Big, big churches

[Atonement]

Don't know her, but if she left faith because of a Mega Church, something there does not sound right.

 

[jasoncran]

Don't know her, but if she left faith because of a Mega Church, something there does not sound right.

she was into prosperity gospel and kennith copeland was here favorite. she had a mind for physics and was able to answer any question on the occult by memory. she did a lot of reaserch into the occult and was in that herself. but came to the lord.

she was also a pentacostal. man the debates we had.:D

 

[BornAgain]

The OP asked,

"Beyond personal preference, is there anything Scripturally that would lend support to the big, big churches, or perhaps instead indicate that smaller is (within reason) better?"

Well, one could also make an inference with what Jesus said about the greatest being the least in significance. If a big church is making a big statement about itself and what it is doing you have to wonder. The topic here being just the size of a church and scriptual references to church size. Ummm, that is hard. I'll try to have another tomorrow.

There is not anything scriptural that equates to the "size" of the church. Just to obey to the One True Church which is scriptural...Matthew 16:18.

KJV

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

HIS church....nothing to do with personal preference or to do things "our way."

 

[Christ_empowered]

I wonder if there aren't problems on both ends. All the smaller, Protestant churches I've known--with the exception of more liberal mainline denominations, like the PCUSA I grew up in--had problems with splits. All the bigger churches seem too distant to be effective in discipling people. I think if I knew someone who was vaguely interested in Christ, I might send them to a mega-church to get the basics down and then help them find a solid (hopefully not headed towards division) church to get more solid discipling.

Make sense? Anyone from a bigger church have different experiences?

 

[BornAgain]

It is interesting to note that all of members the first church had NO established or BIG church of which to become a member. They each indvidually, touched by the Holy Spirit working in their personal lives, made the decision to repent and follow Christ. No organized, "certified", most popular, most "right", or whatever church of which to belong. In one day at Pentacost, 3,000 were added to the inital small, new unestablished band of Christians; PURELY by the working of the Holy Spririt working in indvidual lives and ALL these different people interpreting the message accurately. Interesting; esp when you remember there was no speaker systems, TV monitors or TVs, multiple languages spoken by this 3,000 and no instantaneous, computerized translation systems in place, power points, and on and on.

There was NO need for an established church with its characteristic traits or claims to be in place; just the message of the Gospel. I think that Church size should REALLY not be an issue; rather, is the Gospel, as taught at Pentacost preached?

Yes...hallelujah.

 

[Atonement]

It is interesting to note that all of members the first church had NO established or BIG church of which to become a member. They each indvidually, touched by the Holy Spirit working in their personal lives, made the decision to repent and follow Christ. No organized, "certified", most popular, most "right", or whatever church of which to belong. In one day at Pentacost, 3,000 were added to the inital small, new unestablished band of Christians; PURELY by the working of the Holy Spririt working in indvidual lives and ALL these different people interpreting the message accurately. Interesting; esp when you remember there was no speaker systems, TV monitors or TVs, multiple languages spoken by this 3,000 and no instantaneous, computerized translation systems in place, power points, and on and on.

There was NO need for an established church with its characteristic traits or claims to be in place; just the message of the Gospel. I think that Church size should REALLY not be an issue; rather, is the Gospel, as taught at Pentacost preached?

JimJib -

I hope you are having a blessed day in the Lord.

I couldn't agree more with the above statement made by you. Church size should not matter, but I feel that the greater the Church (size), the more responsibility it may have to it's members. Meaning this:

Not that's this is any sort of requirement; but if the Lord gives you a little I believe He would expect a larger harvest from what was given.. Therefore

In-reach and out-reach ministries
Home Bible fellowships
Youth rallies / Young programs
Gospel message taught to children at their level (Age appropriate lessons)
Worship leaders / prayer warriors / ushers etc

Basically the Church should have something driving it's members to do something more for the work of the Lord, rather then just attending Church on Sunday or mid-week service but is able to get involved at something in the Church and is encouraged to do so by the staff and other members.

LJ

 

[Mike S]

I'm late to this thread, but let me add my view. I feel more comfortable worshipping with small groups than with large groups. Our worship service usually has about 80 people, which I think is about right. We have enough brothers and sisters to do outreach minstry, and even run a weekend food kitchen.

But, personal preference aside, I don't think size of congregation matters at all for quality of worship. It depends on the commitment of both the clergy and laity.

 

[Carolyn]

I enjoyed a small church also, but then my 4 year old boy started begging to go to Sunday School. We had nothing during the summer, and there was no child care for the 18 mo. old. So we changed churches for the summer. The next fall I found that there was still no child care and they asked me to leave with him. So we went back to the one we had attended in the summer.
The next small church we briefly attended often had only our children in the classes. No fellowship for them at all. But at least the church tried.

However, the church was dying. I believe that a healthy church is a growing church. The growth may be slow, but it is free of continual splits or people just passing through because their needs are not being met. Nor does it have sudden spikes in growth because of sensationalism (such as fillings turning to gold) or other unscriptural promises such as that godliness is a means of gain, or for dishonost gain. 1 Tim 6:5, 1 Pet 5:2.

There is no mention of size in the NT, but a lot is said about the qualifications for leadership: Called by God, full of the Holy Spirit, and 1 Tim 3:1-13., Acts 6:3-4
I briefly had a small church pastor who said he took an aptitude test that said he would be a good lawyer or pastor. Another became a pastor because that is what his mother wanted him to do. Pathetic!

 

[NightLight]

as far as big churches having a lot of money, my experience is that a lot of these big churches, are taking out big loans, from banks??? and a lot of the money people donate, is going to pay these bankers off.

So these people are sucking up donations from well meaning Christians, and passing it off to the bankers.

 

[Hammer]

as far as big churches having a lot of money, my experience is that a lot of these big churches, are taking out big loans, from banks??? and a lot of the money people donate, is going to pay these bankers off.

So these people are sucking up donations from well meaning Christians, and passing it off to the bankers.

Megachurches actually have very low per-member support. And, their leaders want to be very aggressive, which means loans, which means bankers get a lot of donation money.

 

[Hammer]

Large churches are imtimidating to approach, physically and sociaologically speaking for many, me included. You seem to say that one of the reasons you like smaller churches is because you are neurotic (abnormally sensative, obsessive, or tense),

That sounds as backwards as you could possibly get. Big churches allow you to be anonymous, making them very easy to approach. At small churches, everyone there knows you're visiting. Plus, big churches are guaranteed innocuous and bland. You don't know what you're walking into when you go to a small church.

 

[Atonement]

Greetings to you all in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ

This is only from personal experience. I was brought up in a small Church and it was there when I found Christ. As a kid growing up in a small Church I remember things as a child, the teachings, the Church bus, the puppet shows etc. But once I put off childish things 1 Corinthians 13:11 and left the Church for a larger Church, it was there that my personal ministry really kicked off. There is one BIG disadvantage in a Big Church (it's hard to develop relationships); that is unless you are apart of the bigger plan the Church has (Church ministries). However, I say this with a grain of salt; because in a smaller Church it seems everyone knows about everyone and I have heard A LOT of gossip in the Church growing up.

Some of you may or may not be able to relate to this. As I said this is my personal experience in both types of Church's. Today I attend a fairly large Church but it's far from a "mega Church" and yet it still has that feel of a small Church, the pastor greets you at the door as you walk in, you see that same faces, and shake the same hands. Yet it's still large enough where there is not much gossip (at least I have not heard any yet and it's been a few years now), because there are new faces every week.

Just one more note of thought' I attended a mega Church only once and it was so un-personable, what I mean is that we were not greeted, no one said anything to us as we walked in (never being there before) looking probably a little confused as we wander around looking for the child care area. We didn't know from whom to whom the staff was to ask questions (thank goodness we got there early), after we found our way back to the auditorium and listened to the pastor (what did we hear) screaming babies from what seemed in every direction. Needless to say we tried it, we didn't like it and never did we go back.

I'm not frowning on mega Church's but I am ONLY relating about my personal experiences as an individual.

I hope you all have a blessed day

LJ

 

[Pard]

Small churches I prefer. They are more personal and you tend to feel more welcomed. That being said, and speaking as both an attendee of a smaller church and as a future pastor, it is much more difficult to preach the gospel truth in a small church. When you approach certain topics, pornography, alcohol, abuse, etc. people are going to assume you are talking about Family X or Family Y or Family Z.

Since moving to VA I have only been able to attend larger churches and what I have found is that the message is actually stronger and more pointed at real issues in the church. I think that to counter the large and less personal atmosphere of large churches a huge amount of effort needs to be placed on small groups.