New England and Megachurches

This week's New Yorker has an article by Frances Fitzgerald, "Come one, come all: Building a megachurch in New England." It describes the challenges faced by a young evangelical preacher in New Milford, Connecticut who is trying to grow a megachurch there. Along the way, Fitzgerald includes details on megachurches in general (and their pastors); why they are so attractive to many Americans today; and a laundry list of beefs that Christians in other churches have against them. Her takeaway message is this: New England is the most difficult place in the country to establish a megachurch.

One of the reasons given for the lack of megachurches in New England is that church is not a "way of life" for this culture to the same extent that it is in other areas of the country. This fact was illustrated for me when we moved from Maine to Central Pennsylvania. In northern Maine, the church scene there was pretty quiet. My coworkers and neighbors rarely discussed their religious commitments. Catholic, Methodist, and Congregationalist churches seemed to predominate. Interestingly, there seemed to be a significant contingent of Pentecostals, judging from the many women seen there wearing no makeup, very long skirts, and long hair piled on top of their heads.

In contrast to Maine, the number and size of churches in central Pennsylvania is amazing. In fact, it was one of the differences that we recognized first. Sizeable churches are seemingly on every street corner. There are three huge (if not mega) churches of pseudo-nondenominational character close by where we live. In our town alone, there are large churches of Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Church of God, and Catholic stripe--several of each. Anabaptist churches such as Mennonite, Brethren in Christ, and Church of the Brethren are found in significant numbers.

The other thing we noticed pretty quickly was that people here often don't hesitate to talk about their faith. When I was doing business with an insurance representative a few days after arriving, he encouraged me to check out his church if we were "looking for a church home." The Welcome Wagon and Mary Kay ladies did that as well. It was low-key, but unsolicited nonetheless.

Finally, each and every day the Harrisburg newspaper contains at least one, and usually multiple, letters to the editor in which the writer chastises someone for not following God's commands. I don't ever recall that being true in any place I've lived before.