The Mega Church Phenomenon

Lynchburg, Virginia, Ozark, Missouri, San Antonio, Texas--and the Wild West: Is This God's Wellness or Orwellian Madness...? (I do believe that the Mega-Church can offer many good ministries to the community, and in a future addendum to this article will consider the positives.)

After my cross-country trek last Fall, during which I visited several 7000 to 12,000 member churches, I penned in my journal ponderings like, "Will the current mega-church explosion--this ecclesiastical you-can-buy-anything-you-need-here-Walmartization of religion--eventaully implode on itself..or are there sufficient redemptive trickle-downs? Is this just a systemic Pop Culture spasm--or something resonating with Acts 2..?

I do earnestly pray that the Mega-Church can be a mighty ministry for the Lord God, that it truly is a sign of healthy spiritual growth--and not just a phenomenon of "fatness in Numbers" and a barn full of 'spiritual orphans'. The following thoughts are not meant in any way to be condemning, pejorative, or cynical. I am praying that all local churches, large or small, may be spiritually healthy gardens of godly growth.

The Steeple Chaser, as a thoughtful observer, (seeking always to be skeptical but not cynical, satircal but not sarcastic) might wonder: "Is there some part or aspect of mass-movement churchianity--the kind with placating platitudes, defective Christology and Pneumatology, a 'diffenrent gospel' of charismagical health, wealth, and narcissistic Successism, with its barnfulls of herded, passive sheeple perching-up-there-in-the-bleachers--that points to The Apostasy mentioned in Hebrews..?

And/or is this, perhaps in the socio-psychological sense, an eschatological sign that America is ready for fascism..?"

What about the Mega-Church 'atmosphere' and its meta-messages..?

Is jumbo-tron screenism (sometimes even taped elsewhere by an absentee pastor who perhaps enjoys fishing for cookable fish)--which provides unwanted glimpses of uvula and forced inspection of the American-Idol-wannabe vocalist's latest dental prosthesis, and the offering-taker's cheek mark which looks too much like the shape of New Zealand) really just a Big Brother vehicle for the one-way-commuication of a subtle totalism and authoritarianism afflicting itsel on the redeemed community..?

Even though some may laugh at this point, the critical thinker (rare breed that he is) might ask: "Does the nineteen-foot high in-your-face close-up of a speaker's florid 'affect' achieve more of a ('purpose-driven') brainwashing and 'thought reform' goal--than interpersonal nurturing, nourishing pastoral teaching-from-life, and compassionate day-to-day shepherding..?"

Would it rain on the herd-thinkers' parade to ask, "Is the mega-church phenomenon just another corporate takeover--another co-opting, 'benignly hostile' scarfing up of the more meaningful, effective, (and 'nutritious') small church 'mom and pop' operations..?"

But just as it's easier to cop out and move from the accountability of a small town--to hide impersonally and anonymously in the big city and live the 'secret life of Henry Fife'--it's also ("fer shure") easier to slip into the mega-church cattle drive.

Why not? Everybody's doin' it..!

The old saying comes to mind and makes me grin, "Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong." Ha--the reality question is, "Can even one Frenchman be right...?"

(At least you can try, perhaps, to correct their perceptual distortions, impaired insight, impulsivity, and truncated judgment--if you keep them in small groups that is..!)

Please organize a 'panel of experts' who can clear these questions up for me..!