{"id":328727,"date":"2025-10-24T09:03:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T09:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/328727\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T09:03:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T09:03:31","slug":"l-a-s-megachurches-preach-tradition-from-behind-laser-beams-and-fog-machines-l-a-taco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/328727\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A.\u2019s Megachurches Preach Tradition From Behind Laser Beams and Fog Machines ~ L.A. TACO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting to your seat is a multi-step process at The Church On The Way<\/a> in Van Nuys. One church member wearing an orange badge around their neck greets you, opening the door into a vast room that resembles a convention hall. Before you start scanning the room for an open chair, another member asks for your party size. They signal to the usher and you\u2019re led to an open seat that seems like it has been waiting patiently for your arrival.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need to pass around a wicker basket from pew to pew anymore when congregations can donate straight to churches using QR codes linked to apps like Zelle and Venmo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In L.A.\u2019s megachurches, it\u2019s not even feasible to pass baskets throughout the entire congregation. On a Sunday morning, there are an estimated thousand worshippers in the crowd at The Church On The Way, according to pastor Tim Clark. Blue fluorescent lights beam from the ceiling and numerous rows of cushioned chairs have replaced traditional wooden pews.<\/p>\n

\"ACaption: Shepherd Church celebrates Easter with a service. Photo courtesy of @shepherdchurch\/Instagram.<\/p>\n

Porter Ranch\u2019s Shepherd Church<\/a> can sit a total of 3,500 people. When L.A. TACO asked for an interview, Shepherd Church said through Instagram, \u201c \u2026 thank you for your message! At this time, we don\u2019t have any availability, but we appreciate you getting in touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The infamous Hillsong Church<\/a>, largely known for Justin Bieber\u2019s patronage, originated in Sydney, Australia, but now has campuses in all continents except for Antarctica. (It is unconfirmed whether an arctic campus will be established in the future.) Australian band Hillsong UNITED<\/a> traveled to Los Angeles in 2013 and performed at the Hollywood Bowl for over 15,000 fans, according to the Gospel Music Association.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, lots of megachurches \u201cspread the word of God\u201d by mastering social media algorithms to garner as many views as possible. Hillsong\u2019s Instagram account currently has 2.9 million followers\u2014more than the populations of San Diego and San Francisco combined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of Oct. 21, Shepherd Church has over 46,100 Instagram followers, and The Church On The Way comes in last with over 3,400 Instagram followers. Its YouTube channel has more than 4,400 thousand subscribers where it posts podcast episodes and recorded sermon footage.<\/p>\n

\"ALA Fashion District promotes \u201cHillsong Church Services\u201d as a public event, sharing a photo of a packed stadium-type venue. Photo courtesy of fashiondistrict.org.<\/p>\n

The Parks Chapel AME Church<\/a>, nestled in the city of San Fernando, has a relatively small congregation and they like it this way. This African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church held their Yam Festival on Sunday, Oct. 19. Their tight-knit community greeted each other with hugs and promises to catch up soon. Some of the ladies wore African jewelry and some of the men were in dashikis, many helping set up for the upcoming program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sister Janet Peterson, one of the festival organizers, explained that the yam is significant because many African cultures prayed for successful yam seasons. A bountiful harvest was especially important for \u201cfarmers and poor people\u201d according to Peterson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you talk about the Black community, because of slavery, a lot of things have come from Africa,\u201d she tells L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeA post-program meal celebrating the Yam Festival includes dishes like peanut soup, sweet potato cornbread, and yam stew. Photo by Julianne Le for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

Peterson, a Texan woman who acts as a human encyclopedia, is the matriarch of Parks Chapel, knowledgeable of the church\u2019s history, which spans over half a century. She is the kind of woman that knows her fellow worshippers well enough to trust them with her car keys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a Methodist Church and I’ve been a Methodist all my life,\u201d Peterson says. \u201cIt’s just all a part of surviving and having faith and reinforcing that and growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoSister Janet Peterson (middle) smiles alongside two fellow members of the Parks Chapel congregation. Photo by Julianne Le for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

Lauded for their impressive architecture, L.A.\u2019s megachurches serve as tourist attractions and are advertised on travel sites like TripAdvisor and Expedia. The largest ones are tech-savvy, contributing to the interwebs through Jesus memes and websites that resemble Tumblr pages of the 2010s. Smaller churches usually have more lowkey digital presences, likely due to a lack of manpower and motivation for outreach.<\/p>\n

\"TheAngelus Temple, another megachurch in Los Angeles, occupies a hefty plot of land. Photo courtesy of angelustemple.org.<\/p>\n

Ryan Pryor, the lead pastor of the Mission Hills Christian Church<\/a>, attended Baylor University in his hometown of Waco, Texas. After working as a youth minister in Kihei, Hawaii, he moved to California in 2013, studying at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the seminary released a statement against the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015, Pryor says that he felt less inclined to believe in \u201ctraditional\u201d Christian values. He left Fuller seeking a more accepting form of Christianity.<\/p>\n

\"A Mission Hills Christian Church has an on-site garden tended by members of their community. Photo by Julianne Le for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are rightly skeptical of churches,\u201d Pryor says. \u201cLike, if you have \u2018Christian\u2019 on your name, it’s like, you might as well be wearing a red hat, right? Like they’re going to assume what they’re going to assume. And there’s no shade on that from my perspective, because I would probably assume the same thing, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pryor works alongside pastor Kelly Ravenscraft, both of them openly in support of \u201call gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities, faiths, ethnicities, and economic statuses.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their service differs from most churches. When they preach, \u201cGod is good,\u201d the congregation responds, \u201cYes, she is.\u201d Instead of preaching for 50 consecutive minutes, worshippers are presented with a Bible passage and discussion questions\u2013much like a college discussion seminar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clark delivers his sermons from atop The Church On The Way\u2019s \u201cplatform\u201d in a style reminiscent of Joel Osteen. (Clark emphasized to the crowd that he speaks from atop a \u201cplatform\u201d and not a stage, since he isn\u2019t performing.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regardless of what he calls it, Clark\u2019s sermon is a spectacle. When the audience members experience the \u201cHoly Spirit\u201d flowing through them, that feeling may be akin to the high that concertgoers feel when their favorite artist performs.<\/p>\n

One major L.A. concert venue, the El Rey Theatre<\/a>, fits 771 listeners. Now imagine a thousand fans in one room, admiring one man as he delivers a speech that reconfirms their faith and yet, is vague enough to apply to each person there.<\/p>\n

\"AMission Hills Christian Church provides Communion for any attendees open to receiving it. Pastor Kelly Ravenscraft accompanies the service with their music. Photo by Julianne Le for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

Mission Hills has worked with local organizations like The Social Impact Center<\/a>, \u201cthe first LGBTQ+ and drug war survivor community reentry hub in America.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In September, it hosted the Wild & Scenic Film Festival<\/a> where it showed environmentally-focused films like \u201cWild Hope: Cougar Crossing,\u201d a film about L.A.\u2019s beloved mountain lion, P-22. They have also openly opposed ICE\u2019s attacks on L.A. and the genocide in Palestine.<\/p>\n

The church recently faced a hardcore wave of vandalism, which Pryor cleaned up every morning upon arrival. Pryor even cancelled an event after Mission Hills received violent threats following Charlie Kirk\u2019s death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Pryor, this was because right-wing figures found \u201cthe queer community somehow being responsible\u201d for \u201cleft-wing violence.\u201d These threats could be especially intimidating since their congregation is so small\u2013there were less than 20 attendees in the crowd this past Sunday. Megachurches likely receive frequent threats, too, but there is power in numbers and resources.<\/p>\n

Shepherd Church\u2019s core beliefs are posted on their site\u2019s homepage. Regarding marriage, they write, \u201cMade in the image of God, people were created with equal intrinsic value and two distinct biological sexes only male and female. God designed marriage to be a union between one male and female.\u201d Megachurches typically uphold \u201ctraditional\u201d Christian values, the \u201cmore acceptable option\u201d that also caters to a wider range of audience members.<\/p>\n

Just a couple of blocks away from Parks Chapel is the California Worship Center<\/a> (CWC), a church with a congregation of about 700 people. The CWC is a self-identified Black church and has hosted events like annual Black History Month celebrations. They break tradition as a church with its own app, nearly 90,000 followers on Instagram, and a growing TikTok account.<\/p>\n

According to the San Fernando Valley Sun, individuals travel from San Diego and Palmdale to visit the church. One reviewer online says that they saw Mayor Karen Bass in the audience before. The Sun even reported that Stevie Wonder worships there regularly.\u00a0 Despite the size of the church and celebrity presence, the CWC community appears close-knit, sharing photos of church members together at the pool and their annual picnic.<\/p>\n

\"WomenCWC members prepare food for their annual picnic. Photo courtesy of California Worship Center\/Facebook.<\/p>\n

Within the spectrum that exists between traditional Christian churches and megachurches, the CWC seems to fall somewhere in the middle, honoring traditions while adopting aesthetics made famous by modern megachurches. When your lead pastor is a Grammy-winning music producer like pastor Warryn S. Campbell II of the CWC, it\u2019s not a surprise when your church services contain theatrics every now and then.<\/p>\n

Members of the Parks Chapel church say that they joined because they grew up attending AMEs or married into the community. Generations of families have traveled across the San Fernando Valley to worship at Parks Chapel. Peterson says that only about two of their members make the daunting trek from Los Angeles on Sundays.<\/p>\n

Within the megachurch sphere, an individual church is often associated with a parent organization, kind of like the relationship between Nestl\u00e9 and Purina. Hillsong \u201cis closely associated with the Australian Christian Churches. A movement of almost 1,100 churches \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n

\"InInvited by the church, two guest performers play music originating from Yoruba communities at the Yam Festival. Photo by Julianne Le for L.A. TACO.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe church should be a place where people can find a measure of wholeness, especially people who have experienced church hurt or trauma,\u201d Pryor says. \u201cThey have a lot of questions about their faith, or have been marginalized based on their gender, sexuality. Mission Hills really needs to be a safe place where people can recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most businesses in California are taxed 8.84% of their net incomes each year according to the IRS. Many churches across the U.S. are eligible for tax exemptions, including megachurches like Shepherd Church. In 2021, it made $17.9 million in \u201ctithes and offerings\u201d according to that year\u2019s annual report<\/a>. Its largest expense that year went to \u201cSalaries and Benefits.\u201d If taxed, it would have been required to pay about $1.5 million to the IRS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Mission Hills Christian Church rents out its limited church space to fund the church. Parks Chapel recently paid off its church building and are finally the official owners.<\/p>\n

L.A.\u2019s Christian churches seem to be praying to different gods nowadays. Some communities cling to generational traditions as others craft a new, mutated version of the religion\u2014one that thirsts after success in a material world, damn what comes after.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting to your seat is a multi-step process at The Church On The Way in Van Nuys. One…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":328728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-328727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115428341893234221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}