Is Preaching on the End Times the Key to Growing a Congregation?
At the beginning of the pandemic, churches across the country closed their doors, some never to reopen. And while recent research indicates that evangelical and megachurches are on the decline, the opposite appears to be true for a number of West Coast churches that have exploded in size over the past two years. Each of these churches share something in common: their pastors faithfully preach end-times prophecy from the pulpit.
Athey Creek Christian Fellowship, a nondenominational church 15 miles from downtown Portland, began 25 years ago in Senior Pastor Brett Meador's living room. While it grew steadily pre-pandemic to a megachurch of 4,000, attendance skyrocketed while the world was locked down. It continues to increase at a shocking rate.
Athey Creek was one of the first churches in Portland to open its doors during the pandemic, to the chagrin of Governor Kate Brown and of local churches that had signed a statement agreeing to remain closed until the governor lifted mandates that prohibited church gatherings.
Beginning in August 2020, congregants arrived in-person, increasing in number each week. Meador said his staff wondered whether attendance would plateau once Brown lifted her mandate and churches around the city reopened. Instead, Athey Creek's numbers continued to swell, requiring Meador to preach five services every weekend. Plans for expanding the church building are underway as the structure cannot facilitate the additional 3,000 church-goers who began attending during the pandemic.
Church Attendance Surges in "Dechurched" Portland
The Institute for Family Studies analyzed data from an American Family Survey that suggested nationally "religious attendance has declined significantly in the past two years. The share of regular churchgoers is down by 6 percentage points, from 34% in 2019 to 28% in 2021. Meanwhile, the share of secular Americans who have never or seldom attended religious services increased by 7 percentage points."
Additionally, data collected by Barna ranks Portland as the fourth most dechurched city in the country behind Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco. However, Athey Creek's surge in growth defies this statistic. Meador believes God has blessed the church with so many newcomers for several reasons, but a significant one centers on his teaching of biblical end times prophecy.
Despite one-fourth of the Bible accounting for end times prophecy and over 2,500 prophetic details written by approximately 40 authors in scripture, many church leaders scoff at or simply ignore the topic. But unlike local and national pastors who have increasingly shied away from teaching end times prophecy, Meador, who teaches verse-by-verse through the Bible, has emphasized Bible prophecy as it relates to the end times for more than two decades.
"We're living in dangerous times, but the watchmen are not blowing the trumpet," Meador said, referring to Ezekiel 33. He emphasized the importance of today's pastors, like the prophets in Ezekiel's day, to act as watchmen alerting people of impending events that will affect the entire world. He added, "I think the days we're living in now are some of the most exciting times we've ever lived. This is the time where we see, if you would, the Babylonians coming over the mountain as we see what's going on in the world today."
Historically, Meador delivered annual prophecy updates until 2020 when he increased them to monthly updates, observing that the "birth pains" described in the Old and New Testaments are quickly increasing, such as a worldwide pandemic, wars, ethnicities pitted against one another, and false teaching among church leaders.
Observing a rise in depression and anxiety among Americans, Meador said, "Several results should come from Bible prophecy teaching." He noted that "one is comfort, two is sort of a fire lit under us to share the gospel with the unsaved." He added, "We're seeing people saved by the droves, and every Sunday, whether they're here in the building or watching online, we're just getting all kinds of great stories of people coming to Christ in these last days, and I believe we're going to see more and more as the Day approaches."
California Megachurches See Rapid Growth
A similar trend has occurred throughout California despite Governor Gavin Newsom's attempt to keep worshippers from gathering during the pandemic. In May 2020, more than 1,200 California churches agreed to defy Newsom's stay-at-home orders by resuming in-person services. Among those pastors was Jack Hibbs, Senior Pastor at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.
Hibbs is not shy about conveying unpopular biblical truth through sermons that have offered hope and attracted new believers. Although his church began as a Bible study with six people in his basement 30 years ago, it now ministers to 10,000 people on campus and millions worldwide through daily media outreach programs. Hibbs preaches regularly on end times events, partnering with experts like Israeli author and speaker Amir Tsarfati to bring his congregation the most up-to-date world news as it relates to prophecy.
While many believers have sought safety at home during the pandemic, Hibbs said, "In these last two years, we've had nothing but growth." He added, "We've had thousands of people added to the church. We baptize 3,000 people on a Saturday. Why? Because people are looking for truth. And so they found out that just a warm, feel-good, secret-type message doesn't answer you in the day of trouble. God's word answers you in the day of trouble. So that's what we're all about. And that's why we're seeing a response."
Only 24 miles away, Greg Laurie, senior pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship with campuses in California and Hawaii, began pastoral ministry over 40 years ago at the age of 19 by leading a Bible study of 30 people. That small group grew to a megachurch of 15,000 today, serving as one of the largest and most influential evangelical megachurches in the country.
According to the Harvest website, "150,000 people made professions of faith in 2020 through Harvest Ministries." Laurie has faithfully prepared his congregation for end times events, preaching regular prophecy updates. In a recent Facebook post, Laurie stated, "I believe that Christ could come back at any moment. There are signs of times the Bible tells us to be looking for."
Godpseak Calvary, another California megachurch whose pastor preaches about end times prophecy, appears to be bursting at the seams when many other California churches permanently closed their doors after congregants stopped attending during the pandemic.
When asked about the need for a larger location, Pastor Rob McCoy said, "the congregation has grown fourfold – from around 450 people to around 1,800 – since church leaders decided in 2020 to reopen for in-person services while such gatherings were still deemed nonessential and in violation of COVID-related public health orders."
In a sermon last July, McCoy reminded his congregation that the Church has work to do in these last days. "Occupy until I come," he said, echoing Jesus' words in Luke 19. "God's speaking to us. We don't have a spirit of fear, and apathy is not permitted in this room." He added, "Let's set the captives free; this is the call of God upon our lives. Let the Lord find us busy. And I do hope he returns, but when he does, this will be the busiest church on the planet because these folks are servants."
Blessings Promised to Prepared Churches
These four West Coast pastors believe the Church will be raptured before the Great Tribulation, a seven-year period of horrific suffering when God judges a Christ-rejecting world. While Bible scholars debate about the timing of the rapture, many American pastors who study and preach end times prophecy agree that a pandemic, cataclysmic events, tensions between China and Taiwan, increased nuclear talk by North Korea and Iran, and the Russia-Ukrainian war are significant indicators that the prophecies of the books of Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Matthew, and Revelation are occurring right now.
"Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because the time is near," Revelation 1:3 says. This passage emphasizes the importance placed on believers to read and share prophecy and to prepare humanity for coming events, including Christ’s return. As promised, obedience in this area will result in God's blessing.
Considering troubling events around the globe, the end of life on Earth is on the minds of many Americans. It is unfathomable that more of today's Bible-believing pastors would avoid preaching on this topic from the pulpit. On the other hand, their refusal to share these truths with their flock fulfills yet another end times prophecy.
