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Noah Horn

Dr. Sally Griffin

UWRT 1102

29 March 2017

Mega Church, Mega Business

If one were to drive down Browne Road, a suburban road in North Charlotte, on a

Saturday evening or Sunday morning, they would come across what might appear to some as a

concert or a large conference. There would be a police officer directing traffic in and out of a

parking lot and a team of over a dozen people in matching t-shirts directing traffic within a

parking lot. If one were to enter the parking lot, they would witness at least 1000 people, mostly

young professionals and families, headed towards a large building with impressive modern

architecture. What one would actually be witnessing is a church service at Mecklenburg

Community Church (also known as Meck), a Megachurch founded in 1992 by James Emery

White (Source). This church is one of over 1000 mega churches in the United States and claims

to have 11,000 people actively involved in the church (Source).

Introduction: The corporate megachurch

A megachurch is generally considered a protestant church with a membership of greater

than 2,000. As of 2008, Meck was one of 1343 Megachurches in the United States (Maddox,

2012). 55% of these churches (Including Meck) are pastor-centered/seeker oriented church.

Another name given to many of these kinds of churches are Corporate Mega Church. Corporate

mega churches are churches with a heavy focus on growth and a senior pastor that acts more like
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a business executive or a CEO. More specifically Maddox describes A corporate Mega Church

as a church Seized by the vision of growth, they share the entrepreneurial spirit, the hierarchical

corporate structures and the marketing techniques of entertainment, conversion, and branding

(Source)

While this style of church have arguably the most successful (in terms of growth)over the

last two to three decades, Running a church as if it were a for-profit corporation has most

certainly had its downsides. This paper will explore some the issues that arise within Corporate

Mega Churches. I will discuss the lack of community created by having a church body

numbering in the thousands. Along with this, this inquiry will look into Discrimination,

corruption, and the intense focus on growth caused by the capitalistic model used by these

churches.

Corporate Mega-nonplace

Megachurches, while large in attendance and membership, attempt to make the church

smaller by promoting small groups or community groups. However, neither are a requirement

for membership and the main reason that many people stay at a megachurch due to the pastor

and not the community itself. Over 55% of megachurch attendees to not volunteer (Source).

Along with this a survey of members of 12 American megachurches with charismatic pastors

(most if not all corporate megachurches fall into this category) found that over 66 percent of

respondents reported that the Influence of the Senior pastor was a lot of the reason that they

remained at the church (source). Combining a membership of over 2000 with a heavy focus on

the pastor makes the corporate megachurch a nonplace.

According to Sociologist Mark Auge, a place is defined as something Relational,

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Historical and concerned with Identity. In contrast, he says a place lacking all of these

characteristics is a non-place. Other examples of non places include shopping malls, chain

restaurants, and car dealerships. Suburban areas are often surrounded by non-places and the

corporate megachurch (which tends to be most successful in a suburban environment) may be

one of these places. People show up on a Sunday morning, walk into the service, sit down for an

hour and then leave. According to a Pastor of the corporate megachurch Willow Creek

Community Church, Bill Hybels describes the Church has Breathtaking power and

Indescribable beauty; unfortunately, in reality, the Corporate megachurch may have about as

much impact as a Hotel or resort.

The Right Look

Because of this lack of identity, Corporate Megachurches must constantly make their

services attractive and welcoming. There is no sense of community or relationship and the

Sunday morning church service is merely a performance and they rely on a form of customer

satisfaction to keep their attendance up. Because of this constant need to attract customers,

megachurches may do some morally questionable things in order to try and attract an audience.

Lookism, A word that started appearing in around the 1970s describes lookism as

Discrimination against people considered unattractive according to widespread social and/or

psychobiological standards (Source). While this affects many industries nationwide, the

hospitality industry is one of the most influenced. 93 percent of Employers in the hospitality

industry rate an employee's physical appearance as critical to the company's branding and

success. It appears that Corporate mega churches have the same mindset.

If one were to attend a regular service at Mecklenburg community church. The Door

greeters would always be at least somewhat attractive (especially at the most popular entrances),
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The Worship team would be filled with physically attractive, fashionable young people (35 at

the oldest) and all visible staff members (other than the pastor and a couple of Childrens

ministry staff members) would fit this exact same build. These attractive people make the

church more appealing to people of all ages and appearances. Unfortunately, this is not a

coincidence. After speaking with many people from the church, It is clear that they are being

discriminated for based on their experience. A heavyset woman who had been a door greeter for

over 10 years was asked to step down because of her appearance The Head worship pastor of the

church for over 5 years recently left the church to, according to the church, pursue other

opportunities. However, due to his age (he was only in his late 30s), he had been assigned to

lead at the significantly smaller satellite campuses for the 18 months prior to his departure. James

Emery White even discusses this concept openly in his Church and culture blog. He calls it

skewing the church younger. He calls it directing energy and intentionality towards young

adults and he even regrets that he did not begin doing it sooner (source).

Not only do churches discriminate based upon age and physical appearance, they also tend to

attempt to create a false sense of diversity.

A recent trend in advertising is to attempt to brand oneself as diverse and accepting.

Companies will highlight employers that do not fit racial or gender-based stereotypes (e.g. a

female engineer, or a black scientist) in order to brand themselves as progressive and modern.

While many corporate megachurches are far more diverse than traditional churches, many

Corporate mega churches will feature as much diversity as possible in their social media and

promotional videos. While Mecklenburg Community people stay has zero African American

employees and the church is predominantly white, 3 of the 7 most recent photos (As of

3/28/2017) featuring people posted on the Churchs Instagram include people of color. While
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this is partially an attempt to make the Church seem more relatable to people of color and a

harmless attempt to create more diversity. When closely analyzed, it seems deceptive and like the

people of color at the church are valued more for their skin color than their abilities and talents.

Soul-cial Capital

Since corporate megachurches have to put a lot of effort weekly effort into making sure

they are maintaining their attendance, they tend to have a strong desire and focus on Growth. In

the same way that business desires to increase its profits, Corporate megachurches desire to

increase is membership and converts. Because of this, critics of the corporate megachurch often

say that they are completely missing the point and the purpose of the church.

The Biblical quote that many churches use as their explanation for the importance they

place on growth can be found in Matthew 28:19 and says Go and Make Disciples of All

nations. While megachurches use this as a mantra in their attempts to bring as many people as

possible through their doors, Smaller more traditional churches say that this method does not

create disciples at all. In congruence with the nonplace issue, the lack of community and the

streamlined focus on strictly attendance-based growth allows for a congregation of complacent

Christians who are not challenged to follow their faith. Corporate mega churches in speech talk

about life change and total devotion; Unfortunately, their actions often show that number of

bodies that walk through the door is far more important than the well-being and spiritual

development of their members. Tyler Edwards sums this up by converts simply have a change

in belief system, Disciples have a life transformation (Source).

Total control, Total Corruption

While issues of subtle discrimination and lack of identity are prevalent and legitimate
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issues, The most frightening problem is the amount of power given to the senior pastor of the

church. Since the Senior Pastor often has little-to-no internal accountability, it is very easy for a

person with this amount of power to become corrupted Three types of quite damaging corruption

appear in corporate megachurches. The first is spiritual corruption.

Joel Osteen is one of the most non-places Mega Pastors In America and he is one of the

most criticized men within the Christian Community. His Church, Lakewood baptist, has an

attendance of over 43,000 and is currently the largest church in the United States. describes the

is largely due to the message of prosperity that Osteen preaches. Osteen preaches that if you

believe in the Christian Gospel, and follow Jesus' Commandments then God will bless you

with wealth, good health, and happiness. He is one of many mega pastors that preach this

message and it appalls the wider Christian community. Not only does it preach a message that is

contrary to what the Bible says (Some of the most prominent characters in the bible were deeply

impoverished, including Jesus), but the preachers of the prosperity gospel are deceptively leading

hundreds of thousands of people away from what they consider the truth. Since many of these

pastors using the prosperity gospel claim that God rewards them with financial However, many

of the same pastors also fall into Monetary Corruption.

Religious organizations are tax exempt. If American churches were taxed like regular

organizations, over 71 billion dollars of tax revenue would be generated. Much of that money is

currently going into the pockets of megachurch pastors. For example, Joel Osteen lives in a 10

million dollar house and Steven Furtick, The senior pastor of Elevation church in Charlotte lives

in a house that costs over 2 million dollars. This, however, is just the surface level. When one has

complete control of the company, the only thing preventing a Pastor from embezzling church

money is their faith, morals, and fear of being caught. I'm Early 2017, pastors at a Singaporean
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church were charged with fraud for embezzling over 35 million dollars. While this is extreme, it

happens more than one might think. Multiple pastors have millions of using The churchs private

jet to take multiple vacations and for using church money to pay for Luxury apartments and

condos.

The only reason this kind of abuse is possible is the church of the set up of the church.

Most traditional churches have a board of elders that nominate a pastor and the congregation

with wealth vote the pastor out at any time they see fit. In a corporate megachurch, A board of

elders, or as Meck calls it, a Board of Trustees, function as figureheads and decide little more

than the salary of the pastor (if that). The last two types of corruption are both caused by greed

and a desire for more, unfortunately, there is another type of corruption and a vivid example of

this went up in flames in late 2014.

Mars Hill Church was a corporate MegaChurch run by senior and founding pastor Mark

Driscoll near Seattle Washington. In 2014, he was asked to resign as pastor of Mars Hill and a

couple of months later, the church had to completely dissolve. Driscoll had created a system of

verbal and emotional abuse throughout his leadership team. Stories of drastic Misogyny, insults

and, apathetic dismissals were happening in every corner of the church and it all started with

Driscoll.

Repentantpastor.com was a blog created by former leaders of Mars Hill church that holds

the stories of those who were hurt by the leadership as well as many letters of confession made

by the pastor. These stories along with these deeply apologetic pastors shows the damage that

can non-places by A toxic leader and how dangerous it is to be the sole leaders.

Conclusion
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It must be noted that not all megachurches and not all corporate megachurches can be

quite different from each other. Just because someone has over 2,000 members does not mean

that they immediately become invalid, deeply corrupt or discriminatory. This inquiry is simply a

deep look into the complications that styling a Church like a Business can bring. However,

Members and leaders of corporate Mega Churches are often using questionable methods and

unreliable power structures in order to produce the most growth without realizing their

consequences. While a Senior Pastor with a Gift for Inspiring and teaching can lead to growth

for the church, it can also place a single man or woman in charge of millions of dollars and

thousands of people with nearly unlimited power. Attempts to relevant and relatable to people of

a certain age, race, or life scenario are understandable and even welcome; however, these

attempts far too often lead to discrimination and deception. Finally, attempts to bring in new

members are very much in line with the Evangelical Christian Doctrine, but if this desire for

increased numbers begins to outweigh the desire to provide legitimate life change The Church

has its priorities mixed up.

Attendees of corporate megachurches must look into how their money is being managed

and held accountable for their decisions. Members of the community need to be critical of the

pastor at all times and not matter how intelligent or emotionally moving the man or woman is,

one cannot simply take their interpretation of the Bible at face value. Finally, the biblical

definition of the church is not a building, but instead is a community of people that follow Jesus

Christ. Pastors and Church attendees need to make sure that the church they are a part of

expands beyond the multi-million dollar building or string of satellite campuses. The church is a

community and the pastor is to take care of the community. A focus on numerical growth is not

an issue as long as it does not take away the focus from Spiritual growth.
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