Abundance is the theme of self-help books and the prosperity gospel. It’s also the theme of a church whose values and commitments are as far from self-help spirituality and the prosperity gospel as they could possibly be. For the self-help gurus and prosperity prophets, abundance is located in the empowered self. For Englewood Christian church—situated…
Mount Pleasant Christian Church (MPCC) is a megachurch of about 4,000 active participants with a campus of more than 80 acres in Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood, Indiana. Given its size and visibility, adopting the multisite church model seemed almost inevitable. That model—which dates to the 1980s—has been among the hottest church-growth trends of the past…
For Jevon Caldwell-Gross, pastor of teaching and guest experience at St. Luke’s United Methodist in Indianapolis, the George Floyd murder in April 2020 was a pivot point in the congregation’s determination to confront racism head-on. Before that, “my wife and a couple of other groups were really trying to have substantive conversations with the congregation…
“I assumed we would be looking to the inner city, because that’s where the poverty is,” Becky Hagarty said of her calling in 2001 to initiate a food pantry at Second Presbyterian Church. (See the related case study “Our Neighbors, Ourselves: Second Presbyterian Church and the Quest for Community Transformation.”) “When you want to do…
