What is the Place for Megachurches? A Comparison of 22 American Cities Based on the Causes of Effects Approach1

The success of megachurches in America is often traced back to their strategic ability of mobilizing new members in a competitive, religious marketplace. This paper shifts the attention to the push factors of megachurch success. It develops a causes of effects approach, in which local place-based conditions in 22 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) are compared and related to megachurches. First, correspondence analysis (CA) is used to take into account a large set of explanatory conditions such as religious and ethnic group affiliations, social structural conditions as well as value orientations. CA reveals that megachurches are typically successful in MSAs characterized by an evangelical hegemony. Second, qualitative comparative analysis shows that population growth and suburbanization are necessary conditions for a high share of megachurches. An analysis of sufficient conditions leads to three propositions: Megachurches grow in cities (1) where a large closed evangelical community exists; (2) where a large upward oriented Christian immigrant community exists; (3) and in tolerant (and educated) areas—in conjuncture with the presence of a larger community of Protestants.