Popular Churches Provide Parking Lot Ministries
America takes religion seriously. Unlike their British counterparts many American churches have been enjoying expanding congregations and, come Sunday, their parking lots fill to capacity.
To help with the inevitable congestion at this busy time of the week many churches now use specialist teams, or parking ministries, to help church goers find a parking space and get to the church on time.
One example is Spring Branch Community Church which attracts 1,500 worshippers and provides a 600 space parking lot. The parking ministry team have a taxing task on their hands as many arrive ‘just in time’ for the church service and need to get parked, into the church and seated before the first hymn.
There can’t be a single UK church that boasts a car park with 600 vehicle capacity. Even many British Airport parking lots are nowhere near this size. And if a church in the UK were to attract a congregation of 1,500 people the vicar would think he had died and gone to heaven.
Paul from Paul Mitchell wrote,
My local church was so unpopular it was closed down and turned into apartments. I thought that God bothering was, thankfully, on the decline in the UK until I recently heard a load of infants answering questions about God. They’d all been brain-washed into thinking that God had created the earth etc. Jesus Christ……
Link | November 26th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Shaant from Deutsche Filme wrote,
I think one may actually go to say that some of the churches in the US have gotten a little bit toooo big. I have seen some of these “mega-churches” before and have seen them with coffee shops, book stores, and even convenient ATM’s. Most of these huge churches are incorporated and have profiting investors. I have also seen some of the [huge] homes of their ministers . . . Church or Business? I know that there are some large churches that don’t fall into this category, but such large churches make me skeptical . . .
Link | December 4th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Kevin western hats wrote,
What kind of churche has that number of seats inside? We can assume that this is a family thing and each car will have 4 members and 600 parking lots should be enough for 2400 people. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know any church which can house that many believers. As you said, a number this large is hard to believe.
Link | December 10th, 2008 at 12:37 am
smith from replica designer sunglasses wrote,
A Church with 1500 worshipers, that is totally new i never heard of it yet. And about the parking lot, 600 cars in one church.. This is like a business because people feel the prayers and i never heard of more than 200 people in one church excluding occasions!
Link | December 21st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Little Joe from Suzuki wrote,
Its pretty interesting to have parking lot sermons but, i think it would have been even more clever to add more sermons to the day to avoid such busy parking lots and potential vehicle accidents.
Link | January 9th, 2009 at 2:10 am
Eric from Donate a Car to Charity wrote,
A number of churches here in the Los Angeles area have to shuttle people in. They tend to borrow neighboring business’ parking lots and run shuttles or vans to get people to service. It feels a bit like Disneyland or a rock concert sometimes.
Link | January 12th, 2009 at 1:52 am
biblestudylessons wrote,
I am from Tulsa, OK. And the Church next to us causes a such a traffic especially after the sunday service, that the policeman needs to come and direct the traffic!
I like the title though ‘Parking Lot Ministry’ -It could be extended beyond just a church, there can be a free volunteering ‘Parking lot ministry’ for big games!
Link | March 5th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Matt from Selling Gold Scrap wrote,
I’m familiar with a church in Southern California that requires Police to direct traffic. This becomes even more necessary because the road curves dangerously up there on Mulholland Drive.
Link | March 10th, 2009 at 1:59 am
Gold Party Time wrote,
“And if a church in the UK were to attract a congregation of 1,500 people the vicar would think he had died and gone to heaven.”
That’s hilarious….lol
Link | March 26th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
elearning wrote,
Its pretty interesting to have parking lot sermons but, i think it would have been even more clever to add more sermons to the day to avoid such busy parking lots and potential vehicle accidents.
Link | May 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Matthew from Springfield Hotels wrote,
We attend and live close to a “mega-church” which attracts over 10,000 worshippers each week. To combat the parking problem they have gone to 3 services on Sunday and encourage members to attend the early or last service as these services are not usually as full.
Link | June 2nd, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Steve Orris wrote,
I have visited some “mega churches”. Some of them truly are doing a lot of good for a lot of people. One in particular, just outside a city of a few million people in the US, has enough people and money that they offer free services to the community, such as car repairs for single mothers. They reach out beyond their immediate area of influence and help people in need, people who could never ‘pay them back’. Not all large churches are good. But some are.
Link | June 26th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
audiokabel wrote,
I have visited some churches that are doing a nice things for many people and the traffic near the church is depends on where you live like where i live there is a wast traffic near the church on Sunday.
Link | August 31st, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Johnny wrote,
See this is smart on the minister’s part. The easier they make it for worshippers to come pray, the more likely they will actually come to church, thus increasing the size of the following. I bet this minister collects a lot of donations to help pay for the space the church takes up, especially the parking lot.
Link | October 12th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Mike from Tulsa wrote,
Our church (Orthodox Christian) has only about 142 stewards, so we don’t really cause any traffic jams. However, there are 4 or 5 churches downtown with HUGH memberships that create tons of traffic every Sunday.
There is a well-attended drive-in ministry at the lake. Maybe we’ll try that one this summer.
Just my 2 cents worth
– Mike
Link | January 31st, 2010 at 10:57 pm