurches are part of the landscape in a lot of Christendom and have been defined as a Protestant church where average weekend attendance exceeds 2000. How did the phenomenon of megachurches arise? Are they an effect of mass urbanisation? Are they a recent thing (as they seem to be).

Many of them seem to promote prosperity gospel-type beliefs. Is the prevalence of megachurches associated with the rise in popularity of this belief system? Alternatively is the rise of megachurches associated with the increase in attendance of popular music concerts in that they can offer worship in a similar format to a concert?

The most obvious precedent which lead to mega churches was congregational (i.e. decentralized) church governance. In denominations with hierarchical governments, the central body can centrally plan the location and size of each local congregation. In congregationally run churches, each individual church can grow to any size based on their popularity in the community. The only limiting factor would be congregations who choose to self-divide or church-plant as an alternative to massive growth. Other than that, it would seem all answers would be opinion-based. — Steven Doggart, Dec 09 '14 at 15:18
@StevenDoggart I think there would be some level of opinion after that, but it would be a tolerable amount and, naturally, answers should use sources and facts to support themselves. — , Dec 09 '14 at 20:18
I perceive that megachurches are only common in westernized countries, particularly the SE USA. — , Dec 09 '14 at 20:51
Answerers should note that this isn't quite as new a phenomenon as some are making it sound. Spurgeon had over 5000 in his church in the 19th century. — curiousdannii, Dec 10 '14 at 00:46
I'm surprised no one mentioned Constantine and the institutionalization of the church in his day. Prior to that it was primarily tight-knit networks of house churches, from what I understand. — Jas 3.1, Dec 10 '14 at 19:22

ruckus · Answer 1 · 2014-12-11T17:06:39.640

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Reason #1

Mega Churches can likely be explained in part by the fact that more modern denominations, including Baptist (Even non-denominational) have integrated together with each other a lot. People are starting to realize that on a basic level, everybody is teaching the same thing; the love of Christ and desire to be like/with him.

I've asked several people (most not even from my church) and 90 percent admitted to being non-denominational or passive about where they go on Sunday as long as there is a good christian influence and a love of God. This means that in an example town, there will be one huge church and a handfull of smaller ones, rather than tons of same-size-small churches.

Of course this can't completely explain the phenomenon.

Reason #2

Mass urbanization, along with greater ease when it comes to getting places, as you said in your question, is a very likely factor into why churches of such massive sizes have sprung up. My church started in around 2000-2003 and has several thousand attending every weekend!

I'll bet that if you were to make a map of all of the 'Mega Churches' and overlay it on a political map, the churches would line up pretty closely with cities of population from 400k to around 700k.

Reason #3

Acceptance of 'Non-Believers'; Along with the increase of population at churches came the popularization of 'Christian Contemporary' music. It appeals to people who may not necessarily be christian because of its good vibes and heavy beat more closely matching that of 'Normal" music. I know several people who listen to christian pop and admit to not even believing in Jesus Christ.

Churches are also making a greater effort to have effect on their personal community, not just nations across the globe. This encourages those attending the church to reach out to their neighbors though increased fellowship with them.

My pastor said this sunday

America has never been more spiritually minded as today.

Then he said something about it not being christian spirituality necessarily. I've forgotten his exact words.

My point being that the idea of religion has grown in popularity, and simply, christian churches are everywhere, and open for folks to just walk in and here the message. There are a variety of different styles of churches, and people who don't like one style, may like another, so they end up joining a church rather than no church.

I don't claim to know what is happening with these Mega Churches all the way, maybe God has some really big plan for it.

edited Dec 11 '14 at 17:06

answered Dec 09 '14 at 23:40

ruckus

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Welcome to the site. We are glad you decided to participate. Here are some meta posts about this site to help you learn how we do it here: What Christianity.StackExchange is (and more importantly, what it isn't) and How we are different than other sites? I hope to see you post again soon. – Dec 09 '14 at 23:56
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This answer needs more support. It needs sources and citations, if necessary, to support what you are saying. Otherwise, it just looks like your opinion. Please add more to it to make a truly academic answer. Thank you. References: Guidelines for writing effective answers and What is a well-sourced, dispassionate answer? – Dec 09 '14 at 23:57
Thanks! Do you know of a site that i could use to find maps of all churches over 2000 ppw? – ruckus Dec 10 '14 at 00:11
No, sorry, I don't. Actually, among the various things your post claims, I doubt that one is true. I would actually expect to see that megachurches are mostly in mid-sized towns in suburban areas. – Dec 10 '14 at 01:49
Colorado springs has at least two churches of 5000+ attending each weekend; New life and Mountain springs church. Both claim non-denominational. I was just looking at all common factors between megachurchs. – ruckus Dec 10 '14 at 03:51
All the ones I've seen are non-denominational, or near baptist. In my area this were two, but one of them has waned in attendance lately. I live in a county of only 150K population. – Dec 10 '14 at 08:15
So maybe i should include near baptist as one of the factors. Editing answer accordingly. – ruckus Dec 10 '14 at 16:47
I'm gonna try and use ARC-GiS to put together a population map with megachurches as graph points. – ruckus Dec 10 '14 at 16:49
I've upvoted this for now, it makes some pretty big claims so it would be good to see more citations. Best answer at present. – Reluctant_Linux_User Dec 10 '14 at 17:09
I really like your answer +1. I think the mega churches are accepting of people, no matter what they believe or don't believe. Thank you for making me realize something. – gideon marx Dec 10 '14 at 19:13
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I think you missed two important sociological points: greater transport possibilities (it's now feasible to drive 29 miles to go to church) and a greater emphasis on choice - i.e. a tendency to find a church you like, rather than whatever happens to be nearest. – DJClayworth Dec 10 '14 at 21:14
Very good! thank you! updating answer accordingly. – ruckus Dec 11 '14 at 02:58
@fredsbend in response to your earlier post about your county; are the towns around you spread thin or do they tend to clump in a few larger than urban towns? Also, are the megachurches in your area close enough to the county line for folks maybe from out of area to visit? – ruckus Dec 11 '14 at 03:05
This is one of the churches in my area: Real Life Ministries. Their attendance has waned in the last few years. I'm not sure if they still break 2000 in attendance every weekend. The closest mid-size city is Spokane, WA. There's basically nothing between Spokane and Seattle. To the East the closest mid-size is probably Butte or Bozeman, MT. To the South the only comparable city is Boise. North only 100 miles is Canada. There's nothing up there. – Dec 11 '14 at 12:53
@fredsbend Very interesting. I couldn't get their site up, but one of them claims to in Spokane. I pulled this from google:----- As of the 2010 census the population was 471,221, making it the fourth-most populous county in Washington state. The largest city and county seat is Spokane, the second largest city in the state, behind Seattle. Spokane County was formed on January 29, 1858. – ruckus Dec 11 '14 at 15:28
Similarly, my city (which i would call large.) -----The city had an estimated population of 439,886 in 2013., making it the second most populous city in the state of Colorado, behind Denver, and the 41st most populous city in the United States, while the Colorado Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated population of 678,319 in 2013. – ruckus Dec 11 '14 at 15:29
I think the 400k-700k is the perfect 'breeding ground' for mega churches. Take a look at this site, most of them are in large cities. http://www.sermoncentral.com/articleb.asp?article=Top-100-Largest-Churches4 – ruckus Dec 11 '14 at 15:36
@VinceScalia I would agree with the comment directly above, but I wouldn't call that large. I'd call it mid-sized. Just a difference in definitions I guess. Real Life Ministries is based out of Post Falls, ID. They have a satellite church in a small town north and a separate church plant in Liberty Lake, a small town east of Spokane. – Dec 11 '14 at 16:25
Editing answer to be more agreeable with 400k-700k. – ruckus Dec 11 '14 at 17:05

score -3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 09 '14 at 16:49

How did the phenomenon of “Megachurches” come about?

We live in an age of increasing collectivization. There are few "mom and pop" stores anymore. Mega stores define our age. It should not be surprising that we find mega churches also thriving.

Are they an effect of mass urbanization?

It might be more accurate to say that they were an effect of mass suburbanization.

As recent as forty years ago people would get into fist-fights over politics or religion. While not necessarily noble, it does reflect a time when many more people felt what was right or true was important. Today such activity seems alien. One of the biggest crimes you can commit today is to make someone feel bad.

Our society has transitioned from truth to comfort. This makes the appeal of market driven churches much greater.

What churches were supposed to do (old way):

Ephesians 4:11-13 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

What many churches have become (new way);

2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

That this is happening now and on such a large scale may have to do with;

2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Good answer up to 'What churches were ..." Then you start a bit of a rant. Edit the last part out and it is a +1 answer that explains something I have wondered about. — gideon marx, Dec 09 '14 at 17:16
I don't think this answers the question particularly well. Starts out well, but then neglects to name some sources or facts to support your hypothesis and then moves into a sort of personal interpretation, "the end is nigh" kind of thing. — , Dec 09 '14 at 20:50
Perhaps I should have given more of an explanation that as Christianity turned away from Christ to a type of "consumer" Christianity, it should be expected that the marketplace would offer these consumers what they wanted. The mega church is just as much a result of a consumer society as is Walmart. I just thought the 2 Timothy verses were self evident. My use of the word "may" for the 2 Thessalonians verse I thought was sufficient to postulate a possible reason for this phenomena. Robert Schuller and the Crystal Cathedral started in a drive-in movie lot in California. — timf, Dec 10 '14 at 20:13

How did the phenomenon of "Megachurches" come about?

2 Answers2

Reason #1

Reason #2

Reason #3