On a Sunday morning recently, I walked through the doors of a thousand seater, American style, Evangelical mega-church. In Tallaght. This is God on a big scale. The Victory Centre is the purpose built home to the Victory Church. It is like nothing I have seen before. Evangelicalism is becoming more and more popular in Ireland. There are now thirty churches in Dublin alone. While there were less than 150 evangelical congregations in Ireland in 1980, there are now over 400, with upwards of 30,000 followers in the country, according to the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland. The influx of immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe over the past fifteen years has contributed to this rise. The recession has played its own vital role too. With less money in their wallets, perhaps many Irish people are turning to institutions which they believe will offer meaning to their lives. While researching this article I visited two evangelical churches in Dublin. Apart from the Victory Centre, I also attended the Destiny Church on Great Strand St in Dublin city centre. Both of these churches, while being very different in their own rights, were notable for the welcome which they offer to newcomers. The emphasis on community and reaching out to people was very significant in my experience of them. During my time in these places I saw many things which I had only seen in films, if I’m honest, and also many things which would restore a person’s faith in the idea of community. Many people believe that community was sacrificed during the Celtic Tiger years. Well, there was an abundance of it here.
On entering the Victory Centre, I was welcomed by ‘the Greeter’. This church is highly organised, ensuring that anyone new is welcomed into the fold. As I was a newcomer, a very welcoming member, Divine, gave me a quick tour of the building. Divine is eighteen years old and described herself as a Born Again Christian. She said she found the church to be a good place for making friends and she liked the fact that the pastor was always there if she had any problems in her life. My friend Ben, whom I had brought along with me, got us a couple of coffees from the Starbucks which is on site. Their presence on the high street isn’t enough anymore apparently. New business model? Churches. Once we entered the ‘theatre’, a huge hemispherical auditorium with raked seating, the music began and the place really filled up. Hundreds of people sang along to the live band onstage playing Christian rock. I looked up to the ceiling to find the revolving lights casting their multicoloured glow. The congregation was a mix of people and ages. Speaking to one of the ushers, Sean Flynn, I asked him what it is about the Victory Centre that is so attractive to young people. “The involvement...kids are leading their peer group”. I wanted to understand why the congregation preferred this to the established Christian churches, such as the Catholic Church or the Church of Ireland. He referred to the “three hundred year old music” played in the old churches. “The young people can’t relate to it at all”. Jon Nickel, an American worshiper at the Destiny Church answered the same question. “More loving, more open. This is what I’m used to”. Both of these institutions seem to be an intentional departure from the established churches. There are very few recognisable symbols from a Catholic or Protestant establishment. Traditional prayers are not practiced. The preachers don’t wear special garments. The atmosphere is loose, casual and less bound. The congregation mill around, people talk and speak up when they feel like it. There are many choruses of “Amen” when the congregation agree with the preacher. In both churches the music and singing is central to the way in which the congregations pray. The worshippers seem to allow themselves to become immersed in the music, often raising their arms in an apparent embrace of God. Being open to this sense of release is encouraged. In fact, one of the preachers in the Victory Centre said that during their Encounter Day a worshiper had been ‘released in tongues’. This was applauded by the congregation. ‘Tongues’ or ‘glossalalia’ is thought by some to be a prophetic utterance inspired by the Holy Spirit. The use of music in both of these institutions is interesting in the sense that all the songs develop towards a crescendo which seems to provoke a sort of rapture in the congregation. One wonders if this use of music creates a true experience or a state of euphoria.
But despite the modern approach and the enticing music, one has to ask oneself what Evangelicals believe? From what I have seen, there is obviously a strong emphasis in the belief that the contents of the bible are true. While Pastor Brendan Dowling of the Destiny Church says he doesn’t preach on Creationism, he does say “I believe god made the world. I don’t believe in evolution. And my background is in science originally”. Evangelicals believe in miracles, as we will see when I discuss my experience of that in the Victory Church. It is also believed that demons do exist, as Jesus did. It is this inherent belief in the entirety of the bible that characterises evangelicalism. Equally, it is asserted in the bible that the forces of evil will do battle with god at the end of time and god will win. Evangelicals believe, according to the bible, that to belong to god’s family one must be born again, not of the flesh but of the spirit. Similarly to Catholicism, there is the belief that all people are born sinful and need salvation. And of course there is the belief in evangelism itself, that believers should spread the word. It is the strong beliefs in the bible and adherence to it that is perhaps what many people have difficulty in accepting.
‘Can the Healing Team make their way down to the stage please’, requested one of the preachers, halfway through the ceremony in the Victory Centre. What followed was the “laying on of hands”. Members of the congregation were invited to come down to the stage to be healed. Perhaps this is the evangelical version of confession. A man or woman puts their hands on one’s shoulders and talks to you. One man had two healers working on his arm and back. Presumably he had some sort of injury. As I watched this unfolding, I cast my gaze around the theatre. I was taken aback by the amount of people who had brought their own bibles with them. The congregation struck me as very different to what I was used to as a child growing up in the Catholic Church. They were very enthusiastic and involved.
Pastor Brendan of the Destiny Church says “I grew up in a Christian background but I never had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He, to me, was a guy in a book, a historical person. I didn’t know...he could be real in my life. That, to me, was a huge discovery”. Indeed, his congregation whom I met seemed to have these attributes. They were uninhibited and seemed very free to express that relationship. Brendan continued “when I was small and you went to church, the guy at the front told you what to believe and you just believed it. It’s like somebody else’s belief that you just have to carry around with you, it’s not something you’ve processed yourself”. I asked Brendan if he ever contemplated channelling his message through the Catholic Church or ever felt like trying to change it from within. “I think it would be very difficult. I’m not a Catholic personally and I don’t really see the potential there...for change”. What makes Destiny Church different to the established Christian Churches such as the Catholic Church? “People have been hurt and disappointed by the regular church”. Brendan has many issues with the way in which religion is organised and dealt with. “The thing that saddens me the most about religion is that it gives a really false view to the rest of the world of what Christianity is. It’s like a really bad advert because it puts so many people off God”. He believes that the Destiny Church offers people the opportunity to experience a very personal encounter with God and that the established church doesn’t always create an environment in which that is possible. Interestingly, over 40% of Evangelicals in Ireland come from a Catholic background.
Back in the Victory Centre it was time for the Offering. We were instructed to reach for an envelope in the back of the seat in front of us. We were invited, but not required, to put some money in the envelope or alternatively to fill out our credit card details on the back. The preacher announced that “this money becomes supernatural when it goes into your basket of faith”. The congregation must be generous in order to maintain this giant centre. Apart from the theatre, it has a crèche, a games room for teenagers, a restaurant, a cafe and offices. The Destiny Church also does a significant amount of outreach, including free English Classes and regular Shared Lunches. The emphasis on community appears to be essential to the life blood of the two churches. They are attempting to remove themselves from the established church’s “mass on Sunday” routine and rather develop a more total sense of God being an active part of one’s life.
After a lengthy ceremony in the Victory Centre (as a child I was used to timing priests to see who offered the quickest mass), we were barely out of our seats when an usher came over and asked us to come to the hospitality suite. We entered a beautiful lounge area with leather couches and smartly dressed hosts and hostesses. This was the room for the newcomers. Two members of the church sat down with us and gave us some literature on the Centre. I was asked if I would like to open myself to God. A prayer was produced on a piece of paper and I was invited to recite the prayer with the member. I politely declined and said thankyou for their help and for being so welcoming. “I will think about it”.
The Victory Centre and the Destiny Church have some fundamental differences. Victory is a huge space planted in the middle of the residential suburbs. Its position lends itself to vast numbers of local people. While Victory also has a smaller venue on Westland Row, the Destiny Church is a much more intimate affair to the church I visited in Tallaght. Their mission is keen on investing in the lifeblood of the city centre and reclaiming the city as a place for the people. Pastor Brendan says “There’s so few churches in the city centre now because they’ve been priced out of it. The centre (of the city) has become a...moral and social wasteland. You just go there to make money and to get out and we’re trying to do the opposite. We want to love the city and create community and bring something back into it and plant something here that’s going to grow up and produce life and give to people”. Of course we must balance the growth of Evangelicalism with the fact that Ireland is continuing to secularize. As former Archbishop of Dublin, Desmond Connell, says, “Ireland is moving in a secularizing direction”. Secularization, above all else, continues to be the strongest game-changer within Irish attitudes towards religion. With the continuation of difficult economic circumstances for Ireland however, it seems that many people are searching for something different to offer meaning to their lives. Evangelical churches are attempting to answer that call through the offering of a model that is unfamiliar to many Irish people having grown up in Catholic Ireland. It appears that the investment they are making in their communities will herald a spawning of more and more evangelical churches in this country. But are they too disparate? Would they not be stronger if they brought themselves together? Pastor Brendan believes that everybody has different needs and these churches, while sharing many attributes, all offer differences which will appeal to people’s varying interests. Perhaps it is this attitude, which seems to fly in the face of the traditional Catholic model of “the one true Church”, which appeals to the many young people walking through their doors.
© Simon Tierney 2012
© Simon Tierney 2012
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