Another prompt for this blog post
I was working on this blog when I heard the tragic news that yet another celebrity evangelical preacher has fallen from grace.
Just as embarrassing - and all of this in public gaze - the spectacle of fellow mega preachers who once supported him to the hilt now pedaling like mad upstream away from the dead corpse.
There is something deeply wrong with Bible-believing evangelicalism - and in part it is the idea that there exists such a thing as a super-star preacher.
We all need to be clear that the notion of celebrity preachers is unknown to Scripture. The only possible parallels would be the now-forever-gone capital-A Apostles whose only fame was infamy, whose popularity was slander, whose boast was suffering.
The notion of a big-name preacher is alien to the very nature of New Testament Christianity.
Their mere existence is yet another reason to advocate a 21st century reformation which will sweep away all such folly - along with the megachurches where they camp out.
Here are 5 good reasons for advocating small churches. Which means, in practice that when a church gets too big - perhaps the 100ish mark or before? - we plant new churches.
1. Small Churches can be truly "family"
Christian people belong to a new divine community where they are encouraged to view one another as brothers and sisters in a family. God is our Father and Jesus Christ our elder brother, and though the eternal family extends across all time, the local congregation is to be a genuine reflection of this family.
Hundreds of times in the New Testament, God's people call one another "brother" or "sister."
A "family feel" of love and acceptance ought to be one of the most immediate and noticeable aspects of daily church life. "That's my brother, she's my sister."
But there is a number beyond which it is impossible to cultivate that kind of ethos and feel. "Strangers" or perhaps "acquaintances" becomes the more accurate moniker in such a large church.
If when we meet together the gathering is too big to cultivate or experience the notion of "family", our church is too big.
2. All the churches of the New Testament were small
There was only one large church in the New Testament, the very first church of Jerusalem. 3000 were converted on the day of Pentecost, a number which grew to 5000.
Why such phenomenal written-about sizes?
One reason alone, to demonstrate the supernatural origin of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Not as a model for future churches but as a demonstration of the divine origin of the Church.
Not as a model. How can we be so sure?
We can be sure because God himself ensured the demise of the Jerusalem superchurch. He allowed persecution to scatter the members to the four winds to do what they were meant to be doing in the first place - be his witnesses to a lost world.
God engineered the 3000 converted-in-one-day church and then he permitted it to be scattered - forever. No more regathering of the Jerusalem church and no megachurches in the New Testament.
From one point of view its success was a mark of failure: the command was always to be witnesses to the ends of the world. What were they doing hanging around in Jerusalem for so long?
From that point in time onwards no numbers are mentioned in the New Testament.
From then on churches met in homes, only homes, which not only fostered the family feel, but limited the numbers by virtue of size.
How many people could the largest Roman villa hold?
Not many.
3. The emergence of larger congregations is a direct consequence of "church" buildings
Church buildings were unknown in the first few centuries of the church. The Roman emperor Constantine, hoping perhaps to unite his empire through the use of the "Christian religion", began throwing money at the church encouraging them to build buildings. After all building stuff is how you build earthly empires. And a worldly emperor naturally reasons that building stuff is how the kingdom of God is also to be built.
But the moment a building is conceived of, a seating size must be chosen. And now, instead of an organic relational size of congregation you end up with an ecclesiastical architect picking a non-relational seating size. And who is going to build with a seating capacity of 50? Will that few a number even be able to support the bricks and mortar upkeep, let alone a minister.
So the existence of church buildings had an immediate - and negative - effect on church size, away from the family and familiar to the bigger and the organizational.
4. Small churches encourage the gifts of every member
The larger the church, the smaller proportion of its members serve. Indeed this is precisely why some people like big churches. They go to hide. They won't need to serve but find false comfort in the fact that they belong to the famous big ABC church led by the even more illustrious XYZ pastor.
But using our gifts to serve one another is a crucial aspect of Christian discipleship. Each of us is likened to one part of a human body whose function is essential for the well being of the whole, with no part redundant.
Smaller churches encourage the use of spiritual gifts.
5. Small churches limit the fall of any one leader
The colateral spiritual damage caused by the fall of one of these big-shot preachers can be considerable, because of how many people they preside over. If churches were small, the damage of any one fall would be limited.
What to do with mega-pastors?
What then should we do with all our evangelical mega-pastors? We should urge them to do what the gifted apostles (their only possible parallel if we are looking for parallels) did and go preach from town to town and plant churches all over, getting imprisoned and beat up on the way.
Just like Paul and just like his Master.
And thereby truly revealing their true greatness.
Not staying in some ivory palace to be worshipped and adored - now what does this sentence begin to sound like? - but coming down from their foolish man-made thrones into the humble places to preach the Gospel and suffer for the Gospel in the process.
Why this blog will probably go unheeded
This blog will go unheeded, unless the Lord is pleased to use it, because everything in the evangelical world is wired for big numbers.
This blog will go unheeded because what modern church wants to get smaller when, immersed in a celebrity culture, it means no fame or acknowledgement in this passing world?
Image: Do you remember "ToysRus?"
No comments:
Post a Comment