To attend a church with hundreds of people in the congregation is a joyous experience which we surely all find very uplifting, especially if the preaching is powerfully biblical and the praise is thunderously heartfelt. There is a wonderful buzz about such places and we thank God for them and their leaders.
However, I want to issue a challenge to the big churches, partially on behalf of smaller churches, but partially for their own spiritual health. Could it be that some kinds of large church inadvertently work against bringing individual Christians to maturity and also are contributing to the ongoing decline of Christianity in our country? Here are seven points to consider. I state them starkly to be provocative. All these things could be said of some smaller churches as well, but I suspect the larger congregations are more susceptible.
Big churches have an image to keep up
Big church culture seems to give much attention to professionalism in the services. Things need to be slick and classy. There is a great emphasis on how the preaching or the worship time ‘comes over’ to the congregation. In other words, there can be more concern about the outward appearance than the inward heart. We live in an image conscious society. But Jesus said that to follow that road is the path to hypocrisy (Matthew 23.25). By contrast, the meagre gift of the insignificant poor widow meant most to God because the gift came from her heart.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …