Megachurches

What’s Better? 10,000 In One Megachurch Or 10,000 In 100 Small Churches?

/ 1 minute of reading

Comparing small churches to megachurches is like comparing peas to pumpkins, or roses to redwoods. Each has a purpose, but those purposes are too different to determine a relative value.

. . .

Instead of comparing roses to redwoods, I’d like to propose a way to compare apples to apples without participating in the “who’s better?” game.

How about these two questions, side-by-side:

What are the benefits of 10,000 people worshiping in a megachurch led by one pastor?

What are the benefits of 10,000 people worshiping in 100 small churches led by 100 pastors?

Now that’s apples to apples.

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Megachurches Can’t Reach the World for Jesus Alone

/ 1 minute of reading

Less than one percent of churches in the world are megachurches, with about five percent of the total church attendance. Even when we add large-but-not-mega-churches to that number, it only adds up to ten percent of the world’s churches and fewer than half of the world’s Christians.

The rest of us attend the remaining 90 percent of churches. That may be one of the greatest, untapped secrets of the church today. Most of the churches in the world are small, but there are so many of us!

It’s time for the 90 percent to come alongside the 10 percent and get our hands dirty together.

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#BestOf2014: Are You Serious about Worldwide Church Growth? Support Small Churches

/ 4 minutes of reading

Church leaders and denominational officials often talk about how many small congregations there are. But those stats are almost universally seen as a problem to be fixed, instead of an asset we should support and strengthen.

The reason I support healthy Small Churches isn’t because I’m settling for less and denying the value of numerical growth. I support Small Churches because that is where most of the global church growth is taking place.

I support Small Churches, not because numbers don’t matter, but because they do. More people are led to Jesus, discipled and sent back out into ministry through the ministry of Small Churches than by any other means.

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Megachurch Pastors: Heroes, Villains or Something Else?

/ 5 minutes of reading

Megachurch pastors are a step beneath used car salesmen and ambulance-chasing lawyers in the eyes of many people in our culture. On the other side, we have a church growth culture that idealizes megachurches almost to the point of idolatry.

So who are these megachurch pastors? Villains who have corrupted the Gospel? Or heroes of the faith?

Here are 5 principles that help me avoid either extreme in my attitude towards megachurches and their leaders.

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8 Reasons Why It’s OK to Call Your Church a Small Church

/ 4 minutes of reading

For decades (yes, decades!) I refused to acknowledge that my church was small or that I was a Small Church pastor. Not any more. Now, I’m not just OK with it, I celebrate it.

Some people don’t like using the term Small Church because, in their minds, that term equates with a church being sickly, settling or worse. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

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We Love Megachurches, Too! (Podcast)

/ 3 minutes of reading

The body of Christ needs house churches, megachurches and every size in between. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks so.

In today’s podcast, with Jeff and Jonny from 200Churches.com, we talk about the content of one of my earliest posts, “Hi, I’m Karl and I’m NOT a Megachurch Basher”, and why I had to write it.

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Is It Wrong If I Don’t Want My Church to Grow?

/ 6 minutes of reading

One of the foundational beliefs of the church growth movement is that every church should desire to grow. And if you don’t want your church to grow, there’s something wrong. Probably something wrong with you. So let me get right to it and answer the question in today’s title.

Is it wrong if I don’t want my church to grow? YES. Always. Without reservation. No excuses allowed. No “buts” added. It is always wrong when a follower of Jesus, and especially a church leader, doesn’t want their church to grow.

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Two More Church Growth & Leadership Lies: The Church is American and White

/ 6 minutes of reading

I am a proud American. But Jesus wasn’t. The church isn’t. And my faith isn’t.

I’m also white and English-speaking. But Jesus wasn’t those either. And neither is the vast majority of his church.

Yet, if you pay attention to the church stats cited by most bloggers, speakers and authors, they tend to be very heavily slanted towards white, English-speaking Americans. Often exclusively so.

This slanted view gives us an inaccurate picture of who and what the 21st century church looks like.

It’s a big world out there. Jesus cares about all of it.

So should we.

In today’s post I’m going to take a hard, possibly uncomfortable look at two lies we end up believing when we pay almost exclusive attention to the white, English-speaking, American church.

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Reaching the World for Jesus is Too Important for Megachurches to Do Alone

/ 4 minutes of reading

Megachurches, we’re with you. You’re our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our partners in ministry. We know that the task of reaching our communities, nations, cultures and world is an enormous one. And an enormously important one. We don’t expect you to do it alone. It’s time for the 90% to come alongside the 10% and get our hands dirty together.

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