Is Bigger Better? One can argue the pros and cons, but BIG or LITTLE, the question is: are they just filling seats or growing people into Christ's fulness? Watchman Nee said 'church' is what happens in between Sundays, when members love and serve one another, stimulate one another, confess sins to one another, forgive and bear with one another, and build up one another. Let's call them the "one-another" ministries!Monday, February 20, 2012
Do LITTLE churches have a Prayer?
When I saw this article "Is Walmart Killing Small Businesses?" it occurred to me that BIG churches are not unlike BIG Box stores. Both are forcing the LITTLE guys out of business! Half the churches in America are under 75 members. But as the BIG Box church movement grows, LITTLE churches are disappearing (nearly 4000 close their doors each year), while the number of megachurches is doubling every 5 years.
Is Bigger Better? One can argue the pros and cons, but BIG or LITTLE, the question is: are they just filling seats or growing people into Christ's fulness? Watchman Nee said 'church' is what happens in between Sundays, when members love and serve one another, stimulate one another, confess sins to one another, forgive and bear with one another, and build up one another. Let's call them the "one-another" ministries!The closest Jesus ever came to defining the Church was in this statement, “where two or three are gathered in My name” (Matt. 18:20). If you think about it, the “one another” ministries are most effective when they happen between two or three at a time: in LITTLE groups. With so much pressure on pastors to make their LITTLE churches BIG, maybe the attention should be on how to make our BIG churches more LITTLE!
Is Bigger Better? One can argue the pros and cons, but BIG or LITTLE, the question is: are they just filling seats or growing people into Christ's fulness? Watchman Nee said 'church' is what happens in between Sundays, when members love and serve one another, stimulate one another, confess sins to one another, forgive and bear with one another, and build up one another. Let's call them the "one-another" ministries!
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Greg,
ReplyDeleteAn indicator, perhaps, that BIG churches need to divide into smaller entities, or when LITTLE churches have a BIG church complex, is how much of the church budget goes to running the church plant and paying out salaries. Consider the immense amount of money paid out to run the business of the American church, and we could easily defer that money to feed and clothe most of the world. That could then make a huge dent in how much of the world is not yet evangelized--I bet the unsaved may be more inclined to listen to the Gospel proclaimed than they are now...
The "two or three" could actually be multiplied at light speed if we would care to consider some adjustments to the way we do things here.
Stan
Many BIG churches are doing a good job of encouraging members to be part of small groups, but still the larger percentage of these churches are only attendees of a weekly service and not participating in the one-another ministries. It can happen in a small church too, but BIG churches make it much easier to avoid intimacy.
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