As I was reading the book of Acts, I was struck by the word “great,” in describing the early church—‘great’ power, ‘great’ grace, ‘great’ fear, and ‘great’ joy (Acts 4:33; 5:11: 8:8). The Greek word is “mega,” a prefix used in English: megahertz, megabucks, megacorporation, and, significantly, megachurch. The words describing the early church all denote quality. Power, grace, fear, or joy are not quantifiable, very unlike the ‘great’ or mega churches of our day, quantified by their superior numbers.
Is the megachurch a sign of the times? Are they not in danger of becoming like ‘big box stores’ that attract a consumer-driven, bargain-hunting crowd, while driving small churches out of business? More importantly, are they making disciples? After all, how many sheep can a shepherd shepherd? The opportunity for making disciples has to be ‘greater’ in churches with less than 100 (60% of U.S. churches) than 10,000. And wouldn’t that make small churches “great?” To you who are pastors of small churches today, be encouraged by God's words to Zerubbabel, “Do not despise the day of small things” (Zech. 4:10). Small things can be great!
Does anyone remember the 1978 shootings of SF Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor
Harvey Milk? In a controversial verdict,
Dan White was convicted of manslaughter (not murder) due to what became known
as the “Twinkie” defense. His lawyer convinced a jury that he suffered
diminished capacity by depression that was worsened by eating too much sugar, including Twinkies.
Last month, a 16-year-old boy from Texas who killed a family of four in a drunken car crash, was convicted of manslaughter, but got no jail
time—probation only—due to the expert witness of a psychologist who persuaded a jury that the
boy, from a wealthy family, had a feeling of privilege, called “affluenza,” which diminished his capacity for
judgment, and was deserving of a lighter sentence.
Perhaps the precursor to this “I-can't-be-blamed; I-have-a-disorder” cop out was the 1970's expression made famous by Flip Wilson, “The devil made me do it.” As a psychologist, I know there are legitimate disorders, but
this “blame-it-on-someone-else” excuse is as old as Adam’s “she-gave-it-to-me”
defense in the Garden. Might this be one way the spirit of lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:6-7) is manifesting itself today?
When I read the words “Burger King Spirituality,” this blog post nearly jumped off the written page onto my keyboard. The phrase was coined by a Huffington Post blogger, BJ Gallagher, member of a new religious movement labeled "I'm spiritual but not religious.”
According to a survey by LifeWay Christian Resources in 2009, 72% of Millennials said I’m spiritual but not religious—a phrase spawning its own acronym ("I'm SBNR") and its own Facebook page: SBNR.org. But what exactly does being "spiritual but not religious" mean?
SBNR rejects organized religion, favoring an eclectic approach to God—gleaning insights from different faith traditions [Christian, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism] to create what the aforementioned blogger calls a Burger King Spirituality—“have it your way."
Paul warns: “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to right teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever they want to hear. They will reject the truth and follow strange myths.” (2 Tim. 4:4 NLT) Seems to me the time has arrived!
