Megachurches, Megaphones
The Primary Issue is Theology, not Economics
© Eric C. Redmond, 2006 – 2007.
Reprint permission is granted by the author.
In the last year, much attention has been given to the phenomena of African-American megachurches.
Black Enterprise presented “The Business of Faith” as its May 2006 cover article, highlighting the financial
power of four megachurches. In its July-August 2006 issue, The Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP,
portrayed many of the shortcomings of African-American megachurches associated with the Word of Faith
movement with respect to the pursuit of civil rights for people of color. In June 2006, The National
Conference and Revival for Social Justice in the Black Church, organized by Rev. Al Sharpton, brought
sharp criticism of the megachurches, particularly their lack of help to the poor and disenfranchised while
they seemingly promote the political agenda of the Christian Right and the Republican Party. From all
sides, the megachurches are being challenged to speak loudly on behalf of God for something other than
material prosperity.
At the center of these critiques are names of clerics known to American households, including
T.D.Jakes, Eddie Long, Creflo Dollar and Charles Blake. Many of these men have been assisted in the
growth of their memberships by preaching material success, and by being visible through name recognition
associated with their books, festivals, and movies. Coupled with these large memberships have come
millions of dollars for the purchase of large, multi-use facilities and people resources that help secure
outside funding for church businesses. The formula has worked, providing new schools, assisted living
facilities, ex-offender re-entry programs, and many other social uplift aids.
The new era of megachurch pastors are not the first to be recognized for wedding the Black
Church’s large coffers to the plights of poverty and joblessness of its community. Charles Adams and
Mangedwa Nyathi dawned the cover of Black Enterprise thirteen years ago for similar success. But the
recent attention given to Jakes and others has taken prominence because of the differences of their
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message and philosophy from that of the mainstream, traditional African-American church. Whereas the
featured leaders of the 1990’s developments were largely Baptist, Church of God in Christ, Methodist, and
Clinton democrats, the leaders of 2000’s endeavors are garden variety Charismatic or conservative
Evangelicals and Bush Republicans. For all of the words of praise for these churches’ success, it is this
latter relationship, which is portrayed as turning African-Americans from political issues visceral to our
community, which has drawn the ire of the Black clergy establishment towards the bishops of the
megachurches.
Despite the eye of skepticism cast toward the practices of the megachurches and their leaders, the
above laudations and criticisms do not address the heart of the issue of their successes and deficiencies.
Nor is the issue addressed by simply recognizing what appears to be a disregard for the New Testament’s
cautions against greed as a corrupter of motives: “Be on your guard against all covetousness,” said Jesus
himself, “for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions,” (Luke 12:15, ESV). Instead,
the real issue is the theology (or lack thereof) that drives these churches. This truth is missed in most
evaluations of the movement because megachurches are simply a microcosm of the larger AfricanAmerican church. In embracing the American Dream, and in placing hopes in political parties of either
persuasion, our churches have lost the counter-cultural message of Jesus.
The New Testament portrays Jesus as one who drew crowds of people, much like the megachurch
heralds. Great numbers would come from far and wide to gain a touch of healing from him. Groups would
cross lakes in boats to seek him out. One of the most famous of Jesus’ miracles, recorded in all four New
Testament gospel accounts, is the feeding of a crowd of more than 5000 people. This crowd “was following
him,” states the account in John 6:2.
Yet the crowds did not continue to follow Jesus after hearing his claims and demands. Once the
healing of the lepers and the lame ended, and the preaching of his own work on the cross was established
as binding judgment on the practices and destinies of all people, the crowds left him. Once he began
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proclaiming that evil within all people separated them from God, he lost his popular appeal. Rather than
being able to establish a church of thousands and meet the physical and economic needs of the socially
disenfranchised, Jesus was rejected. His message offended the crowds. His words only appealed to a few.
Even raising people from the dead on multiple occasions, and the promise to do the same for others, did
not have strong enough appeals to overcome the offense people felt by being told they were morally
bankrupt. In spite of being the CEO of history’s greatest religious social justice program, Jesus lost his
following to his theology. In spite of losing his followers, he continued to warn people to consider their souls
over gaining all of the material success in the world.
In contrast to the megachurch credo and craze, there is another hope on the horizon for our
churches and community in the form of a growing movement of younger African-Americans. The members
of this informal coalition identify themselves around the Reformation and Calvinism’s “doctrines of grace.”
They identify themselves around theological commitments. Their commitments are based on centering core
doctrines around the message of the Scriptures—the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as solution to
man’s moral dilemma before the Creator (as opposed to economic empowerment).
Stated differently, this coalition’s identity rests in a message that all people are radically depraved
in the sight of their Creator. The Creator has made a provision of mercy for some through the work of
Christ. Christ and his work must define the belief and practice of the recipients of mercy, and the message
of the mercy of the Creator through Christ is the only means of life-transformation that brings true
satisfaction to individuals, families and communities. This message is for the poor, the rich, the AfricanAmerican, and all people. However, the message these men preach offends.
This African-American “Reformed” network is not united by the sizes of their congregations, nor
does it look at size or receipts as a measure of success. Largely united through conference speaking,
published writings, and the blogsphere, this group is slowly finding home in the hearts of mainstream and
traditional churches.
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The preaching of these young reformers recognizes there is a sense in which the church should be
separated from culture rather than totally immersed therein. This separation is not because of an
Establishment Clause, or because of the need to keep the IRS from challenging a church’s tax-status.
Instead, it is because the church is intended to be a spiritual and theological entity like no other—one that
transforms culture rather than assimilates to it. Therefore, this group’s message is not a proclamation of
economic success, but of Christ as the center of all things. In fact, these men and their churches tend to
identify themselves as gospel-centered and Christ-centered. Dissimilarly, the megachurch pulpits are so
immersed in the prosperity message of the American culture they cannot pull people above the ills of
human nature, including ills that follow riches like greed, bribery, theft, selfishness, and exploitation of the
poor.
The younger movement offers the hope of righteousness. For what is needed to bring lasting
change to every community is people who deny themselves of selfish ambition and excessive living, make
personal sacrifices for the good of all others, refrain from committing crimes against members of the
community, submit themselves to governing authorities, and raise their children in homes characterized by
love, forgiveness, joy, delayed gratification and discipline. This hope is in great contrast to the philosophy of
the megachurches in question, which seem to derive their theology from utilitarian thought: It is drawing the
masses, so it must be right.
If there are faces for this movement, one of them belongs to Rev. Anthony Carter, itinerant speaker
and author of On Being Black and Reformed. In his “new perspective” on the Christian faith, Carter
demonstrates the consistency of the Reformed Theology with the African-American experience of sorrow,
suffering and oppression. But the discourse he takes to pulpits around the country does not challenge his
readers to leave mental poverty in order to begin gaining their piece of the bourgeoisie pie. Neither is he
naïve about the connotations of Calvinism for great-great-grandchildren of slaves. His message is that God
is the only hope in whatever economic status one finds oneself.
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Another face may be that of Thabiti Anyabwile, the newly appointed pastor of First Baptist Church
of Grand Caymans. A former senior associate and project manager with the Center for the Study of Social
Policy, Anyabwile was an elder at a Baptist church in Washington, DC, woven of Reformation woof. In his
new position on the island, Anyabwile has begun to work for social reform and revival through the
reformation of the souls. He has two forthcoming publications that challenge the African-American church
to recover the greatness of its heritage by embracing a theology of reformation. An early preview of the first
publication suggests there is nothing in print known to be like it. With the calling of Anyabwile to be pastor
in Grand Caymans, the movement has reached beyond U.S. borders to proclaim hope to other lands.
The neo-radicals like Carter and Anyabwile do not deny the need for institutional justice for
African-Americans to achieve social justice. Instead, they place the role of the State under the hand of a
good Savior. They are not the first to wield a theology of humility as the path to prosperity and justice.
Boston’s Eugene Rivers, who would not identify himself with any of the aforementioned church movements,
is ahead of all of us in practice, results and reputation.
The Afro-reformers do not belong on a pedestal. However, I hope they will be placed on a high
mount above megachurch steeples as beacons to guide our people through the rough waters that we must
come to experience economic contentment and justice.
Counter criticisms to this new movement abound, and the lasting fruit is still years in the making.
But its leaders stand true to being driven by a theological impetus, despite typical unfounded denunciations
of being white, Uncle Toms, sellouts, and Oreos. Yet in the face of naysayers, buds of the Reformed
movement are beginning to sprout in the lives of second and third generation seedlings. Carter’s
generation is successfully wedding Reformed orthodoxy and African-American orthopraxy by seeing the
former as the tree and the latter as the flower. Of course, the root to this movement is the Gospel.
The Word of Faith megachurch movement will not go away, but will progress further into exurbia. It
will take with it masses of enthusiasts and critics. It may overshadow the work of the fledgling Reformed
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movement if measured in terms of dollars, cents, franchises of 501(c)(3)’s, and congregation sizes.
However, the message of the Black Reformation will not be dimmed. It has the potential to have the impact
of its theological forbearers, of whom it was said, “after darkness, light.” I am hopeful that the preaching of
the Reformed movement, combined with the faithfulness and integrity of the movement’s members, will
bring about an African-American Great Awakening, even as did the preaching of Calvinistic Puritans for the
Colonies.
Most importantly, the leaders of the new reformation are not coming into question as phonies,
since they reject what is faddish and popular, and they are not driven by the pragmatic. Their message is
gaining appeal as listeners discern that their gospel is all-encompassing because it seeks to reach the
whole person, not just one’s wallet. May history record that the attention given to this movement will be
because their preaching rang out with life-transforming impact, like megaphones for God. For, salvation for
African-American church and community is found in prioritizing theology, not economics.
Rev. Eric C. Redmond is the Pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church, Temple Hills, MD, and formerly Assistant Professor of Bible and
Theology at Washington Bible College, Lanham, MD. He is the Theology Editor of the NAAF Outlook: Newsletter of the National
African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention, a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, and a
Trustee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Ft. Worth, TX. He is currently working on a book about African-American
men’s disenfranchisement of the African-American church. More about Eric Redmond, Anthony Carter, and Thabiti Anyabwile is
available at www.reformingchurches.org (forthcoming). This article was written August, 29, 2006.