Americans Flock To Mega-Churches

Weekly Standard: Non-Denominational Churches Growing In Size, Appeal

(Weekly Standard)  McLean Bible’s role as the premier place of community worship in Northern Virginia would have shocked many just 20 years ago. It was founded in 1961, but did not really explode in membership until the charismatic Lon Solomon took over as pastor in 1980.

By the late 1990s, McLean Bible had outgrown its 900-seat auditorium in McLean and purchased the 43-acre campus of the National Wildlife Federation next to the booming Tyson's Corner area. Thereafter it bought five additional acres of land. An initial 1,100-seat auditorium was built, only to be quickly overshadowed by a second, 2,400-seat auditorium, where six worship services are held every weekend. The thousands of cars coming and leaving, often to the consternation of neighbors, require a major police presence every Saturday and Sunday. Regular worshippers have included Ken Starr and Senators James Inhofe and John Thune, along with former Senators Dan Coats and Don Nickles.

McLean Bible may have a gloss of sophistication and political pull because of its locale in the Washington suburbs. But it is typical of hundreds of mega-churches across the country with its emphasis on biblical teaching, conservative morality, and personal transformation combined with a vibrant worship style and user-friendly facilities. There are some 1,200 mega-churches (churches with at least 2,000 regular worshippers) in the United States today, a number double what it was five years ago. With an average attendance of 3,500, that means over 4 million Americans attend mega-churches in a typical week.

Half of the mega-churches are in the South, but a quarter are in the West; California has more mega-churches than any other states. Half of all mega-churches are in new suburbs. A quarter of them are Baptist and one third of them are non-denominational. Six percent are Assemblies of God (Pentecostal) and 5 percent are United Methodist. In a report on mega-churches, the Hartford Seminary Research Institute explained that many mega-churches are nondenominational and most others often act as such, but that the vast majority do belong to a denomination.

The average income of a mega-church is $6 million. According to the Hartford report, mega-churches do not emphasize money, as skeptics might imagine, though worshippers are encouraged to tithe. The mega-churches are more than simply Sunday extravaganzas and have "high spiritual expectations and feature serious orthodox beliefs and preaching." Contrary to liberal notions of Republican manipulation, most mega-churches are not overtly political and internalize a separation between the church and the politics of the worshippers. And most mega-churches intentionally attempt to be racially and economically inclusive.

Neither Detective Armel nor Officer Garbarinos belonged to McLean Bible Church. Garbarino was Orthodox and not evangelical. But the size, location, and reputation of the suburban mega-church made it the chosen locale for their funerals and the accompanying civic mourning. With their present rate of growth and focused appeal to busy suburban Americans, look for mega-churches to occupy an increasingly large share of America's religious and civic life.

Mark D. Tooley directs the United Methodist committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy.