Adam Hamilton is the pastor of The Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. He has published several books including Leading Beyond the Walls: Developing Congregations With a Heart for the Unchurched (Abingdon, 2002). Leawood, Kansas is a suburb of Kansas City in one of the most affluent places in America. To say the least, there's money in them there 'burbs.I know, this is where I grew up.
I am not a big fan of Hamilton. The way I read Leading Beyond the Walls, I think he is under the impression that every church should be a megachurch. Frankly, I read his stuff as too subruban, too affluent, and way too white.
Church of the Resurrection has 15,000 members, 7,500 adults in worship, and 1,500 children in Sunday School. Wonderful. But I have lived in rural Southeast Colorado where there aren't that many people in the county! There are more cows than people in Prowers County Colorado.
Where I live now, Berryville, Arkansas, has a population of just under 4,000! You can find more chickens in town than folks most days. This county has fewer members than Hamilton's church...and you'll find a good many other places in America that are the smaller than the Church of the Resurrection Sunday School. (On a side note, Hamilton uses the phrase "my church" in Leading Beyond the Walls. Ick, his church?)
What is the role of the small town in the megachurch world? Is there one or is the small town church just the feeder for the megachurch in town? Why does this begin to sound like small town stores being closed because everyone goes to the mall?
Hamilton has recently hosted a meeting of Methodist MegaChurch Ministers in Atlanta (Christian Century Magazine, October 7, 2008, page 15). To compare this to a University, like say the University of Arkansas, Hamilton is the football team and the sorority girls, the strong, pretty, and popular people. The folks who wonder why the world doesn't fit them better because they are so wonderful. The rest of us are the Ag Majors, the ones who feed the world and clean up the bull.
Image downloaded from cokesbury.com
