What is a Mega Church?

A megachurch is defined a religious church with a large congregation (an average weekly attendance of 2,000 or more) that usually has Protestant affiliation. In the US along there are around 1,600 established mega churches, however, there are many more in other countries all around the world. In fact, mega churches are most popular in Brazil, Korea, and a number of African countries. Click here to see a list of global mega churches.

Distribution of mega churches across the United States.

In the US most mega churches are found with urban or suburban cities, with the size of these churches ranging from 2,000 to 40,000. Lakewood Church in Houstan, TX is an example of a mega church with a congregation size of 40,000. However, there are mega churches in other countries that are even larger than the ones here in the US. For example, in Korea, there is one church that claims to have over 250,000 people attending weekly sermons. 

Starting in the 1970s mega churches began to explode, becoming overnight successes. Once these churches become a certain size, they become self-generating and they continue to grow as more and more people invite their friends and family. 

While size is the most attention-grabbing characteristic of these mega churches, they have a number of other defining characteristics. Almost all mega churches have a conservative theology, although there are some atheist or motivational mega churches that are starting to emerge. Below are tables from the Hartford Institute for Religious Research that give a breakdown of the denominations of these churches:

The groups in the table below account for 80% of all megachurches.

Nondenominational	40%
Southern Baptist	16%
Baptist, unspecified	7%
Assemblies of God	6%
Christian	5%
Calvary Chapel	4%
United Methodist	2%

In terms of theology of the congregation, the label that 336 megachurches, surveyed in 2011 by the Hartford Institute, selected to best fit their membership's orientation were as follows:

Evangelical	71%
Pentecostal	8%
Charismatic	5%
Seeker	5%
Missional	4%
Moderate	4%
Fundamentalist	1%
Other	1%

 The goal of these mega churches is to promote an atmosphere that makes religion fun and engaging. All mega churches share one thing in common, they are entertaining. Many of them have live rock bands to accompany the sermons. And other churches stress the laid-back atmosphere and do not emphasize dressing up to go to church.

Most churches use a number of online platforms and mediums to connect with a larger audience than the people that physically attend the sermons. Many mega churches have live-streaming or podcasts that people can watch from the comforts of their own home. This is how some churches have begun to have international followers.

 
To sum it up, mega churches are gaining success because they have found an effective way to combine past traditions with the innovative technology of today. Some researchers have even gone on to suggest that mega churches are becoming more and more popular because they are catering to the cultural shifts of today's industrialized society.


See the below articles for more information:

The Rise of the "Megachurch"

More Americans Flock to Mega-Churches

For even more articles, go to Christianity Today