In the Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter he says this:
When we are commanded to take heed to all the flock, it is plainly implied, that flocks must ordinarily be no greater than we are capable of overseeing, or ‘taking heed to.’ God will not lay upon us natural impossibilities: he will not bind men to leap up to the moon, to touch the stars, or to number the sands of the sea. If the pastoral office consists in overseeing all the flock, then surely the number of souls under the care of each pastor must not be greater than he is able to take such heed to as is here required. Will God require one bishop to take the charge of a whole county, or of so many parishes or thousands of souls, as he is not able to know or to oversee? Yea, and to take the sole government of them, while the particular teachers of them are free from that undertaking? Will God require the blood of so many parishes at one man’s hands, if he do not that which ten, or twenty, or a hundred, or three hundred men can no more do, than I can move a mountain Then woe to poor prelates! Is it not, then, a most doleful case, that learned, sober men should plead for this as a desirable privilege; that they should wilfully draw on themselves such a burden; and that they do not rather tremble at the thoughts of so great an undertaking? O, happy had it been for the Church, and happy for the bishops themselves, if this measure, that is intimated by the apostle here, had still been observed: that the diocese had been no greater than the elders or bishops could oversee and rule, so that they might have taken heed to all the Rock: or that pastors had been multiplied as churches increased, and the number of overseers been proportioned to the number of souls, that they might not have let the work be undone, while they assumed the empty titles, and undertook impossibilities! And that they had rather prayed the Lord of the harvest to send forth more laborers, even so many as were proportioned to the work, and not to have undertaken all themselves. I should scarcely commend the prudence or humility of that laborer, let his parts be ever so great, that would not only undertake to gather in all the harvest in this county himself, and that upon pain of death, yea, of damnation, but would also earnestly contend for this prerogative.
Now I will state that my ecclesiology is not that strong and for the most part I can admit that the scriptures are not “totally” clear as it relates to how a church should be structured. But if I may be so bold, what we see today is 180 degrees from what we see in the time of the Apostles. Now it is funny that we meet every Sunday and if a church member was to decide to come once a quarter and give every five years his commitment to the local fellowship would be in question.
The problem is there is nothing scriptural that says I have to do otherwise. If there is no set number of members to have and a church can be as big as it likes, then we must say the same for how often I come, and how often I give and how much I give. If my commitment to the church is called into question and if anyone reading this would say that is ridiculous, I will say the same for a church where there are so many people that you can’t possibly know one another.
The reason why so many false converts, lazy Christians, and outright wolves are not only invited but encouraged to come to church, is because there is no fear of being singled out and questioned. The pastors don’t know you from Adam, and once you have been figured out you are off to the next church to sow whatever it is you sow. Churches have become assembly lines and the weekly gathering looks more like a grand orchestra versus a gathering of believers to fellowship and enjoy the Lord. I wonder how many churches are truly leaving this command out found in Colossians 3:
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
How many of our churches cultivate this type of other types of meaningful interaction amongst the brethren? How many of us are really getting the opportunity to cultivate the Gifts God has given us. We have churches packed full of people who want to “hear good teaching” but refuse to fulfill this in Philippians 2:
2:1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
How many churches would honestly say “if we were the Church at Philippi we would be making Paul’s joy complete”? Very few. Most church planters are sending seminary trained men to “progressive” areas to grow big churches. I always hear the crap “we are trying to grow a big church, if it happens it happens” but then in the next voice we do everything possible to market as if we do want a big church? So many times I hear “in Acts the church multiplied even growing by 3000 at one time” the question is what church was Luke referring to? Definitely not the local fellowship because if that was the case they definitely could fit in one home or even 10 homes for that matter.
All I am saying is that we have to start being real folks. Lets quit taking parts of the bible and saying “oh yeah we are building a biblical church”. NO! We are using western capitalistic methods to build concert halls to house as many people as possible so that a good orator can talk to you for about an hour, sharpening his exegetical and hermeneutic skill while at the same time you are not given even the slight possibility to interact with them or question their position.
Smells like Rome to me folks. I may be wrong, but this is what I am seeing and the fruit is evident. The Christian faith is made a mockery of here in the U.S most big churches have 75 to 80 cents on a dollar going to overhead and after the people give 10% or more they still are asked to give to missionaries while we walk into big buildings with $20K worth of sound and audio equipment (and that is the youth building). All I am saying is lets stop playing and come right out and say what we are building.
Ditto on the thoughts, Brah…
Don’t know if you knew of it, but I found some excellent discussion on the 9Marks Blog (especially the one of “Church Sattellites and not working with other churches in the community):
http://blog.9marks.org/2008/01/multi-campus-me.html#comments
http://blog.9marks.org/2008/01/satellites-v-ch.html#comments
Though not all mega-churches/large churches are wrong in the the fruit they produce (i.e. disciples, sound theology, passion 4 Christ and saints walking in line with the Holy Spirit, etc), many truly are akin to cancer cells
All cancer begins as a result of abnormalities in the genetic material of transformed cells. & Rather than working in harmony with the rest of the body, the cells become aggressive, growing and dividing without respect to normal limits, invasive (invade and destroy adjacent tissues, or metastatic (spreading to other locations in the body).
Likewise, many mega-churches do the EXACT same thing………
Some begin with NOBLE intentions, but eventually become SKEWED in their efforts by DRAINING fellowship from other churches which need it, just as FRANCHISE supermarkets come into small towns & driving out local stores VITAL in keeping communities TOGETHER…..
They proceed moving to the other parts of the Body of believers, spreading WITHOUT RESPECT TO THEIR LIMITS, thinking “Everyone else should ADAPT TO US….”, when REALITY SAYS the church wasn’t DESIGNED to handle GATHERINGS of that MAGNITUDE CONSISTENTLY & EFFECTIVELY ( Acts 8:1-8).
For many mega-churches Believers cannot follow the Biblical model where fellowship was close-knit & EVERYONE was able to be accountable like TRUE FAMILIES ( Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:32-36, Hebrews 10:24-25)
Moreover, the standards of the Mega-Church begin to spread out & influence other churches in UNGODLY PRACTICES, making smaller fellowships believe that they must choose to either become “Seeker-Friendly” or more like a CORPORATION if they’re to survive……all at the expense of SOLID THEOLOGY/Practice
Eventually, people in the Body of Christ are no longer seeking to work together (Ephesians 4:1-16) with one another but causing DIVISION because they’re BELITTLING parts of the body that are less noticeable, thinking “Smaller fellowships have NOTHING to offer”
Instead of helping other churches BUILD UP OTHER BELIEVERS, they’re instead causing other cells in the Body of Christ to WORK AGAINST EACH OTHER IN COMPETITION/SELF-EXALTATION (I Corinthians 12)
Also, the church itself becomes so enormous that one must choose to turn it away from the ORIGINAL FUNCTION OF WORSHIP & create funding through MERCHADIZING to keep things going, further INCREASING ABUSE & adding to the DRAIN ON OTHERS.
Ultimately, you end up with a Church that’s nothing more than a RE-MIX of WHAT Jesus HATED: A CORRUPTION OF WHAT GOD INTENDED FOR SO MUCH GOOD (Matthew 21:12-21, John 2:12-17)
Thouugh the ironic thing is that even in dealing with cancer, NO ONE HAS FOUND THE CURE FOR IT—EVen in using things such as radiation/laser surgery to “downsize” things—& likewise no one can truly cure the cancer of the “mega-church” mentality overunning our communities by getting smaller for the sake of size. There are PLENTY of small churches as well that have just as much fair share of mess as the larger ones (i.e. gossip, being so familar with everyone’s lives that control of others can take place, etc)………..and ultimately, what matters is whether or not the saints are CONNECTED TO HIM (John 15).
It’d be like me saying “The problem with the modern church today is that we’re not being persecuted enough!!!! We don’t need PEACE and if we’re persecuted enough, then the church would have to downsize!!!……but that goes against the Biblical Model of Acts, where before and AFTER PERSECUTION the church was healthy….and it goes against the call for saints to be “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; (“2 Timothy 4:2), regardless of the time.
The root of the problem’s not being in line with the Spirit of God.
Emissary you need to write a book and stop playin!! Lionel good article. I have a lot of problems with the typical institutionlized church but there are still some good ones out there. I don’t know many in my area since you know i attend a house church and would have it no other way. Some good points bro, Peace in Christ
I think that people should communicate, no matter where they do it – in real life or in Internet.