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Sometimes it hurts to see ourselves from someone else’s perspective…
from http://timmybrister.com/2007/09/19/an-outsider-look-at-unregenerate-church-membership/
An Outsider Look at Unregenerate Church Membership
One of the books we have to read in my Intro to Church Planting class is David Garrison’s Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World. While I find several things in this book troubling (regarding the CPM’s), I was surprised to find these two paragraphs in the chapter on North America (emphasis mine).
“In the 21st century, mega-churches are increasingly characterizing the North American evangelical landscape. First Baptist Churches in Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas all claim memberships larger than 20,000 as do Prestonwood Baptist Church, Second Baptist Houston, Bellevue Baptist in Cordova, Tennessee, and Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. But not all is healthy in these large mega-churches that can typically only account for one-third of their members on any given Sunday. For too many, church membership has become a spectator sport rather than a vital part of daily life.
A story is told in Kenya of a prominent pastor from the United States who visited Nairobi and was introduced to the Kenyan church leadership as ‘pastor of one of the largest churches in America, with more than 20,000 members. Each week more than 8,000 attend his preaching.’ Visibly moved, the Kenyan leader led his brothers to pray for the American pastor who could not find more than half of his church members on Sunday morning!”
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I truly admire the church who expresses their emphasis on the quality of teaching and the strength of fellowship and not on the numbers. Unfortunately, I believe these churches are in the minority.
I always thought the church I attended overseas, with only about 30-40 members, was a little sad. But if you consider that there were usually 25 of us on a given Sunday, I guess that we were doing better than most churches in the United States. If someone was missing, we knew and someone followed through with making sure that they were okay. Should churches try to aim for smaller congregations so that there is a more personal attachment to the membership body?
I think there is a sweet spot for Church size: big enough to form a solid community and meet various needs, but not so large that THE pastor can not lead his flock. My father was a pastor whose job it was to take floundering churches and build them up to a “workable” size.
I really think that about 200 to 300 is optimal for that. Once you start having multiple associates just to provide pastoral care, I think it might getting too big.
I think that their are mega churches that can truly be effective in ministry. Churches with as many as 20,000 members have the resources at their disposal to reach people thru and engaging and supporting missions on a regular basis, without it taxing the financial situation of its congregation. The question however is, do most mega churches do this? I dont know. Id like to believe that they do.
I also understand that there is a value in spiritual growth, which is more important than memebership. It seems belonging to large churches has become a sort of “fashion statement”. I dont believe people who go for that purpose are commited to Jesus as much as they are commited to self importance. There are megachurches that have strong leadership and are able to effectively minister to those in need. Moses pastored many people in the wilderness… and he appointed people whom he trusted to assist him. Likewise strong leadership in large churches can work as well.
I am a member of a church that has fewer than 100 people and I enjoy the fellowship and the accountablity we have toward each other….it is something that smaller churches I feel can provide more aptly than large ones, however there is a place for mega churches. It seems however no matter how large or small your church is….. its the same 5% of the congregation that is really involved and does the work of the ministry. Maybe we should all take a lesson from their page book to teach us how to be “better” christians.
I definitely think Mega Churches can get a bad rap. I have attended two large churches that had grown that large because they had the strongest exegetical preaching, strong focus on raising disciples and getting members involved in ministry and small groups. These churches grew rapidly because they drew people who wanted to get fed. So it is important to look at why the mega church got that big, and what kind of christians they are attracting and keeping and growing.