S. Mega Problem with Mega Churches - Part 1

Mega Problem with Mega Churches - Part 1

Not long back I had a shocking experience. I was speaking to a woman who was sharing with me about attending a mega church in my city. She is attending this church for many years and finds it exciting to be a part of its service. And then she shared with me that there is also a bible study being conducted every week in her house by another group. Do you know who they are? Jehovah’s Witnesses.

I was shocked to hear this. I asked her whether she knows who Jehovah’s Witnesses are. She has no idea about them. This woman is attending an evangelical mega church since many years, yet she didn’t know that JW is a cult in which many sincere people are entangled by its false teachings. The members of JW have penetrated her house to digress this family from some of the cardinal truths of the Holy Bible. When I explained to her who JW’s are, she was taken aback.

Now this woman is passionate for God and sincerely loves to follow Christ. But she is part of a mega church in which she could not have the opportunity to get discipled by someone towards spiritual maturity, even finding help to get strongly rooted in the Word of God. She didn’t even know that being discipled is essential for Christian growth. This I find to be a mega problem with mega churches.

Mega Problem

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not completely against mega churches. I am not saying there is nothing we can learn from them. I find the services of these churches quite exciting, which is good. They constantly conduct special programs and concerts, have exciting youth gatherings and provide good facilities for the attendees, which is helpful. I see there is a great emphasis on evangelism and church growth, which is wonderful. But here is a mega problem with mega churches—there is a great lack of personal attention and mentoring of those who are newly born-again. Even those who would like to grow more in the Lord, they lack proper guidance and motivation. And the equipping of the saints for ministry is largely absent, for the necessity of body ministry is not recognized by these churches.

What I have observed is—mega churches are more service and program oriented than focused on discipleship. For this reason, the faith of many members of these churches is found quite shallow. Much worse, there would be many having no salvation experience and I wonder what focus is given to personally lead them to Christ Jesus! Of course, this pathetic condition could also be found in micro-churches if believers are not properly nurtured and discipled. Is it not our Lord’s command to make disciples rather than have nice Sunday services and programs?

Need for Discipling

I have observed that those who grow well in the Lord in a mega church setting are those who have a passion to grow in Christ with a self-disciplined spirit, taking initiative to stay on the cutting-edge. And some who grow well in these churches are those who receive inspiration to grow from other fellowships or bible studies or ministries. An active member of a mega church agrees with me that, although the churches are mega in numbers, we find few people testifying their immense growth in the Lord and in depth understanding of His Word due to the contribution of these churches. But those who are not self-disciplined and have no proper guidance from outside and could not take initiative to find help—they remain in these churches for years without personal, evidential and influential growth. They may appear emotionally spiritual but show no true signs of solid biblical understanding and spiritual maturity. O, how such people can be wonderfully transformed and used by the Lord to impact the people around them if an initiative is taken to mentor them in the Lord! To resolve such problems, since it is practically impossible to pay attention to all the crowd in a mega church setting, some have adopted cell group method, appointing cell group leaders to lead. This is at least better and somewhat helpful, although there is a fear whether these cell groups may cut off from the mother church and become an independent church.

However, even to such cell groups many do not seem to consistently attend, for to them church is a Sunday service to attend, not a close-knit community to grow in the Lord and to impact the world. Such people may be more transformed through personal discipleship.

Don’t you think there is a great need for disciple-makers in the churches today?

Early Church Model

Considering the ineffective issues and practical problems we observe in the mega church setting, if I am asked which is an effective model, I would simply point out to the early church. No doubt the early church grew in numbers, perhaps much more growth than what we witness today, if not in steady numbers (for we have more population than the first century), at least in rapid growth. But there are two things to consider:

First, the growth of the early church in numbers should not be understood in light of our modern day mega church growth. When church growth is mentioned, it is in relation to the overall growth of the church in a city or town or region. For example, when in Acts 9:31 it is mentioned that the church grew in numbers, it grew in Judea, Galilee and Samaria. This church growth is not about an individual church growing in a particular locality, eventually becoming a great crowd or a mega church. Indeed, the vast number of believers had split into local churches that gathered as small communities in informal places. It is obvious from the New Testament that the early churches gathered at homes as small communities (Acts 2:46; Acts 8:3; Acts 12:5; Acts 12:12; Acts 16:40; Acts 20:7-8; Romans 16:3; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:1-2; 2 John 1:10).

New Testament scholar, Ben Witherington III, mentions that the early churches gathered in homes, presumably well-do-homes, which could not likely hold more than 50 persons for a meeting. If there was a courtyard, up to 120 or so could be accommodated (The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, pg. 211).

Take note of this: the issue here is not about gathering particularly in houses. A church can gather anywhere for its meeting and edification. The main point is how small communities can be effective, leading to the following point I am going to discuss.

Secondly, the early church not only grew in numbers but was also strengthened in the faith. In Acts 16:5, it is written, “So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.” Also in Acts 9:31, “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.”

You see, these Scriptures testify that the early church not only grew in numbers, but also in faith and in fear of the Living God. Of course, there were problems in these communities, but the apostles were focused on strongly establishing the faith of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t you think the epistles of the New Testament are evident of such efforts?

One of the key elements for which the apostles constantly took effort—it is to strengthen the churches and make them solidly grounded in Christ Jesus. Paul and Barnabas “returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith” (Acts 14:22). Paul “went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches” (Acts 15:41). Paul “traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples” (Acts 18:23).

If there is anything the apostles hated to see in the churches they planted—it is the shallow faith of believers. To see believers growing strong in faith, they took every effort to exhort and edify them—to live a holy life, to demonstrate love towards one another, to pray, to treasure God’s word, to resist and refute false teachings, to speak and live differently from the world, to wait eagerly for our Lord’s second coming and to seek to glorify the name of the Lord in everything.

You know one thing that really impresses me when I read the book of Acts? It is this—Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing" (Acts 15:36). Mark these words, "Let us go back...and see how they are doing." We keep on preaching the word and having various programs, but do we say—let us see how our people are practically doing in their daily Christian life? Looking at the crowd of the church members, is this question asked—how can my people be discipled to grow and to become more like Christ Jesus.

Remember, the apostles’ passion was not simply to bring everyone for a church gathering, but in the words of Paul, "We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ" (Colossians 1:28).

Practical Applications for Today’s Churches

Therefore, what can we learn from the early church model? What changes can we bring in our churches for the spiritual welfare of people? What makes it possible for the church to grow not only in numbers but also in faith? Here are my practical suggestions:

1) I believe, it is good for churches to gather as small communities. There are many advantages in doing so. Here are some of them:

• gathering in inexpensive places (large house or a medium-sized hall)

• paying more personal attention to all

• creating more room for one-another intimacy

• motivating body ministry or one-another ministry

• holding believers accountable

• having fellowship meals

• doing both evangelism and good follow-up

• making discipleship possible and effective

• expending money wisely

• preventing leaders from burn-out

• building churches as a family community rather than like a formal company with CEO and officials

Can you see micro-churches are more effective than mega-churches? This is not a perfect model with no problems but an effective model creating more room to build quality fellowship and spirituality. It is good if mega churches too would focus on small communities with quality fellowship during the week than just on large gathering for Sunday service.

2) I believe that our God is a God who looks for growth. We have to grow, personally and corporately. So a local church ought to believe in growing and make all efforts by God’s wisdom and power to grow. There is a terrible problem with any church that doesn’t grow in numbers. But as the church grows beyond its capacity to provide personal attention and discipleship to its members, instead of steadily growing in one locale like a huge banyan tree, it is good for her to split and multiply in other locales like banana trees. In this way, more leaders would be raised as the churches multiply, expanding God’s kingdom in a mighty way, than have just few leaders being confined to manage a mega church.

3) I believe, the leaders should make discipleship their passion, than church membership as their goal. They need to be making disciples to make other disciples, than just motivating one member of the church to bring other members to Sunday services. They should desire to see active growth of the church, not passive growth in which many members remain docile while only few being active. They must equip the saints for ministry, not just make them objects of ministry. The leaders should also focus more on strengthening the faith of believers than simply having a large crowd. They have to encourage believers and hold them accountable to have adequate personal and family devotions, making it their daily lifestyle, than simply have them listen to sermons Sunday after Sunday with no significant change in personal and family life. They must focus on raising obedient disciples for Christ, not mere church attendees.

Finally, dear leaders, we need to be kingdom-centered, seeing how the kingdom of God can be expanded through evangelism, discipleship and church multiplication, than church-centered, focusing on just Sunday services and bringing people to church fellowship.

If we do the above, I believe, we would witness the mega growth of God’s kingdom, spreading His glory and reverence to the ends of the earth