Over the course of the latter part of 2013 and the
first quarter of 2014, I visited the ten largest churches in the Dallas/Fort
Worth metropolitan area for the purpose of using them as case studies of the
current status and likely future direction of American evangelical
Christianity. I entered into the study with the theory that these churches
provide clues as to where the church is headed and, having completed my
research, I believe that to be the case more than before. Some may be heartened
by this; others will despair.
There is no
doubt that the things I describe in the ten chapters devoted to those churches
are prevalent in the American megachurch culture. However, I would anticipate
criticism of the notion that these churches represent trends regarding the
dominant direction of American Christianity. Would not the fact that they are
extremely large churches – the 1%, one might say – suggest that they are
outside the mainstream? It is a fair question, but one that is answerable in a
compelling way.
First, it should be noted, for better or worse, that
these are the churches that are numerically thriving during a period of decline
in American church attendance. In fact, Thom Rainier of the Southern Baptist
Convention’s Lifeway Christian Resources points out that 100,000 congregations
will die out over the next quarter of a century. Most of those expected to die
will be small or rural congregations that do not appeal to younger members
because they either resist or are not capable of duplicating the methodologies
and structures discussed in these chapters. In addition, churches in mainline
denominations are dying out at an alarming, but unsurprising rate. Because the
megachurches are thriving in a period of decline, they are regarded by many as the
vibrant portion of American Christianity. These large churches claim to have
answers to the question of how to appeal to the unchurched – and particularly
to those who are young adults or youth. Thus, even laymen and pastors who have
no wish themselves to attend a church with thousands of members will with
increasing frequency look to those churches for solutions to what ails them. Pastors
and church leaders who refuse to go along with the trends established by the
visibly successful churches will be required to explain why, and many of their
members will continue to abandon the churches where they grew up in favor of
those on the cutting edge of change.
In addition, the pastors and staff of these churches
are frequently held up as experts on how to build and grow churches. They speak
at conferences and denominational meetings, write books about their
accomplishments, and utilize social media tools to trumpet their methodologies
and successes. Their stories of accomplishment and growth are presented to pastors
and church leaders as the possible for their own situations. The pastors of
these churches are seen as celebrities and role models in their mostly
evangelical subcultures.
Social media amplifies the influence of these
churches. While I was in the course of my research, I noticed that a friend of
a friend, who I only know through Facebook, posted regarding his church’s
upcoming series on the “family octagon.” Recognizing the title and accompanying
art work as being the same as that used by Fellowship Church Grapevine during
my visit there, and unsure whether the Grapevine church marketed its materials
to other congregations, I emailed my acquaintance asking how they came to do
the series. His church, which is located
in Missouri and is of a different denomination than the Grapevine megachurch,
had come across the material online and decided to use it with some adaptations
to meet their local situation.
My point is not to suggest that the Missouri church
had done something improper – to the best of my knowledge there were no
copyright issues at stake, and the church was quite open as to where they
obtained the ideas. My only point is to
show the way that the programs and methodologies of these large churches are
influencing the way that Christianity is proclaimed and practiced in other
contexts.
To think about this another way, beginning in the
1970’s, the charismatic movement moved from the fringes of its Pentecostal
origins into the mainstream of American evangelical Christianity. Along the
way, the charismatics themselves were influenced by the wider evangelical
culture and became more mainstream. However, they have had a remarkable
influence on American Christianity, most notably in the areas of music and the
way that people think about spirituality and the work of the Spirit. Of course,
most American Christians are not part of churches that have healing services or
speak in tongues, but the influence over the last 40 years of those who advance
those practices cannot be denied. Similarly, the megachurch movement is having
and will continue to have an influence that goes beyond those who actually
participate in the movement.
One might similarly ask whether megachurches in the
Dallas/Fort Worth area provide a reliable guide. Using these churches as my research
platform was easy and inexpensive for me, as it kept my research local, but it
is fair to ask if it provides anything of value from a research perspective. I
believe that it does, and would suggest the following:
There are many cities across the southern United
States that make a claim to be the buckle of the Bible belt – I have personally
heard that phrase used with regard to Nashville and Atlanta, as well as Dallas.
Certainly, the Dallas/Fort Worth area can make a significant argument for
holding that designation. Unlike other
regions of the country, evangelical religion is a part of the social and
cultural fabric of the region. While the area religious landscape includes both
churches and institutions representing the mainline branches of Protestant
Christianity, evangelical forms of belief and practice are dominant here, and
those evangelical forms dominate the American religious landscape, including
the megachurches, at a time when Protestant liberalism continues its steep
decline. The area is home to an extraordinary number of megachurches, as well
as to what has historically been the largest seminary in the world
(Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary). Historic First Baptist Church of
Dallas, located downtown, though no longer one of the largest churches in the
region, was at one time the largest Southern Baptist Church in the United
States – at a time before the numbers of these huge churches became a subject
of national interest.
Geographically, Texas is near the southern center of
the country, providing an intersection of southeastern and southwestern
culture, and the fact that the Dallas area is a cosmopolitan region to which
people come to live from all over the country allows it to in some degree
transcend a merely regional culture. The area is also ethnically diverse, with
the result that there was a significant amount of ethnic diversity in the
congregations studied: six were
predominately (though not exclusively) white, three were mostly African-American,
and one appeared to be evenly mixed between blacks and whites. All of the
congregations visited additionally included Hispanic and Asian members.
Notably, while most Hispanic families entering the United States are of
Catholic background, a significant percentage seems drawn to the type of
spiritual experiences associated with America’s evangelical culture.
In terms of method, I selected the ten largest
churches in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area based on the information at
the Hartford Institute for Religion Research’s website. Other than accessing their list of
megachurches in the United States, I began my church visits in October 2013,
interrupting the visits during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays as I
knew that the churches would likely be having special services associated with
those days, and I hoped to experience their ordinary ways of worship. I re-commenced my visits in January and
completed them in March. With one exception to accommodate a family priority, I
visited the churches in the order they appeared on the list, from largest to
smallest, at the time I began my study. Because my order of visits was preset,
I did not in any way try to visit churches based on what I knew would be a
theme or occurrence in the service. My only advance preparation in that regard
was to check the church’s website during the week prior to my visit to try to
ascertain whether the senior pastor would be preaching that day.
Because I only visited each church one time, these are
snapshots of how these churches conduct worship. I tried to be aware of this
when performing analysis on individual congregations. Obviously, a pastor
cannot say everything in one sermon, so it is important to approach emphases or
areas of neglect with care. While it would
no doubt be of interest to do more long term analysis of these congregations, I
believe that this snapshot approach has validity, particularly because the
impressions gained from the individual congregations add up to a credible
composite picture. While these churches present varied theological and cultural
traditions, they share much in common, as well, and these commonalities will
form the most interesting part of this study. In many ways, the megachurch
culture supercedes the Baptist culture, the charismatic culture, etc., in these
churches.
Many who care about the future of American
Christianity have written jeremiads on the current state of things, with most
of those based on either books by prominent pastors or individual experiences
of the teaching of a pastor or church. With this project, I seek to go beyond the
general expressions of concern by systematically outlining the experience of
worshiping along with these individual congregations while thinking in an
organized way about what their practices say about their beliefs of God, the Bible,
prayer, worship, the Christian life, and so forth. The portrait that emerges is
not pretty, and I invite all interested pastors and laity to grapple with where
we are headed.
Sola deo Gloria.
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