From the Big I:

The homosexual anti-discrimination employment bill known as “ENDA” has now been passed. If a homosexual wants to work in your church or Christian organization, you would be prohibited by law from saying “no” on the basis of his engagement in the sodomite lifestyle. Run a Christian bookstore? The same would be true. A Christian school? Don’t even think of making homosexuality an issue in employment. Your sincerely held religious beliefs will no longer matter.

Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Luke 15.1-2

What exactly is the need to seek and find fault with specific churches – particularly large ones? Are there not enough problems within our own individual churches that we must seek out and find the other churches to say to (or about) them “you’re doing it wrong!”

Do we attack megachurches because they are easy targets, or because that’s where all of the Christians (or, if we want to show our self-righteousness, “church-goers” or “Christians” (in quotes)) go? I saw an interesting graphic from Christianity Today, taken from American churches. It’s should not be all that surprising, but for the disporportionate amount of sound and fury from ODMs (Online “Discernment” Ministries).

Basically, if you define a “megachurch” as a church with 2,000+ members, about 6% of the Christians in the US attend one of them. Or, if you lower your definition to 1,000+ members, the number increases to 10%.

So, in reality, all of the fuss and fury over megachurches is focusing on 6-10% of the Christian population in America.

One thing not measured, though, is the influence these churches may (or may not) have over the other 90-94% of the churches. This is a double-edged sword. I think we can probably agree that the relative size of a church can not be the SOLE indicator of a church’s effectiveness or maturity. However, I think that it is also fair to say that a church’s size and growth CAN BE an indicator of effective witness and living as part of the Kingdom.

Aside from isolated nutcases in the backwaters of New Hampshire, or elsewhere, what pastor does not want his flock to increase in size and maturity? What pastor (aside from the aforementioned nutcases) would see the shrinking of his church as an indicator of Christian growth? I mean, really?

It is only logical, and good stewardship would suggest that pastors would do well to learn from other pastors how they have successfully lead their flocks, and how they have grown in maturity and numbers. Because size is one of the few objective measures that CAN BE (but do not have to be) an indication of godly “success”, pastors in these larger churches often get asked to present/write/discuss the journey of their church and how God led them during that journey.

Where discernment is required is in sorting out a) if these suggestions from other pastors are anti-biblical; b) which ones of these suggestions might translate into the culture of their local church; c) of the ones that would translate, would the way you translate them be in line with where you and the other leaders of the church see God leading it?

I would agree that a number of pastors looking for ideas do not ask these questions, and then fail (in one or more ways) in ways they would not have otherwise failed. But is that failure on their part or on the part of the church they are trying to learn from? I’d put the blame at about 80/20, with 80% on the local pastor for not asking the right questions, 20% on the ’sharing’ church, who may be culpable in mis-diagnosing what has translated into success, and 100% on anyone involved who didn’t bother going to God before giving/receiving advice.

I found it refreshing that the Willow Creek Association (WCA) was willing to be self-reflective to see what, across churches of different sizes and communities, the local church could to do grow in maturity and size. I find it sad that the people crowing the most about the results of the study seem to be the petty, small-minded ODM critics who a) haven’t read it; b) if the read it, didn’t bother understanding it; and c) go out and trumpet twisted interpretations of the results. It’s not surprising, since this is their modus operandi in most of the “research” they do, but it is ungodly coming from within the church.

Despite this, I hope the the WCA churches will continue to try to grow in maturity and size in the Lord, and that other churches – large and small – will be willing to learn from each other as part of the the Church, as a whole. I hope that they will be willing to share with each other, despite carping from the sidelines that leaders should be creative geniuses who develop 100% of every idea, program, outreach and sermon on their own. Learning from each other is a good thing.

And for those who are just content to sit on the sideline playing plank/speck, casting stones at the biggest targets available? The only way to avoid making a mistake is by not doing anything in the first place. Additionally, if you’re making a huge deal about ’size not mattering’ (or that size is a demonstration of ’selling out’), perhaps you’re just suffering from a combination of small man’s disease and sour grapes with a good dose of pride.