Churches- the buildings having religious connotation of Christians, hide certain intricate facts about their economy. The luxurious look of these churches is on the behalf of these economy which maintain its fascinating structure.
Its pastors and popes operate a major income of lack per month. The churches maintain the luxury and opulence a little on the part of devotees but the rest came from where- an astonishing fact.
Here is an exploration about the hidden facts of churches which contribute all together. As Lakewood Church, is under the pastorate of Joel Osteen which has honor to led the biggest megachurch of in the United States. He influenced people through his motivating sermons.
Premier Christianity explored a fact that Pastor Carl Lentz influenced Justin Bieber ( a pop singer, songwriter and actor) and assisted him to develop his christian religion. The pastor held a religious gathering through worship in the city of New York at Hillsong Church. His religious worships mostly base on the form of musical variety.
Many well known celebrities as Selena Gomez, Hailey Baldwin, Chris Pratt, Bono and the Kardashians all were there at a church congregation and participated through singing God's praise.
The atmosphere was like a club consisting of albums, DVDs and books which helped $100 million economy of church according to People in 2014.
These mega churches have their various locations across the city not only on places but also has access to online system.
Life church has almost 13 locations in United States and also has online streaming system under the name of Pastor Craig Groeschel. Through multimedia streaming these churches are spreading the religious christian beliefs across U.S and world.
In 1996, Groeschel had the foundation which until now have 3,000 worshipers from 140 countries. The online streaming further assists its devotee to watch online streaming of virtual campus , if they miss the weekly congregation due to some personal reason.
On his article on VICE, Rob Fee talked about his income and weekly package which is $400. He said the apparent opulence of the megachurches did not meet beneath the surface realities. Many at churches are fired due to economic crisis. Many of them work for above mentioned fee, first volunteers are hired and then fired due to economic issues.
While, looking at the staff issues we can nit neglect the fact of pastor who enjoyed the status of millionaire at the same time.
Rob Fee too was fired from church when he was going to be a father. He added" I can only hope that people who run churches as if they’re their personal bank accounts, tossing people aside, realize the error in their ways,”.
In 2015, the Mars Hill Church was ended because of its scandals. Previously, the church was criticized again and again but $210,000 marketing plan declared its demise.
The church promoted Pastor Mark Driscoll’s book and ranked it on first position in New York Times. The success of the book marked the decline of Church.
The various books as Friendship, Life and The Truth About Sex remained successful book before the strategies fro marketing appear on the surface.
Different stratagems were used by Mars Hill to manipulate the sales number up to $25,000. The World Magazine opened the Pandora box in front of public.
Megachurches offer a list of advantages, its not only for worshipers but also mark a class difference in society.
According to Trend Chaser, at megachurches one has many options as many groups and services to have. Its not the place for bashful or shy but one interesting in social grouping, it's perfect for them.
Trend Chaser writes “Yup, even churches can have the ‘cool kids,’” and adds further “This can be difficult for people who get anxious at social gatherings.”.
So, the one visiting the megachurches will be the center of attraction and a shy can not afford it , this scares him/her.
The New Birth Missionary Baptist Church is delivering the service of soft evangelism in the form of recordings..
The purpose of this online system is to learn about religion and christian preaching at any where, dose not matter that if you are at home, in your car you can avail these blessings.
The funeral of popular rapper, who was killed in car accident in 2002, was decided to held at megachurch of unincorporated DeKalb County in Georgia.
This church has 15,000 devotees which marked it to host the funeral of rapper.
In 1927, Second Baptist took its initial start as a member of Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. currently, it is operating under Pastor Dr. Ed Young and enjoying the status of fifth largest church of United States.
It has attendants of more than 63,000 people as recorded in congregation at Houston, Texas. While still this number is rapidly moving upward.
The number of devotees was just 500 in 1978 which was increased to 63,000 under Young.
This increase in worshipers also affected the structure of church now it is considered a town operating at the budget of $55 million.
Let's have a look at the boundary of Second Baptist Church Houston, by the words of Dr. Ed Young. He said “a town within a city,” why?
As it is operating an individual town having information desks, fitness center, worship place, a hotel, a K-12, automotive repair center, book store and school. These all are run annually at the budget of $55 million per year.
Dr. Ed Young ambitious evangelism services did not end here. He is enthusiastic to build more campuses within movie theater or empty places. In 2006, he expressed that he had a budget of $84 million to spent at three places in Huston.
His son too is interested in his fathers profession and heading a church greater than his father.
Bishop T.D. Jakes, a writer and pastor, is heading another megachurch -The Potter’s House. The church has devotees number up to 30,000 which all are motivated to buy the book of his and his daughters. Isn't the indirect link of religion and marketing.
His books names are Destiny, Let It Go and Instinct you can also search other names via internet on Potter's site which up to some extent depend on the theme of high moral values.
In 1996, The Potter’s House was founded on Dallas, Texas. Jake flourished the church in different campuses in later years at the cost of $45 million.
The later four campuses can be found at Dallas, North Dallas, Denver and Fort Worth.
West Angeles Church of God is place where parishioners have a chance to have a look at bright shinning pastors preaching.
Among star studded pastors are Denzel Washington, Magic Johnson, Stevie Wonder, Angela Bassett, and her husband Courtney Vance. In 1969, Pator Charles held the earlier congregation including omly 40 parishioners .
In 1943, Elder Clarence E. Church put the foundation of of church in Dallas, Texas. Later it was developed with four campuses spending the money of $45 million. The places of these four campuses are North Dallas, Dallas, Denver and Fort Worth.
As discussed earlier Dr. Ed son too head the pastorate of another megachurch.
First, he started his career as young associate pastor in Second Southern Baptist having a parishioners number of only thirty families at rented place.
Later, he developed his own megachurch under the name of Fellowship Church.
His father held the congregation with maximum number of worshipers of 63,000 people, he too held the congregation including 20,000 people not as much as in his father sermon but still a big number.
Interesting! Young's book reach the best selling book reached the number as like any others pastor's book. In New York and Amazon and his service on TV always mark a hit.
Is it heredity to head the pastorate of a church?
The pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church, of Southern California expressed his political thoughts about president Barack Obama in 2009.
No doubts, his thoughts created a bizarre situation among his parishioners as his thought were reflecting conventional and old beliefs of societal problems. Which were contradicting his followers and supporters of Barack Obama.
Later, pastor Rick Warren expressed Obama view on religion as “absolutely unfriendly” which meant he did not have any association with religion.
He inferred that civil rights and religious freedom will cause issues in next ten years. He was trying to say that religious freedom and social freedom are at opposite ends.
Saddleback Valley Community Church, is notorious for many reasons. This Lake Forest Californian church is specially famous for tithing reverse of income
This mean the pastor Rick Warren and his wife services income is sent back to Orange County church taking only 10% of their income.
He said his spending for church are obvious and clear. He added:
“That was actually the easy part, what to do with the money — just give it away because I’m storing up treasures in heaven.” while writing in BeliefNet.
Joel Osteen is heading the pastorate of greatest church of United States, i-e Lakewood Church. The church is offering different worship and group services including 16,000 plus seat building per week.
It too has maximum number of 52,000 of parishioners per week.
Joel Osteen is involved in greatest Evangelical activities not only through churches but also through multimedia and broadcasting.
His sermons are of pure christian belief nor reflecting Catholics nor protestant ideas. His viral sermons are not only in English but in French also for understanding.
In 1959, John Osteen and his second spouse Dolores selected feed store for their religious services.
The Compaq Center later developed into a massive church in Huston after their 60 years hard work. $13 million was paid initially for thirty year fare.
Further opulence was added by Joel Osteen of $95 million.The ornamentation of the church includes various activities as carpeted walls, jumbotron screens and 14,000 and other luxurious elements. Thus developing it from arena like church to a brilliant one.
According to 2008 research, The shift from 2005 budget was the rise of $2 million,the annual budget of Lakewood church became $70 million.
Joel Osteen on becoming the pastor after his father increased services and added in the glory of church. He worked on various different services to add something more in church.
There is rapid increase in its parishioners every week which force Joel to move church to Compaq Center so that greater congregation can take place at Compaq.
The increase of 30,000 devotees ever week mark the difference of Lakewood from other megachurches.
Joel Osteen being enjoying the status of megachurch pastor is not qualified as other pastors are. He was a shy and anxious man afraid of public speaking,
He do not have any proper degree all that he learnt is from his father. Even he did no studied divinity but still doing well because of his father and exposure.
How an uneducated person can act the pastor of one of the biggest megachurch? A bizarre question
His father death paved his way to Lakewood’s clergy, he started to get a hansom salary of $200,000 without having any degree.
Due to fact, he faced criticism by megachurch naysayers of being not capable of getting the salary.
Joel Osteen took a strong financial step five years back, he denied from receiving $200,000 annual salary from Lakewood Church.
In 2017, his net worth is $40 to $60 million which includes his assets and his home has worth of $10 million. He is currently earning from his seven book selling.
Although, his luxurious lifestyle is a reflection of anti religion style. The teaching of religion asks for minimalist approach towards life.
The religious christian traditions offer the teaching of life which must be simple not a materialistic one. It does not teach to spend a life of opulence and luxury.
Megachurches also became the reason of revival of concerts. The TV shows that cover the mega churches began to climb the peaks of success.
X Factor, show which was hosted in the megachurches, attract millions of people from all over the world. The megachurches earn millions of dollars by hosting its special megachurches events.
The Osteen seminars on religious beliefs were live covered by large number of TV channels. Millions of people started to obey the beliefs of the great pastor.
Hall of seminar was illuminated with magnificent lights, cameras on all sides to cover each gesture of Osteen, which created an amazing inspirational environment within the hall.
Prosperity theology was preached by "Osteen". According to this theory nothing could happen without the God will. All the blessings are due to god will, either physical health or financial one.
Pastor also narrate that if anyone wants to achieve a goal, the donations that had contributed to the church by particular person will help that guy in success.
The theory also became the spot point of criticism by large number of people. Tara Isabella argued that belief vary a lot depending upon the situations of different areas and people.
Some people consider the particular type of socialism and styles of politics as their belief.
The concept of megachurches not only flourished in the united states of America. But it also marks an inspirational impact on rest of the world.
The biggest megachurch of the world is situated in South Korea, named as "Yoido Full Gospel". The megachurch has an astonishing membership in the world. The membership of this church has reached about 830,000.
The greatest megachurch is located in Seoul, which serve as the capital of South Korea. The church built by the collaboration of David Yonggi with Choi Ja-shil in 1958.
The major reason behind the success of this great mega church, the campaign that was started to promote the religion and beliefs of this church.
The basic motto of David Yongi was to give equal representation to women in the administration era. The concept was considered as awkward in the megachurches and other small churches.
The concept of women representation is still not adopted by most of the Christian believers in the world. There are limited number of women who are serving as pastor in the churches, including Victoria Osteen.
Yoidi also tried to promote his idea by opening the various worship centers called as 'Cells". The basic purpose of these cells was to provide variety of services in the churches.
Large number of women were given with membership in cells in 1961, which later somehow change the traditional concept of men in the churches.
David Yonggi Cho laid the foundation of the " Yoido Full Gospel Church" in 1958. Yonggi and his church mate effort a lot to promote their own religion through the church.
Large number of their efforts are attributed to the publicity of the church, the most prominent of which was door to door campaigns. The efforts flourished to the large number of attendants on the door of church.
Soon Yoido became unbeatable among the world of churches, as the number of followers exceeds to 50,000 believers.
The Crystal Cathedral is situated in California, U.S. The has the facility to accommodate about 2,890 worshipers at a time. The crystal cathedral is ranked as the most famous megachurch of America.
One of the worshiper of crystal cathedral, Robert H.Schuller laid the foundation of another church that was similar to crystal. The church was named as the "Garden Grove Community " in 1955.
The church failed to attract the visitors and began to diminished. As the church was given the status of glass building industry of the world.
The crystal cathedral has taken large number of loans from bank, and was unable to pay his debts, and achieved the status of bankrupt in 2010.
The crystal cathedral was purchased by "Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange" and later attain the status of shepherd's Grove.
First Church was built in united states of America by the "Rex Humbard" in 1958. It was first ever built megachurch in America, as reported by the "Birds Research'.
Today the church on the list of top three megachurches in terms of visitors. The church is situated in the Ohio state along the Ohio river.
The church has enjoyed fame till 1980. Later the church was closed due to fewest attendants. It was closed on legal basis by the law.
The church consists of large worship hall and nearby TV hall. The church became the property of "Ernest Angley" in 1994. Now the church is known by the name of "Grace Cathedral".
Warren Birds elaborated one of the most important church of history referred to as "Akron Baptist Temple". The church begins its religious teachings in 1934. The "Dallas Billington" was crowned as the major founder of this church.
Originally the church was referred to as the Sunday school, due to the reason that people visit the church on weekend.
The people of that era found the church as relaxing and peaceful for their souls. Around 4,000 people began to visit the church on every Sunday.
The church was characterized by large number of other facilities except worship. There was nursery for little innocent kids, a gym to make sure the physical fitness along with soul.
One of the eldest and famous traditional church of U.S was "Philadelphia’s Tindley Temple". The church has enjoyed maximum fame among the all the churches.
Thousands of Black congregants of the U.S along with many other Bible believers gathered at the church in thousands of numbers.
The crowd of people attracted towards the Tindley because of the unique holy spirits and spiritual gifts, that was sprinkled on the attendants.
The specific religious songs were sung for the purpose of adoration, the most prominent of these was "We Shall Overcome". The Tindley fall from the heights of fame and now it’s no more called as megachurch.
Some trends or traditions of churches are changed with the changing era. This is need of time that the churches have to throw away the damaging old traditions. The most prominent of which is decrease in fame and popularity of some churches with time.
One of the oldest churches that became successful in maintenance of its name in the world of churches is, "The Moody Church of Chicago" as it maintains its number of its attendants, 2,000 per week.
Primarily the "The Moody Church of Chicago" was referred to as the "Chicago avenue Church'. The church was built by D.L Moody in 1876. This church was having the capability to accommodate about 10,000 of believers.
The church accommodation was declined to about 4,000 after the death of Moody.
The mega churches are accompanied by large mega events on weekly basis, much like that of the conventional churches. Huge crowd attend these churches to have the spiritual peace thorough the preaching of Bible.
Mega churches attract about two thousand people every weekend. The mega churches are working for the religious uplift of the attendants. Attendants are served with blending of Bible preaching and entertainment, which became the main reason of their popularity in the whole world.
A survey has been conducted on the attendants of mega churches on annual basis by "Harvard Institute of Religion Research", which has shown that almost six million of U.S people have attended the megachurches on monthly or weekly basis in 2011.
This make the mega churches the fast money-making tool. As the mega churches earn about 6.5 million dollars on annual basis.
One of the religious professors of Christianity, "Scott Thumma" has conducted a research on the total revenue of mega churches and it has been determined that much of its revenue is consumed by the salaries of its workers
The administrators of mega churches have focused a lot on the area and structure, that's the reason from past few years there has been revolution in the architectural style of mega churches. The area of nine major megachurches has multiply from 2000-2007.
The workers of these churches enjoy handsome amount of salary from mega churches. The salary of workers and pastors vary from one another on the basis of their previous working experience at various churches.
The mega churches pay average of about $83,064 to $99,689. However, the posters having past experience of world-famous churches such as Texas church. As the "Joel Osteen" enjoy the salary package of about $200,000.
The traditional church visitors of vary greatly from that of regular attendants of megachurches. The traditional visitors are aged and poor, although other are young and wealthy, as proved by "Thumma and Warren Bird” through research.
The traditional visitors earn a notable less money as compared to that of younger. The goers earn high amount of money per year as compared to the traditional ones, $100,000.
There is a significant difference in the ages of goers and traditional attendants of megachurches. The most of the traditional attendants fall in the age group of forty.
There is a significant difference in the ages of goers and traditional attendants of megachurches. The most of the traditional attendants fall in the age group of forty.
While the goers are much younger in comparison to the traditional ones. The conventional attendants are married, while most of the younger and wealthy goers are not have chosen their partner yet.
Megachurches are characterized by huge smiling crowds. Commentators of mega churches don't criticize to the deep level. As mega churches are surrounded by luxuriousness all around. The commentators are therefore not narrow minded.
The churches facilitate every worker who is linked with them from books sellers to DVDs. Mega churches provide platform to all of those, who invested in the development.
Mega churches are often termed as "McChurch", as they are not only the place of worship and spiritual peace, but also offer entertainment to the visitors.
As the leaders of these churches, not only regulate the worship, but also act as business administrators. They are performing multiple functions at a time, including worships, wealth and entertainment.