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Megachurch

{{Short description|Large Christian house of worship; generally Protestant}}

{{Use American English|date=February 2022}}

A megachurch is a church with a very large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities. Most megachurches are Evangelical, although the term denotes a type of organization, not a denomination. A megachurch draws 2,000 or more people in a weekend.

The first megachurch was established in London in 1861. More emerged in the 20th century, especially in the United States, and expanded rapidly through the 1980s and 1990s. In the 21st century, megachurches became widespread in the United States and a growing phenomenon in several African countries and Australia. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, they shifted away from traditional church architecture, with most newer ones having stadium-type seating.{{Cite web |last=Kim |first=Allen |date=2019-04-27 |title=What is a megachurch? |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/27/us/what-is-a-megachurch-explainer/index.html |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=CNN |language=en}}

History

File:MetTabernacle.jpg Metropolitan Tabernacle, in London, England]]

The origins of the megachurch movement, with many local congregants who returned on a weekly basis, can be traced to the 19th century.{{sfn|Loveland|Wheeler|2003|p=35}}{{cite web |url=http://hirr.hartsem.edu/bookshelf/thumma_article2.html |title=Exploring the Megachurch Phenomena: Their characteristics and cultural context |publisher=Hirr.HartSem.edu |access-date=6 February 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151101100905/http://hirr.hartsem.edu/bookshelf/thumma_article2.html |archive-date=November 1, 2015 }} There were large churches earlier, but they were considerably rarer.

The first evangelical megachurch was founded in 1861 in London by Charles Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, which had a 6,000-seat auditorium.{{sfn|Hunt|2019|p=50}}

The first megachurch in the United States was the Angelus Temple, founded in 1923 by Aimee Semple McPherson in a 5,300-seat auditorium in Los Angeles.Kurian, George Thomas; Lamport, Mark A.; Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, Volume 5, Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, p. 1471

Features

A megachurch has been defined by Hartford Institute for Religion Research (2006) and others as any Protestant Christian church which at least 2,000 attend in a weekend.{{cite web |url=http://www.usachurches.org/church-sizes.htm |title=Church Sizes |publisher=www.USAChurches.org The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=29 August 2017 }}{{cite news| last = Baird| first = Julia | title = The good and bad of religion-lite | url=https://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/the-good-and-bad-of-religionlite/2006/02/22/1140563858123.html | access-date = 5 November 2006 | date=23 February 2006}}Turner, Bryan S.; The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion, John Wiley & Sons, 2010, p. 251. The OED suggests that megachurches often include educational and social activities and are usually Protestant and Evangelical.{{OED|megachurch|id=115861}} These large congregations are a significant development in Protestant Christianity.{{sfn|Loveland|Wheeler|2003|p=3}}

Most of these churches build their buildings in the suburbs of large cities, near major roads and highways, to be visible to as many people as possible and easily accessible by car.{{sfn|Hunt|2019|p=77}} Wilford, Justin G.; Sacred Subdivisions: The Postsuburban Transformation of American Evangelicalism, NYU Press, 2012, p. 78. Some install a large cross as decoration for believers and to signal to potential new members.{{sfn|Loveland|Wheeler|2003|p=156}}

A 2020 study by the Hartford Institute found that 70 percent of American megachurches had a multi-site network and an average of 7.6 services per weekend.[https://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2020/november-web-exclusives/us-megachurches-multisite-small-group-hartford.html Maria Baer "US Megachurches Are Getting Bigger and Thinking Smaller" christianitytoday.com, 19 November 2020] The study also found that most U.S. megachurches are in Florida, Texas, California, and Georgia.{{Cite web |first=Allen |last=Kim |title=What is a megachurch? |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/27/us/what-is-a-megachurch-explainer/index.html |access-date=30 March 2021 |publisher=CNN |date=27 April 2019}}

Churches that gather more than 10,000 people every Sunday have been dubbed gigachurches. {{Cite web |last=Tribune |first=Jeff Strickler Star |title=What makes a gigachurch go? |url=https://www.startribune.com/what-makes-a-gigachurch-go/25636704/ |access-date=2023-12-18 |website=Star Tribune}} Stanley D. Brunn, The Changing World Religion Map: Sacred Places, Identities, Practices and Politics, Springer, USA, 2015, p. 1683 In 2015, there were about 100 gigachurches in the United States. [https://outreachmagazine.com/features/14529-multisite-2016-whats-new-and-whats-next.html Multisite 2016: What’s New and What’s Next? outreachmagazine.com, Jim Tomberlin, 31 December 2015]

Several megachurch pastors also preach on television or radio programs, thereby also being televangelists. Aimee Semple McPherson was a pioneer of radio evangelism and a founder of an early megachurch. Robert Schuller, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, Joel Osteen, and T. D. Jakes developed both megachurch and television audiences.

Statistics

Exponential counts 270 evangelical megachurches worldwide (excluding Canada and the United States). Warren Bird, [https://exponential.org/world/ World Megachurches], exponential.org, accessed February 5, 2025 The Hartford Institute counts over 1,800 megachurches in the United States Hartford Institute, [https://hirr.hartfordinternational.edu/research/megachurch-research/ Database of Megachurches in the U.S.], hirr.hartfordinternational.edu, USA, accessed February 5, 2025 and 35 in Canada.Hartford Institute, [http://www.hartfordinstitute.org/megachurch/canadian-megachurches.html Megachurches of Canada], hartfordinstitute.org, USA, accessed February 5, 2025

By region

= Africa =

File: Glory dome building, Abuja (cropped).jpg, affiliated with Dunamis International Gospel Center, with 100,000 seats, in Abuja, Nigeria]]

Megachurches are found in many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda.{{cite book | last=Ukah | first=Asonzeh | title= Handbook of Megachurches| series= Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion, Volume 19 | chapter=Chapter 15: Sacred Surplus and Pentecostal Too-Muchness: The Salvation Economy of African Megachurches | publisher= Brill |isbn= 9789004412927| date= 2020 | pages= 323–344 | doi= 10.1163/9789004412927_017 | s2cid= 213645909 }} The largest church auditorium, The Glory Dome, was inaugurated in 2018 with 100,000 seats, in Abuja, Nigeria.[https://www.charismanews.com/world/74340-world-s-largest-church-auditorium-dedicated-in-nigeria Taylor Berglund (2018) World's Largest Church Auditorium Dedicated in Nigeria, charismanews.com]

= America =

File:DC Building Los Angeles.jpg Headquarters in Los Angeles]]

File:Auto de Páscoa - IgrejaDaCidade (crop).jpg at City Church, affiliated to the Brazilian Baptist Convention, in São José dos Campos]]

In 2010, the Hartford Institute's database listed more than 1,300 megachurches in the United States. About 50 churches on the list had average attendance exceeding 10,000, and one had 47,000.{{cite web|url=http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/database.html |title=Hartford Institute for Religion Research, database of Megachurches |publisher=Hirr.HartSem.edu |access-date=6 February 2010}} On one weekend in November 2015, around one in ten Protestant churchgoers in the U.S.—about 5 million people—attended service in a megachurch.{{Cite web | title = The megachurch boom rolls on, but big concerns are rising too|url = http://www.religionnews.com/2015/12/02/megachurch-evangelical-christians/ | publisher = Religion News Service | access-date = 1 February 2016|date = 2 December 2015}} Some 3,000 individual Catholic Church parishes have 2,000 or more attendants for an average Sunday Mass, but they are not called megachurches as that is a Protestant term.{{cite web |url=http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/definition.html |title=Megachurch Definition |publisher=Hartford Institute for Religion Research |access-date=6 February 2010 |url-status = live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514173618/http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/definition.html |archive-date=May 14, 2016 }}

In the United States, the phenomenon has more than quadrupled in the two decades to 2017.{{cite web |url=http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=tflynn_26_5 |title=Redirect |publisher=www.SecularHumanism.org |access-date=29 August 2017|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 19, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619065320/http://secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=tflynn_26_5}}

= Asia =

In 2007, five of the ten largest Protestant churches were in South Korea.{{cite news |title=O come all ye faithful |url=http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10015239&CFID=25385374 |publisher=Special Report on Religion and Public Life by The Economist |page=6 |date=3 November 2007 |access-date=5 November 2007 }} In 2007, the largest megachurch in the world by attendance was South Korea's Yoido Full Gospel Church, an Assemblies of God (Pentecostal) church, with more than 830,000 members.{{Cite web | date=26 June 2009 | url=https://www.forbes.com/2009/06/26/americas-biggest-megachurches-business-megachurches_slide_2.html | title=In Pictures: America's 10 Biggest Megachurches | publisher=Forbes }}

Graha Bethany Nginden, is a megachurch which is one of the largest churches in Surabaya, Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The Church is affiliated with Bethany Indonesian Church.

= Australia =

Australian scholar Sam Hey wrote in 2011 that "almost all megachurch developments are Pentecostal, or charismatic and neo-Pentecostal offshoots".{{cite thesis | last=Hey | first=Sam | title=God in the Suburbs and Beyond: The Emergence of an Australian Megachurch and Denomination | publisher= Griffith University | date=2011| type=PhD| doi=10.25904/1912/3059 | url=https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/365629 | access-date=5 February 2022}}

One of the first megachurches in Australia was the Christian Outreach Centre (COC), now the International Network of Churches.{{cite web | title=About | website=International Network of Churches | url=https://www.inc.org.au/about/ | access-date=5 February 2022}}

Hillsong Church was founded in 1983 in Sydney, New South Wales, out of two Christian Life Centre churches and has since planted churches all around Australia and the world. Sam Hey, Megachurches: Origins, Ministry, and Prospects, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2013, p. 66-67, 265-266 Another significant Australian international Pentecostal network is the C3 Global Network, founded in 1980.{{cite web|url=https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/hillsong-becomes-a-denomination/ |website= Eternity News|title=Hillsong becomes a denomination|date=19 September 2018}}

Criticism

In 2005, Baptist Pastor Al Sharpton criticized megachurches for focusing on "bedroom morals", statements against same-sex marriage and abortion, by ignoring issues of social justice, such as the immorality of war and the erosion{{clarification needed|date=November 2023}} of affirmative action.Associated Press, [https://www.chron.com/life/houston-belief/article/Megachurches-have-wrong-focus-black-leaders-say-1894628.php Megachurches have wrong focus, black leaders say], chron.com, July 2, 2006.

A study by the Hartford Institute published in 2020 found that 60 percent of American megachurches were members of a Christian denomination.Bird, Warren; Thumma, Scott; [http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/2020_Megachurch_Report.pdf Megachurch 2020 : The Changing Reality in America’s Largest Churches], hirr.hartsem.edu, 2020. In 2018, American professor Scot McKnight of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary criticized nondenominational megachurches for the weak external accountability relationship of their leaders, by not being members of a Christian denomination, further exposing them to abuse of power.Wellman, James Jr.; Corcoran, Katie; Stockly, Kate; Ficquet, Éloi; High on God: How Megachurches Won the Heart of America, Oxford University Press, 2020, p. 212

Some megachurches and their pastors have been accused by critics of promoting prosperity theology, where the poor and vulnerable are encouraged to donate their money to the church rather than saving it, in the hopes that God will bless them with wealth.{{Cite news| last=Biema| first=David Van| date=3 October 2008| publisher=Time magazine| title=Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess| url=http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1847053,00.html| access-date=March 30, 2021| issn=0040-781X}}{{Cite web|date=1 December 2017 |title=How Megachurches Blurred the Line Between Religion and Riches |url=https://people.howstuffworks.com/do-megachurches-preach-that-prayer-will-make-rich.htm |access-date=30 March 2021 |publisher=HowStuffWorks}}{{Cite web |title=The Worst Ideas of the Decade |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/opinions/outlook/worst-ideas/prosperity-gospel.html |access-date=March 30, 2021 |publisher=www.washingtonpost.com}} This in turn increases the wealth of the pastors, with some revealed to wear designer clothing during sermons and own luxury vehicles.{{Cite web|last=Niemietz|first=Brian|title=Megachurch preacher buys wife a $200,000 Lamborghini, tells parishioners 'Don't confuse what I do with who I am'|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/ny-news-john-gray-mega-church-lamborghini-20181216-story.html|access-date=March 30, 2021|website=nydailynews.com}}{{Cite news |last=Rojas |first=Rick |date=17 April 2019 |title=Let He Who Is Without Yeezys Cast the First Stone |publisher=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/nyregion/preachers-sneakers-instagram-account.html |access-date=30 March 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last1=Stevens |first1=Alexis |author2=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |title=Creflo Dollar's ministry says he will get his $65 million jet |url=https://www.ajc.com/news/local/creflo-dollar-ministry-says-will-get-his-million-jet/Z1Oa81oGK9BYz1LO4KswAK/ |access-date=30 March 2021 |newspaper=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution}}

In popular culture

See also

References

{{reflist}}

Bibliography

  • {{cite book |last1=Hunt |first1=Stephen |title=Handbook of Megachurches |date=2019 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004412927 |url=https://library.oapen.org/viewer/web/viewer.html?file=/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/38088/9789004412927_webready_content_text.pdf}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Loveland |first1=Anne |last2=Wheeler |first2=Otis |title=From Meetinghouse to Megachurch: A Material and Cultural History |date=2003 |isbn=0826214800}}

{{Evangelical Protestantism in the United States}}

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Category:Christian terminology

Category:Evangelical ecclesiology

Category:Superlatives in religion