Church growth: Connectivity and intentional evangelism are behind the massive growth at mega-churches according to expert, Scott Thumma, a professor of sociology at Hartford Seminary. Thumma has been studying the mega-church phenom over the past decade and a half.

According to the Christian Post, last month, Thumma launched the most vigorous survey of America's mega churches yet. By his count these mammoth congregations now number 1,500 and Thumma wants to know why they continue to grow.

Thumma says the growth patterns he has found in big churches include the ability to turn casual visitors into committed members; to adapt to the culture—including contemporary music; and an offering of holistic ministries that use gyms and food to meet physical needs as well as spiritual needs.

But not everyone is jumping onto the mega bandwagon. In fact municipalities faced with the zoning nightmare the sprawling churches can create are downright perturbed. Check out the battle heating up in Bedminster, New Jersey,  where a church is suing the town for failing to approve their huge building plan.

Another large church in Cheltenham Township, Penn. is facing disapproval (free site registration required for this one) from potential neighbors who say the narrow way leading to the church won't accommodate all those who may want to be saved.

And in Georgia, (free site registration required) residents opposed a plan to expand a winter shelter simply because it looked like a mega-church.

Fellowship:

Richard Ostling reports in the Chicago Sun-Times on a new cooperation between evangelicals and Catholics. The report comes at the heels of a July 28 statement by the IRA to make its ceasefire permanent in Northern Ireland, and in the midst of the appointment hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, Ostling's story is timely, to say the least. But his piece is actually a sort of review of a new book by Carolyn Nystrom and Mark Noll (a contributing editor for Christianity Today magazine and historian at Wheaton College). "Is the Reformation Over? An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism" argues that not only on contemporary political issues such as abortion but also on matters of spirituality, Catholics and the Protestant conservatives have ever more in common.