Myths About Megachurches

I'm not a megachurch pastor nor do I appear to be becoming one soon.  But I have attended a few megachurches and have been on staff at a church that was on the road to becoming a megachurch (they made exponential gains after I left).  I have pastored a couple of small churches since then and talk to lots of folks and find that many people have some misconceptions about megachurches.  I'm not saying that megachurches are the be all and end all.  You have problems in megachurches and you have problems in small churches - but the problems that megachurches have are not necessarily the problems that people from small churches think they have.  Often the problems of a megachurch are better than the problems of a small church.

So with that in mind, my buddy and mentor Rick Duncan shared some good thoughts on myths about megachurches:

"A new study by Rodney Stark of Baylor University, now available in book form here, is dispelling the popular caricature of the megachurch as spiritual entertainment for the quasi-Christian baby-boomer. What Americans Really Believe reveals that megachurch members tend to be younger, practice evangelism more frequently, and are bigger on volunteerism than those in smaller churches. Oops. There go the stereotypes. And they aren't abandoning the harder, counter-cultural doctrines of the Christian faith either.

"Those who attend megachurches are more likely to affirm historic Christian doctrines like hell, the exclusivity of salvation through Jesus Christ and his literal return than those in smaller churches. The Washington Post summarized this part of the study saying, 'Ninety-two percent of megachurch members believe that hell "absolutely exists," compared with just over three-quarters of small-church members, the survey found. And eight in 10 megachurch worshipers believe that the Rapture -- when followers of Jesus Christ believe they will be taken to heaven -- will "absolutely" take place, compared with less than half of those who attend small churches.'

Granted, it's a tad unfortunate that when all of those megachurch members say they believe in the rapture they are believing in a fictional eschatology, but that aside its worth mentioning that a lot of good things are still happening in megachurches.

Comments

[Jim]

Those two points may be true. But my question for a megachurch or any church for that matter is what is preached or not preached to attract members and what is preached or not preached to keep members. I am sure you can find people doing good deeds in many megachurches, but how are they being motivated? From what I see most are being motivated by the law. Correct me if I am mistaken.

[Diane R.]

I have to disagree with Stark's conclusions. Most megachurches seem to be preaching a watered down gospel. Then why do the congregants believe the way they do as pointed out by Stark? I believe it's because they have picked up their theology before they came to the megachurch. Of course there might be a few megachurches that preach an unwatered down gospel but from my reading on the subject and the ones I see on the net and TV it seems to me that you have to be there on the "right" day to even understand how to become a Christian.

[Jim Vellenga]

Having not read the book, I don't know what the various details of the congregations that are surveyed, but my first question is what are the small congregations that are included. Does this include the multitude of small, theologically liberal congregations from say the PCUSA, UCC, and others like them mixed together with theologically conservative small congregations? I ask because there are various reasons for a congregation to be small. Some are small because they have long ago left the gospel behind, and are slowly dying. Others are small yet still hold to the gospel. However, if one mixes the two together it will quickly skew the statistics to make them look much less theologically sound. In fact I would guess among small congregations many are dying theologically liberal congregations.

I would like to see the actual data, especially since my personal experience in megachurches is that the gospel has been neglected or abandoned completely. Having said that not all megachurches have done that.

I guess in total, I would need to see more specific data, especially divided between various mega congregations and along denominational lines among the small congregations.

[Bill S.]

"Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain;

and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens." ~ Exodus 18:21

The verse above doesn't seem to suggest that only small churches are blessed or are even suggested. I can go on about the fruit, but I think this is played out too often. :-)

[djchuang]

The top 5 church planting churches, which happen to be megachurches, are actually reformed in theology -- see http://www.pastorfairchild.com/2007-07/08/top-25-church-planting-churches-in-america/

There are many other megachurch myths described in "Beyond Megachurch Myths" by Scott Thumma & Dave Travis ; for a preview of the list of myths, see http://hirr.hartsem.edu/about/news_and_notes_vol6no3.html

Jollyblogger, great to see you in San Diego! Maybe you oughta update your blog photo, so other people can recognize you more easily when they see you :)