Sutton Turner spent his first 35 years accumulating everything a man could want: a successful business, a beautiful wife and kids, a golf swing, lots of money, and plenty of free time to enjoy the finer things. But he could not buy enough, earn enough, or drink enough to escape the haunting question: What’s the point?

From childhood, I had set my sights on achieving goals, mostly related to all the stuff I wanted. By the time I entered business school in the late 90s, my bucket list had grown: I wanted nothing short of my own little kingdom over which to preside in perfect luxury and happiness.

Then a strange thing happened: all of my wildest dreams started to come true.

I neglected my family to pursue other things, but I convinced myself that as soon as we had the ranch, the vacation home, and $1 million cash in the bank, I would turn my attention back to them.

We got all of those things, and guess what? I turned to drinking instead. I was 35. I had already accomplished everything I had set out to do in life. But rather than feeling satisfied, I was miserable. At least with alcohol, I could get a nice buzz and escape the crazy life I had created.

In 2005, I left home and spent $30,000 to go hunting in Africa, in search of meaning yet again. Before I left, Marci, my wife, had one request. “Come with me to church,” she asked. I fought. I didn’t want to. I didn’t need to. Three days before I left, I gave in. I wasn’t going to like it, but I’d go.

When the pastor took the stage, however, something began to stir in my heart. I was interested. Intrigued.

Continue reading.

Warren Bird offers interesting statistics on megachurches:

Big churches, for right or wrong, get a disproportionate amount of media attention. This happens especially Christmas and Easter, and in year-end tallies. Below I profile the latest megachurch statistics.

Keep in mind that the average church globally numbers fewer than 100 in worship. Across the world, there are almost 5 million Christian congregations; the Center for the Study of Global Christianity’s Status for Global Mission – 2013 (line 42) puts the number at 4,629,000. In some countries, especially those where Christianity is all but illegal, these gatherings of Christians are almost exclusively house churches in form. In fact, today 5.1 billion people today live in countries with high or very-high religious restrictions or hostilities, according to Pew Research Center. Thus for better or for worse, only in some countries are large public churches free to develop.

Megachurches – those Protestant congregations averaging 2,000 or more in weekly worship attendance, adults and children, all physical campuses – exist in at least 48 countries. Many nations, even giant ones like India, have received minimal research in terms of how churches are growing and multiplying. I look forward to the day when churches worldwide, including larger churches, receive equal study and attention. For now, megachurches in North America have been researched more than those in other countries, so here’s what we know about very large churches in the United States:

Scope and Size of U.S. Megachurches

• 5 million – Number of people who worshipped in a U.S. megachurch last weekend (if it was a regular weekend, with Christmas and Easter being much higher).
• 1,650 – Current number of megachurches in the United States, according to church lists compiled by Leadership Network.
• 0.5% – While almost 10% of Protestant churchgoers attend a megachurch, these churches represent only about half of one percent of the roughly 320,000 Protestant churches that exist in the United States. For more breakdown by size, see these Hartford Institute for Religion Research FAQs.

Continue reading.

Phil Cooke asks for a moratorium on megachurch criticism:

As the saying goes, “The world is going to hell in a handbasket.” There’s never been a greater challenge for world evangelism, there are plenty of social problems like hunger and homelessness we face here in the United States, Christians are being marginalized more than ever, religious persecution is rampant on a global basis, and that’s just the beginning. But what are we still debating in the church today?

Megachurches.

Hard to believe, but I sometimes think we Christians spend more time criticizing large churches than anything else. Are there problems in 2,000-plus-member churches? Of course. But I work with churches of all sizes for a living, and I can tell you that for every case of shallow teaching, bad theology, leadership failure, financial impropriety or whatever the criticism du jour happens to be, I can point to a long list of 50-plus-member churches guilty of the same things.

From the perspective of a person passionately interested in how Christians engage today’s culture, here’s some reasons I think it’s time for a moratorium on megachurch criticism:

1. You had a bad experience at a megachurch? Grow up. There are plenty of bad experiences to be had in small churches too. Size doesn’t make for bad experiences, people do, and I have yet to find a church without people. In the last month or so, there’s been a rash of negative stories of pastors screwing up. From what I’ve read, none have come from a megachurch; in fact, they were all leading very small churches. Fallen humanity is no respecter of church size.

Continue reading.

Thom Rainer on shrinking sanctuaries.

A seismic shift is taking place in American church facilities, a shift that will become even more noticeable in the years to come. Church worship centers or sanctuaries will become smaller than they were the past 40 years. As church leaders decide to build, a large number of them will decide to build smaller than most of their predecessors have in previous years.

The trend for the past four decades has been to build increasingly larger worship centers. And while the large worship center will not disappear, you will notice more intentionality to build or buy smaller. Why? As I look at the church landscape in America, I see seven reasons, and only two of them are related to declining attendance. I will note those two first.

Decreasing frequency of attendance among church members. I noted this trend in a previous article. The informal definition of an “active” church member a decade ago was a member who attended worship services an average of three to four times a month. Now a member can be present only two times a month and be considered active. That trend is definitely adversely affecting attendance.

The growth of the “nones.” I have written or spoken about this issue on a number of occasions. Pew Research found that the number of Americans who say that have no religious affiliation increased from 15 percent of the population to 20 percent from 2007 to 2012. This shift is huge. One out of five persons will likely never be in your church services, and they no longer feel a cultural compulsion to do so.

The growth of the multi-site and multi-venue church. This movement is large and growing. Church leaders are strategically starting different sites and venues to bring the church to the population rather than expect the people to come to one worship center. Churches are more likely to have a few small worship centers or use one worship center on multiple days than to have one large worship center.

Continue reading.