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say not to megachurches?!?!?

Christ_empowered

Christ_empowered

Member
hillsong is in the press. first a pastor was forced to resign, now there are allegations of all sorts of perks for the higher ups, while volunteers were used as baby sitters for below minimum wage.

a Florida megachurch pastor is telling congregants to avoid any covid-19 vaccines and instead have faith that Jesus will keep them well. also went on about satanic plots, support Trump, etc. no word on his salary or any underpaid baby sitters.

here locally, the megachurch ditched its founding pastor a couple years ago. they're more in line with standard, conservative, Protestant theology, now. attendance seems to have dipped a good 20%, no recent data I could find.

I personally am not in church. fun stories to share: when I first moved back home to the general area, I was heckled at the megachurch. I was stopped in traffic in front of a "progressive" Presbyterian church, and I got heckled there, too. while living out of state, I didn't "fit in" a conservative, smaller church congregation...

and the 1 person I kept in touch with from a church-sponsored Bible study changed her number, rather than keep talking to me. i don't think I blame her, but...-sigh- ... maybe some believers just don't do church because of the nature of the established church?

I think megachurches pose more of a potential problem. right now, another local megachurch is dealing with lawsuits within the upper levels of leadership. ugh. sexual scandals, one megachurch not too, too far away was accused of letting a man they were told was probably a pedophile (no convictions or anything) continue volunteering with young children. he's now facing charges of pedophilia, the church is arguing they cannot be sued because they did a background check.

i dunno. any and every church can and will and does have problems, but...wow. wow. as a Christian, I'm kinda wondering if its time to take a step back and rethink how believers "do church," given...everything (declining membership, lower levels of any belief in the younger set, scandals, etc.).

what do all of you think about this? some people love a megachurch. here locally, i see cars with megachurch stickers on them all the time. awesome, except when they're blocking traffic to get into a too busy chick fil a...then not so awesome. lol. :)
 
Christ_empowered said:
hillsong is in the press. first a pastor was forced to resign, now there are allegations of all sorts of perks for the higher ups, while volunteers were used as baby sitters for below minimum wage.

a Florida megachurch pastor is telling congregants to avoid any covid-19 vaccines and instead have faith that Jesus will keep them well. also went on about satanic plots, support Trump, etc. no word on his salary or any underpaid baby sitters.

here locally, the megachurch ditched its founding pastor a couple years ago. they're more in line with standard, conservative, Protestant theology, now. attendance seems to have dipped a good 20%, no recent data I could find.

I personally am not in church. fun stories to share: when I first moved back home to the general area, I was heckled at the megachurch. I was stopped in traffic in front of a "progressive" Presbyterian church, and I got heckled there, too. while living out of state, I didn't "fit in" a conservative, smaller church congregation...

and the 1 person I kept in touch with from a church-sponsored Bible study changed her number, rather than keep talking to me. i don't think I blame her, but...-sigh- ... maybe some believers just don't do church because of the nature of the established church?

I think megachurches pose more of a potential problem. right now, another local megachurch is dealing with lawsuits within the upper levels of leadership. ugh. sexual scandals, one megachurch not too, too far away was accused of letting a man they were told was probably a pedophile (no convictions or anything) continue volunteering with young children. he's now facing charges of pedophilia, the church is arguing they cannot be sued because they did a background check.

i dunno. any and every church can and will and does have problems, but...wow. wow. as a Christian, I'm kinda wondering if its time to take a step back and rethink how believers "do church," given...everything (declining membership, lower levels of any belief in the younger set, scandals, etc.).

what do all of you think about this? some people love a megachurch. here locally, i see cars with megachurch stickers on them all the time. awesome, except when they're blocking traffic to get into a too busy chick fil a...then not so awesome. lol. :)
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unfortunately small and medium size churches have the very same problems - if leadership is prone to corrupt or immoral behavior they can fool the members no matter how small the church is - these kinds of people lie for a living and catching them in the act is hard to do

- i know one small church where the pastor had such sway over the secretary she took the blame for his embezzlement - and the church did not prosecute

- i know one medium church where an out of country pastor and also the chairman of the board moved back to their home country to avoid prosecution for financially scamming the people to take on a humungous mortgage while the pastor and the chairman ran away with the cash

- i know one medium size church where the pastor moved on to another church in another state after having numerous affairs

it's hard to know who has integrity before they do something immoral or corrupt - and church people usually forgive rather than prosecute - aiding the culprits in doing the same thing elsewhere
 
Christ_empowered said:
hillsong is in the press. first a pastor was forced to resign, now there are allegations of all sorts of perks for the higher ups, while volunteers were used as baby sitters for below minimum wage.

a Florida megachurch pastor is telling congregants to avoid any covid-19 vaccines and instead have faith that Jesus will keep them well. also went on about satanic plots, support Trump, etc. no word on his salary or any underpaid baby sitters.

here locally, the megachurch ditched its founding pastor a couple years ago. they're more in line with standard, conservative, Protestant theology, now. attendance seems to have dipped a good 20%, no recent data I could find.

I personally am not in church. fun stories to share: when I first moved back home to the general area, I was heckled at the megachurch. I was stopped in traffic in front of a "progressive" Presbyterian church, and I got heckled there, too. while living out of state, I didn't "fit in" a conservative, smaller church congregation...

and the 1 person I kept in touch with from a church-sponsored Bible study changed her number, rather than keep talking to me. i don't think I blame her, but...-sigh- ... maybe some believers just don't do church because of the nature of the established church?

I think megachurches pose more of a potential problem. right now, another local megachurch is dealing with lawsuits within the upper levels of leadership. ugh. sexual scandals, one megachurch not too, too far away was accused of letting a man they were told was probably a pedophile (no convictions or anything) continue volunteering with young children. he's now facing charges of pedophilia, the church is arguing they cannot be sued because they did a background check.

i dunno. any and every church can and will and does have problems, but...wow. wow. as a Christian, I'm kinda wondering if its time to take a step back and rethink how believers "do church," given...everything (declining membership, lower levels of any belief in the younger set, scandals, etc.).

what do all of you think about this? some people love a megachurch. here locally, i see cars with megachurch stickers on them all the time. awesome, except when they're blocking traffic to get into a too busy chick fil a...then not so awesome. lol. :)
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the arp has a few large churches ,hillsong? to be expected .my arp church is small
 
Too many people. Smaller churches they all know each other and acturally have fellowship.
 
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Truthfrees said:
- i know one medium size church where the pastor moved on to another church in another state after having numerous affairs
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Just one church? I know of two of these churches! One of them the man was a very good Pastor and teacher. I dunno what happened there but he got caught and then moved away. The new Pastor was good too.

I feel more comfortable in smaller churches rather than the big ones. I went to the mega church here in my town and, I thought it was too big. No one even knew each other. I think the membership was dancing around 3000 members! The band was so loud that they had boxes of free earplugs set out all over! Too big too loud.

My church in Colorado Springs was a pretty big church but that was different. It wasn't 3000 big, just not a small church. And they had the biggest outreach in the city. And the first time I walked into the sanctuary...the Holy Spirit was all over! I miss that church!

If you're ever in Colorado Springs, go visit this church! It's in the north end of the city. Pretty much, Austin Bluffs & Academy BLVD area. It's name is Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel
(Actually I think it's closer to Academy & Montebello corner. (1 block N of Austin Bluffs)--)
 
Edward said:
Just one church? I know of two of these churches! One of them the man was a very good Pastor and teacher. I dunno what happened there but he got caught and then moved away. The new Pastor was good too.

I feel more comfortable in smaller churches rather than the big ones. I went to the mega church here in my town and, I thought it was too big. No one even knew each other. I think the membership was dancing around 3000 members! The band was so loud that they had boxes of free earplugs set out all over! Too big too loud.

My church in Colorado Springs was a pretty big church but that was different. It wasn't 3000 big, just not a small church. And they had the biggest outreach in the city. And the first time I walked into the sanctuary...the Holy Spirit was all over! I miss that church!

If you're ever in Colorado Springs, go visit this church! It's in the north end of the city. Pretty much, Austin Bluffs & Academy BLVD area. It's name is Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel
(Actually I think it's closer to Academy & Montebello corner. (1 block N of Austin Bluffs)--)
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cool - thanks

i've been to 2 megachurches and liked them - there are lots of opportunities to attend prayer meetings and worship meetings and special meetings etc

smaller congregations are nice too but don't always offer the variety of meetings

to me if God is there i'm blessed - size has never mattered to me - there are pros and cons to both
 
kiwidan said:
God does not dwell in buildings made by human hands, his temple is inside the believer. Sure God is in some people at megachurches and they go to megachurch with the Holy spirit and sing songs and whatever.

I like rock music so i dont mind christian rock bands at churches. God does not specifically say he only enjoys a harp and flute. Rock to the Lord all day.
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I,don't ,I have learned often much of what is ccm is weak theology or just Christian themed entertainment .
not all of it is bad but theology should be about God in music and in study and learning ,teaching .

small churches won't have concert hall like sound systems .1000 plus members will and those aren't that big .my brother attends one ,and has played there .he hates ccm now and won't listen to much of it .
 
humble soul said:
Ideally. But some temples are harder to find than others.
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Its just i dont believe the saying God is in a church material the building is filled with the holy spirit because he only has one temple that dwells within all believers that can be anyplace, anywhere, at anytime.

Every believer has the Holy Spirit but not all are filled with it. I have the Holy Spirit but im not filled with the Holy Spirit, not at rhe moment anyhow im not like meditating and praising .
 
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Truthfrees said:
cool - thanks

i've been to 2 megachurches and liked them - there are lots of opportunities to attend prayer meetings and worship meetings and special meetings etc

smaller congregations are nice too but don't always offer the variety of meetings

to me if God is there i'm blessed - size has never mattered to me - there are pros and cons to both
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Are you in Colorado? Just curious.

There is a mega church there it's further North. New Life church. I got invited there a few times with my friends. This used to be (still is?) That Pastor Ted Haggard's church. He got into trouble. Something about Homosexuals and Methamphetimine. It was a big thing at the time but I was not fond of the man. They introduced me to him and he prayed for me. He had a few things that I disagreed with about doctrine but it is a nice church.

I got recommended to go to another church and did, but I was not fond of it very much. I had a meeting with the Pastor about something and he showed me that he had teeth. I got bad impressions about that church and didn't go back

Just as I was about to move away from there, Andrew Wommack was building a new bible College up in Woodland Park. It's complete now and in operation and they are starting another one in Colorado Springs too. I like Andrew Wommack! he speaks my language. I didn't even know he was relocating to the C. Springs area, I saw it by accident and stopped and walked through the jobsite. I felt bad too cuz I wanted to stay just for his church. But the Lord had already told me to move to Ohio so I had to go. I *think* he holds regular services there on Sunday. I'm not positive. It could just be a Bible college. But he's all over TV and YouTube with His messages from there.

That room that Andrew sits in to deliver his messages played with my head! there's a fireplace behind him, and all along that wall you can see what appears to be windows with a beautiful mountain view....But it gnawed at me that it didn't look right! And then I realized what I was looking at. It is a wall mural of the eastern slope of the mountains as seen from c. Springs! And then I understood! It was done like that for the television. The view behind him out those windows isn't that great. It's mountainous but not very picturesque. So They did a mural to make the view better, lol! A good idea! I knew that view didn't look like that because I have stood in that room where that fireplace is. I wound up messaging him and talking to him about it and he confirmed everything I thought it was. Lol
 
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