Megachurch

Background

The Korean term daehyeong gyohoe ("large church") is a rendering of the English word "megachurch." It has no official definition established by law or by any denomination. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research in the United States defines a megachurch as a Protestant church that draws 2,000 or more people to its weekend services, and most research and media coverage, both in Korea and abroad, follow this standard. The criterion counts the number of people who actually attend worship rather than the number of registered members on the church rolls. Researchers Scott Thumma and Dave Travis argued that once attendance reaches this level, a church's organization and character change significantly.

Churches that drew large crowds existed earlier. The 6,000-seat Metropolitan Tabernacle, opened in London in 1861 by Charles Spurgeon, is often cited as the first modern evangelical megachurch. In the United States, Angelus Temple, founded in Los Angeles in 1923 by Aimee Semple McPherson, is cited as the first example.

Development

Megachurches in the United States grew rapidly during the twentieth century, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. In South Korea, megachurches emerged, chiefly in Seoul, as industrialization and urbanization advanced after the Korean War and as the church grew dramatically. Thumma observed that amid rapid modernization, megachurches played a major role in helping migrants who had moved to Seoul adapt to urban life and form communities.

The most prominent example is Yoido Full Gospel Church, founded by Pastor David Yonggi Cho and affiliated with the Assemblies of God of Korea. Its growth has been documented by Shin Kwang-eun, who has long studied megachurches critically. According to his account, the church began with five people, surpassed an attendance of 2,000 within five years, reached 10,000 within fourteen years, and exceeded 100,000 before its twentieth year. For three years beginning in 1987, it reportedly grew by 100,000 people each year.

Results and Influence

The Hartford Institute and Leadership Network, a Christian nonprofit foundation, once compiled data on megachurches worldwide. In that survey, Seoul ranked first among the world's cities in megachurch Sunday attendance, with approximately 825,000 worshipers. With 17 megachurches, it ranked third in the number of such churches, after Houston (38) and Dallas (19) in the United States. According to the same data, the average attendance of American megachurches was about 2,750, while megachurches in cities outside the United States were larger, averaging roughly 6,000. The survey also noted that megachurches outside the United States often build vertically and tend to bring together members from a wide range of social classes.

Megachurches typically operate a variety of educational and social programs in addition to worship services. In South Korea, their operating methods, such as small-group structures, satellite churches established in other areas, and mission and relief work, have been cited as growth models for other churches to emulate.

Assessment

Supporters of megachurches point to the community they have provided for urban migrants and to their capacity for large-scale mission and relief work. Some also argue that the early church in Jerusalem was itself a large congregation numbering in the thousands.

Critics take issue with the tendency to treat growth as an end in itself. Shin Kwang-eun defined the megachurch as "a church that grows beyond its limits" and treated the phenomenon not merely as a matter of size but as a problem of growth-centered ideology. Other frequently raised points of controversy in the Korean church include the concentration of authority in a single senior pastor, hereditary pastoral succession, the so-called "horizontal migration" of members from small churches to large ones, and excessive church building projects. Some, however, counter that such problems depend on how a church is run rather than on its size.