“Why do many immigrants and their children leave their small "ethnic" churches, which many describe as "family" for large, diverse megachurches? ”
The number of multiracial evangelical megachurches in the U.S. has dramatically increased over the past twenty years. Many are composed of a large proportion of immigrants and their children, a group that is now over 26% of the U.S. population. Why do immigrants leave small immigrant churches for large, multiracial, evangelical churches? How do they experience them, and what impact do they have on such churches? These questions are important to understand but have not been examined. In fact, according to Scott Thumma (2024) there is little recent research on attendees of megachurches. As a qualitative sociologist of religion and immigration, I am interested in conducting an ethnographic study of a multiracial megachurch in a Central New Jersey suburb, primarily composed of immigrants and their children. My research will include participant observation at church services, small group meetings, and community service activities, as well as interviews. I will focus on immigrants and their children from East Asian, South Asian, Black African, and Hispanic groups as well as African Americans and White Americans. My goal is to understand what brings different groups to the church, what keeps them there, why some people leave, and whether there are racial differences in belonging and participation. I am also interested in the leadership and those making decisions about the church. I expect to spend a year on this study and to conduct a total of 50-60 interviews as part of the research.