Last month, America's largest church celebrated its move into the former arena for the Houston Rockets with a capacity crowd of 16,000, many of them black Americans who are a visible part of the racially-diverse congregation.

Lakewood Church, pastored by Joel Osteen, has attracted a large number of black parishioners who can be seen worshiping during Sunday’s televised service.

"How do you like our new home?" Osteen asked to thunderous applause. "It looks pretty good, doesn't it? This is a dream come true."

The new home for the nondenominational Christian church is the former Compaq Center, once home to the Rockets. There were no vacant spots in the arena as Lakewood, which recently became the first church in the United States to average more than 30,000 parishioners weekly, held its first service there on Sunday, July 17.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) was one of several political leaders who attended a celebration for the church, which is located in her Houston congressional district. It took more than 15 months and $75 million to complete the renovations -- which included adding five stories to make more room for more parishioners.

While collection plates were passed, video messages from people around the world, including Pastor T.D. Jakes of the Potter's House in Dallas, welcomed Lakewood Church to its new location.

Jackson Lee said the sports-stadium-turned-sanctuary was filled with black folks.

"People feel welcomed," Jackson Lee said. "The mega-church offers something for everyone. It certainly offers diversity."

Lakewood is not the only large church in America. The concept of mega-churches is a growing phenomenon as black ministries seek to serve thousands of people each Sunday. More black Americans are now joining mega-churches in their quest for spirituality.

Jakes has a congregation of 28,000; Rev. Creflo Dollar's World Changers Church International in Atlanta boasts a church membership of 23,000; Rev. Eddie Long, pastor of New Birth in Atlanta, has 25,000 members, and Rev. Keith Butler, pastor of Word of Faith International Christian Center, has a congregation of over 19,000 members in Southfield, Michigan. Floyd Flake, a former U.S. congressman, is senior pastor of the 17,000-member Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica, Queens, and Bethel AME Church in Baltimore has 14,500 members.

In Floyd, Texas (population 100,) a Nigeria-based church -- The Redeemed Christian Church of God -- plans to build a 10,000-seat church and a Christian-themed water park. The church has already purchased 500 acres of pasture in the rural town between Houston and Austin. 

Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has preached in countless pulpits across the nation, said mega-churches, regardless of denomination, can offer a powerful message if they advocate for civil rights and uplift the human spirit.

"The big church can have value if it has a connection to Jesus Christ’s mission statement," Jackson told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"The big church can have value if the church fights for Medicaid and Medicare, if the church fights for affirmative action, if the church fights for equality, and if the church fights for worker’s rights."

But even as millions of black Americans gather for church each Sunday, there are also many who feel wholly disconnected from the black-church experience -- regardless of the congregation’s size.

John Fountain, a licensed minister and a journalism professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, explained how he has lost faith in the black church in a recent Op-Ed article.

Fountain says he is extremely disappointed by the blatant hypocrisy of some black ministers.

"Sunday mornings used to mean something special to me," Fountain wrote. "But now I face them with dread, with a bittersweet sorrow."

"I am incensed by Mercedes-buying preachers who live in suburban meadows far away from the inner-city ghettos they pastor," wrote Fountain, the grandson of a minister.

"I wonder why, despite billions of dollars taken from collection plates  -- much of it from the poor -- in my own denomination," he wrote, "I see few homes for the elderly, few recreation centers, little to no church-financed housing developments."

"Why don’t I hear a discernible message from the church for today’s ailing black male soul?" he asked. "I now feel disconnected. Not necessarily from God, but from the church."

Fountain’s concern may be extreme, but he may also reflect significant and deep-rooted feelings among many black Americans today who -- like Fountain wrote -- turn over in bed and reach for the covers on Sunday mornings.

Still, black ministers say the core mission of the black church is to uplift the disenfranchised and provide sanctuary for those in need. And mega-churches, some say, are in perfect position to reach out to millions.

"The big church," Jackson said, "can have great results and great value if it has a social justice agenda -- which is a Jesus Christ agenda."

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Associated Press contributed to this story.