Black megachurches’ mega-outreach
Megachurches have mega-programs. Black churches have always emphasized social services. Now the growing number of predominantly African-American megachurches are aggressively expanding outreach and economic development efforts in ways that are transforming entire communities.
The economic development work of black megachurches is relatively new and unstudied, though half have started their own community development corporations, according to Tamelyn Tucker-Worgs, a Hood College assistant professor who researches black megachurches. These CDCs develop housing, new businesses, health clinics and social programs of all kinds. That puts them among the one or two percent of congregations nationally that take on such ambitious programs, says University of Arizona sociologist Mark Chaves. Most focus on emergency shelter and food or programs for substance abuse and domestic abuse.
There are at least 740 U.S. megachurches, which have average Sunday attendance of 2,000 or more. At least 65 are largely black, Tucker-Worgs says. Some are new churches, but many are old ones with growing memberships. While white megachurches are predominately suburban, about half the black megachurches are in cities and have members who commute from the suburbs, she says. The largest numbers are in the Atlanta and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas.
Black churches have always been “one-stop shops” because some other means of access to community services were off limits, says Brad R. Braxton, assistant professor of homiletics and Biblical studies at Wake Forest University. What’s new is the scale of investment and ambition among black megachurches, which draw on the financial muscle of the middle class.
Questions for reporters
• It’s a megachurch, but is it black? Many megachurches are integrated. Houston’s Lakewood Church, for instance, says its membership is 30 percent black, 30 percent Latino and 40 percent white. Robert Franklin, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, says “black” churches share some or most of these traditional hallmarks: a largely African-American congregation with an African-American senior pastor and lay leaders; a traditionally African-American culture of worship, usually including emotional expressiveness and call and response. Some churches, Franklin says, are in transition out of this traditional style.
• Look for ways that a churches’ programs are affecting lives of those outside its own walls, as well as the lives of members who give time and money to them.
• What are black megachurches’ attitudes toward government money? The Bush Administration’s faith-based initiative divided black clergy. Some embraced the idea. Others worried it would shift attention away from political solutions, limit their ability to share the Gospel, or absolve government of responsibility for the poor.
• Ask how a church’s theology informs its view of its obligations to its community. For example, some 20 percent of black megachurches preach a type of “prosperity” gospel, according to Franklin. These churches are more likely to work to develop individuals, while churches with a community orientation do more community development, according to James Shopshire, professor of the sociology of religion at Wesley Theological Seminary.
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National sources
• R. Drew Smith is director of the Public Influences of African-American Churches Project and scholar-in-residence at the Leadership Center at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He is a Baptist minister and political scientist. He has studied and written about black megachurches, and he edited New Day Begun: African American Churches and Civic Culture in Post-Civil Rights America (Duke University Press, 2003) Contact 404-681-2800 ext. 2186, rdsmith@indyweb.net.
• Robert M. Franklin is president of Morehouse College in Atlanta. He wrote Another Day’s Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis (Fortress Press, 1997). He is an ordained minister and expert on ethical thought in African-American church life and politics. Franklin says megachurches tend toward a noncritical theological message of possibility that is attractive to people who are shopping for a church and have negative associations with “old-fashioned” religion. Contact 404-215-2645, rfranklin@morehouse.edu.
• Tamelyn Tucker-Worgs, assistant professor of political science at Hood College in Frederick, Md., wrote her doctoral dissertation on black megachurches and their role in community development. In addition to researching megachurches, she teaches African-American religions, the politics of the black church and black liberation theology. Contact 301-696-3686, tuckerworgss@hermes.hood.edu.
• Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, is an expert in African-American religion and social change. She says that black churches have always provided social services but that megachurches do it on a larger scale. Contact 207-872-3133, ctgilkes@colby.edu.
• Mark Chaves, professor and head of the sociology department at the University of Arizona, has written extensively about religious congregations and social services. He studies differences between black and white congregations. Chaves’ Congregations in America (Harvard University Press, 2004) has a chapter on social services. He surveyed a nationally representative sample of religious congregations in 1998. Contact 520-626-2560, mchaves@u.arizona.edu.
• Peter Paris, Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, wrote The Social Teaching of the Black Churches (Fortress Press, 1985), a widely used seminary text. He is an ordained Baptist minister, serves on the Princeton Affordable Housing Commission and is president of the board of trustees of the Princeton Young Achievers. He can discuss how black church values and traditions work in megachurch community development activities. Contact 609-921-8300, peter.paris@ptsem.edu.
• Michael Leo Owens, assistant professor in the political science department at Emory University in Atlanta, has written extensively about black churches, government policy and black-church affiliated community development programs. His dissertation, “Pulpits and Policy: The Politics of Black Church-Based Community Development Corporations in New York City, 1980-2000” is available online through Emory University. Contact 404-727-9322, mowens4@emory.edu.
• John Vaughn, is founder of Church Growth Today and the Megachurch Research Center in Bolivar, Mo. He conducts research on the growth, plateau, and decline of new and established megachurches. He is past president and founding editor of the American Society for Church Growth. Vaughn says that in 1970, there were just 10 non-Catholic churches with an average Sunday attendance of more than 2,000; in 1980 there were 50; in 1985, 100; in 2000, 500; and in 2004, there are 835, with roughly 3 million members total. Contact 417-326-3826, jv@churchgrowthtoday.com.
• Scott L. Thumma, a sociologist of religion, focused on African-American megachurches in his dissertation. He teaches at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut and is affiliated with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. He continues to research megachurch issues. Contact 860-509-9571, sthumma@hartsem.edu.
Background
• See a database of U.S. megachurches organized by denomination and state at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Scott Thumma, who compiled the data, does not specify which churches are African-American. However, a number of black megachurches can be found by searching for the denominations that are historically black (American Methodist Episcopal, American Methodist Episcopal Zion, Church of God in Christ, Christian Methodist Episcopal, for example). Thumma estimates that 10 percent of megachurches have ties with historically black denominations.
• A Dec. 30, 2003, Christian Science Monitor article reports that while small and medium-sized churches of almost every faith are losing members, megachurches are growing.
• Read an Aug. 25, 2002, Baltimore Sun article republished by Religion News Blog describing the growth of black megachurches and neo-Pentecostalism.
• Order “The State of Black America 2000″ from the National Urban League. In it, R. Drew Smith and Tamelyn Tucker-Worgs offer some of the first data on black megachurches, the results of a survey of more than 50 churches. They found that black megachurches are more involved politically and with community development than smaller black churches. Contact Rose Jefferson in public relations, 212-558-5316.
Regional sources
• Nancy Ammerman, a sociologist of religion at Boston University’s School of Theology, studies American congregations and their relationships to their communities. She wrote Congregation and Community (Rutgers University Press, 1997), which looked at neighborhood change around 23 congregations across the country. Contact 617-353-3066, nta@bu.edu.
• Floyd Flake, former U.S. congressman (1986-97), is senior pastor of the 17,000-member Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica, Queens. The church and its nonprofit corporation claim assets of more than $70 million and an annual budget of $30 million for religious and community development activities. He is also president of Edison Charter Schools, the nation’s largest schooling corporation, and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Social and Economic Policy. He co-authored The Way of the Bootstrapper: Nine Action Steps for Achieving Your Dreams (HarperSanFrancisco, 2000). Contact his assistant, Tara Patrick, at 718-206-4600 ext. 3020, tarap@allencathedral.org.
• James M. Shopshire, professor of the sociology of religion at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., is conducting research on black megachurches, focusing first on the dozen black megachurches (and another dozen slightly smaller ones) in predominantly black Prince George’s County, Md. Contact 202-885-8616, jshopshire@wesleysem.edu or jshopshire@aol.com.
• Three University of Maryland researchers have studied black and white megachurches in that state. See their map, “Spatial Distribution of Predominantly Black Megachurches by Zip Codes and Location of Major Highways in Maryland.” Contact Wayne V. McIntosh, associate professor of government and politics, 301-405-4134, wmcintosh@gvpt.umd.edu; Irwin L. Morris, associate professor of government and politics, 301-405-8633, imorris@gvpt.umd.edu; and Lynne Garcia, graduate student in government and politics, 301-405-4156, lgarcia@gvpt.umd.edu.
• Cheryl J. Sanders is professor of Christian ethics at Howard University School of Divinity and senior pastor of the Third Street Church of God in Washington, D.C. She has written extensively on race and culture and on the holiness-Pentecostal experience in African-American religion and culture. She can discuss the tradition of community work among black churches. Contact 202-806-0632.
• Bethel AME Church in Baltimore has 14,500 members, a school, a Saturday meal for the hungry, a nurses unit ministry, a prison ministry and ministries for substance abuse, the hearing-impaired and cancer patients. Contact Frank M. Reid III, senior pastor, or Marconi Combs, media relations, 410-523-4273.
• Mount Pleasant Church in Baltimore, with an average weekly attendance of 4,000, has ministries for crisis pregnancy, inmates and substance abuse. It also runs a transition program for ex-convicts that offers housing, education and training for women, recovering addicts and others. Contact senior pastor Clifford M. Johnson Jr., 410-325-3080.
• Allison Calhoun-Brown, associate professor of political science at Georgia State University, wrote the online article “Upon This Rock: The Black Church, Nonviolence, and the Civil Rights Movement,” published in 2000 by the American Political Science Association. Her expertise is in religion and politics, including the political influence of African-American churches. Contact 404-651-4836, acalhounbrown@gsu.edu.
• Said L. Sewell III is an assistant professor of political science and public administration at the State University of West Georgia. His doctoral dissertation was titled “A Quantitative Analysis of Black Baptist Pastors’ Perceptions and Efforts Toward Community Development in Atlanta.” His areas of specialty include American government, public budgeting, state and local finance, African-American studies and religion and politics. Contact 770-836-4573.
• Michael I.N. Dash is associate professor of ministry and context at the Interdenominational Theological Center graduate professional school of theology in Atlanta. He is an ordained United Methodist minister and co-author of The Shape of Zion: Leadership and Life in Black Churches (Pilgrim Press, 2003). Contact 404-527-7762, mdash@itc.edu.
• Brad R. Braxton is assistant professor of homiletics and Biblical studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He can discuss how black megachurches preach in a way that brings in the kinds of financial contributions that support their community development efforts. Contact 336-758-4149, braxtob@wfu.edu.
• Alonzo Johnson is an adjunct faculty member in the department of theology and religious thought at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He co-edited ‘Ain’t Gonna Lay My ‘Ligion Down’: African-American Religion in the South (University of South Carolina Press, 1996). Contact 803-777-9119 (department), jthedean@aol.com.
• New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., claims 25,000 members and more than 40 ministries. The church joined with others to found the South Decalb Federal Church Credit Union. It also built a $50 million community complex whose ministries include a prison outreach program. The church has a fitness center, youth development department and a television production facility. Senior pastor Eddie L. Long’s Taking Authority is broadcast in the United States, the Bahamas and England. Contact Robin May, Long’s administrative assistant, 678-824-1059.
• Walter Malone Jr., a Baptist minister, founded the 3,600-member Canaan Missionary Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., and began a church-based community development corporation. He wrote From Holy Power to Holy Profits: The Black Church and Community Economic Empowerment (African American Images, 1997). Contact 502-459-5578.
• Sekou M. Franklin is assistant professor of political science at Middle Tennessee State University. He says that black megachurches, despite their delivery of social service programs, are too hierarchical and detract from secular sources of black political power. He argues that religious or sectarian leadership may depoliticize blacks. Contact Franklin at 615-904-8232, franklin@mtsu.edu.
• Sherri L. Wallace is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Louisville. She has published on community economic development strategies in urban areas and faith-based organizations and has done some research on black megachurches, though she is not an expert on the churches in the Louisville area. Contact 502-852-4432, slwall08@louisville.edu.
• David K. Ryden, associate professor and Towsley Research Scholar at Hope College in Holland, Mich., can discuss issues of black churches, charitable choice and social service delivery and how the churches’ relationship with government has evolved from confrontation to cooperation. Contact 616-395-7545, ryden@hope.edu.
• Sociologist K. Sue Jewell, assistant professor of African-American and African studies at Ohio State University, wrote Survival of the African American Family: The Institutional Impact of U.S. Social Policy (Praeger Publishers, 2003). She can talk about government funding of black communities and the role of black churches in social services. Contact 614-688-8216, Jewell.3@osu.edu.
• Shayne Lee is an assistant professor in the department of sociology at the University of Houston. He studies contemporary developments in African-American religion and has focused, among other things, on African-American Baptists on a national and congregational level and, most recently, on the rapid rise of Bishop T.D. Jakes and his megachurch as a metaphor for the emergence of a “new black church.” Contact 713-743-3960.
• The Potter’s House is the Dallas megachurch made famous by its charismatic senior pastor, T.D. Jakes. The church claims 28,000 members - 77 percent of them black, 13 percent white and 7 percent Latino. The church has nearly 60 ministries, including a literacy program, AIDS and homeless outreach, male mentors and debutantes. Its prison ministry includes the Prison Satellite Network Broadcasting, reaching 260 prisons nationally. Contact 214-331-0954.
• Windsor Village, a United Methodist church in Houston with 13,500 members, formed a community development corporation to build 104,000 square feet of housing, commercial space, a bank branch, a community college, clinic, nutritional program, pharmacy, optical center, office suites and a conference center with the city’s fifth-largest banquet facility. It is also building a subdivision with 452 single-family homes. The CDC employs 26 people full time and 118 part time. The church has a program at four low-income housing projects that reaches 900 families, most below poverty level. Contact the senior pastor, the Rev. Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, 713-723-8187, mail@kingdombuilders.com.
• Anthony B. Pinn is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and professor of religious studies at Rice University in Houston. Pinn questions whether megachurches are too big to reach individual parishioners. He is skeptical of the “prosperity gospel” preached in some black megachurches, with its emphasis on personal wealth and acquisition and what Pinn says is a lack of emphasis on community service and charity. Contact 713-348-2710, pinn@rice.edu.
• Donald E. Miller, chairman of the University of Southern California School of Religion and executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, is a sociologist of religion. He has studied community development in Los Angeles since 1992 and can offer a historical look at church activities in the region and discuss trends in church-initiated community development there. Contact 213-740-8562, demiller@usc.edu.
• James Lance Taylor is an assistant professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. He has done research on contemporary black politics and political involvement, including the Million Man March, and he wrote a chapter for the book Religious Leaders and Faith-Based Politics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2002). Contact 415-422-5063.
• The First AME Church, the oldest black congregation in Los Angeles, was founded by a former slave in 1872 and claims 18,000 members. It has a large list of social services, from adoption and foster care to entrepreneurial training and 40 units of housing for people with disabilities. The church runs a school and a housing corporation. It also has a business incubator and venture capital fund. Contact senior minister Cecil L. Murray, 323-730-9180, famechurch@famechurch.org.
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