Loved by some and derided by others, evangelical megachurches have unquestionably changed the landscape of American Christianity with new technologies, cultural adaptations, and philosophies of ministry. At the same time, megachurches themselves have evolved over the last forty years, moving beyond early “seeker service” experiments to pioneer new forms of evangelistic worship and community outreach. This session—both an appreciation and a critique—combines case study fieldwork with insights from musicology and the social sciences to reflect on the unexpected ways megachurches continue to influence worship in American churches of all sizes.
Recent Media Resources
Playing Well with Others: Musical Collaboration in the Worship Service
Musical collaboration in worship can be rewarding: it can build relationships, enrich the musical life of a congregation, and add more colors, timbres, and textures.
Public Worship, Health Care, and Illness in Early Christianity
Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity preached and prayed about illness, pain, and health care and shaped practices of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and funerals in response to illness and injury, including during pandemics—all so that we can learn from their pastoral, theological, and practical instincts as we seek to be faithful witnesses to Christ in our own globally diverse contexts.
Morning Prayer with Nate Glasper and the 7:9 Project
Nate Glasper and the 7:9 Project, a multicultural group of Calvin University students, lead a time of morning song and prayer firmly grounded in scripture. Inspired by the vision of Revelation 7:9, this gathering reflects the beauty of “every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
Playing Well with Others: Musical Collaboration in the Worship Service
Musical collaboration in worship can be rewarding: it can build relationships, enrich the musical life of a congregation, and add more colors, timbres, and textures.
Public Worship, Health Care, and Illness in Early Christianity
Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity preached and prayed about illness, pain, and health care and shaped practices of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and funerals in response to illness and injury, including during pandemics—all so that we can learn from their pastoral, theological, and practical instincts as we seek to be faithful witnesses to Christ in our own globally diverse contexts.
Morning Prayer with Nate Glasper and the 7:9 Project
Nate Glasper and the 7:9 Project, a multicultural group of Calvin University students, lead a time of morning song and prayer firmly grounded in scripture. Inspired by the vision of Revelation 7:9, this gathering reflects the beauty of “every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
Wealth, Church, and Leitourgia
How did early Christians understand and practice wealth in relation to worship/service and care of the poor?