What are We to Make of Mega-Church Foreclosures?
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, February 16, 2009
- Viewed 348
- (17) comments so far
What are the common links here? It seems to me that these megachurches cited are not the typical megachurches, but those that are currently enveloped in some type of scandal. All three involve blatent and public sin of the leaders.
The narrator says that mega-churches are 'one scandal away from forclosure'. My question: Isn't this the case with every church, though? If the pastor of a 200 member church openly sins, let's say he punches his wife in the local Wal-mart parking lot, or if he divorces his wife, does that not put the church in danger of having many people leave? And if people leave and offerings plummet, that 200 member church is in the same boat as the 20,000 member church. My theory is that this is more of a problem of theology rather than size. Most of the larger churches that have had huge breakdowns over the past year are the more pentecostal word-of-faith churches (no offense to my pentecostal friends). I see more similarities there than I do with church size.
What think thee?
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Jesse Phillips on Mon, February 16, 2009
I understand his point. I think there are lots of Christians, like myself, who wince at the millions and millions of dollars of overhead that some megachurches live with. The accumulation of debt and etc.
I understand the strategy and the justification. Not sure I agree with it, having worked in a mega church before. I feel that money is better spent investing in outsiders, loving and helping them.
therefore I think there’s a critical bitterness and judging that can develop in people like me - and I guess that’s where this guy’s comment is coming from.
furthermore, I think there are, just as Paul said, ministers who are preaching the gospel to gain from it, maybe thousands, with huge prosperity gospel mega churches - and I think they’re wrong, teaching wrong stuff, leading many somewhat astray, not being faithful to Jesus or the bible. This is muddled in there too - some of these guys are legitimately very wrong.
Jesse Phillips on Mon, February 16, 2009
shoot, I just watched the video, I agree.
this is not how the Church was meant to be, in my opinion. Believers need community, a safe place for authenticity, opportunity to work together and use their gifts, flatter structure, humbleness, outward focus.
The big box, mega church model, where you come once a week, anonymous, do nothing - this seems very NOT what the movement of the Church is supposed to be—but perhaps I’m wrong, *seems* that way to me, but I don’t know much really.
CS on Mon, February 16, 2009
The speaker on the video was very wise with his perceptions of the, “cult of personality,” that surrounds many megachurches today. It’s true—one hit to the main pastor would send the church into a tail spin.
The speaker put up a picture towards the end that shows the proper governance model for churches with elders and pastors in a balance and relationship that promotes the sustainability of the church. This is one benefit that a smaller, more localized church can use to sustain itself in the event that the pastor does something dumb. Now, some megachurches do use this model, where the lead pastor is not a celebrity, and those would have a better chance of surviving a hit.
—
CS
Josh R on Mon, February 16, 2009
Isn’t Ted Haggard’s church doing acceptably well without him? I agree that this is more about theology than about size.
When you build a church upon the premise that life is going to be great, and God is going to make you rich and happy, Everyone seems to leave when that turns out to be false for the teacher.
If we understand life to be a battle, a fallen leader isn’t going to be quite as big of a shock. Certainly transition is always stressful, but If Jesus is the head, most loyal followers will continue in the battle..
Andy Wood on Mon, February 16, 2009
What’s unhealthy is a non-biblical view of leadership that equates “the vision” or “the teaching” with the egotistical, materialistic identity of the man/couple in charge. Where staff members are puppets to serve the “vision” of the senior leader (and before you ask, I AM a senior leader) and are abused when they actually exercise a brain. Where the power of getting people to instantly jump at your simplest whim is completely intoxicating.
Meanwhile, when a Christ-centered ministry caves in, it should be seen as a bell tolling for all of us on some level.
And could we PLEASE get some therapy for our “ediface complex”? Both those who take pride in them and those who get eaten up with jealousy because somebody has to figure out where to put the 10,000-plus people who are showing up for ministry.
Kirk Longhofer on Mon, February 16, 2009
No question it can happen to large or small, and I’ve seen both. The only thing that is different is the number of zeros involved. I think it’s a physchological, not a size issue.
By definition, a pedestal is small. When we put pastors up there, they don’t have much margin for failure before a they take a tough fall. That happens in small and large churches. It’s why banks that write church mortgages require key man insurance, pretty much regardless of the size of a church!
JOB on Mon, February 16, 2009
“Isn’t this the case with every church, though?”
No it isn’t. Many churches don;t have a mortgage and most small churches don’t carry enormous mortgages. And if any church, large or small acquires a mortgage with the faithful in mind then there is less of a chance they will fall into trouble should a scandal appear. Problems arise when a mortgage is acquired with the help of the faithless, the church is vulnerable, Which is too often the case of mega-churches.
Boat Seats on Sun, March 08, 2009
Awesome! I have read a lot on this topic, but you definitely give it a good vibe. This is a great post. Will be back to read more! Boat Seats
John on Sun, March 15, 2009
It is not inevetible you must have God focused leadership that is intuned to the leading of God who cannot fail this is a correction in the church to weed out leadership that is not truly focused on God but on their own agenda. God cannot fail but hearing and do His will is somtimes very hard, ehen we lean to our own understanding is when we fall into trouble
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alive max on Sun, April 05, 2009
As the number of members grows, the percentage of sin committed by the members get reduced. Sau if 1 out of 200 members then u may say 0.5% of members are false, but at the same time 10 out of 20000? This is the question. alive max
shares on Wed, April 29, 2009
Thanks for this. I got the link from a comment you left at another site and found it to be a great compilation of the story thus far. Here’s praying for the integrity of the trade
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When you build a church upon the premise that life is going to be great, and God is going to make you rich and happy, Everyone seems to leave when that turns out to be false for the teacher
mens wedding rings on Fri, June 12, 2009
Hard to say, I mean some people might think that’s only because the teacher is wrong. But to me, going into debt seems like a bad thing to do for churches.
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