Honestly I don't even know what to say to that! It's all just so wrong, but I do feel compelled to say that it's not always like that. Like I said I currently attend what I'd consider to be a mega-church. We have many buildings, a Christian School, a Christian College, and three buildings for the main Church area. Our current attendance is around 400 - 500 people (which for me is HUGE) but we have a small church feel believe it or not. Many of the things you describe just don't happen in our church. Yes our Nursery is "complicated" (ID cards for child pickup, pagers for quick parent retrieval), yes often the children's classes are in a seperate building from the adults, yes we keep many of our doors securely locked during service (where the children are), but it is a Church. We study God's Word, our pastor(s) give excellent sermons, we reach out to get our community into Church, we take care of one another, and though DH and I have not been members long we know about half of the church and we are still being approached by people who want to know us. Our church works VERY hard to make everyone feel welcome, our Pastor is always available, and the staff will do anything needed to help.
Oh, my!!! It sounds to me that this really isn't a "church". It's a group of people who come together for touchy-feely stuff! And yes, Birbitt, I agree that not all mega-churches are like that. Some large churches are VERY good (and capable of doing some things smaller churches can't due to their size!), and some are "whitewashed tombs". We sure can't judge them all based on just one. Amie, I think Drew should have told them that his car was paid for. If they (the church) was that concerned about it and wanted to bless his family with a new, paid-off car, he would willing receive that....
Exactly. I am not one for mega churches. I have not seen a good example of one that does not compromise doctrine for members. Sorry if that offends anyone..I did not read all the thread yet..so I hope I did not just put my foot in my mouth..but it is what i think.
My dh turned down a music position at a church because of this type questioning. He felt it had nothing to do with his calling.
For the record: I am not so closed-minded as to think that ALL mega churches are this way. But this is the 'norm' for them here. Not that there are many. We've got this one (which is A/G) and a couple others.. Come to think of it, they are all A/G. lol. (coincidence, btw). We have a rather large Baptist church that I lovingly refer to as The Baptadome, but it's not quite megachurch size. It's where my boys go to AWANAS and where we've been attending. It's not my first choice, as I like a little smaller church, but it offers a lot for the kids and they don't compromise on doctrine.
I should add that I am NOT against mega churches. I think if the church is true to the Word and it's a Mega...that is FANTASTIC!
My former pastor is now the head pastor of a mega-church with 2 (soon to be 3) campuses, including gyms, coffee shops and libraries. It's not at all like you describe. The number of outreach programs his church has is amazing. They have support groups for every kind of problem (infertility, addiction, grief, and many more), they support a low income local school and invite the children to Bible groups, they loan out cars to people who need one to get to work, they help people find work, they supply emergency food or gas money, they raise money for a pregnancy center through a 5K race and family festival, they reach out to people who might be wary of church through music and sports. They have mission projects all over the world. They are never afraid to pray or preach the gospel. They have also "planted" a number of successful churches in other communities (including mine). They work very hard to help people not be anonymous by having a number of small groups that meet for Bible study and social events on Sunday and throughout the week. They encourage people to find their own ministries within the church and the community and to build relationships that way. I think there are many megachurches who do their jobs very well and that's why so many people attend them.
Mom2scouts, that sounds similar to the one near me. I've never heard anyone say anything bad about it! OK, wait, a good number of years ago, I heard from teens that the Youth Program had serious problems. Parents were sending the kids there, thinking they were hanging with "good, Christian kids" when they actually weren't being well-supervised and getting into trouble. My friend's girl stopped attending youth meetings because of it. BUT the main people at the church found out, and took steps to correct the problem. That was LONG ago, and I've not heard anything negative since then.
We're having a hard time finding a church and one of my things is we live out in the boonies. So many churches are small and mostly older people, nothing wrong with it, but I want a church with a focus on kids. On the other hand, there is a nice "almost" mega church (I say almost cause I know of some serious mega churches in Atlanta area, this church doesnt' come close to that, but it is a mega church for our small town) that has a homeschool group just for church members, a huge kids focus, a free to members gym, but I don't like that for church, hubby and I would be in one building, my oldest in another and my youngest in yet another building. I think if a preacher doesn't' know the name of every member of his flock-the church is too big for me. Just my $0.02
This is "sort of" the boat we are in. I mean, I live in the town that is home to both the Assembies of God World Headquarters and Headquarters to one of the Baptist denominations. In our "city" of 157,000, we have six Bible colleges! A 30 minute drive North or South will take you to 2 more! We jokingly say we live on the buckle of the Bible belt. Needless to say, there are A LOT of churches here. I mean... a LOT. The problem is, though, that there are a lot of churches here. So many, in fact, that they seem to cater too much to one group or another. Church splits are a normal/common occurance. Congregations are fluid; they change from week to week as members come and go, knowing there are countless other choices. The ones that are static are.. well.. static. The same people have been there for decades, but there is no growth, and new people are often left feeling out of place. The alternatives are the three mega-churches, the several "seeker friendly" mid-sized churches, home churches (which I would enjoy, except they don't provide teaching for the children), and the Baptadome. At least the Baptadome (which, of course, is just my nickname for it) is all in one building. They seem to work really hard at creating a community. The pastor also seems to genuinely be interested in knowing his flock. I certainly wouldn't say it's perfect. But what church is? Right now, what's important to us are the programs for the kids and solid doctrine (even though there are a couple of points this Pentecostal girl disagrees with in Baptist doctrine, they certainly aren't the most important points).
Lol, Amie, I'm just the opposite! I grew up in a Baptist church, very comfortable in the Baptist church, and we attend a spirit-filled one! Yes, there were definately some adjusting on my part! Carl and I discussed this before we married, and I told him that there's only ONE Holy Spirit, and his job is to unite ALL true believers. You might give the homechurch a try. There's one here I would LOVE to attend (know many people in it), and I really like the way they include the children in all they do. For example, I was invited to go on a Ladies Retreat with them. They had a good number of young ladies between 16 and 22, an age where most girls are not interested in a retreat that is geared directly to them. And they were there BY CHOICE, not because Mom drug them along. And they took as active a part as the older women.
I have tried a few home churches. But the kids running around the house with no supervision really bothered me. I feel like my children should get us much "food" out of church as I do. They deserve someone teaching them, as well.
OH!!! I don't think I would want that, either! The ones I've heard of have the children engaged as much as possible with the adults!
The ones I've visited were willing to teach to the children, if the children were sitting with the adults of their own accord. Otherwise, they just roamed around bored until mom and dad were done. Some parents brought coloring pages or toys to entertain, but that usually led to fights with other kids who didn't have anything to do. I've also visited a couple (um.. two, I think) of churches where the kids were in the service with the adults. The ushers had 'activity packets' available for entertainment. And the pastor preached to the adults.. not in language the kiddos could understand. Also not the kind of church I want to attend. Which reminds me of the time when I was dating a man who had two chidren. He had them over July 4th weekend and we visited a professor's church that Sunday. They had a big hoopla going on for worship, so the usal Sunday School classes were canceled for the morning (read: the kids were in the service). So, as if sitting in a church service with a 4yo and 6yo wasn't bad enough, the pastor's sermon was about all that's wrong with America kind of thing. At one point, he launched into a VERY detailed description of the process of partial birth abortion. Every gory detail he could expand upon. Boyfriend and I each scooped up one of his kids, hands over their ears, and made a b-line for the door. Several other parents did the same thing, but they stopped in the lobby. We went to the car... and never went back. We found it horribly disrespectful, considering that they KNEW the kids were going to be IN the sancuary, hearing all that.
I think the new trend for "bigger is better" might be doing more harm than good. I haven't read all the replies, I don't have the time right now, but I probably will later.
I'm coming to this post late in the game but I do have a perspective since my husband is actually an employee of what would be considered a "Mega-church" - he works in the human resources dept. This church does a lot of good in the community, that is one reason we were drawn to it. It can be a bit much with the number of people but it can also be an extremely energizing and uplifting place. My friend goes to a church with 30 people - they are able to do nothing in the community but hold a service on Saturday. Mega-churches get a bad rap- sometimes unfairly, sometimes not. Church should IMHO always reach beyond its walls to spread the love of Christ. Our church has changed it's mission statement to be a "rescue society, not a yacht club" . Hope you find what you're looking for. Jane
If that's the attitude they have, they won't do anything, but there is SO much a group of 30 can do in a community! Just becuase the numbers are small does not mean the heart for God isn't big. Just like all mega-churches aren't bad, neither are all small churches.
I was in no way bashing small churches, just using the example for discussion sake...I honestly don't know why this church doesn't do much... in this case...size doesn't matter as long as you're spreading the Word Jane
