Mega-Churches

[danclang]

Mega church is to feed man's ego not God's

 

[Tenorvoice]

I personally do not like the "mega-churches" , I come form country roots, and upbringing. In most of those big ole, "high-churches" (what I call them), you loose the feel of being a family. THere is just no way that you can know, much less spend time with, that many people and get to know them well (this side of Glory anyways). I just love the atmosphere of a small town country church wehre you know everyone by name and they know you. I belive that it just brings home the church family concept much more clrealy.

I also get way to uncomfortable around that many people, I do not do well in crowds, so that turns me off from them too.

 

[rural_preacher]

I think the mega church idea was being spread recently by Willow Creek. I can't recall the pastor's name there

Bill Hybels...I attended Willow Creek twice while in the Chicago area. A lot of entertainment. They had TV monitors throughout the back portion of the auditorium so you could see what was going on up front. The only people to speak to me were the "official" greeters and the parking attendants. No personal greeting or conversation of any kind with any of the "regular" people who were in attendance.

One author wrote about attending Warren's church, Saddlebrook or something like that

Saddleback.

The Sunday messages were all about how God can make you feel good about yourself and make your life better, etc. All things to make the person feel good about themselves.

That sounds like Joel Osteen (he's on TV)...Discover the Champion in You.

What about "you're a sinner and you need the Savior" ?

--

 

[Monica02]

I gather from several posts on on this thread that many of you feel that knowing everybody at your church is very important. I have maybe eight people from my church that I know very well, and twenty or so that I know well enough to say "hi" to at the grocery store. The other three thousand or so I guess I don't know and I don't really care that I don't know them. It could just be my personality. Why is is knowing all the people at your church so important?

 

[fluffy_rainbow]

Actually, the OP wasn't a joke. This was in the Atlanta Journal-Consitution's Spirituality section a few weeks ago and the church was the North Point Community Church.

 

[ZiSunka]

I gather from several posts on on this thread that many of you feel that knowing everybody at your church is very important. I have maybe eight people from my church that I know very well, and twenty or so that I know well enough to say "hi" to at the grocery store. The other three thousand or so I guess I don't know and I don't really care that I don't know them. It could just be my personality. Why is is knowing all the people at your church so important?

Church is a gathering of family and we want to know our family really well. It helps us in our Christian life to have many people who we can call on, depend on and who know us like a real family.

 

[ZiSunka]

Actually, the OP wasn't a joke. This was in the Atlanta Journal-Consitution's Spirituality section a few weeks ago and the church was the North Point Community Church.

The projections in technology are "virtual 3-D" Here's a picture of how it looks. The image is projected onto a transparent flat screen, but it is not real 3-D. First hand accounts say it is not much different from watching a TV image on a screen, the only difference being better resolution and the clear background.

Right now, the techonolgy is being used only by a few major corporations, no churches. It's called Teleportec, because it's supposed to resemble being teleported to the other location.

 

[Gold Dragon]

The projections in technology are "virtual 3-D" Here's a picture of how it looks. The image is projected onto a transparent flat screen, but it is not real 3-D.

I didn't think actual 3-D holographic technology was at that level yet, but this "virtual 3-D" technology is pretty interesting. It is rare that churches are actually on the cutting edge of any type of technology.

 

[rural_preacher]

I gather from several posts on on this thread that many of you feel that knowing everybody at your church is very important. I have maybe eight people from my church that I know very well, and twenty or so that I know well enough to say "hi" to at the grocery store. The other three thousand or so I guess I don't know and I don't really care that I don't know them. It could just be my personality. Why is is knowing all the people at your church so important?

I'm their pastor. It's very important to me that I know each one of them so that I can pray specifically for them and care for their spiritual needs in a personal and meaningful way.


--

 

[ZiSunka]

I didn't think actual 3-D holographic technology was at that level yet, but this "virtual 3-D" technology is pretty interesting. It is rare that churches are actually on the cutting edge of any type of technology.

Well, they're not really yet. The article she was speaking of in the ACJ says that the church plans to obtain the teleportec system when it becomes available at a price they can afford. Right now they are using a closed circuit TV system on a large rear-projection screen that can make the pastor look lifesized or can enlarge his face to make the sermon more like a TV program. I can't find the link again or I would post it. Interesting article about one mega church, mostly extolling it's virtues without looking too hard at the drawbacks.

 

[Monica02]

I'm their pastor. It's very important to me that I know each one of them so that I can pray specifically for them and care for their spiritual needs in a personal and meaningful way.


--

What if your church grew to three times its size and you could no longer have such a close relationship with your parishioners? Would you hire another minister, turn people away or move to a smaller church?

 

[SumTinWong]

Why is is knowing all the people at your church so important?

I know all 60 in the church. We are a family, not just church goers. We don't go to get some lesson and leave we hang out, we talk we get to know each other. I would not be in a mega church where you are just a number on a tithing envelope. But that is just me.

 

[ZiSunka]

What if your church grew to three times its size and you could no longer have such a close relationship with your parishioners? Would you hire another minister, turn people away or move to a smaller church?

I was part of a church where this happened (byzantine catholic) and they simply formed a sister church on the other side of town. Everyone who was a member of one was a member of both! Most people participated in both at one time or another.

 

[SonOfThunder]

people get lost in huge congregations, some prefer that but I wondered if we can look at more practical reasons like the main people knowing where their congregation are 'at' spititually. Getting personal with sharing food, knowing the family dynamics etc.

My dad is an elder within his congregation with the Jehovah's Witnesses. Because they don't have a pastor or a leader 'as such' the responsibility was put onto the elders. The congregation was divided and he had a few families to 'watch over'. He has to work still, and keep his own family, he grew very very tired and missed a lot of things due to undue expectations on him. There is no public anouncing done in the meetings on Sundays, so matters where others were suffering were shared during the week at ministry school or in the field work. My dad is good with showing Biblical pricipals of living but is not a leader (personality wise). That is needed.

I shared that to say that the balance of a church united through thick and thin is a very fine balance indeed. Big churches constantly recruit lay people who (like my dad) are willing but lack the ability to be good due to their own lives and work commitments as well as personality. I was even asked a few weeks back to lead some youth and I am totally new and my pastor does not know me at all. Workers are short and in a large church you need lots of workers.

My opinion is I like a congregation of about 70 with 2 people in full time leading.


James

 

[rural_preacher]

What if your church grew to three times its size and you could no longer have such a close relationship with your parishioners? Would you hire another minister, turn people away or move to a smaller church?

Actually, for my church, if we grew to three times the size that would still be a manageable size congregation for me. I'm a 24/7 kind of guy anyway. However, if enough growth happened that an associate pastor was necessary, then we would probably call one. Another alternative would be to plant a new church in a nearby community to accomodate the growth and call a pastor to shepherd that flock.

Growth would be dealt with just as any change...evaluate, pray and seek God's desire and direction...then take action.

--

 

[Ave Maria]

I know all 60 in the church. We are a family, not just church goers. We don't go to get some lesson and leave we hang out, we talk we get to know each other. I would not be in a mega church where you are just a number on a tithing envelope. But that is just me.

Well, this is just my opinion but I feel that one can easily have personal and quality relationships with others in a mega-church. Of course, you'll probably never know everyone but that honestly isn't that big of a deal to me.

 

[DiscipleOfIAm]

I'm their pastor. It's very important to me that I know each one of them so that I can pray specifically for them and care for their spiritual needs in a personal and meaningful way.


--

I think that is important, too. I hate when a pastor of a church you attend doesn't even know your name. How can he lead a flock if he doesn't know who is in the flock?

But, to some of the congregation, they do not care if they know everyone. If a church has associate pastors, etc to aid int he growth or pick up where the pastor cannot do everything, then this works in my opinion as well. A former pastor of mine always said his job is to teach and preach, he has a counseling pastor to counsel, a music pastor to arrange and cooridnate the praise service, and so on. He liked to utilize everyone's individual talents. He wasn't a counselor, he wasn't good at it. He was good at preach and teaching the Word.

 

[Crazy Liz]

Well, this is just my opinion but I feel that one can easily have personal and quality relationships with others in a mega-church. Of course, you'll probably never know everyone but that honestly isn't that big of a deal to me.

Holly, you have a point. There are a couple of pros and cons. For someone who is beginning to spread her wings and figure out her own beliefs, a small church can be too confining. Some young adults experience diversity on a college campus, but a mega-church may be a place to do that, too. It can certainly help, for example, at some point to get a little distance from parents and their friends, or the old friends who want to keep you the way you always were as a kid and not help you become the person you want to be as an adult. Especially in an urban area, you will usually find a lot more diversity in a mega-church. Smaller churches tend to be more homogeneous.

As far as how easy it is to have personal and quality relationships in a mega-church, that probably depends a lot on the person's age and personality. I find it hard to meet people and get to know them in big crowds, especially where everybody already seems to have enough friends. In a college or young-adult group where there are many newcomers, it usually is easier, because you're not the only one who is looking to meet new people. This is also why newly-built neighborhoods tend to be friendlier than old ones.

So yes, there are some advantages to mega-churches, for some people, and probably at some stages of life.

 

[Monica02]

I was part of a church where this happened (byzantine catholic) and they simply formed a sister church on the other side of town. Everyone who was a member of one was a member of both! Most people participated in both at one time or another.

I hope I do not come off as argumenative, I am not trying to be. Couldn't adding another service or two and adding another priest have also been a solution (providing the town is not geographically so large that driving to the other side of town is a huge burden). In the two parish situation you still have to have two pastors (I am assuming each parish had its own pastor) and the number of parishioners is the same whether they are split in two or not. And there comes a point when a pastor cannot possibly know everone by name.

What is the difference between having a church with 1000 parishioners, three services and 3 priests or ministers and having a church with 333 parishioners , one serivce and one priest or minister?

Is this just a small town/ big city preference difference type of thing?