Megachurches

Veteran religion reporter Kenneth A. Briggs is author of “The Invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America.”

“But looking deeper into this situation … is Noble’s church part of the problem? Is its ultra-contemporary worship emphasis – in which pastors are hailed as rock star gurus – displacing real religious substance? And are those who attend these heavily-secularized services en masse merely feeding a ‘feeling’ as opposed to feeding their souls?”

“The revelation came as the megachurch, which boasts more than 30,000 members in 17 cities in South Carolina, is in the final stage of two more expansions.” USA Today/Independent Mail

Deep divide dooms onetime megachurch North Heights Lutheran

North Heights Lutheran has been in a “downward death spiral” for more than a decade due to a bloated staff, overbuilding, exaggerated membership numbers and expenses far outweighing income

“As much as I wish folks would listen to the entire message, it really doesn’t diminish the absurdity of what I said.”

The gift is one of the largest ever given to a church in Minnesota. In fact, no larger gift was given to any church in the nation in 2015, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

“The success of your ministry isn’t about size or speed, regardless of those ‘large church lists.’ God isn’t going to judge you based on those things because those are human measurements.” CPost

“Nearly two-thirds (62%) of megachurch attenders are under 45 years old, while only a third are that young in other size churches (35%).” CPost

And other 2013 year-end status updates from Leadership Network

South Korea: “Yoido Full Gospel Church’s David Yonggi Cho is accused of $9 million stock loss and $5.5 billion in tax evasion.”