Many churches still operate this way, but mega churches do not. They work on economy of scale: the typical visitor or member is much less involved than in a small church, but lots and lots of small donations still add up to a large budget, so the mega churches can have a paid staff to take care of all the things that would be volunteer in a normal church. This results in a more “polished” experience where people don’t have to do anything other than show up on Sunday and occasionally chip in a few bucks.

This is bad, spiritually, as the entire Christian teaching emphasizes service and community so much. But it fits the trends in an increasingly consumerist America where most people (a) live in indistinguishable commodity suburban subdivisions they don’t care about, (b) mostly judge their quality of life by their hobbies and how much stuff they acquire, and (c) are used to commuting to regional facilities for everything they do anyway. It lets people feel like they’re still part of a “Christian culture” even though they’ve reduced it from a deep life commitment to a spectator social club.

Unsurprisingly the mega-churches are very controversial within more traditional Christian communities — they are seen as “not real churches,” and many question whether their attendees are sincere in their faith.

So… basically they are businesses selling a product.

UU is basically the church of be excellent to each other, yet whenever I go it's almost entirely old people. It's fun to chat and drink coffee with them, but I wonder where all the younger atheists/humanists are.

1. They were very oriented to young adults (say, <40 years old): modern music, chic building/space design, coffee-shop feel (especially because people would regularly come in with their lattes), and the amazing perk that they had numerous rooms for kids of different ages. Kids were treated very well and had so much fun in the bouncy houses or whatever, and parents could really focus on whatever the message was that day.

2. Critical mass. Being around more people really gives a feeling of belonging, and I think it's pretty well-established that the big crowds, swelling music, etc., really does elicit an emotional response that some people interpret as the holy spirit while others simply think of it as a warm, wonderful feeling you get going to church. That feeling is definitely self-reinforcing for attendance.

Services at a megachurch have almost a laid back rock concert type atmosphere. There is a lot of contemporary music played and everything else is made to be as “soulful” and engaging as possible. It’s a very unique atmosphere, but the appeal is much the same as something like a country music concert. The services are a whole production.

The other advantage big churches have (and I did see this with my church growing up) is that larger communities make a lot of things easier. It’s easier to form service missions, bible groups, youth activities, etc, because it’s much easier to reach a critical mass when you have such a large congregation to pull from.

https://manchesterumc.org/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_United_Methodist_...

I don't go to any church, so this was extra over the top.

I would say the main allure of megachurches is the gap between being a consumer and a contributor of that “local church”. Bridging that gap is always challenging for any normal person, and that is true for all sorts of communities. Couple that with an easy-listening “TED-talk”, it is not too difficult to see why one rather just consumes from the pews every Sunday from a larger church.

If you’d use coffee as an simplified analogy for Christianity, the worship service at a megachurch is like a Frappuccino - the easiest drink to get started, appeals to the masses, sweet, lots of other stuff and not too much coffee, which is bitter. Smaller churches feel a bit more like getting coffee at a hipster cafe, costs a lot more (you have to get involved in church, oh my), doesn’t necessarily suit everyone’s taste, a lot more coffee than additives, and only starts tasting great if you’ve learned a bit more about coffee.

(Well, that’s as far as coffee goes to explain a very complicated and nuanced subject matter, but hey, it was worth it.)

One thing I as an observer found weird was the general vibe of the church. I don't know if this applies to any but the one I was at, so take with a grain of salt.

At this church, every one seemed dress for image. Giant logo tight fitting shirts, bleached skinny jeans, spray tans, hair gels. Inside, giant TVs and loud music speakers. It felt like more going to a concert or club on a Friday night than a church.

In contrast, when I was a kid, every man wore a suit or some boring button up and slacks or jeans, women would wear a simple dress or something similar.

I'm not sure if church has changed that much in the last 20 or 30 years, or it's just that one, but I found it rather off-putting. It seemed like everyone was there to make it about themselves, and less about congregating for a religious reason.

The way that I explain it to people is like this. It's Christianity 101. They do an excellent job of creating a low pressure "come as you are" environment and that is really critical. In the same way the people tend to leave jobs because of bad management, they often leave churches because of bad experiences with some of the members. When you go to a more traditional church, there's often an expectation to dress a certain way or to feel like you don't want to draw attention to yourself. I've heard this referred to as the Christian Pageant Show.

A lot of mega churches have called this out and invite people to come as they are. Shorts, t-shirts, flip flops. Some people dress up. There is no right way to hear the Gospel. As this has been called out more, it's had an influence on a lot of other churches to realize...you know what, they're 100% right. Everybody dressing up is great if they're doing it for the reason of "bringing your best to God" but you're creating an environment where people feel like they don't fit in if they aren't doing that.

Taken a step farther, people will often act like they have it all together in more traditional churches. They'll think they are supposed to. The reality is that this is supposed to be the place where you can share your struggles. You tend to need to get involved and get to know people a little bit more before you're comfortable doing that in a lot of cases.

Now, I say all that to say this: going to a church like New Spring (I can't speak for all mega churches) is an ideal place to go if you don't have a church home or don't want a bunch of people coming up to you afterwards, inviting you to lunch and trying to get to know you. Sometimes that's great, but if you just want to walk in and see what this is all about you want the same level of pressure you'd feel if you were going to a movie theater...zero. This also creates an environment that is REALLY easy to invite people into, because you know they won't have to worry about fitting in either. It's great like that.

We attended for about 6 years. Volunteered. Tithed regularly. I remembered being excited about going to church for the first time in my life. I learned all sorts of stuff that I didn't know and I actually remembered sermons better than I ever did before too. It got through to me, made sense and though it's a bigger story for another time...changed my life for the better.

But after 6 years we also realized we just didn't know many people. We wanted to go somewhere that had adult Sunday School classes, so we changed to a more traditional church.

After having gone through what I call "Christianity 101" I felt a lot more like I fit in this environment now. We'd have a discussion and I could actually participate instead of sitting quietly in the back of the room. I could ask questions, add discussion points and even offer AND back up some corrections on things that a lot of people thought but weren't really biblically supported.

After enough of this, I actually got asked to help teach and did a couple of times a month for a little over a year. Really liked that too. Prepared and presented just like I would for a programming talk and that got really interesting as well.

I go down really strange rabbit holes when I'm researching to teach. Eventually, I even started blogging about it.

Like, the origins of Hercules:

https://www.readnotmisled.org/p/was-herculesjewish-biblical-...

Or does the math show that Solomon was potentially depressed?

https://www.readnotmisled.org/p/solomons-country-song

I don't write as often as I probably should, but I'm going to try to pick it up a little more in the future.

Anyway, I hope that answers your question. It basically boils down to people often not feeling like they fit in the church where they are, for one reason or another, and these mega churches are designed specifically to create an environment where there's no pressure to fit in. There's a lot of appeal to that.

Home, sleeping.

As an atheist, this is a challenge if you’re looking for community. These religious communities are organized around some common understanding of whatever sacred text they claim as truth. But it’s hard to feel as connected over disbelief and scepticism. Or maybe it’s all a multifactorial “Bowling Alone” problem that crosses religious and secular boundaries.

Amen. That was my experience.

> I wonder where all the younger atheists/humanists are

They’ve turned to Freemasonry and the Elks. Ha! No, millennials don’t believe in community organizations. Too creepy.

At home getting stoned and playing video games.

… only half-joking.