Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
Most mega churches grow by creating Hype! To maintain the experience one has got to keep building up a consumer base by promising a better experience each time and “an awesome entertainment” the next time. It is quite disorienting since its all done in the name of Christianity. Actually some Sunday services experiences these days begin and end without the name of Jesus, God, sin or righteousness being mentioned. Well, recently….
A Colorado Springs megachurch pastor became disillusioned when he began to follow on Twitter around a dozen high-profile pastors whose ministries he respected.
These pastors would regularly tweet something that was, in Pastor Brady Boyd’s opinion, overflowing with hype. “Super Bowl of all Sundays,” “the megamonster of all sermons,” “I can’t think of another time I have been more excited about preaching a message,” they tweeted as they touted upcoming weekend services.
“How can it be, week after week?” Boyd, senior pastor of New Life Church, wrote in his newly released [book].
Sadly, the result of hype is a church full of consumers.
“It would be easy to blame church congregations for the madness that has consumed our gatherings these days, except that from what I see from their pastors, we’re conditioning them to behave this way. We hype and promote and position and tweet and inadvertently create pews full of consumers instead of devoted worshipers of God,” Boyd stated.
“We hyp-ers are setting up our people to expect an experience, instead of teaching them to encounter their Lord.”
Duh, has the penny just dropped?
Jim West never pulls any punches. He doesn’t beat about the bush either and that’s the reason I love his blog. Today we will visit his blog and listen in on a question and answer session. Hey, do not say I did not warn you 😉
Dear Jim,
First, let me thank you for your blog. I love it. I do have a question. What is your definition of a mega church?
Thank You,
DuaneHi Duane,
That’s actually an easy question to answer- a mega-church is any church which is so large that the Pastor doesn’t know the names of every person who regularly attends. Such Pastors aren’t truly pastors – they are merely functionaries, public speakers. Pastors know their flock just as shepherds know their sheep. It is no accident at all that the early Church seized on the analogy of the Pastor as shepherd.
For that reason a church which is so big that the Pastor can’t or doesn’t know those who come is no longer a Church as such but a group, an ‘audience’, nothing more.
With all best wishes,
Jim
I told ya! 😉
Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878-October 5, 1969) was an American clergyman. As a liberal and modernist Baptist minister, Harry rose to prominence as the weekly preacher at New York City’s First Presbyterian Church (1918-1924). Fundamentalist Christians nationwide attacked his view that ‘modern Christians’ could doubt doctrines such as the literal truth of the Bible and the virgin birth of Jesus and still remain faithful. The modernists denied the authority and inerrancy of Scripture. Fosdick ultimately would not acknowledge the literal reality of God’s wrath toward impenitent sinners. To him, ‘the wrath of God’ was nothing more than a metaphor for the natural consequences of wrongdoing. His theology would not tolerate a personal God whose righteous anger burns against sin. To Fosdick, the threat of hell fire was only a relic of a barbaric age.
His sermons were often creative, inventive and topical …Read More!
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A MILLION-volt stun gun disguised as a mobile phone is being smuggled into Britain by criminals. Potentially-lethal K95s are 24 TIMES more powerful than a police Taser. But There’s More
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 