The Black Megachurch: Theology, Gender, and the Politics of Public Engagement

2--“GET ON BOARD LITTLE CHILDREN,THERE’S ROOM FOR MANY MORE”: The Black Megachurch Phenomenon

21 Chapter 2 “GET ON BOARD LITTLE CHILDREN, THERE’S ROOM FOR MANY MORE” The Black Megachurch Phenomenon In 2000 Pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant, at twenty-nine years old, convened a group of forty-three people for Bible study in his living room. By 2007 that group of forty-three had grown to over six thousand. Bryant was the founding pastor of the Empowerment Temple African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, a megachurch whose members presently worship in a former industrial warehouse in northwest Baltimore. When asked about this phenomenal growth Pastor Bryant said that Empowerment Temple fills an important niche that had been neglected in many other churches—what he calls “the hip-hop community.”1 In contrast to this newly established megachurch, New Shiloh Baptist Church, also in Baltimore, was founded over a century earlier in 1902.According to New Shiloh’s pastor, Dr. Harold Carter Sr., New Shiloh first developed in response to the needs of the southern black migrants to Baltimore who came north looking for work and a better life. When Dr. Carter Sr. first arrived at New Shiloh in 1965 it already had a large congregation of eight hundred members . In 1990 New Shiloh built a new sanctuary to accommodate the growing numbers, and by 2007 there were over six thousand members.2 These two churches, about five miles apart, illustrate the growing black megachurch phenomenon. Including Empowerment Temple and New Shiloh, 22 THE BLACK MEGACHURCH there are 23 black megachurches in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. corridor alone. These churches, as well as the other 147 black megachurches identified in this study, have increasingly gained attention as their massive structures dot the landscapes of metropolitan areas across the country. The edifices range from domed buildings (like New Shiloh), to the warehouse“big-box” churches (like Empowerment Temple), to the very large “traditional” church complete with a church steeple and stained-glass windows. Often they consist of multiple building complexes—with different buildings housing different activities. For example,in 2000 Faithful Central Bible Church,a black megachurch in Los Angeles, California, purchased the 17,500-seat Los Angeles Forum, the former home of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team. The Forum was added to three other large-capacity buildings that the church had purchased since 1982 (when the current pastor, Kenneth Ulmer, came to the church) to accommodate rapidly increasing membership numbers.3 Though most megachurches do not have facilities as expansive as Faithful Central, their sheer sizes and the fact that so many of them have developed in a relatively short time period demand our attention. The churches in this study have a variety of “ministries” that organize the many different (spiritual and worldly) functions of the church. They have parking ,transportation,and security ministries that help churchgoers get in and out of the building on Sunday morning. They have ministries strictly focused on evangelizing and proselytizing. They have ministries that encourage spiritual growth such as Bible study classes, Sunday school classes, and Christian education . They have ministries for singles, married couples, children, and seniors. They go skiing,have mixers and retreats,and hold golf benefits,choral concerts, and dramatic productions. Some have black cultural enrichment ministries, and many have social and political outreach ministries, which are of particular importance to this study. Black megachurches utilize technology in their outreach and worship functions more so than the average church. During church services most utilize sophisticated media technology such as PowerPoint presentations and streaming video. Many have televised church services shown in local markets or nationwide (especially on Black Entertainment Television [BET] and Trinity BroadcastingNetwork[TBN]).Blackmegachurcheshavetappedintothelatest technology and developments in communication to reach even larger audiences than the several thousand in their church pews on Sunday mornings. Many of them broadcast church services live on the Internet.4 Even if they are not podcasting services, almost all black megachurches have sophisticated websites “GET ON BOARD LITTLE CHILDREN” 23 with extensive information like service times, the history of the church, vision statements, mission statements, biographies, resumes and speaking schedules of the pastor, and contact information. These interactive websites allow the virtual visitor to purchase CDs,audiocassettes , DVDs, videotapes, and books. Some even allow the virtual visitor to donate money, request a prayer, join the church, and accept Jesus as his or her personal savior online by reading a confessional prayer aloud. This is definitely a new way of doing church! Sometimes these churches...