Mega Sound Centre
Nguyet Edmondson
As the husband to Lucy, a minister of a (more modestly sized) church in Surrey, I wanted to find out what US megachurches were really made of and what lessons we might learn in the UK. So, on two visits over several years, and with our four children in tow, we went on a great American adventure. Our stop-offs were at six very different megachurches that also had a lot in common.
It was at the epicentre of the Jesus People movement, which saw thousands of hippies, surfers and beatniks come to Christ as they swapped psychedelic drugs and rock and roll for the Holy Spirit and a new wave of folk-rock worship music. Many more Calvary Chapels were consequently birthed across the USA, led by the converts of the 60s and 70s. Even with their explosive growth now a generation past, the Costa Mesa flagship church still draws significant numbers under the ministry of Brian Brodersen.
Finally we visited Saddleback Church, led by the irrepressibly energetic Rick Warren. The church was founded in his front room in 1980 but now draws up to 25,000 people to its weekend services, making it the eleventh largest church in the country.
One obvious link is that they are all led (or were founded) by exceptionally talented leaders. Joel Osteen and Rob Bell may have been poles apart in terms of their theology, but they are both brilliant communicators to their respective audiences. Likewise, Rick Warren, Jim Cymbala, Carl Lentz and the late Chuck Smith all had dynamic personalities that formed a natural centre of gravity for their churches to develop around.
Today an informal approach is the norm at most megachurches. At Saddleback, Rick Warren usually preaches in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. The pastor is known globally for his bestselling book The Purpose Driven Life (Zondervan). But its precursor was The Purpose Driven Church (Zondervan), the defining handbook of how to build a church on the principles employed at Saddleback.
The pastor is only too aware of both the benefits and challenges of being such a large and well-resourced church. He is used to critics comparing Saddleback with the Disneyland resort a few miles away. So are they pandering to a consumerist approach? No, says Chrzan, explaining the longterm goals in mind when they attract newcomers through their impressive facilities.
On a purely practical level, Britain is a crowded island compared to the USA. Constructing large out-oftown church auditoriums with ample parking space is an impossibility in most parts of the UK. Even our most successful churches such as Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), with more than 3,000 in weekly attendance, can only accommodate such numbers by holding multiple services across multiple venues in the centre of London. Hence the strategy among UK churches has tended towards planting new congregations rather than creating single behemoths.
Finally, there is the fact that America is still the largely culturally Christian nation that the Pilgrim Fathers began. While surveys suggest that faith is dipping among millennials, the culture of churchgoing still remains phenomenally strong across the population, especially for evangelical churches. Plant a church in America and people will likely attend. In the UK, where secularism is more pervasive, the ground is far less fertile.
Many church leaders in the UK have looked across the pond at their US brethren and marvelled (perhaps with just a tinge of jealousy) at the enormous churches that regularly spring up there. Every pastor wants their church to grow and there is much to learn. We can admire the dynamism of church pioneers whose willingness to experiment and employ new strategies for growth have often produced stunning results.
Is it really possible for churches to reach a consensus on big decisions? Yes, says Peter Wilkinson. Writing from personal experience, Peter explains how every Christian can help discern the will of God for their congregation
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