Mega-Churches: Competition Trumps Community (Part 1)

I’ve had a unique vantage point to observe some churches. Being a musician has given me access to a lot of what goes on behind the scenes. At times it can be encouraging. At times it has been intriguing. The sad part is at times has been very disappointing. I have seen great people of God who are gifted leaders. I have also worked closely with some leaders, who, in my opinion, were immature – to put it mildly. I’ve seen triumphs and scandals. I have watched and even participated in in-house verbal sparring that would rival any Senate floor. The one thing I’ve rarely seen is the sense of community that was found in the early New Testament church.

Reading Acts 2:42-47 this morning sparked my yearning to see the sense of community in some “mega-churches” . What happened to the church being a community? For years I have watched the evolution of the church through my lens as a church leader, member, and even employee. I’ve noticed that this concept of the church being a community only seemed to happen when there are great causes or political views that churches don’t agree with. I guess as you look at it, every cause can be a great cause, but still something has evolved that was in my estimation, not the Architect’s intent.

What has been and is the chief component that drives a lot of ministries these days is competition. I am sure to some that sounds cliché and to others a broad-brushed attack, but isn’t it true? In my blog “Mega-Churches become Big Box Stores” I give parallels and motivations that are similar between Big Box Stores (Wal-mart, Target etc.) and “mega-churches. A lot of churches focus on growth in size. I know, you are probably saying to yourself that this is the reason for the whole Pentecost event. The idea was to grow. The body of Christ was meant to grow. This is true, but the question is – is the body of Christ growing?

If we look at it, some churches have become more like entertainment entities, bifurcating from what is “the church’s” original purpose. We have to look at the original “Church” beginning at Pentecost and compare it to some of today’s mega-ministries. A lot happened to initiate the start of the church. The full biblical account of its beginning can be found in Acts Chapter 2. The key is the end of that chapter starting at the 42nd verse and ending at the 47th verse. It was pretty simple. Jesus’ Disciples, also known as Apostles (sent ones) taught the newly converted body of believers Jesus’ teachings. This body of believers followed the teachings of the Apostles, gave to those in the group that were not as fortunate by selling their possessions and goods, and met in the temple courts everyday. They went about praising God and enjoying each others’ company which in Greek is called Koinonia. An interesting thing happened to this group of believers. Their numbers grew. No church growth plan was needed. No hoopin’ and hollerin’ was employed. They didn’t even have a popular praise team or choir.

If we look at some churches today it is much different. Koinonia is not found like it once could be found in fellowship halls and parking lots of times in the past. In the mega-church era it doesn’t exist for the most part. Some churches are now concert-sized buildings where people come to be entertained by music and given a good pep talk by whom they presume is a motivational specialist also known as a Pastor or preacher. Koinonia means fellowship. Fellowship has been lost to entertainment-styled gatherings called church services. Like anything in entertainment, competition is king. As an entertainment entity, your chief goal is to entertain an audience better than any other entertainment entity so that you can retain an audience’s attention.

At a church conference recently a TV producer came and about how TV retains its audience. This TV producer mentioned how millions of dollars are spent to retain audiences for a period of time. As he went on to describe in detail all of the tools used, the desired impact was to cause the audience to see that the TV industry is one of the church’s competitor for peoples’ attention. If the audience caught the message, they would quickly see that in order to compete, they would have to use the same or better tools to gain peoples’ attention. When I heard this for the first time I thought that this was smart. The more I thought about this, the more I realized how this was dangerous. The church is now entering into a competition it was not equipped to win. Was this what the church was designed to do?

If you look at things historically, from the time the church started, throughout New Testament prior to the death of all of the Apostles, the church never tried to compete with any other entity, especially the entertainment industry of that time. If we look at it, really competing would have been senseless because Greece and Rome cornered the market on entertainment from sports to philosophical discussions. The church was not built on competition. The church was built on fellowship that was centered around a belief in Christ as the Son of God and His way of living.

Stay tuned for the part 2.