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You've probably heard some version of this joke. A man from San Francisco decides to write a book about churches around the country. He travels to congregations in Seattle, Boise, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, New York, Atlanta, and at each church he notices a golden telephone on the wall with a sign over it that reads: $10,000 A MINUTE. The man is told that the phone is a direct line to heaven.

Finally, he arrives in Dallas. He enters a church and spots the usual golden telephone. But this time, the sign reads: CALLS: 25 CENTS. Fascinated, he asks to speak to the pastor. "Reverend, I have been in cities all across the country, and in each church I have been told that this phone is a direct line to God, but everywhere else it costs $10,000 a minute. Your sign says 25 cents a call. Why?"

The pastor, smiling proudly, replies, "Well, my son, you're in Dallas now. It's a local call from here."

What makes this tale more than just an amusing example of "Don't Mess with Texas" bravado is the nagging suspicion that, in Dallas, it could very well be true.

Judging from the unusually large number of churches, seminaries, and parachurch organizations here, one gets the impression that God has some special arrangement with the city—the kind Disney has with Orlando, or that movie stars have with Beverly Hills. The ubiquity of Christian institutions is astounding.

And these aren't your average-size churches, seminaries, and parachurch organizations either. In the great Texas tradition, they are big—really big—in both membership and clout.

For instance, travel downtown and you'll find First Baptist of Dallas, believed by some observers to be the nation's first modern megachurch. Under the leadership of the late W. A. Criswell, from 1944 to 1991 the church attracted prominent community leaders, implemented dozens of innovative programs, and eventually swelled to 28,000 members—the largest in the United States at the time. Though considerably smaller than in its heyday, today's First Baptist still claims 10,000 people on its rolls and 5,000 active members. And the church's facilities dominate an entire city block, not including the massive seven-level parking garage across the street.

Around the corner is the 4,000-member First United Methodist. A few blocks east there's Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral, which draws more than 11,000 Hispanic worshipers to its weekend Masses. Cruise northward and you'll find an assortment of large upper-middle-class congregations: Park Cities Baptist, Highland Park Presbyterian, Lovers Lane United Methodist, St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal, and several others. Most of the churches boast active memberships of 2,000 or more, and many of them are among the largest in their respective denominations. Go farther north to the wealthy suburb of Plano and you'll hit Prestonwood Baptist, a 20,000-member congregation that is one of the largest in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Housed in a cavernous, ultramodern structure on a 140-acre campus, the church is led by Jack Graham, the man widely expected to be the SBC's next president.

On the southern edge of the city is a collection of mostly African American megachurches—including Tony Evans's Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, E. K. Bailey's Concord Missionary Baptist, and the newest and biggest of them all, T. D. Jakes's Potter's House, which draws 23,000 each Sunday.

There are numerous other churches and religious bodies that stand out for one noteworthy characteristic or another: Covenant Church in nearby Carrollton is a 10,000-member charismatic congregation that is regularly lauded as the most racially diverse church in the Dallas area. Iglesia Evangélica Bethania (Bethany Evangelical Church) in Farmers Branch comprises 20 Latino nationalities and is one of the fastest-growing Hispanic congregations in the area. Temple Emanu-El in North Dallas is one of the largest synagogues in the nation. Then there's Cathedral of Hope, a 3,600-member congregation that, despite its decidedly evangelical flavor, bills itself as the world's largest gay church.

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May 21 2002, Vol. 46, No. 6