Issues → January/February 2009 → Features →
Megachurches in New England
Evangelical megachurches are the new Sunday masses
by Cindy Anderson
The first time 27-year-old Mike Mancini set foot in Faith Church, he did so as an atheist. A musician who had transferred from Berklee College of Music in Boston to Western Connecticut State University, he'd been hired by Faith to play bass in the church band.
Mancini seemed an unlikely candidate for the job. His days involved getting up around noon, grabbing something to eat at Taco Bell, and settling in to watch TV or--less often--to study before heading out to a party.
But in the fall of 2004, the New Milford, Connecticut, megachurch needed a player, and Mancini needed work. It was just a gig, he told himself--$100 a week, steady money. Even so, he steeled himself for what he would find. "I thought Christianity was for simple people who couldn't get through life on their own," he says. "Basically, I believed Christians were ignorant, close-minded, and conservative."
His first few months at Faith, Mancini kept to himself. No one proselytized him, which came as a relief. Then, one Sunday as he was playing a worship song, "my eyes welled with tears and I got goose bumps," Mancini says. "I looked around and saw other people crying, too."
Afterward, he sought out Faith's music pastor for an explanation. "That was the Holy Spirit," the pastor told him matter-of-factly.
Although Mancini comes across as a laidback, bearlike man who laughs easily and often, he also possesses a tenacious intellect, and the pastor's words left him far from satisfied. "I had to understand what was happening," he says. "I started looking into things with an attitude of inquiry."
He read the Bible, from Genesis straight through to the end of Revelations. But Mancini needed more than words. One night, driving, he uttered his first prayer: "God, if you're real, prove yourself to me in a tangible way."
Soon after, he was at a convenience store buying gas when he found a pamphlet about Christian salvation curled into the pump handle. Believers and nonbelievers may part ways on the meaning of that moment, but for Mancini it was enough. An hour later, he met with a pastor in the Faith parking lot. What followed was simple yet defining: "I asked for repentance, and I asked Christ to come live in my heart."
Now a music teacher in a New Haven charter school, and married with a year-and-a-half-old son, Mancini has a full-color tattoo of a tree covering the length of his left arm and shoulder. He got it after baby Isaac was born. The Biblical passage Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God forms the base; the trunk is surrounded by sunflowers, his wife's favorite. Mancini still has moments of doubt, he says, "but that's not unhealthy. Doubt forces you to examine your faith and strengthens it."
On a recent Sunday, Mancini played onstage with the band at Faith. Dressed in jeans and sandals, he leaned over his bass, intent on the music as lyrics appeared on an overhead monitor: You're the miracle that I long for. Your love is all I need. Only You can change my heart and set my spirit free.
In the auditorium-like sanctuary, 800 people sang along, some with palms raised in devotion, others clapping in rhythm. The doors opened and closed, as latecomers hurried down a carpeted hallway--past the SonBucks coffee shop and Disneyesque murals of small-town America--to enter the sanctuary, and parents with crying babies exited. The crowd was as diverse a group as you'd find anywhere in the state: Latino, Caucasian, African American, Asian. When the sermon began, backstage translators offered it in Spanish and Portuguese to churchgoers wearing headphones.
Reader Comments
Comment from Sylvia Kinne on January 15, 2009
You may have overlooked a wonderful church in Vermont, the Essex Alliance Church, which is the church my daughter's family attends and loves - very family nurturing w/ programs for folks of all ages. I believe they have a membership of 1500 plus. Their "Christmas Spectacular" music program is filmed so far-flung family members who are unable to attend can enjoy it also. As I understand it, this church began as a small store-front gathering and has grown as mentioned above. Worth a look?
Comment from Robert Faubel on February 2, 2009
I just wanted to say thank you for doing this article. I'm one of the original members of the Faith Church which started as a small Bible study in the back of a doctor's office. Having gone from an atheist cop to a police chaplain has surely changed my life. I have seen countless lives changed from people who really wanted to know the truth about God and I'm one of them. Our church is not the only one that is growing in this area. People are coming out of mainline denominations because these don't see change in their lives and realize that religion is not the answer to life's problems. It's a relationship with God who created them!
Comment from Denise Chamie on February 5, 2009
Amen to that Robert
Comment from Jenifer Lewis on February 10, 2009
Anything that helps folks in their faith journey is to be celebrated. Interestingly, according to a recent article in "The Christian Century," the migration can sometimes be from a megachurch to a more traditional one as well. A megachurch draws them in, and when they feel a craving for a more intimate worship experience, they find another church that provides it. This is particularly true for those who appreciate liturgy and classical music. Whichever way, it's all good IMHO.
Comment from Eura Olsen on February 14, 2009
I think this is a good thing. I attend a small church Open Bible We have a great pastor, people come and go ,some people can't stand to hear the truth. I believe when you accept Jesus Christ, you are a new person andhave a hunger for his word,which speaks to youand gives you a joy you never knew.
Comment from Kimberly LaCamera on February 15, 2009
I think Yankee magazine should do an article on Bethany Assembly of God in Agawam, MA. It may be a megachurch, but with a small town feeling to it. The church has programs for everybody, from the nursery to the seniors. All the kids know each other, so the parents know each other, if only to smile and say hi to. What a great church.
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