Mega-Churches are anti-community
I am quite fascinated with the mega-church phenomena, especially the United States version of them. Canadian mega-churches are kind of the poorer cousins of the American mega-churches. We generally don't have the population and resources to build up the huge sanctuaries and sprawling campuses of our sisters and brothers to the south.
The title of this post is intentionally provocative. I have attended a few churches in the states that would qualify in the "mega" category. I have been to many that are at least 1000, and a handful that were over 10 000. I have been to Saddle Back which is pretty big.
The reason I say the mega churches are anti-community is because it is impossible to be a community as described in the New Testament when you do not know the majority of the people you are worshipping with. I suspect it is impossible to know the majority of people in a church in the thousands.
The fact that we create "small" groups within our churches attests to the fact that we do not and can not experience intimacy in the larger gathering.
I speculate that most people attend mega-churches for a product and service they recieve: excellent preaching, good worship, childrens program. But, would anyone say they attend for the tremendous feeling of intimacy and community? I suspect not - when you attend any event that numbers in the thousands your individuality gets absorbed into the mass. In a small community, your individuality has more chance of being celebrated and accented by the others.
Malcolm Gladwell makes the insightful observation in the tipping point, that once companies go past the 150 employee mark, they usually enter into a whole new sphere of problems because of the breakdown of communication between departments. Gladwell suggests that companies develop whole new branches or offices once they reach this number. He also notes that Hutterite colonies always start a new colony once they reach 150.
Is there something magical/mystical about this 150 number? I suspect not, but there are sociological realities that pertain to any human community. I think that the potential for intimacy breaks down as our numbers go up.
I am NOT saying that mega-churches are wrong or evil. Not at all. I am just suggesting that there are somethings that even a mega-church cannot do.
Thank God for mega-churches and the skilled shepherds who guide them. I also think that we are never going to see the demise of the mega-church as nay-sayers keep saying through the years. They are here to stay. We are just naturally attracted to big things, be they shopping malls, rock concerts, sporting events or a mega-church.
The title of this post is intentionally provocative. I have attended a few churches in the states that would qualify in the "mega" category. I have been to many that are at least 1000, and a handful that were over 10 000. I have been to Saddle Back which is pretty big.
The reason I say the mega churches are anti-community is because it is impossible to be a community as described in the New Testament when you do not know the majority of the people you are worshipping with. I suspect it is impossible to know the majority of people in a church in the thousands.
The fact that we create "small" groups within our churches attests to the fact that we do not and can not experience intimacy in the larger gathering.
I speculate that most people attend mega-churches for a product and service they recieve: excellent preaching, good worship, childrens program. But, would anyone say they attend for the tremendous feeling of intimacy and community? I suspect not - when you attend any event that numbers in the thousands your individuality gets absorbed into the mass. In a small community, your individuality has more chance of being celebrated and accented by the others.
Malcolm Gladwell makes the insightful observation in the tipping point, that once companies go past the 150 employee mark, they usually enter into a whole new sphere of problems because of the breakdown of communication between departments. Gladwell suggests that companies develop whole new branches or offices once they reach this number. He also notes that Hutterite colonies always start a new colony once they reach 150.
Is there something magical/mystical about this 150 number? I suspect not, but there are sociological realities that pertain to any human community. I think that the potential for intimacy breaks down as our numbers go up.
I am NOT saying that mega-churches are wrong or evil. Not at all. I am just suggesting that there are somethings that even a mega-church cannot do.
Thank God for mega-churches and the skilled shepherds who guide them. I also think that we are never going to see the demise of the mega-church as nay-sayers keep saying through the years. They are here to stay. We are just naturally attracted to big things, be they shopping malls, rock concerts, sporting events or a mega-church.
Comments
I am so sorry about your finger. I have used a table saw many times (and I still have all my digits) and I see how you could easily get injured.
Mega-churches are an interesting phenomenon. I would agree that a number of Christian choose the larger church for consumer-driven reasons. Nevertheless, I would argue that you have a better chance of forming community in a larger church than a smaller church. Here is my reasoning.
Biblically community is formed by the Spirit for sure, but there are also sociological factors. The relationship which occur in community have to have some kind of chemistry. You cannot force relationship -- they just seem to happen. God has a part to play in that, no dobut, but there is also an unknowable sociological force at work....like falling in love. It cannot be programed and forced, it just happens. I could go on to describe how this happens, but this is a blog post and not an essay!
So I have found that people have a higher probability of finding compatible relationships with people when they have a larger number of people to pick from. (I sound like Josh Nash in A Beautiful Mind!)
Our church is made up of about 125 worshippers and I was guess that I am the only person in the church that could name everyone. You cannot have real intimacy with 150 people. I think you can only have real intamicy with maybe 10-15...thus the beauty of small groups. I would argue that small groups and necessary and sought out, because it is the right size to build community...to build lasting relationships.
Whew...long post...
Derek
If you have medium sized groups based on stages of life you can connect with people that are similiar to you.
If you have a church of 150 or less the chances of connecting with people you relate to is not very good. For example youth groups of 15 people cannot meet the social needs of young people. That is why 9 out of 10 young men leave the church by 20 years of age. They want to make lots of friends, particulary of the opposite sex. If you only have a social group in a church of 15 or 20 people your age it will not meet your social needs.
You can see this any night of the week. Yaletown and downtown in Vancouver are perfect examples of this. Why are the nightclubs packed with people ? They want to connect with others !
If your local church does not provide this social group then the world is very willing to do so.