Never let facts get in the way. Only a very tiny percentage of Religious Right voters attend these churches. There are thousands of small congregations for every "Mega" church.
And anyway, millions of new Christian voters were registered (and voted) in 2004. The program was widely publicized in the churches, but kept fairly quiet from the liberal press.
"20 churches in America have more than 10,000 in weekend attendance"
I think it's probably more than that.
Actual title, as of 9:22am Central time:
'Megachurches' draw big crowds
Ah, I see that you changed the title while I was posting.
Here's web page of Houston's Lakewood Church:
http://www.lakewood.cc/site/PageServer
Supersizing Jesus Ping.
The #1 political leader at Willow Creek Church is my friend, State Rep and Schaumburg Twp GOP Committeeman Paul Froehlich, whom some would call a "compassionate conservative" and others would call a "moderate". He strongly supports immigration for "compassionate conservative" reasons, unlike my "liberatrian - let the marketplace decide" reasons. Disturbing to me he votes for way too much spending of taxpayer money on wasteful pork.
What do others suggest he do with his de facto position at Willow Creek?
One of the "small groups" he has formed out of Willow Creek is a group of precinct captains who are key to his ground game.
His major potential political competition from the right is the Baptist church of a few thousand members that delivered an amazing GOTV as part of the Christain Coalition/Moral Majority in '94 but has since been little involved in politics. That subsequent lack of involvement is precisely why Froehlich was able to win the GOP leadership in '98 while the incumbents were asleep at the switch.
The greater threat is from the coalition of many small mainline protestant churches and large Catholic churches which are all led by pro-abortion, pro-socialist clergy and lay leaders and use church money to fund their liberal political activity.
It's all entertainment fluff, If you take away the special music, and all the high tech stuff, and then go back to a traditional worship service with Hymnal music, confessional stuff, and the likes the crowds would disappear.
To each his own. I prefer being a member of a small church where I get to have a personal relationship with my pastor.
The small group dynamic works just the way Jesus intended. Mega churches realized a long time ago that they must rely on these small groups to multiply God's kingdom. Some smaller churches tend to to ignore this.
We left.
Republicans don't need to preach to these big churches.
Most are charasmatic or "true" evangelical and that are already convinced...
....by real conservatism when it exists.
The GOP needs to respect these folks but they don't need convincing except to vote for RINOS maybe when the alternative is worse....
...something we all loathe doing.
These Christians should not be confused with the salvation thru deeds alone crowd which is mostly just feel good-be nice Christianity and is composed of apostate liberals from top to bottom.
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For what its worth, I attend a church that is on the verge of becoming "mega". I would generally have the same reservations as anyone else, but what I observe here is something else.
What I see is a talented preacher, a good music service, and within a rather huge body of members a number of smaller grouped dedicated to a variety of purposes, teaching, a variety of missions and the like.
Each week it gets harder to find a place to park; if you're five minutes late you won't find a place to sit. I see this over and over, a guy with jail tattoos comes in, next week he's there with his wife, next week he's there with a long row of kids, next week they are dragging their friends in, and so on. I started going because the kids wanted to go, then they wouldn't fit in my car so I borrow a van, then thats not enough because their cousins and friends up and down the street want to go, so its taking two cars and sometimes three to get the kids to church...
This isn't the way I remember it when I was a kid, when you had to make kids go to church.
The preaching is verse by verse from the Bible, with each verse provoking almost a stream of consciousness riff that has people hanging on every word.
I hear the same kind of criticisms of this church from members of other churches that I hear here, but the reality is something else. There is a certain amount of cross-fertilization between this church and others, with people "graduating" from this church to go to others, people coming in from others because they simply like this one better, I know certain people who attend one church on Sundays and this one on Wednesdays...
Different churches have different personalities, different missions, (just as your body has different body parts for different purposes). Over the course of a believer's walk its my belief that God will lead you to the church where you need to be, either because it has something you need, or you have something it needs. And this may change over time as you and they grow. After a time, you are ready for something more, or at some point its time for you to become more active, and someplace you would not have thought of needs you more than the place you are presently attending... Its funny how it works sometimes.
"These churches can do a ton of things that smaller churches can't,"
Revelation 3:1-6
1: And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
2: Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
3: Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
4: Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
5: He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
If these megachurches were all that, I would expect to see the government in that area to reflect that in that the politicians would be more godly in their decisions for fear of offending their constituents.
I think I am WAY ahead of the curve on this one.
as a born again christian since age 7 (Im now 42) I have begun to seriously question the need for massive organized religion. Too easy to corrupt the leadership and IMO the boundaries between big business and religion is (now) too easily confused.
There is NO biblical requirement to belong to a brick and morter church.
I wonder how many of these churches are in the suburbs? And how many are in downtown areas?
USE? Nobody uses me...