You can have a billion members but not be a "megachurch" as long as you meet in groups of 2000 or less, except when you don't.
Posted on 02/12/2006 6:23:25 PM PST by Ligeia
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A house of worship such as FLM creates not merely a megachurch, but potentially a mega-experience well beyond the Sunday-morning services. It addresses the needs for nearly every stage of life between womb and tomb. Why, though, do members seek out services such as career advice or soccer games from a church, when secular society provides them in abundance? Clearly, FLM supplies something people want -- a fact that holds true for most of the nation's megachurches, which make up only 10 percent of the country's congregations but claim roughly half of all parishioners.
PARADOXICALLY, perhaps, the small groups make the big churches possible. Most megachurches have small-group directories the size of a community-college course catalog. The 10,000-member McLean Bible Church in Northern Virginia, for instance, has more than 700 small groups. Ron Johnson, who is the director of strategy at McLean Bible, says the church probably should have several hundred more than that. "The larger the church is," he says, "the smaller it needs to become."
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... plethora of small-group offerings.... Wuthnow, who heads Princeton's Center for the Study of Religion, said in an interview recently that the energy in the large churches is concentrated in the small groups.
In short, size matters: One has to think small in order to be successfully big. The reason has to do with the interplay between believing and belonging, between personal interaction and individual interior action. Visit the "Church Life" section of Faith Landmarks' Website, and you will see numerous hortatory expressions of fellowship: "join," "gather," "take part," "share together," "get together," "be a part of this strong bond." McLean Bible Church's Johnson says his church has "paid tremendous attention to developing small groups throughout the church where people can be in relationship together."
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(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
The most successful large congreagations are interlocking networks of small groups.
One such is the Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, California.
You can have a billion members but not be a "megachurch" as long as you meet in groups of 2000 or less, except when you don't.
"Megachurch Rule #2":
If you're big (defined as more than 30,000, or 20,000, or 2000, or whatever), you MUST be watering down scripture because, after all, NO one would ever go to a church where real scripture is being taught.
First, "MEGA-church" is a term to be vilely spat out like "child-molester," "snake-oil peddler," or "intolerant."
Poltically, well-organised churches with large, successful congregations are a very real threat to the liberal establishment, as Conservative Christians are no longer confined to little buildings on old street corners.
Frightening to the socialist is the success of churches with large congregations spreading to their members, as you pointed out, and when that success is observated, naturally others want in on it :>.
Yep. Unfortunately, many of the more traditional Christans feel essentially the same way - all big churches, especially those with (gasp!) a drum set, must be exact clones of Benny Hinn (the bad hair preacher, not the comedian) and are all suspect.
And the definition of "mega" changes daily. Using Benny Hinn as the caricature, they then reduce the bar so that any congregation of over 2000 (in one room, not worldwide, which may be in the billions) is "mega," and completely ignore that fact that many revivals (early 1900's Korea, for example) were characterized by tens of thousands gathering to worship in (gasp!!) one place.
Right! That's exactly the point of the column. It's the thinking small that makes churches grow. Valuable growth occurs in small group settings. Some will charge it's formulaic, but it's more than that.
That's a beautiful photo of St. Peter's. I think it's universally understood that the Catholic Church is a megachurch. That's why it's not usually included in megachurch discussions or surveys. I hope no one considers it an intentional snub.
The church growth focus is on the Protestant church because it is fractured by denominations and membership has been dwindling for so long. To see a stunning reversal of this trend is what's sparking interest.
I hope Protestant megachurch discussions don't unintentionally devalue the role the Catholic megachurch has played for 2000 years.
I'm sorry, I can't tell what this means.
No, as a Protestant I still love and respect my former Church and its adherents. I like to post pic from time to time that only by way of illustration (sometimes the knee-jerk anti-big comments come from Catholics, sometimes from more traditional Protestants).
If we think we're seeing big churches now, by the way, just wait until the Christian awakening in China really takes hold. Once unleashed, the gatherings of the faithful will require massive venues. I'm looking forward to it, myself.
I think he's just making reference, as was I, to some knee-jerk anti-big-Church folks here and elsewhere.
Oh, ok. Thanks. I thought that we the intent but wasn't sure.
Small groups.
The term for large, successful, often non-denominationl church has been labled as a "MEGA-church."
The mainstream media, MSM, have place a pejorative slant upon that specific term, like the examples I gave you. Again, this segment of society is an extreme threat to socialist/left-wing political aspiration and the general population must be turned against these Christians so the USA may have its first female president.
A little girl--eight, maybe--who never went to church outside of weddings and funerals, and never exposed to Jesus Christ outside of cursing, just ranted and raved against so-called MEGA-churches with the same rhetoric you are no doubt reading here.
Where did she get such profound wisdom??
Thank you for taking the time to further explain your point. I now see what you mean and agree completely. It's true megachurches aren't for everyone but they shouldn't automatically be condemned by those who prefer a smaller church community. It's nice to have choices.
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