Business Week is featuring Evangelicals on the cover of their latest magazine with a story on mega-churches and the Evangelical movement called Earthly Empires.
The article seems to be a mixed bag, which is my own personal opinion of mega-churches.
The good news for Evangelicals in the mega-churches (those that attract 2,000 or more worshipers a week):
- Increased cultural influence – Many prominent people are now identified as evangelical Christians. Media (books, music, etc.) produced by evangelicals is also on the rise (CCM, The Purpose Driven Life, Left Behind).
- Evangelicals are seen as better understanding of the culture than other segments of Christianity. Catholicism and mainline Protestant denominations are in a steep decline.
- More ministries available within a church to help the members. Many of the mega-churches offer free or reduced services such as counseling, health care and physical fitness.
- The numerous kid-friendly services and resources are introducing tons of children to church. Those children are then introducing the church to their parents.
- The mega-church attracts more unchurched people. Those not accustomed to traditional churches feel more at home in the relaxed atmosphere of the larger congregations.
- Many hold true to the basic theology and doctrine of Christianity. They still preach Christ and Him crucified. The pastor of one of the churches mentioned (only briefly), Woodstock Baptist, has often visited the campus of the college I graduated from and work at. He is as committed to sound, Biblical doctrine as anyone I know.
The bad news for Evangelicals:
- Way too many of the mega-churches are led by “prosperity preachers” such as Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar, who bring in millions of dollars to finance lascivious personal lifestyles. The message is more self-help than Christ-help.
- Evangelicals are being tied too tightly to the Republican party. This has come about because of many shared beliefs, but too often evangelical Christians are being used as GOP messengers instead of GOD messengers. (Evangelical Outpost has a post along these lines today.)
- Churches are mimicking the outside world’s style of business so much that sometimes it is difficult to tell them apart. One church staged a Christmas performance with the cheapest ticket being $20.
- Many mega-churches become obsessed with “the latest and greatest.” They place too much emphasis on being the first church to have this type of technology or the first church to implement this outreach strategy.
- Too often churches are driven by polls and market research instead of the Holy Spirit. Who said that God has to operate within the Willow Creek marketing method? Why can’t a church located in a certain location do well?
- The messages are devoid of the truth and are instead focusing on “uplifting” the listener. My opinion of Willow Creek went down significantly when I read the following quote from one of their members: “When I walk out of a service, I feel completely relieved of any stress I walked in with.” Sometimes, I want to leave with stress. I want to be convicted of where I am failing. I don’t want to be told how wonderful I am. There are things in my life that are not like Christ. Those need to be changed and the one place I should be convicted about those is at church.
Perhaps the article paints with too broad a brush. As I said, I know some of the pastors are upholding Biblical principles. (My opinion of Rick Warren went up, when I read that he repaid Saddleback Church after he made millions through The Purpose Driven Life and that he still lives modestly.) But it still saddens me that the Church is seen as simply a business model.
Devoid of the Gospel, what good is the Church?
To paraphrase Paul from 1 Corinthians 13:
If I have a ten-thousand seat, technologically up-to-date chapel/arena, but I have not the Gospel, I am like a brand new Lexus without any wheels. If I bring in millions of visitors and tell them how wonderful they all are, but I have not the Gospel, I am like a 1,000 member orchestra playing out-of-tune. If I know all the latest church marketing strategies and have studied under the feet of Rick Warren and Bill Hybel, but have not the Gospel, I am nothing. The Gospel never fails; but where there are strategies they will fail; where there is technology it will be out-dated; where there is new building projects, they will cease. But these three remain, prosperity, growth and the Gospel, but the greatest of these is the Gospel.
You make some excellent points. One of the biggest issues I have with many mega-churches (and I've been to a few of them over the years) is that they seemed to be gearing their message and ministry to the lowest common denominator. In other words, their messages and their activities are designed to draw large numbers of people instead of preaching the gospel and building up disciples. As a whole, I think the evangelical church has moved far away from its biblical roots and needs to look carefully at what God truly wants them to be rather than attempting to be successful in the eyes of the world.
I have never been part of a mega church, but i am currently a membmer of a 900 member church, and i wish it were bigger. I make the following observations:
– i love the anonymity that is possible in such a large church – esp for unbelievers.
– i love the modern multi-media approach – it shows there is life in the church, not just stale culture from 100 years ago. I don't just want some slick presentation devoid of the gospel, but neither do I want the gospel in king james english while turning to some hymn written during the Wesleyan revivals. That's nice on Christian history month, but how about some music written by people who are interacting with God now?
– as i wrote in Is Man Basically Good or Evil?, fundamentalism focuses only on man's sinfulness and not on his beauty, made in the image of God. One of the reasons we have prosperity and human-potential preachers instead of gospel preachers is because the church has been too extreme for many years, preaching only sin. Now the pendulum has swung the other way. We should be preaching a balanced message, not an extreme. Serves us right.
– i don't think we should denigrate people using modern tools such as demographic studies to help tailor their message to what people are looking for. As long as the gospel is preached, who cares about the wrapper?
– it is easy to criticize success. I think that we should gather enough information before passing judgement. We should be careful that we are not disagreeing on style and delivery method.
– regarding evangelicals and the GOP, I agree that we should be xians first, and not get the two confused. However, I think xians should be as active and intellectually and monetarily forceful as possible in public policy.
However, to balance that, I do want to say (in an essay I haven't had time to write) that legislation is not the primary venue in which we should be trying to renew america. We should (1) focus on spiritual awakening in ourselves and our nation – living wholly for God and preaching and living the gospel better, (2) focus on eduation and reaching the intellects and hearts, so that we win others over to our point of view before legislating anything, and then (3) making sure we have limited but effective legislation that protects our most foundational values.
These values? That's the discussion. I say limited government, protection and justice for the weak (including the unborn) and poor, ownership of land (believe it or not, that seems to be an essential part of a healthy nation, biblically speaking), and the sanctity of marriage. There are probably more, but I haven't really looked into it yet.
Just to make it clear, I don't think churches are wrong be default for using marketing or researching the spiritual demographics of an area, but that should simply be a tool to use to help us discern God's will. Sometimes He asks us to build in an unlikely place. We should be slaves only to God and His will not the polls or the market numbers.
I am not totally against megachurches. As I said, I know the pastor of at least one that was mentioned in the article. They are not by definition bad, but they bring up different issues and different problems (as well as different assests and options).
I am definitely not against the use of technology or new praise and worship songs. My small church (averaging 100 on Sunday mornings) just voted to purchase and install a projector and I will (most likely) be the one running it. I love modern Christian music. But at the same time, I think churches who never pick up a hymn book or sing some of the classic hymns of the faith miss out as much as those who would never have something newer sung in their sanctuary. Technology and music both should be viewed simply as means to worship God not as the ends themselves.
My only concern is a over reliance on anything outside of God and His word. If anything else is allowed to hold sway it will corrupt the church. We must be wary of that.
Sorry to be contrarian. Your article was very good, actually. I think you just hit one of my hot buttons. I am so tired of fundies attacking the likes of Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, and others who have tried to do something new. Sure, maybe the Osteens and Robertsons of the world need some criticism (and I am a fan of Pat Robertson, despite some of the dumb things he has said), but the stifling nature of fundamentalist conservatism gets to me sometimes.
Despite my conservative stances on homosexuality and the gospel, I really do like to push the envelope for new things so that we don't limit God, nor live in the past rather then forging into the future.
Be contrarian all you want. ;)
I personally don't know enough about Rick Warren or Bill Hybels to comment negatively or positively on them and their belief. I do know personally that some place too much emphasis on what they do. With them become part of a long line of Christian fads – Left Behind, Prayer of Jabez, etc.
I am with you on limiting God. Something He has been teaching me recently was not to simply limit Him to the future either (part of the reason for my post). I have recently (last year or two) gained a new respect for many hymns, while still keeping my love for praise and worship music.
I have no problem with anyone doing anything new that is not outside the bounds of Scripture. If God called you to do it, go for it. That is my only limitation.