Church pastors want their congregation members to come to their church and have that sense of peace, to be able to pray to the Lord without distraction, and to be able to escape the world that seems so overwhelming at times. It’s therefore ironic when the same pastors state they do not believe in implementing security into their churches because they want the church to remain open and inviting. The reason it is ironic is because the very definition of security is to be “free from fear and anxiety” and isn’t that the environment pastors want in their churches? The misconception is that security is all about guns, guards, cameras and metal detectors, but that really isn’t what security is all about. In fact a properly designed security program is like an iceberg, people should only see about 10 percent of what you really have in place; the other 90 percent is in place in case it is needed.

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Sometime during the spring of 1976 I was told about a new church — Willow Creek Community Church — that had recently started. I was so intrigued by what I heard about the church that I decided to check it out for myself.

Well, I knew from the moment I walked through the door that this was not my father’s church. Besides contemporary music and a young pastor who spoke directly into my heart, there was drama! They had a six-minute hilarious drama reflecting life as I was living it. What an experience this was. By the time the service was over I was hooked and from that moment on, Willow Creek Community Church became my home church. And drama became my ministry for the next 25 years.

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Mary Camp says that “mega,” as in megachurch, is not inherently distasteful. Afterall, the Holy Spirit birthed the first “mega” congregation, drawing about 3,000 people to faith in Christ. However, Camp, working with Bible Study Fellowship International for more than two decades, has a definite viewpoint of the larger churches that she shares in Stench!: How Abominations Polute and Desolate the Post-Modern Church (WinePress Publishing, 2011). “However,” she says, “worship style is determined by what the majority can tolerate. By necessity, the larger the group the lower the minimum standard becomes. They never raise the bar to honor God but lower it to accommodate the desires of people.”

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Churches were long considered good credit risks. Weekly collections tend to be steady, even during recessions, and churches feel a moral tug to pay debts. Most of the nation’s churches carry little or no mortgage debt, and are based in buildings that were paid off long ago. But some churches, especially those not affiliated with major denominations, borrowed briskly to build or expand in recent years. Spending on construction of houses of worship rose to $6.2 billion in 2007 from $3.8 billion in 1997, according to the U.S. Census. Now, churches are seeing congregants lose jobs and savings.

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