Free Exercise and megachurches and religion and law in the 1980s

A. Church as Society of Good Americans
B. Church as Those with Saving Experience of Christ's Grace
C. Church as Those Committed to Social Justice
D. Church as Those Committed to Conservative Political Agenda

II. Jimmy Carter and the Popularity of Evangelical Religion

A. The Nature of Evangelical Religion
B. Differentiating Evangelicalism from Fundamentalism

III. The Megachurch Movement--Beginning With Crystal Cathedral which opened in 1980.

A. Quick Definition--Weekly Worship at about 2000+
1200 Megachurches in America as of 2006
B. What Fuels or Drives the Movement?
C. Drawing on Evangelicalism + Fundamentalism
D. Different Theory of Worship
E. Legal Issues Presented by Megachurches

IV. Political/Religious/Legal Issues in the Era of Ronald Reagan

A. Replacing "Separationism" with "Accommodationism"
B. Cutbacks on Affirmative Action

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On Jimmy Carter and the 1976 campaign for President. From a recent interview and comment on it on BustedHalo.com.

"It seemed to be a simple enough question requiring an even simpler answer. While running for President in 1976, Jimmy Carter responded to a political supporter who—in front of some reporters—asked if he was a born again Christian. “I truthfully answered ‘Yes,’ assuming all devout Christians were born again, of the Holy Spirit” Carter writes in his new book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis. “This was the first time that this religious characterization had been injected into the political arena, and there was an immediate furor, with media allegations that I claimed to be receiving messages directly from heaven…making clear to me that injecting religion into politics was a mistake.”

Evangelical religion was now on the "front burner" of American culture. It is interesting that it entered the culture through a Democratic Presidential candidate, but the "label" has been used primarily by Republican people.

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To show how Jimmy Carter, a self-described Evangelical, wants to distance himself from Fundamentalists--of the Moral Majority stripe, though he doesn't use that term--here is an excerpt from his interview on BlogSpot.com.

"Mr. President, you talk about the rise in fundamentalism in this country, how that rise has taken over the political landscape of our country. Could you share your reasons about why that causes you concern?"

"JC (not Jesus Christ!): Well, fundamentalism in politics is a very serious affliction on our country because it causes serious divides, animosity, even hatred between people who are supposed to be governing our country. A fundamentalist by my definition which I include in the book believes that they are absolutely aligned with God and anyone who disagrees with them is inherently wrong and therefore inferior. It’s against their principles—ever—to admit that they’ve ever made a mistake or to compromise with anyone is a violation of their principles. So there is an element of domination, of exclusion of others and of rigidity that now is permeating Washington and has caused us to even separate our own country from the alliances and the cooperation that existed after 9-11 when the whole world was with us as partners in fighting against terrorism. So these are the kind of things that shift from religion into politics but I think in the last five years or so, there’s been a greater breakdown in the separation of church and state then we’ve ever seen in the history of our country."

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On Megachurches, from the Hartford Seminary Foundation website.

Why do people attend Megachurches? From this 2005 interview:

My life’s changed. If I wasn’t here, who knows where I’d be? I’d probably be, you know, hitting the drink with all the rest of my friends that came out of school.

Woman: I think there is a very definite relevance to today: practical application, lifestyle, when it comes to the word of God, really giving us insight as to how to apply that to everyday living.

Man: I just think it’s got great leadership and it makes a message that is thousands of years old, relevant to society today. I think that’s the key to it. It’s a contemporary setting, and it makes the message of Jesus Christ relevant to where people are at in 2005.

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The term megachurch generally refers to any congregation with a sustained average weekly attendance of 2000 persons or more in its worship services.

Most discussions of megachurches focus on very large Protestant Christian congregations in the United States - of which there are over 1200.

Likewise, there are significant numbers of megachurches throughout the world, especially in Korea, Brazil, and several African countries, although no exact count exists for this worldwide phenomenon. The largest megachurch in America averages 30,000 in attendance; however, several churches in Korea claim over 250,000 attenders.

Although very large congregations have existed throughout Christian history, there has been a rapid proliferation of churches with massive attendance since the decade of the 1970's. As such, some researchers suggest that this church form is a unique collective response to distinctive cultural shifts and changes in societal patterns throughout the industrialized, urban and suburban areas of the world.

While size is the most immediately apparent characteristic of these congregations, the Protestant megachurches in the United States generally share many other traits. Virtually all these megachurches have a conservative theology, even those within mainline denominations. A large number are nondenominational but the majority are affiliated with a denomination. The groups in the table below account for 80% of all megachurches.

Nondenominational 34%
Southern Baptist 16%
Baptist, unspecified 10%
Assemblies of God 6%
United Methodist 5%
Calvary Chapel 4.4%
Christian 4.2%

In terms of theology of the congregation, the label that 403 megachurches, surveyed in 2005, selected to best fit their membership's orientation were as follows:

Evangelical 56%
Charismatic 8%
Pentecostal 8%
Moderate 7%
Traditional 5%
Seeker 7%
Fundamentalist 2%
Other 7%

The majority of megachurches (over sixty percent) are located in the southern Sunbelt of the United States - with California, Texas, Georgia and Florida having the highest concentrations.

Most megachurches are located in suburban areas of rapidly growing sprawl cities such as Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Orlando, Phoenix and Seattle. These large churches often occupy prominent land tracts of 50 to 100 acres near major traffic thoroughfares.

Generally, these congregations have significant parking lots and sanctuaries that are able to accommodate the large numbers of worshipers they attract. The average megachurch has weekly attendance of 3857 persons.

Megachurches tend to grow to their great size within a very short period of time, usually in less than ten years, and under the tenure of a single senior pastor. Nearly all megachurch pastors are male, and are viewed as having considerable personal charisma.

The senior minister often has an authoritative style of preaching and administration and is nearly always the singular dominant leader of the church. Supporting these senior pastors are teams of 5 to 25 associate ministers, and often hundreds of full-time staff.

The 406 megachurches surveyed in 2005 averaged 20 full time paid ministerial staff persons, and 22 full time paid program staff persons. The average number of volunteer workers (giving 5 or more hours a week to the church) was 284.

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Presbyterian "Megachurches," according to the Hartford Seminary Foundation Website, as of October 2006.

Briarwood Presbyterian Church, Harry Reeder, Birmingham AL 3700 PCA

First Presbyterian Church, J. Ligon Duncan, Jackson MS 2650 PCA

Christ Presbyterian Church, Ray Ortlund, Nashville TN 2000
PCA

Park Cities Presbyterian Church, Skip Ryan, Dallas TX 5000
PCA

Spanish River Church, David Nicholas, Boca Raton FL 4000
PCA

Grace Presbyterian Church, Ben Johnston, Peoria IL 2200
PCA

Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, James Kennedy, Ft. Lauderdale FL 5500PCA

Christ Community Church, Scotty Smith, Franklin TN 2000
PCA

Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Tim Keller, New York NY 4017
PCA

Rancho Bernardo Community Church, Bruce Humphrey, San Diego
CA 1800
PCUSA

First Presbyterian Church, Pil Lee, Torrance CA 2800
PCUSA

First Presbyterian Church, William Vanderbloemen, Houston TX
2000 PCUSA

First Presbyterian Church, Scott Dudley, Bellevue WA 1800
PCUSA

Colonial Presbyterian Church, Doug Rumford, Kansas City MO 1800
PCUSA

First Presbyterian, Jim Singleton, Colorado Springs CO 2300
PCUSA

Second Presybterian Church, Bill Enright, Indianapolis IN 1900
PCUSA

Sunset Presbyterian Church, Ron Kincaid, Portland OR 2383
PCUSA

National Presbyterian Church, Washington DC 1800
PCUSA

Fourth Presbyterian Church, John Buchanan, Chicago IL 2600
PCUSA

Peachtree Presbyterian, Victor Pentz, Atlanta GA 2280
PCUSA

Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, John Ortberg, Menlo Park CA
3708 PCUSA

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, David Peterson, Houston TX
2000 PCUSA

University Presbyterian Church, Earl Palmer, Seattle WA 3875
PCUSA

Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, Thomas Tewell, New York NY
1800 PCUSA

Bel Air Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles, CA 2500
PCUSA
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