Megachurches and Emerging Megachurches: The 2013 List

When I looked at this article (Megachurches) in the May 2014 issue, I noticed several large churches within 20-25 miles of where I live in Barberton, Ohio. One is 6 miles away, the Clinton church. (Highpoint church) Akron is the county seat, 10 miles from Barberton, 20 from Clinton, but yet, does not rate anything on the list. This is rather odd, as Akron is not a small town. Instead, the area is loaded with small, some of them are baby-sized Churches of Christ/Christian Churches. A lot of them are “once were’s”–that is–they once were something great. You drive by a church that can sit 150-200 people, but there are only twenty cars in the parking lot every Sunday morning. What’s wrong? The growth was generational. Only one generation filled the church, then, after the kids grew up, the parents remain with the problems of a too-large building. There are, of course, the many, many methods of getting more to come and fill in empty seats, but it’s an iffy sort of thing. If the people don’t like it, there’s always another church down the road…and so on. I wonder, twenty years from now, if some of these megachurches within 25 miles of my house will be like the churches in Akron today. That is: mostly empty monster buildings, half the lights shut off all the time, and grass growing over the pavement in the back parking lot. I hope not. But knowing how fickle the population is; I think a generation needs to pass before anyone starts shouting “success” for a brand new style of church.