Multi-mega churches vs. traditional church. Part 1

Every Christian should care about what's going on in big churches because the big churches are setting the bar and that's the real problem. Church leaders are running the church like a business instead of a place of worship. We measure success based on attendance or how many folks heed the alter call to perceived salvation, instead of obedience to the word.

Weak worship is a symptom or one problem generated by a bigger issue. The real issue being, we've lost sight of our first love, as a church body. How are we trusting in God as our provider when we continue to pump money into ministries or buildings with the sole intention of bolstering attendance? Shouldn't churches start looking into planting more churches before spending money on expanding a building? I mean why are we coming to church? For the pastor? Jesus Christ is the standard every church should aspire to and His words are clearly communicated in the Bible. Weak worship (whether contemporary or traditional (and as a side note, traditional worship at one point was contemporary) is a symptom of this bigger issue, just like adultery, all the myriad of denominations (thereby creating a total lack of unity in Christ), divorce (which mirrors the secular world, shame on us, as marriage is suppose to be representative of Christ's relationship with His bride, the church), fornication, gossip, selfishness and especially pride, just to name a few, which are all rampant in the church. Yes we are all sinners, but where's the difference a true "seeker" is looking for between his/her current lifestyle and what we call the Christian lifestyle, if there is such a thing? Are we more concerned with our appearance as "holy" people, much like the Pharisees, then with being a servant to all?

"Weak, spineless leadership" doesn't just affect praise singing, it affects the whole church. It provides us with weak messages which challenge nobody, but yet provide a sense of comfort so we can all walk out the door on Sunday back into lives which deny the power of the Holy Spirit. Out of fear we don't share our faith with anyone, but curl up into our comfortable "Christian ball". It's bad enough we segregate between denominations, but we also segregate between sexes, married and unmarried, older and younger, perceivably mature and perceivably immature Christians. Thereby we don't really fellowship as much as we look for "the beautiful people". Little to no mentoring or discipleship, let alone love. We bury the "talents" God has given us and expect that at the end of the age He will still say "Well done good and faithful servant" (Matt. 25:21). We almost deify essentially learned rich men (I think six figure salaries for a pastor defines rich, in most areas of this country) who have the ability to speak in front of large numbers of people. Doesn't anyone else see an issue with this? And I want to make this 100% clear, the answer is not another denomination or maybe a better word is "revolution". That is only trusting in human wisdom, with no regard for preparing the bride for her wedding, by making her beautiful for the bridegroom (Ephesians5:26).

The question we should all be asking is: are we doing church right or wrong? How does our church look when compared against the church in the NT or more importantly to Jesus? If this can be recognized for the extremely serious issue that it is, then how can we lovingly (putting others above ourselves) affect change in our current churches? Quite easily we can focus off of the problems and focus back on serving Jesus (1 Co 2:2). We can do what the word says and pray that God would use us to be a light to others (James 1:22). We have to change first. It's never about the other person, so much as it is about the individual (Matt. 7:5).

Regarding the traditional church: It's doubtful the traditional, or the "contemporary" church is equiped to equip the congregation towards the endeavor of engaging the world. The traditional church is only the contemporary church of 50 years ago and if we're honest it essentially failed it's generation. Whether through the depression, which closed it's doors to the needy and thereby created the welfare state we enjoy now, or through the rebellious 60's when there was no real voice for Christ (other then possibly MLK jr. and he never addressed the prolific rebellion, to my knowledge). Traditional church or worship isn't the answer, being relevant, but uncompromisingly faithful to Jesus is. The moment you get caught up with "How can we keep the (fill in the blank) folks here?" you've just lost sight of the prize and focused on pleasing people. This isn't to say we shouldn't listen to each other.

We all need to be very careful not to get distracted by the minor symptoms when the deeper issues need to be resolved. We all need to allow God to work in our hearts. This is the only way we're ever going to see real change in the church. It has to start with the individual and we need to encourage each other (other believers).