Earlier, I blogged about "Baptisms, Baptisms, Baptisms," which introduced the first of twelve stops in what we're calling the Field Study of North American Megachurches.
We just completed our second stop at The Austin Stone Community Church, Austin, TX. It's the youngest of our site visits: it launched December 2002 and last weekend drew about 3,500 people.
Surprisingly, this church isn't trying to advertise – they don't put their website or service times on outside signage, they've never done mailers or radio spots, and they generally stay under the radar in terms of the local press. They consider themselves more countercultural than seeker sensitive.
Instead, every attendee we asked said they had invited at least one other person to church. Wow! So the growth is coming entirely by word of mouth. Some of the people-inviting-friends buzz is that national recording artist Chris Tomlin often serves as what he calls the "lead worshiper." But by far the bigger buzz is about the authentic, real experience of God that frequently arises from both the worship (whether or not Chris is in town) and the teaching, where Matt Carter is lead pastor.
Scott Thumma and I did about 50 interviews over three full days, both focus groups and one-on-ones. Plus we observed lots of ministry in action. 
I was most touched by a conversation with staff member Doug Drinka. He and four highly dedicated volunteers, along with an impressive collection of high-tech equipment, were "hidden" on the top floor of their meeting site, Austin High School, limited to looking through a window at the worship and preaching in the gym below. What impressed me:
1. Heart. When I asked why they were here and not in the gym itself, Doug replied simply: "real estate." He explained that their relocation freed up more seats so more people could come and encounter God. They make quite an ongoing sacrifice to be isolated from the fellowship and ambience of the gym itself.
2. Creativity. Doug's team oversees the camera switching for the image magnification, adds the song lyrics and Scripture verse overlays, and does other stuff that I couldn't understand, all of which requires a zillion cables. They cleverly use the walls as their preview monitors. They've also figured out how to make everything incredibly compact and portable. Impressive.
3. Relational Capital. The team had to drill a hole through the wall of the gym in order to feed their switcher box and other cables to their third floor perch. Remember, this is an active high school; think of all the mischief some students might concoct after noticing a freshly bored hole next to their lockers! Yet there is such good will between the high school administration and the church that they readily received permission – and they did the work well, all the way down to the final coat of paint. Here's a church that doesn't fight city hall; they just love on them, building trust and good will along the way.
Our next stops are Hosanna Lutheran Church in Minneapolis followed by Park Street Church in Boston. I can't wait to see what we learn! Any suggestions of what we should look for on these stops?
Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 19 books on various aspects of church health and innovation.
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