Megachurches are most attractive to younger adults, and almost all who arrive at their sanctuaries have darkened a church’s door before, a new survey shows.
The study by Leadership Network and Hartford Institute for Religion Research, released Tuesday (June 9) found that almost two-thirds (62 percent) of adults who attend Protestant megachurches are younger than 45, compared to 35 percent of U.S. Protestant congregations overall.
Researchers found that just 6 percent of those attending a megachurch””defined as a congregation attended by 2,000 or more each week””had never attended a worship service before arriving at their current church. Almost half (44 percent) had come from another local church, 28 percent had transplanted from a distant congregation and 18 percent had not attended church for a while.
87% have invited someone to come with them. Why is this? They like what is going on and want to share it. Despite what we say we like about our particular church, our unwillingness to want to bring others speaks volumes. I recently joined a growing church and we are inviting folks to come with us for the first time in yeaers.
Yes, that 87% figure of people inviting their friends is mind-blowingly high, and very impressive. Sadly, the typical member of TEC only invites someone to church something like once every 40 years!
However, the sad thing is that, despite the goal many of these super-size churches have of reaching the lost and unchurched, only about 18% (or maybe 18+6 or 24%) of those who attend such churches had dropped out of church for quite a while before coming there. However, it should be noted that not all “mega churches” are the usual non-denominational, evangelical type. Some are huge Southern Baptist or Assembly of God churches that aren’t focused on attracting and evangelizing the unchurched.
Still, even the 18% figure cited here seems impressive to me. How many Episcopal, Lutheran, or Presbyterian churches could claim anything remotely approaching one-fifth of their regular attenders having been previously unchurched? Not many, I think (to put it mildly).
David Handy+
NRA
I would certainly make that the 24% — and then I think we should reflect on it. Without these megachurch one-in=four of the people in those pews would not have been in any pew.
One in four — is hardly failure.
Megachurch = 2000 a weekend? Most suburban Roman parishes do that but not one calls them megachurches.
MargaretG (#3),
You’re right. Actually, having 24%, or even just 18%, of your congregation come from the large and growing ranks of the unchurched is an impressive achievement. Thank God for such churches that are reaching the lost, or de-churched, in a way that few other churches can match.
stjohnsrector (#4),
You’re right too; lots of suburban RC parishes exceed that 2K figure in terms of ASA (if the S can stand for Average Saturday/Sunday Attendance). But of course, they aren’t called megachurches, because they don’t stand out in the same way, since Catholic churches are often so much larger than Protestant ones. Which was probably your point.
However, it’s also true that a significant number of Protestant super churches do dwarf almost all RC churches too. That is, Willow Creek averages over 25K attenders each weekend in the NW suburbs of Chicago, and Saddleback averages almost as many, well over 20K, in the eastern suburbs of LA.
My memory is that there are now over 400 Protestant churches in America that average over 2K in ASA. And about 100 of them average over a whopping 5K.
Now guess how many of those 400 are in TEC?
Right. You guessed it. A big, fat ZERO. Although St. Martin’s, Houston, an orthodox CP parish, comes close to the 2K mark. The only Anglican parish on the North American continent that fits the 2K definition of “megachurch” is Christ Church, Plano/Dallas, which left TEC for AMiA.
David Handy+
I saw this article yesterday in our local paper, what the ENS article leaves out is a telling comment about a significant lack of giving to the new mega-churches by the under 45s. I don’t have the paper in front of me, but I believe it also indicated that this was not just a lack of financial giving. As an under 45er it seems, to me, that this indicates a lack of commitment or a true sense of belonging to a community.
While it’s a notably small sample, my under 45 dentist once told me that he went to a mega-church because, “where else can I get a decent rock concert for $5 in the plate.”
The emphasis on “new” and “contemporary” in worship is greatly misplaced, our own small parish is growing at an annual rate of 10%. I know it’s not setting the world on fire, but these folk are mostly under 45 and like a traditional sung mass. If we want to make disciples, let’s quit arguing music and style, and instead preach the Gospel. It may be that the lack of emphasis on, and an experience of, a saving relationship with Jesus Christ is why our folk are not motivated to bring someone to church.
I belive that Paul’s challenge about folk with “itching ears” applies both to our worship and our preaching/teaching.
FWIW
Rome has the advantage of more centralized planning and more standardization of service.
I think Anglican/TEC churches have the disadvantage (which could be used to the advantage) of being markedly different from Church to Church. For example: 1) The Rite I vs Rite II compromise and to a lesser but now once again growing 1928 vs 1979 (I think I have attended no more than 4 Rite II services and found them wanting); 2) the old high church vs. low church divide (I could be happy in either if Rite I or 1928 service was being used); 3) the more recent evangelical vs. Anglo-Catholic divide (I doubt I would fit at an evangelical style church)and of course 4) within TEC a sharp traditional/orthodox v. the new thing divide (the national problem rules out a traditional TEC parish for many). Thus, for an Anglican/Epsicopalian who moves in order to be content with finding a new Anglican/TEC church in his or her new area he has about a 1/3 chance of really feeling at home.
Because of the fault lines within orthodox Anglicans – if the ACNA were to build a mega church I think it would need the following to succeed:
1) One preferably two local Episcopal parishes (or large segments thereof) with two Priests to leave TEC committed to building a new church together – combined at start number of at least 300.
2) Assuming that they left without property they would need to buy raw land and build a parish hall and small sanctuary holding at leat 300 that would one day become the Chapel.
3) They would need three services at least one would need to be Rite I and one would need to be truly contempory and Rite II(perhaps in the parish hall and on Sunday evening)
4) they would need a good advertising budget – direct mail and local community newsletters and newspapers
5) the Priests would need to be involved in community affairs ie Chamber of Commerce and/or Rotary
6) They would need to be putting money away for a Main Sanctuary that could hold at least 1,500 with the idea that upon being built a third jr Priest would be added
7) they should start a preschool and church school (great evangelical tools)
8) Once the Main Santuary was built there should be 4 serices
cont
9) of the five services: 1) the 8 o’clock dawn patrol in the Chapel Rite I (low church) 45 minute communion 2) a 9:00 Rite II (or its replacement) Morning Prayer combining contemporary and traditional elements in the main santuary with a Rite I communion service (High Church) in the Chapel 3) a 10:30 Rite I Communion (first and 5th Sundays) Moring Prayer the balance in the Main Santuary; 5) full blown contemporary service at 5pm led largely by the 3rd (jr) priest
By combining the various elements of the Anglican tradition on one property it just might work
As it happens, I was talking with a car salesman yesterday. He was raised Catholic but married an evangelical woman. They go to a satellite campus of a megachurch; the satellite auditorium seats 4000.
http://www.gatewaypeople.com/index.php?action=abt_about
The church began in April of 2000; Easter of 2008, they had 16,500 in attendance. That’s fascinating. On the other hand, I know a Catholic parish in that same part of the world that grew to 5000 families in a few years and, last I heard, had ASA of about 6500 (probably more now).
Regarding comments 4,5, and 7:
Actually, there is a lot of diversity among Catholic Masses, enabled partly by the various options in the liturgy itself and the variety of musical style available (ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime). In fact, a parish priest can say the Novus Ordo in Latin any time he wants and can use the Traditional Latin Mass under certainly circumstances.
And 2000 is a fairly small, or perhaps new, suburban parish. The largest I’ve heard of is 17,000 ASA (out in Arizona somewhere); locally, the hispanic influx has made our inner city parishes large, 2000 being on the lower end of the scale. All of them have been in building programs in the past few years.
http://www.stannparish.org/
That’s the parish I said grew to 5000 families. They now claim 8,500 families with 28,000 members. It’s a high grow area.
Of course, one could make an argument that the bigger is better model may not be best. Does size matter, of course! But, ultimately what matters is a saving relationship with Jesus Christ (Justification) and discipling folk in that relationship (Sanctification). Is that happening in a congregation of 100? Maybe. Is that happening with a congregation of 16k? Maybe. There are a lot of pew sitters in both congregations.
That’s why this argument piques me. We confuse butts in the seats with numbers converted and moving to sanctification. The two are not necessarily related.