Are Mega-Churches Biblical?

Since I left the Methodist Church in June and started Koinonia Ministries, my family and I have had the opportunity to visit several different congregations in our local community for worship, trying to find a church that we could join while we waited for God's leading in our own ministry. We had the opportunity to visit mainline denominational churches and nondenominational churches. We worshiped in large churches (>200 people) and in small churches (less than 100 people). We enjoyed music that was very traditional and music that was very contemporary. And we listened to preachers who followed well-scripted sermons and those who seemed to just flow with the Holy Spirit's promptings with no defined plan or purpose at the start of the message. And, so what did we find?

Well, our experience was that God was present in every congregation, that the Holy Spirit moved among those who were present, and that the worship was real and genuine. It didn't matter if the church claimed a denomination or not and it didn't matter what type of music was played -- God was still there.

However, there was a major difference between the larger churches and the smaller churches that we visited. While the the churches we visited are certainly not in the Mega-Church category, the churches that had more than 200 members were very consistent in their worship services. Generally, their worship services were more ordered, more professional, and more entertaining. Attending a service at these churches reminded me of attending a contemporary Christian concert at a large venue or a Promise Keepers event back in it's heyday.

The music in these churches was nothing less than outstanding, and every single large church we visited had already put out CDs of their worship bands and/or choirs. Large screens were on the wall that displayed the words to the song on top of a moving background. And the congregation (audience?) sang along and applauded as songs ended. All in all, it was a very, very well performed and professional presentation.

The preachers were polished professionals. Their messages concise, specific, and relevant to what was going on in our world and in our lives today. As I listened to their sermons (and critiqued, as former pastors do), I felt that each of them would be successful on a national stage, such as at Promise Keepers or Catalyst or one of the other large national movements that draws thousands of people to hear a Christian message. In short, they were very, very good.

But, after the closing song and the benediction, as the doors in the back of the sanctuary opened, I felt like I do at movie theaters when the lights come up, "The show is over." And so we were ushered out into the world again, with the expectation that we would gather together again next Sunday for another polished performance and worship service.

But, as we emerged into the Sunday afternoon sunshine, I found myself somewhat melancholy, like I was missing something vital and real and important. Something that should have been there, but wasn't.

What I was missing was community. Relationship. Fellowship. Sure, we had just occupied the same space as 200+ other individuals. Sure, we had just joined together and sung praise songs to our same God. Sure, we had just listened together to the exposition of the Word of God. But, there was no sense that I had shared in the life of another. There was no sense that I had communed with fellow believers. The only people who greeted us in these services were those that we knew before we entered, friends who shared with us a relationship forged outside the walls of this church. I entered as a stranger to those around me, and I left the same way.

The question that kept rattling through my head on those Sundays after we left the service was, "Why do we go to church after all?" And, now, I realize the problem is inherent in the question. Church is not something that we should go to. Church is something we should be.

To be the church means that you are involved in the lives of your brothers and sisters in Christ. To be the church means that you, like the saints in the early church described in the Book of Acts, share with everyone as they have need. This does not only mean financially and materially, but spiritually and relationally, as well. To be the church means that you know your neighbor, that you care about your neighbor, that you love your neighbor as yourself. To be the church means that it is a place where strangers are welcomed, lives are changed, and God is exalted. To be the church means that you are in a place where everyone knows your name. This, I think, is an inherent problem with the large churches, and especially the Mega-Churches, today.

When I was a pastor in the United Methodist Church, I pastored two very small congregations. In fact, my churches combined were smaller than some Sunday School classes in larger Methodist Churches. Occasionally, the leadership of the South Georgia Conference would become concerned over the number of small (<100 member) churches in their jurisdictional boundary, and so us small church pastors would be invited to a workshop on "How to Grow Your Church." "You are too small," the facilitators would tell us. "You must get larger, at least 200 members or more, if you are to survive." The message given to us through workshops such as this and the metrics we were required to provide quarterly confirmed to us that larger was better, and if your church didn't have 200 members or more, you had failed. But, is this true? Is this biblical?

A friend of mine was doing one-on-one discipleship in a very large church in south Georgia a couple of weeks ago. Between discipleship sessions, he wandered around the church and peeked in at the sanctuary. The pastor joined him there and proudly showed him the size of the sanctuary, the stage where the worship team played, and the multimedia equipment the church had at its disposal. The pastor's chest puffed out in pride as my friend started to stammer, "How many... how many...," assuming my friend was going to praise him for the size of the congregation. But quickly, the pastor's chest and ego deflated as my friend continued, "How many people in your congregation do you know by name? How can you be a shepherd to your people if you don't know them?"

Isn't that the crux of the issue? Church isn't about size or numbers. It isn't about how many people sit in your pews or how much money you receive in offerings on any given Sunday. Church is about people. Church is about doing life together. Church is about knowing God and God's people intimately and sharing in what God is doing in and through everyone in the congregation.

I don't know a lot. I am certainly not a church growth expert. But, I have come to believe this. While smaller churches may not always have the best musicians or the professional worship performances, while smaller churches may not always have the best polished speakers who know Greek and Hebrew and every current theological trend, they do have this going for them -- their small size allows them to know each other and to do life together. This is what I see when I read the New Testament, and this is what I see when I think of Jesus with His twelve close friends gathered around a campfire in the wilds of Galilee.

I don't think church, real church, real relationships, can be realized in churches with more than 100 members. Large churches recognize this, too, so many opt for the "home group" or "life group" concept to form small groups for relational purposes. But, I think this still falls short of the purpose for which Christ called the church in the first place.

Human nature makes these small groups cliquish, and so what you find on any given Sunday morning in these larger congregations is not a single church, but multiple home churches gathering in one place to worship, but not to worship together.

So, what is the answer? I think, contrary to popular opinion and church growth teaching, that the size of a church should be limited by the availability of the pastor to the people. I think that a church is too large if the senior pastor doesn't know everyone in the church by name. And, I think we should concentrate more on doing life together rather than just coming to church.