To answer a few of the questions brought up by a previous comment.... here are some of my thoughts on the subject of "mega-churches". I know that my "theology" is very different than alot of homeschoolers (commenter), on church-life, sheltering and separation.
I think that every believer's (thus, church's) mission in life is the Great Commission. (Matt. 28:19-20) I think that for indivuals and churches, God's choice of methods is different. If a church grows because it is reaching people with the Message of the Cross and becomes a "mega" church - God has added the increase.
God is very much into numbers - He desires that NONE perish. (2 Pet. 3:9) But as a church grows, small group fellowship must increase. We need fellowship with believers that are like-minded on a level that we can intimately connect and share struggles and blessings with. It is our job, as individuals, to plug ourselves in. It is not the pastor's fault if the church offers things but people won't take part and complain about how big the church is.
The "programs" of a church should be those that equip believers to effectly reach "their world" with Jesus' love and to help people in the knowledge of Him. At our church, we try not to have meetings for the sake of meetings, rather we try to be effective and effecient with what we do because we believe people's lives should be lived "in the world" to impact it for Jesus.
I don't know what an "Acts church" looks like, but I do find MANY references to their numbers increasing daily and their numbers being multiplied.
It really is all about Jesus and His name being made famous in our world. We have to find out how He would have that look in our community, our church and in our individual lives. Our vision, in our small community, is to so impact this area with the love and power of Jesus that our church grows, not only in numbers but in our love and passion for Him!
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
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about me
- javamamma
- I'm passionately in love with Jesus. He overwhelms me. I'm outrageously in love with my husband of 11 years. He stole my heart. I'm giddily in love with my kids. They make me laugh.
6 comments:
I want the "Kingdom" to grow, and with that said, I'd like to see my church grow, but not with the shuffling around of existing Christians looking for the church that offers them the most "programs". I guess that is my unsaid point from my earlier comment.
My fear of mega churches is that you will have droves of basically ineffective Christians who lack accountability and never mature into mentoring roles.
So my friend, my next question is this; Do you think it is better to grow into mega churches that foster small groups ... or do you think it would be better to start creating church plants once you pass the size of accountability?
Having attended both, I favor the later through personal experience, however that was only one experience (hardly enough to make an argument for one or the other.) In our mega church experience, we struggled to develop relationship (and both my husband and I are extremely outgoing and involved) after 4 months of trying to get "plugged in" we left and we were not shocked to find that no one noticed. We were however asked to volunteer for months after we left. Too funny.
In our small church plant we experienced mentoring and fellowship like no other. This was a small church of less than 100 that broke off from a larger church.
You wrote "I don't know what an "Acts church" looks like, but I do find MANY references to their numbers increasing daily and their numbers being multiplied." I agree, their numbers were greatly multiplied, but they did this by creating leaders, breaking off and multiplying. In a mega church the focus remains on one pastor. In church plants they build up leaders, then send them off to create more leaders thus infiltrating society in a much broader sense.
I guess my final point would be this. Mega churches are appealing to the masses with their coffee shops, golden fountains, and McDonald's play-land type children's services, but when it's all said and done, isn't it the relationships built within the church that create a lasting impact? And do we not lose some of that when we are so busy trying to create the illusion of a christian utopia, that we fail to miss that our members have not returned? ~K
BTW. Thank you for creating a place to have a great conversation! This is too fun!
Good point in previous comment. I do also agree that it's not necessarily the size of the church but the effective discipling that is equipping the believer's in that place. I read of a pastor who was envied in town because people from other churches were leaving their home churches and going to his. His response when asked about it was that his goal was to provide rich feed for the sheep to eat. It was not his purpose to "steal sheep" or even have them become members. He wanted them to feast on truth. i think if that is our goal- then whether we have the numbers or not we'll probably be fulfilling His will. Truth in us will grow and produce fruit.
Love ya both.
thoughts on comment from "anonymous"
I'm not sure there is ONE answer for EVERY church. Though the mission of each church body is the same, what that looks like is sometimes entirely different. My thoughts are based on what God has given us to do as THIS church in THIS area.
I think smaller churches often have a tendency to become very EXclusive and not embrace others because they are comfortable with being WHO they are. This is where "survival of the church is not the goal" comes in.
I, personally enjoy going to a BIG church with a quality worship experience and a excellent preacher. I don't get my "intimate fellowship" IN church but count on establishing relationships on a smaller level for that. It's awesome to see many people coming together to seek after "the ONE they love".
Now, that said, our church is only about 80 people in a very small "village". (We have close to 25% of our population at our church.) We inherited this church a year and a half ago and have added several families to it since. BUT, let me tell you, our VISION is much, much higher than that. We look to reach into the entire surrounding community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We look to grow our church well beyond the population of the town - because that's the vision we have. It's not numbers for numbers sake, rather a compassion that ALL should find Jesus and we believe we have a church with an atmosphere and environment that people can find Jesus!
Kari wrote. "it's not necessarily the size of the church but the effective disciplining that is equipping the believer's in that place".
Good point. It's not fair of me to assume that just because one "mega" church wasn't "working for us" that they all don't work.
My church has great fellowship and feeds me well (in a spiritual sense). I guess that I could trust that my pastor is hearing God (he's never led me to believe otherwise), and that God wants a Mega church... and if it's a God thing, it's going to be a good thing!
I know God has placed our family at that church ... and darn it... I need to have a good attitude.
Thanks to the both of you for letting me hash out my thoughts! Blessings to you both. ~K
Good discussion. My husband and I have been discussing large churchs a lot lately. If the point of the church is numbers for numbers sake, we believe that is wrong. But if a church can grow through the process of making disciples that is awesome. I long to see more disciples being made and not just people saying a quick fix ,prayer of salvation. We are called to make disciples and all churches large and small should be about the same business. Love God and love others.
Shari Loeffler
I, too, love the worship and exemplary teaching of larger churches. I'm not sure that we were in a mega-church, but our VA church had between 1500-2000 people (the leadership didn't keep track of numbers, so I don't really know). Coming from a church of 500 where we knew every single person: nursery to elderly, it was very large and honestly it took about 3 years until we felt like we were finally getting connected. That is a lot of time, but we believed we were where God wanted us to be, so we invested the time. In the meantime, I made friends outside of church, Christian and non-Christian alike. In the previous small church, my entire life revolved around church and I didn't have any friends outside its walls. That presented a problem when it came to witnessing and lifestyle evangelism. I enjoyed the diversity of having friends who attended other churches as well as the ability to make friends with non-believers with whom I could then share the Gospel.
In order to get connected in our own church, the thing that we learned was that we had to get over ourselves, stop waiting for someone else to come up and introduce themselves to us, ask us over for dinner etc...we had to take the initiative ourselves, and we did have to get involved in the small groups as well. In the end, it was in serving where we finally got to know people. Teaching 3 year old Sunday School for 3 years enabled us to meet families, for example.
Big churches aren't for everyone, but they can be a tremendous blessing and you CAN get connected if you're willing to put forth the effort to do so.
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