 Is there a problem with mega churches? Are they inherently bad? Are there some good? Are there some bad? Well, many of you have probably seen the video. If you're not, you probably will. The video of the drummers being suspended in air playing drums. I've even seen the actual video of them playing. And obviously, that's not something that churches probably ought to be doing. Kind of sends the wrong message. It sends a message that this is more of a show, more of a process that needs to continue to go, regardless of whether people are coming to know Christ, if people are growing, if people are having their physical and spiritual emotional needs met. It may seem like that takes a back seat in comparison to the actual show. Well, let's be honest. In many, many mega churches, large churches, that does happen. But does that mean that mega churches in and of themselves are bad? Well, the first thing we need to do is to first understand what it means to actually be a church. The word that we have for church really doesn't mean what we say it is. As a matter of fact, the word church really isn't present, but it becomes anonymous. And so, when we see the word there in the Greek, we supplant the word church. As a matter of fact, there was even intentionally an effort to keep that actual word out because of the meaning of it, intentional by people like William Tyndale, who did not want that word. But even after his death, it was put back in. But here's what the word means. The word that's used there, the Greek word, just means a gathering and assembly, a congregation. And there's a more of a deeper meaning to that. The meaning was more like a family. The early church felt more as though that this was more of a family and that we should have kind of everything in common. As a matter of fact, when we look at how churches are to operate the rules and so forth, there really isn't a lot put out by, let's say Paul or anywhere else in the Bible that tells us how a church ought to be in terms of this is the hierarchy, this is the way you should govern yourselves. There seems to be one overarching theme that's woven throughout the early church. And that is this theme of fellowship. The first church in Acts 242 says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayer. And so there was this need, this focus on coming together. Now they came together for a couple of different reasons. One for, as he says, the apostles' teaching. And so there needs to be this time of coming together for a corporate learning, a corporate reading, a corporate breaking of the word, understanding what the word of God is and growing in it. Also, there's a need for this corporate need for prayer as well as also fellowship. The Bible says that we should come together. As a matter of fact, not neglect the assembling together because, and some folks have had this habit, in doing so, there's no way to stir up the gift of other people. There's no way to love on others and to be loved. If there's something going on in the hearts and minds or the lives of someone else, and you can be a help, but you're not there or they're not there, well then, that doesn't really work well. We are part of a body and the Bible makes it clear in its analogy to make us aware that we are a body, all a part of one another. The early church saw that we were a family. The term that was used was the term Catholic Church, not in the organization that we have today, but in the word Catholic is pure since a universal church. And wherever we were, we were like one big family, whether we're here all together at one time. Some of us are over there. We've got some cousins over here, some brothers and sisters over there. That's the way they looked at things. As a matter of fact, that was also the reason why you saw a lot of early church councils because if there was an issue or problem, well let's get the entire family together and let's let's let's hash this out. Today, however, we don't have that, not like we should. Churches today are churches today tend to be more autonomous. They tend to be more about themselves, about their brand. You see this explosion of what we call the satellite churches or these campus churches. This one church does not want to, instead of sending people out to start a church somewhere else with a new leadership team, they end up wanting to kind of have governance over not just the main church, but another church. And we don't see that happening in the scriptures. We see that men would go out and plant churches, but we would have this fellowship with one another. That church wouldn't necessarily behold to the other church, but because we were family, we made sure that we listened to each other. When a church goes off the rails or does something they shouldn't be done to, oftentimes they don't want to be held accountable. And we want to kind of just kind of keep to ourselves, we do what we do over here, you do what you do over there. But the Bible speaks clearly about how sinful that is. As a matter of fact, John says this in 1 John 1 verse 6 says, if we say that we have fellowship with him, that is with Jesus, while walking in darkness, we lie and do that practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleans us from all sins. Well, did you notice if a church is walking or we are walking in light, then we also have not only fellowship with him, but we have fellowship with one another. That's the whole goal. The whole point of these spiritual gifts that we've been given is that it is used, they are used to build up not me, but the body and not just our local body, but the entire body. One of the big problems that we have with mega churches isn't so much mega church because again, the first church was a mega church itself. On the first day we see thousands being added to it. Now, were they all in one locale? No, but it grew and it grew and they dispersed and it grew and they dispersed and they kept growing. That was the goal. That was the point. That was what was happening. But the problem today with many mega churches isn't the idea of a mega church, a large church. The biggest problem that we have with the mega church today are the mega church pastors. Now it needs to be stated that most mega church pastors, if not all started off as small church pastors. So if they have bad doctrine now as a mega church pastor, well then likely they had bad doctrine as a small church pastor. And we already know that people will have itching ears and they'll flock to these sorts of churches with this bad doctrine. The problem is that we have become entirely too tolerant of sin, even in as a matter of fact, especially in the mega churches. Now the truth is mega churches, though they get a bad rap, the people that go to mega churches, they are no more sinful than people that attend a small church. Mega church attendees are no more or no less billically illiterate than the people that attend a small church. They are no more selfish or lazy than those that attend a small church. As a matter of fact, many people can attest to the fact that there are a lot of problems that we see in mega churches. We see in small churches. There's a lot of affairs. There's a lot of fighting. There's a lot of back body and gospel that happens in small churches as well as larger churches. Now there are some benefits to both and some disadvantages to both. Obviously the benefit of the small church is that you're known, that there's a more intimate fellowship that you can see, maybe even spend time with the pastor, the pastor will know your name. Whereas in a larger church, that's just not possible. And so there's this accountability that's also there. Some folks might see that as a negative, but that's actually a good thing to where we can be held accountable with one another. There's this intimate fellowship, again, that you just don't see with the larger church. Some of the negatives are the things that the small church probably can't do as easily as a large church. Well, in a larger church, whatever things that you're doing in a big church, if it's, let's say, feeding the homeless or what have you, those resources will be better offered at a larger church than a small church. The opportunity for different services or different ministries, even the opportunity to serve even more so might be greater at a larger church. But that doesn't mean that one is better than the other. Oftentimes some folks may say that the music is better, that this is better at a larger church. Well, even though a church is smaller, does not mean that that small church can also have the same level of quality as a large church. Now, the one quality that should never suffer, whether it's a small church or a large church, is that of a pastor. And Paul is pretty clear about the qualifications of a pastor being a small church or a large church. He covers this in 1 Timothy 3. He says that this is a trustworthy desire for someone to do. And he says, whoever this overseer, this pastor is, he must be above reproach. He must be the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. The problem is we're having more and more pastors today that don't meet this standard, especially able to teach as well as their individualized. I won't go through the entire list, but they have to have a good report one inside the church, but they have to have a good report of people and a good image of people outside of the church. The outsiders must think highly of them. Why? Well, if the pastor is seen by outsiders as someone who is not trustworthy, not a wise or godly person, why would they place their faith in the same thing that is leading this sinful pastor? Unfortunately, be it a small church or mega church, all too often churches have been treating the pastorship as though it is a business. And we're looking for someone who can grow the company, grow the bottom line, and increase the brand name. Well, that obviously should not be the focus of the pastor's speed to increase the brand name of Christ because pastors have a different view rather than focusing on the lives, the individualized people. They're focused on the bottom line. Then we become too tolerant of sin, too tolerant of bad doctrine. Now Paul does address this in writing to the church. As a matter of fact, in writing to the church at Corinth in chapter 5 verse 6, he says, in regard to a sinning brother who they didn't want to put out, he says, you're boasting speaking of the church is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? He says cleanse out the old leaven. Now the point that he's making is do not tolerate sin. It will permeate that church and will find itself out into the community. The issue is when there is sin in the church, that sin or that bad doctrine, it is going to get out into the society. The larger the church, the more of a spill over that there's going to be. Now that means that small churches don't contribute to the decay of society as well, but certainly these large churches with these pastors who have no level of desire to see their people be holy, who tolerate sin, who also do not have an interest in holding to sound doctrine, but are more into sensationalism, be it with the atrix, high wire acts and so forth, or foolishness when it comes to the preach word, looking for something cute to say, something profound or something that conjures up images of them having power, slaying demons and things like that, that creeps out into society. And so we see the effect. The issue for us is to be on guard, whether we're at a small church or a large church. The size of the church isn't so much the issue. As a matter of fact, if you go to a small church, if it's a good church, if people also want to start coming to the church to hear a good thing, which they should, and that church is growing, would you want the attendance to stay where it is? Would you want people to not come just because you don't want to get larger? Or would you want people to hear and be fed the way you are? A good church should grow. And so you would not leave that church because you love that church. If it began to grow, you'd want to make sure that it kept what made it good in the first place, which is understandable. You don't want to lose that identity. I get that as well. But in and of itself, a large church or small church neither is better, neither is more favorable. It just is what it is. Some places need to have a small church. Some places, a large church can make an influence or an impact in the community. But the focus ought to be not on the size of the crowd. It ought to be on the size of God inside that, meaning how much is his word preached? Is it large? People understand that when they come in that they know that they're going to hear the word when they come in. And is there an active and present move of the spirit in the body and lives of the people? That's what makes a church a good church, whether it's a mega church, medium church, small church. That's what makes a good church. Amen.