The Quality-Quantity Quandry January 28, 2009
Posted by Dan R. Dick in Church Leadership, Congregational Life, Religion in the U.S..Tags: Christian discipleship, Church Leadership, mega-church
2 comments
It’s always nice to connect with your readers. Here’s an excerpt from an email I got in response to “The Path of Least Resistance Is Paved With Good Intentions,”
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I am lead pastor of an 11,000 member church, and we’re as healthy as any church in existence. You’re ignorant, you’re biased, and you’re wrong. Mega-churches are the future of Christianity… More people hear the gospel through our ministry than any other ten local churches combined.
Obviously, no matter how many time and how many ways I say that the size of the church is not the issue, it generally comes across that I am “against” the mega-church. The point I try to make — based on my own limited experience of a few hundred 8,000+ member churches — is that very few are phenomenally effective, many do excellent work, the vast majority struggle and are only nominally effective at making disciples, and a handful are a total mess. In essence, they are just like every other size-segment in organized religion — a few stellar successes, many moderately effective, many struggling, and a few failing.
