I grew up in a perpetually small church, 50 attending was a huge service. We were near a college but rarely attracted any students. We were established, well positioned in the middle of town, etc. When I was about 20 a new church popped up out in the country, well beyond where anyone would accidentally find it. They had money. Huge building, sprawling parking lot.

I was invited by a girl I was dating to go there once, because her friend loved it. First surprise, the parking lot was full. Next, the music was from a CD, all contemporary stuff I'd never heard before. The speaker told a story about fishing... maybe, in my desire to figure out where he was going with the message I didn't absorb a single detail, because it turns out, there was no message. It was just an anecdote with no moral concern at all, much less related to Christianity in any way. The whole thing was strange and creepy to me, I was trying to understand what was appealing about this. I noticed finally there wasn't a single mention of God, Jesus, Sin, or even Heaven. But 'Love' yeah, he said 'love' a LOT. By the end I was looking in the corners and light-fixtures for cameras and microphones like it was a cult indoctrination front.

I described this later to someone older and he called it a "user friendly" church. I'd never heard that term, but it was one churches like it had been bandying in previous decades that signaled "there are no hard things here, only soft, positive, fun things. Come enjoy!"

It was a shocking moment for me, that such a thing would exist, that people would be attracted to it, that it would know wild success beyond what a small group of dedicated and serious people would ever know. And everywhere I've moved in my life since, I've always found that church. It's been easy to find. It's the big one with the sprawling parking lot that has to rent cops to direct traffic on Sundays.