I work at a large church. There are much bigger churches out there, but for our community, we are the "Mega-church" I do not think this is a good of bad thing... it just is the way things are.I have to admit that I like being a part of a big church for the following reasons:
1. a greater variety of spiritual gifts become useful.
2. the reach of the network of influence can be greater.
3. the ability to truly shape the community you are part of can be stronger.
4. There is room for staff to be humans and not have to work 60 hrs a week for half of a fair salary.
5. There can be more diversity, although this is not guaranteed.
6. There is not the temptation to feel that fellowship means knowing everyone… thus there is more freedom to settle into a small group know them deeply.
It is this last point that has me thinking today. Because I am part of a large church, I do have a small group which I love. Sometimes I think my job as the pastor of a Big church is to help people get into small micro-communities with in the larger body here. This church only feels big until you know a few people, then it feels like home.
Charlie made some awesome comments about this recently here:
Here are a few highlights of his thoughts:
"So here’s what happened: Leslie invited anyone she wanted…I counted at least forty people surrounding the hot tub on the deck. I welcomed people, talked briefly about what baptism signifies & prayed. Leslie read her testimony through many tears. People from the crowd affirmed Leslie by calling out Christian attributes in her life. Then Summer baptized her…we cheered…I prayed…we had a great lunch.
I found myself wondereding today if 40 people gathering at a house, celebrating new life in Christ, eating together, talking, sharing in their life — I saw two people praying together later in the day — I wonder if this is more “church” than sitting in a seat to see a great performance and hear an “inspiring” message (I use the word “inspiring” on purpose) and then heading out to lunch afterwards with the same 2-3 people that you rode to church with. I know that I work at a megachurch…and I’m not knocking it…I just wonder sometimes if maybe our goal should be to make people’s experience a lot more like the one I had today."
