At this point in the game if you're someone who has yet to hear that our western civilization is in the process of shifting from a modern to a postmodern worldview then either you've been on sabbatical for about five to ten years or you are in denial. Everywhere you look this reality is being played out. An hour spent surfing online or scanning the books at your local Christian bookstore- even the most conservative ones, will demonstrate this point. The postmodern shift is happening and everyone is talking about it.

Okay, so with that being clear, why is it that I've seen, on three separate occasions over the last month or two, television and internet news coverage about the spread of the "mega-church" movement? Doesn't the mega-church philosophy largely fly in the face of the aims of postmodernly-sensitized Christianity? Aren't the mega-churches the very epitome of modern thinking? Well, yes. In many ways they are.

So how do we reconcile these two realities? Postmodernism is spreading like wildfire throughout the church in America, and has long since done so in the churches of Europe and Canada. So, that being the case, how are we to understand the apparent rise of the mega-church movement? Well, let me say that I think we can understand what's going on. I would argue that the reasons why the mega-churches are doing well is tied to their geographic location, their demographic appeal, and their counter-cultural approach. I say counter-cultural because of the very fact that they stand in opposition to postmodern thinking about reality.

However, I would also say that the ultimate demise of the mega-church is no less secure. The mega-church will pass away, or at least morph into something very different given enough time. The demise of the mega-church is inevitable; despite all appearances to the contrary today.


How Did We Get Here?

For much of the 20th century the Christian church held a prestigious place in American society. To a large extent the Church played the role of the moral caretaker of the nation. And during that time, when the vast majority of people took it to be a given that America was a "Christian nation" a peculiar thing began to happen around the country. Churches, sensing no need to go to the culture, began to form their identities around various "religious service packages". In these decades the churches of America largely defined themselves in opposition to the churches around them. Eventually the situation was such that the Christian population of America could pick and choose based on a variety of "ecclesial plans".

In many ways, even though today the West is in a decidedly post-Christian phase of its development, the Mega-Church movement has arisen as the pinnacle of this "religious services provider" model. So how does this happen? Well, as many have pointed out, the shift from modernism to postmodernism is neither a smooth nor distinct one. The shift happens over a long period of time. Certainly it may only be half-way through its phasing at this point in time. And so it's not surprising that the mega-church has arisen in our contemporary milieu.

Because we're only mid-phase in this culture shift its important to remember that America is still full of many people who see with "modern glasses"; and this is the population that the mega-churches appeal to. In addition, the mega-church is also thriving because it is very good at what it does. They have made an art of the religious services provider model. They are to American Evangelicals what Starbucks is to American coffee drinkers.

One more clue as to the success of the mega-churches lies in their location. How many mega-churches do you find in Seattle, Toronto, or New York? Well, none. None on the scale like what you see in places like Tennessee, Texas, and Georgia.

Modernism is not being displaced in the South nearly to the degree to which it is in the Northeast and in the West. Furthermore, when people in the South feel like the rest of the country is moving in a direction counter to what they are familiar with, it's even more understandable that they would develop a little bit of a "cluster mentality".

Because of the sheer size of these churches, that cluster mentality can lead to a sub-culture that exists almost impervious to the going-ons of the larger, surrounding culture. Involvement in a mega-church often means you can do almost everything within arms length of the mega-church itself. For example, involvement in mega-church culture allows you to exercise (in the in-house fitness centers), educate your kids (in the in-house school system), and play sports (in the in-house sports leagues and facilities). Not only does the mega-church offer convenience, but it also offers a homogeneousness that keeps the Church population largely separate from everyone else.

Now to be fair, there are mega-churches that are very seeker-focused. And they would tell you that they offer things like sports leagues and counseling services as a way to reach out to the larger culture. Still, for the most part, people who see life from a modern mindset can live very comfortably in a mega-church culture- unaware of the larger forces at work in the world . One suffers very little cognitive dissonance when one remains insulated from the outer society.

Still despite the flourishing of the mega-church in certain segments of society and in certain geographic regions of the country, in my mind, the fate of the mega-church movement is still sealed. History demonstrates that even in the midst of vast, far-reaching cultural change, remnants of the passing culture can still appear to thrive. As I've already said, it is in some ways the clustering of resistance to the larger cultural shift that causes the apparent, though only temporary, success of that sub-culture.

Lastly I would argue that because we are still very much in the middle of the postmodern shift, there is yet to emerge a real, tangible expression of postmodernly-sensitized church life in North American culture. In other words, there is not yet a compelling "on the ground" alternative to the modern church (which the mega-church is the penultimate expression of) in many people's perception. There are certainly a wide variety of Kingdom experiments going on, but nothing has really "caught on" yet.

And so to some degree much of the force behind the Emerging Church still lies in the realm of thought- and of course- conversation; online and otherwise. Over time though I trust that a compelling version, or even better, several co-existing versions of the postmodern church will "emerge". And by the time that's happened I really think we will be seeing a mega-church movement, still immersed in modernist worldview, truly standing on its last legs.