I’ve just flown out of the land of the MegaChurch for Trinidad. According to a missionary friend here, Trinidad has over 1000 churches and over 100 denominations.
But back to the US, the land of MegaChurches.
According to theweekmagazine the hottest sector of American religious life is the megachurch. The US now has 1,210 churches with congregations larger than 2,000, compared to just 350 in 1990. Why are people flocking to these stadium-size houses of worship?
You can find out by reading The Rise of the MegaChurch.
In a parallel development National Cinemedia now leases more than 1,200 movie theatres in the US for Sunday morning church services in what it calls its “Worship Solution.”
I guess if the sermon is boring you can always spend your offering watching a movie next door.
Don’t tell my kids I said that.




3 Comments
That guy in the top picture has a weird smile.
Hey Steve, In Europe at the moment. This place is tough ground for the Gospel. The well worn models and ideas are I guess, worn out!
I think the rise of the megachurch is remarkable. But when set against the number of churches in America, combined with the population one gets a clearer perspective. There are roughly 500 000 churches in America. Only 1200 or so with a membership of over 2000. 1200:500 000 brings us to a ratio of 12 megachurches to 5000 ‘non’ megachurches. And according to Barna (if you can believe his latest claims in Revoltiion) , they are going to bleed out big time over the next 25 years.
Sobering!
Haven’t read Barna yet. But the trend appears to be opposite to what he’s predicting.