Proliferation of Mega-Churches

[ben_dy]

manualman:

I guess I better keep my non-writer day job!

Clarifications:

1. The ‘similarities’ I discussed were among the mega-churches I have observed (via their members).
2. I never attended any. Merely observed the members due to my folks choice of friends and my own during college. I was a weirdo that mostly associated with protestant evangelical, but always stayed catholic (and went to mass.)

The universal pattern I saw for new members was like this:

1. Nominal, but not very practising christian meets mega-shurch member.
2. Mega-mem gets to know the person, talks about his faith, eventually invites person to some event at the church.
3. New person sees impressive christian brotherly love, hears impassioned focus sermon on sin, depravity and salvation through Christ.
4. Person says to himself at some point: "My church was never anything like this. These people really know God and he is obviously present in them. I want this.
5. Person converts.

I would be willing to bet that the local mega you mention either had a change in pastor or that pastor at some point succumbed to a catastrophic temptation (did you allude to a sexual one)?

The achilles heel of these places IS how much they revolve around the person of the pastor. But these two that I observed, anyways, were NOT about entertainment and sermons to make you feel good about how you are now. Not what I get out of the people that I have known from these places at all.

I really think they are, in essence, a rallying place during the collapse of traditional protestant denominations.

The mega-church with which I am most familiar is still in existence…

col.tv/

…but they’ve been plagued by scandal (mostly sexual in nature and most concerning Bishop Paulk himself) since the ‘ministry’ first started - before they grew to a church with 12,000 members in attendance each Sunday (I believe they are now down to a congregation of around 2,000).

The most recent scandal…

ajc.com/search/content/auto/epaper/editions/saturday/metro_3443cfb1d529115e0049.html

…FINALLY has some Atlanta-area ministers discussing the situation…

charismanow.com/11-04-05/

… but Paulk has some odd, definitely out-of-the-mainstream theological notions…

iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0022a.html

…and always has.

Yet, as one article says, he always seems to bounce back. MOST of the people that I knew that began going to his church almost exactly fit the pattern you describe: those who were Catholic were in church on Sunday because they felt they should be rather than because they wanted to be. Of my protestant friends, some were that type who attended church services once a month or less. ALL were impressed by the color-blind nature of the church (Atlanta has a small Catholic population that really only blossomed in the early 1980’s, so there simply weren’t that many black Catholics in the city). And all spoke, of course, of what a dynamic speaker Paulk is (looking at the website it appears that he’s still carried by one of the Turner channels).

As one of the articles says, sexual improprieties have been numerous since his ministry began but it wasn’t until 2001 that charges were made public against Paulk himself and settled out of court, and now, at the age of 78, he may have lost some of the charisma that kept people coming back for more (I wouldn’t know as I’ve not seen a broadcast of his in at least 8 years - maybe 10).

Because this is the first mega-church of which I was aware (and, maybe, one of the first mega-churches in the country) it’s my ‘comparison’ to most others whenever I hear the term. As I said, most of the folks that I knew that joined the church left - even if they were heavily involved for a decade or more. Some simply ‘unchurched’, some returned to Catholic or protestant churches, some didn’t want to talk about the experience, others couldn’t stop talking about the hypocrisy and betrayal they felt. No one left feeling good about the experience as a whole, I don’t think. Some (maybe 6 couples in all?) stayed and I’ve not kept in touch with them - they may be as happy as clams, still. I hope they are - just as I hope that these latest allegations aren’t true.

…continued…

 

[ben_dy]

…continued…

So that’s my primary experience with a mega-church and it’s not very pretty and when I read of them or watch them on TV I always have these ‘harvesters’ in the back of my mind. And when I hear a non-denominational minister with the title of ‘bishop’ I tend to wonder how much more is just ‘make believe’ and make-up. (Paulk actually now calls himself an archbishop - or was doing so - since he was head of a charismatic body of pastors and bishops that he founded).

As I never really paid much attention to Paulk and have never read any of his books (only hearing through the grapevine about some of his more unusual theological innovations) I don’t know if he fits the pattern of those pastors who preach “sermons to make you feel good about how you are now”. From what I HAVE heard, I wouldn’t think so and, as his is one of the few mega-churches that I’ve ever seen which had a liturgical ‘feel’ (and semi-Gothic architecture as well!) his was not a ‘laser show’ entertainment world.

There are many websites that devote some space to Paulk, Inc., and many are worth reading to get a feel of how a mega-church is born, develops, and then begins sinking. The interesting think about Paulk is that he has not, as of yet, SUNK.

 

[ben_dy]

P.S. I should also come clean and admit my horror when Paulk began calling his mega-church “The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit” - when it’s only 10-12 miles up the road from my favorite Georgia monastery - “Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery”.

I’m not insinuating that the monastery, which has been in place LONG before Paulk started calling his church “Cathedral of the Holy Spirit” actually LOST any pilgrims who may have been asking for directions to the “Monastery of the Holy Spirit” and wound up at the “Cathedral of the Holy Spirit” were misled on purpose, however, you’d think the man would THINK about the similarities…

 

[jim1130]

ben_dy:

P.S. I should also come clean and admit my horror when Paulk began calling his mega-church “The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit” - when it’s only 10-12 miles up the road from my favorite Georgia monastery - “Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery”.

I’m not insinuating that the monastery, which has been in place LONG before Paulk started calling his church “Cathedral of the Holy Spirit” actually LOST any pilgrims who may have been asking for directions to the “Monastery of the Holy Spirit” and wound up at the “Cathedral of the Holy Spirit” were misled on purpose, however, you’d think the man would THINK about the similarities…

I like it when mega-churches advertise on television, radio, and in the print media because it reinforces my beliefs that these “churches” are, first and foremost, capitalistic enterprises and businesses while also subscribing to the evolutionary theory of “survival of the fittest.” They are all about being the biggest and best with worship horizontal rather than vertical. Besides, how much worshipping is accomplished when the congregation spends half of the time sitting down listening to the pastor sermonize endlessly. I suppose we should feel fortunate that at least people are working to keep God in their lives, at least on Sunday mornings, but these environments seem to be “slogan heavy” such as “Jesus is Lord!” and “Jesus Saves”, etc.

 

[ben_dy]

jim1130:

I like it when mega-churches advertise on television, radio, and in the print media because it reinforces my beliefs that these “churches” are, first and foremost, capitalistic enterprises and businesses while also subscribing to the evolutionary theory of “survival of the fittest.” They are all about being the biggest and best with worship horizontal rather than vertical. Besides, how much worshipping is accomplished when the congregation spends half of the time sitting down listening to the pastor sermonize endlessly. I suppose we should feel fortunate that at least people are working to keep God in their lives, at least on Sunday mornings, but these environments seem to be “slogan heavy” such as “Jesus is Lord!” and “Jesus Saves”, etc.

Some of these churches - no doubt - do seem like capitalistic businesses: with billboards, paid radio and TV ads plus the dollars spent broadcasting, but I hesitate to draw too many inferences from that as EWTN (and even CA here) must have capital to stay afloat and, as a contributer to both, I (and others here, obviously) think that both ventures serve an important function - spreading the salvific message of Christ and His Church. I believe that the ‘mega’s’ likely feel the same, the difference being that EWTN and CA aren’t out to get people into one single building, only into one single CHURCH!

And that is where the capitalist tune starts playing, maybe - if you’re lucky (?) enough to live in a city with 4-5 non-denominational mega-churches, how do you choose? One would hope it would be on questions of doctrine - does this church believe what I believe? - but I’ve yet to get a straight answer as to just where you go to get the doctrinal beliefs of these churches: in the case of Bishop Paulk (and other mega-church pastors who are authors as well) I suppose you read their books. But do you do that before, after, or during the time you attend? Unfortunately for most, it’s probably the last and if you’re shocked by some of the beliefs of the pastor you’ve grown to love for his powerful preaching style and the church you’ve grown to love because it offers you everything you’ve ever wanted in a church (like WiFi - instead of the pastor saying “let’s all turn to Acts 13…” you could bring your laptop and hit one of the sites that has various translations and the pastor could say. “let’s all go to the ‘Unbound Bible’ website and see what the Greek has to say compared the the KJV of Acts 13…”) so you face a dilemma - stay where you really do feel as if you’ve found a ‘home’ or look elsewhere because the pastor doesn’t believe that all have the gift to interpret the Bible for themselves?

But you’re spot on in two areas: one, the worship seems to me to be horizontal - a give and take between people with God mentioned quite often but not in a sense of worship as much as discussion, and; two, sermons should be more like homilies - taking the readings of scripture and expanding on the meaning just enough to edify and teach so that what we go home with is not so much a reminder of the funny or uplifting story but the Scripture itself and how we may - or may not - be living the Gospel message. The long sermons that I hear on television make me think that a pastor started out with a message and then began finding Scriptures to fit the message: a good homily has the Scriptures as the message, and quite simply serves to edify using the Scriptures.

…continued…

 

[ben_dy]

…continued…

I’ve read the beginning of your last sentence, “I suppose we should feel fortunate that at least people are working to keep God in their lives…” over and over again, wondering just how much I agree with it and feeling guilty that I don’t automatically find myself in complete agreement (and wondering if I’m being overly scrupulous or just an old curmudgeon). With this sort of horizontal, what am I getting out of this, worship… is it keeping God in peoples lives? To make a distinctly Catholic comparison: if I pray a rosary a day with no contemplation of the mysteries and the words that are leaving my lips, am I really praying? If not, it becomes what some protestants say it is - empty, repetitious words and not prayer at all. And that, I suppose, begs the question that I really can’t answer and am really afraid to ask: is God to be found in the mega-churches? I know that I’m likely to be slammed for even asking the question and, to answer my own question, I would answer, “well - in some way - He has to be there, doesn’t He?” But then my brain does that little ‘Gospel ZAP’ and I think, “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” And then THAT, of course, puts me back into thinking that I’m simply being judgmental (which seems, these days, the worst thing you could possibly be… and leaves me thankful that God saw fit NOT to make me a priest lest I hear a confession and give advice and penance which seems overly judgmental).

So, yes, I suppose we should feel fortunate that people are seeking God and, the Lord knows that when I’ve had a non-Catholic friend, coworker, waitress, etc., that was seeking God I’ve always made certain to invite him/her to Mass… but I feel as if I want to take a bullhorn and announce to all that “there’s a better way! There’s Christ’s way! He made a tremendous Sacrifice for you but you won’t hear much about that in there!”

But you work with what you have, I suppose… and I don’t have a bullhorn…