Back to the Heart of Worship: Praise and Worship Music in a Los Angeles African American Megachurch”
by Birgitta J. Johnson
Birgitta J. Johnson received her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 2008 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Syracuse University. Her dissertation research examines music and worship in African American megachurch congregations in Los Angeles.
“Back to the Heart of Worship: Praise and Worship Music in a Los Angeles African American Megachurch” by Birgitta J. Johnson, explores music making in the context of an urban African American megachurch that holds weekly worship services in a sports arena. The author provides historical overviews black megachurches in Los Angeles and information on the origins of praise and worship and the megachurch phenomenon in the United States. The supplementary materials featured here include footnotes, a list of praise and worship recordings, and photographs and diagrams of buildings that could not be included in the original article due to page limitations. Also included is a table that features information about thirteen African American megachurches in Greater Los Angeles. The note numbers correspond to footnotes from the original published article.
Note 1. Selected list of praise and worship recordings.
Note 2. Statistical data on megachurches.
While church growth scholars agree on the figure of at least two thousand members, some sources suggest numbers as low as fifteen hundred or as high as five thousand. African American lifestyle magazines such as Ebony, Jet, and other publications often describe a megachurch as a congregation that has at least three thousand members in attendance each Sunday (see “New Black Spirituality” 2004; “What is the Future” 2004; “The Megachurches” 2004; “Where We Stand” 2005; Johnson 2008).
Note 3. Information on the thirteen megachurches in Greater Los Angeles.
Due to discrepancies among sources of actual membership sizes and regular attendance figures for some of these churches as well as rapid attendance growth or decline since the late 1990s, numerical data for each church has been purposely omitted.
*During the course of my fieldwork, the head pastor of some congregations changed. In those cases the first name denotes the head pastor from the 1990s and the second, the most current head pastor.
§Some congregations have changed denominational affiliations over time. Dashes denote the move to the most current affiliation.
†This church is a combination of two congregations that united in 1972. The foundational dates of the original churches are given in parentheses.
Note 4. Photo and diagram of the Tabernacle.
Note 5. Faithful Central's affiliation changes.
Faithful Central went through a series of affiliation changes during the mid-nineties, joining the Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship in 1994. In 1996, Faithful Central became an independent church, affiliated with the Macedonia International Bible Fellowship. The Macedonia International Bible Fellowship is not a separate denomination but a global organization of affiliated Christian churches and ministries in the United States, southern Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Ukraine. *See faithfulcentral.com for additional information about the Faithful Central Bible Church.
Note 6. Photo of the exterior of the Forum.
Note 7. Diagram of the Sunday morning seating configuration of the Forum.
Note 8. Further discussion about Order of Service in the church bulletin.
Only four times during the course of my fieldwork at Faithful Central was an order of service featured in the printed church bulletin. Two occasions were during the citywide Easter service and the other two were for the annual baccalaureate program that occurred during the main Sunday morning service. During one church service in 2002, Ulmer commented that the church had stopped printing an order of service “a long time ago” because they rarely followed it. Church video from services as early as 1988 show that several of the formal elements of the traditional order of service were not present, being phased out, or combined at Faithful Central.
by Birgitta J. Johnson
Birgitta J. Johnson received her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 2008 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Syracuse University. Her dissertation research examines music and worship in African American megachurch congregations in Los Angeles.
“Back to the Heart of Worship: Praise and Worship Music in a Los Angeles African American Megachurch” by Birgitta J. Johnson, explores music making in the context of an urban African American megachurch that holds weekly worship services in a sports arena. The author provides historical overviews black megachurches in Los Angeles and information on the origins of praise and worship and the megachurch phenomenon in the United States. The supplementary materials featured here include footnotes, a list of praise and worship recordings, and photographs and diagrams of buildings that could not be included in the original article due to page limitations. Also included is a table that features information about thirteen African American megachurches in Greater Los Angeles. The note numbers correspond to footnotes from the original published article.
Note 1. Selected list of praise and worship recordings.
Note 2. Statistical data on megachurches.
While church growth scholars agree on the figure of at least two thousand members, some sources suggest numbers as low as fifteen hundred or as high as five thousand. African American lifestyle magazines such as Ebony, Jet, and other publications often describe a megachurch as a congregation that has at least three thousand members in attendance each Sunday (see “New Black Spirituality” 2004; “What is the Future” 2004; “The Megachurches” 2004; “Where We Stand” 2005; Johnson 2008).
Note 3. Information on the thirteen megachurches in Greater Los Angeles.
Church | Head Pastor* | City | Established | Denominational Background |
| Brookins Community A.M.E. Church | Frederick Murph | Los Angeles | 1977 | African Methodist Episcopal Church |
| Full Harvest International Church | Clarence McClendon | Gardena | 1939 | Four Square--;§Non-denominational |
| City of Refuge | Noel Jones | Gardena | (c. 1970s) | Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. |
| Crenshaw Christian Center | Fredrick K.C. Price | Los Angeles | 1973 | Non-denominational |
| Faithful Central Bible Church | Kenneth C. Ulmer | Inglewood | 1936 | Missionary Baptist-- Full Gospel Baptist -- Non-denominational |
| First A.M.E. Church | Cecil Murray/ John Hunter | Los Angeles | 1872 | African Methodist Episcopal Church |
| First Church of God of Los Angeles (City of Hope) | Gregory Dixon | Inglewood | (1892/1940) 1972 † | Church of God, Anderson |
| Friendship Baptist Church | James Carrington | Yorba Linda | 1964 | Baptist |
| Life Church of God in Christ | Ron Gibson | Riverside | 1987 | Church of God in Christ |
| Maranatha Community Church | Billy Ingram | Los Angeles | 1980 | Non-denominational |
| Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church | Edward V. Hill, II | Los Angeles | 1893 | Missionary Baptist Church |
| Ward A.M.E. Church | Norman Copland/ C. Dennis Williams | Los Angeles | 1902 | African Methodist Episcopal Church |
| West Angeles Church of God in Christ | Charles E. Blake | Los Angeles | 1943 | Church of God in Christ |
Due to discrepancies among sources of actual membership sizes and regular attendance figures for some of these churches as well as rapid attendance growth or decline since the late 1990s, numerical data for each church has been purposely omitted.
*During the course of my fieldwork, the head pastor of some congregations changed. In those cases the first name denotes the head pastor from the 1990s and the second, the most current head pastor.
§Some congregations have changed denominational affiliations over time. Dashes denote the move to the most current affiliation.
†This church is a combination of two congregations that united in 1972. The foundational dates of the original churches are given in parentheses.
Note 4. Photo and diagram of the Tabernacle.
Note 5. Faithful Central's affiliation changes.
Faithful Central went through a series of affiliation changes during the mid-nineties, joining the Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship in 1994. In 1996, Faithful Central became an independent church, affiliated with the Macedonia International Bible Fellowship. The Macedonia International Bible Fellowship is not a separate denomination but a global organization of affiliated Christian churches and ministries in the United States, southern Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Ukraine. *See faithfulcentral.com for additional information about the Faithful Central Bible Church.
Note 6. Photo of the exterior of the Forum.
Note 7. Diagram of the Sunday morning seating configuration of the Forum.
Note 8. Further discussion about Order of Service in the church bulletin.
Only four times during the course of my fieldwork at Faithful Central was an order of service featured in the printed church bulletin. Two occasions were during the citywide Easter service and the other two were for the annual baccalaureate program that occurred during the main Sunday morning service. During one church service in 2002, Ulmer commented that the church had stopped printing an order of service “a long time ago” because they rarely followed it. Church video from services as early as 1988 show that several of the formal elements of the traditional order of service were not present, being phased out, or combined at Faithful Central.
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