The Land of Ozz

The term megachurch continues to gain attention. Many American Christians are fired up about megachurches. Some Christians are fired up in favor and others are fired up in opposition. Articles like the one posted on The New York times today titled “Church to Church, Teenagers Seek Faith That Fits fuels the flames of those fired up to criticize megachurches. The Times article is primarily focused on teens who attend a different church than their parents, but does bring to light to issues with churches in general.

One of the girls interviewed in the NYT article says, “It’s not hard for me at all because I feel like my needs are being fulfilled.” This girl is 15 years old and her 13 year-old brother says, “I don’t know why she has to make things inconvenient for the rest of us…” The heart of the criticism over megachurches can be found in the girl’s comment. The words me, I, and my are found in her comment but God and Jesus are absent from her reason for choosing a different church than her parents. Keeping members focused on Jesus and not on their own desires is a balancing act for pastors and staff who are called to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in a any church. The real questions for situations like those mentioned in the NYT article are simple. Who’s the adult in this situation? Why do parents put so much effort into trying to make their kids feel good? While it is possible that this girl is talking about getting fulfilled with the Holy Spirit, does the parent know the answer to that question? The parents probably do not know what their child is really getting from these other services unless the parent attends the teen service once in a while themselves.

Some critics refer to the praise and worship that attracts many teens to a mega church as entertainment or even equate the music to a rock concert. A rock concert was how The Post and Courier reporter referred to the praise and worship leading up to a talk given by Rick Warren during his visit to Charleston, SC in November. Many of these comments come from secular sources, but once in a megachurch service you can often look around and see how many people are lifting their hands and praising God and not the band. Look and you will see some who have tears dripping down their face from being over-filled with the Holy Spirit. Not all megachurch services are filled with the Holy Spirit all of the time as with many church services, but there does seem to be a much more powerful presence of God when you get a thousand plus people joined in prayer, praise, and worship.

Seacoast Church in Mt Pleasant, SC could be classified as a mega-church, but can also be classified in another new breed of churches called multi-site. The pastor of Seacoast Church points to a critic of the megachurch movement in his posing titled You can’t please everybody… The critic takes issue with the 10 most innovative churches in America which Seacoast is one of.

When I looked at these churches, and the sermon series that they are currently preaching, or have recently preached, I found one obvious common denominator: FAMILY. These churches may feel that one of the formulas for being “relevant” today is to excessively preach on parenting, sex, and marriage. They do this in a way that’s grossly out-of-proportion to the amount that other important biblical issues are preached (or not preached). (Source)

This critic may have a point, but what he and many other critics fail to do is acknowledge the strengths of megachurches. The big thing that gets left out of most criticism of megachurches is the subject of small groups. There’s not a fancy definition for the small group. Small groups in a megachurch could be compared to small groups in small churches much like a large high school 4-A football team can be compared to the football team of a small academic magnet school. The megachurch has a much larger pool of members to draw from to build powerful teams. While smaller churches may be stocked full of spirit filled people much like the smaller 1-A school is stocked full of smart people, the smaller churches will never be able to compete with the power of the megachurch in some areas. The small churches and megachurches alike lead people to Christ just like most all schools large and small see graduates move on to college and successful careers.

There are plenty of good things going on in large megachurches and small churches alike. More people need to realize this and make note of it if they wish to take issue with megachurches or any church for that matter. The power of the small group should not be overlooked. Some of the small groups in my megachurch could almost be considered small churches themselves. The subject of small groups is one of the largest concerns I have for teens hopping between churches. Where will they get the relationships with other Christians that encourages and feeds the growth of their personal relationships with God if they move between multiple evangelical churches regularly?

Helpful links:
Wikipedia definition for multi-site church and megachurch.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 30th, 2005 at 1:22 am and is filed under Faith, Family, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.