Why Are There Mega Churches?

Mega Church (from Acts 2):
And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

I think we have this whole idea of church backwards. It is not a place we go, or a building, a social club, an institution of man, or an incorporation (business), which is marketed just like a business. It is a spiritual entity made up of true followers of Jesus Christ. We are not supposed to bring the world into our meetings and make it entertaining for them. When the true church gathers together, it should be for the nurturing, discipleship, fellowship, teaching, encouragement and strengthening of the body of Christ so that we can go out into the world and let our lights shine to all men (mankind), and to prepare us for attacks of the enemy, i.e. for spiritual warfare.

If we bring the world into the gathering of Christ's followers, and we make it entertaining for them so they will want to come back, and we dilute the gospel of Jesus Christ so as not to offend anyone, then all we are providing is a big nice Christianized social club which is a mixture of the world, idolatry, paganism and Christianity all blended together. So, whether small or mega, if the church has become an institution of men driven by men's teachings, philosophies and marketing schemes in order to "draw in large crowds of people," then it is no longer the church. The church may exist within it, but the church exists everywhere - in WalMart, Target, Ruby Tuesdays, Panera Bread, the mall, etc.

The church is supposed to be the body of Christ, and our gatherings should be for the purpose of preparing the body for ministry, evangelism, discipleship and for the growth and the development of the members of the body "as each part does its work." When we gather together we should operate in the parts of the body as GOD assigned each one of us, not as assigned by man, and we should operate in the spiritual giftedness that the Spirit of God has given each one of us, not in the roles and responsibilities instituted of men. And, our meetings should be led of the Spirit of God, not driven by books written by men and marketing schemes of men. The gatherings of the true church need to fall under human Spirit-led leadership, but they must still be Spirit-fed and Spirit-led, which so many, many are not.

If the unsaved are coming into our churches, and they enjoy it and want to come back, doesn't that tell you that something is wrong? Our church leaders try so hard to make the "church" attractive to the world using worldly methods, but what are they attracting the world to? Isaiah said that Jesus was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering and that people hid their faces from him and that there was nothing in him (in his flesh) to attract us to him. About the gospel the Bible says that it is a sweet aroma to those who are being saved, but a stench of death to those who are not. It says that the true gospel is an offense to the unsaved, and that when we share the true gospel that we will be hated, persecuted, abandoned, ostracized, ridiculed, mocked, beaten and even killed for our testimony for Jesus Christ. So, if the world loves today's church, doesn't that say that something is wrong? The world should not be comfortable being among us, and we should not be comfortable being a part of this world and its worldly methods.

In so many of today's churches in America the gospel is diluted to the point of no longer resembling the true gospel. Death to self and sin, dying to what once enslaved us, and choosing to do a U-turn and follow the Lord Jesus Christ in obedience and surrender of our wills to his will is rarely being taught with the message of salvation. So many have gone to a feel-good gospel that requires nothing of the sinner other than to "believe," without really even explaining what it means to "believe." The Bible says that even the demons believe and they shudder, and it says that many will come to God on the day of judgment and say "Didn't we do this in your name?" and he is going to say, "I never knew you. Depart from me." I agree that if people are truly flocking to Jesus Christ by the hundreds each week that there should be an outbreak of revival that should sweep across this nation, yet the hundreds may be coming, instead, to a false gospel that promises heaven with no death to self and sin and with no following the Lord Jesus in obedience, and many will hear on that day, "I never knew you!" And, that breaks my heart!!
 
This is my mega church and my issues...I just realized it today. Our pastor is incredibly funny. In fact, you are probably laughing more than 50% of the time while there. I feel like God is speaking to me through his messages, but at the same time, I feel like I'm getting a "pep talk" about how to be Christlike, instead of really delving into the scripture. What our pastor says really hits home. For example, today he really stressed on how many of us pretend to be Christians but have active sin in our lives. I get that (common theme he seems to bring up often), and again, hit me at my core because I've been there and see this all the time. He talked about how we need to stop blaming others for our issues, and focus on getting right with God. He mentioned how FEW would be saved. Essentially he was saying that many of us are being hypocrites. This is the DIVISION I was talking about. Not necessarily the church. but Christ.

Problem is that he spends 80-90% of time talking and maybe 10-20% in the bible, if that. As for myself, I didn't really take God seriously until I started reading the bible and although our pastors messages are great and he stresses that we need to read the Word (and not just come to church), he's not one to really focus on the Word when preaching. So one who attends needs to take it upon themselves to delve deeper or all they will be getting is a fun pep talk with a few popular scriptures to back it up.

Lastly, at the end of service, they always have another pastor come out and say a prayer for offerings...I don't like that at all. I understand they are trying to open more churches in my city and need money for it, but something just feels disingenuous with another person from the pastoral support team coming out and asking people to put their offering envelope in the air and then praying about it.
 
I hate to say this; but I think a lot of seriously committed 'churchies' will agree.

A lot of times the Sunday Morning Service is considered 'The Show". It is not irreverent, please don't take it that way and let me explain. We have Sunday School which is a Bible Study class before the Sunday AM service. Most people in the class are regular Church members. Then Sunday AM service starts and the visitors and the 'not quite members' roll in. Sunday AM Service is when the Gospel is presented and invitation is given. Presenting the Gospel differently every week can be difficult to the Pastor and become rote. Sunday PM and Wednesday PM are when the 'Church Family' is together and we grow in fellowship whether it be food, testimonials, prayer, more Bible study, music, etc....

It's just the way it is. Because of our cultural tradition in the USA, a lot of people don't even realize there is more to 'Church' than Sunday AM service. We get comments like: 'You're here on Sunday night/Wednesday night?', 'Your Church does Sunday School-I didn't think anyone did that anymore.' It can be deflating.

We have our 'time-card' Christians -they punch in for the Sunday AM service and are done for the week. And we have our 'CEO's': 'Christmas and Easter Only Christians. Although we spend a lot of time and effort advertising and inviting people to Church for other fellowships-we generally see the same faces over and over again other than Sunday AM service.

So the Sunday AM service is the time when Pastor has to get the Gospel message into the ears of the lost while they are present. The rest of the times are our family building time.
 
This is my mega church and my issues...I just realized it today. Our pastor is incredibly funny. In fact, you are probably laughing more than 50% of the time while there. I feel like God is speaking to me through his messages, but at the same time, I feel like I'm getting a "pep talk" about how to be Christlike, instead of really delving into the scripture. What our pastor says really hits home. For example, today he really stressed on how many of us pretend to be Christians but have active sin in our lives. I get that (common theme he seems to bring up often), and again, hit me at my core because I've been there and see this all the time. He talked about how we need to stop blaming others for our issues, and focus on getting right with God. He mentioned how FEW would be saved. Essentially he was saying that many of us are being hypocrites. This is the DIVISION I was talking about. Not necessarily the church. but Christ.

Problem is that he spends 80-90% of time talking and maybe 10-20% in the bible, if that. As for myself, I didn't really take God seriously until I started reading the bible and although our pastors messages are great and he stresses that we need to read the Word (and not just come to church), he's not one to really focus on the Word when preaching. So one who attends needs to take it upon themselves to delve deeper or all they will be getting is a fun pep talk with a few popular scriptures to back it up.

Lastly, at the end of service, they always have another pastor come out and say a prayer for offerings...I don't like that at all. I understand they are trying to open more churches in my city and need money for it, but something just feels disingenuous with another person from the pastoral support team coming out and asking people to put their offering envelope in the air and then praying about it.

IMHO, and that is all it is.............I believe that an "INVITATION" to accept Christ should always come at the end of a sermon about Christ. INVITE all who are there to come forward and talk with the Pastorial team and come to Chrat and be saved.

That my dear is what it is all about. If Christ is not the focus then everything done is in vain and serves no purpose.
 
IMHO, and that is all it is.............I believe that an "INVITATION" to accept Christ should always come at the end of a sermon about Christ. INVITE all who are there to come forward and talk with the Pastorial team and come to Chrat and be saved.

That my dear is what it is all about. If Christ is not the focus then everything done is in vain and serves no purpose.

He definitely gives people an invitation to accept Christ at the end and they have a large pastoral team :) For which they wont accept me into pastoral support though :(
 
We say a prayer for the offering? Not sure if there is 'Biblical evidence' for or against praying for the offering itself. I know We are instructed to 'ask'; and being a little independent Bible Church we need all the help we can get....We should include God in all things-do you know Christ made mention of or talked about 'money' in some way more than heaven & hell...Why? it is the means to an end on this earth-Christ was not ignorant of that.
 
After his service, while still on stage, someone else from the pastoral support team will come up and ask everyone to put their offering envelope in the air and then they pray for offerings. It just seems weird, since I haven't seen it done this way at other churches.
 
Yes, my experience is the head Pastor always encourages the offering. It almost seems self-defeating to switch to someone else whom the congregation may not know or trust as well. If I give, it’s because I’m convinced the head Pastor and his work are all for the Glory of God. Switch to someone else I don’t know, asking me for money and I may not give anything at all.

As to your question, maybe he thinks it’s beneath him to ask, or maybe somehow he feels guilty since his salary is a percentage (maybe even too much of a percentage) of that offering? Or maybe he’s on the up-and-up and just has a different way of doing things? I don’t know him so I can’t say?

If you’re curious than look him up. I did a few lookups on NetWorth.com and was very surprised that many of these mega-Pastors are in the tens of Millions of dollars in net worth.

Lord Jesus didn’t say it just to hear Himself talk! Don’t they know it’s easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven? Apparently Not!

These big mega-Pastors and their; $10 Million dollar mansion, vacation homes, fleets of luxury vehicles, private airplanes, multi, multi-Million dollar book deals, how is it even possible to be close to God when they are so wrapped up in the things of this world.

Just recently I saw a video clip of one such mega-Pastor say the Christian Jesus and the Jesus of LDS (Mormons) are the same Jesus. You mean to tell me this mega-Pastor who instructs 45,000 people a weekend supposedly in christianity (lower ‘c’ intended) doesn’t know the difference? I’ll bet he knows how much money he has in the bank, I bet he knows the address of all his properties, I’ll bet he knows the make and model of all his expensive luxury cars, I’ll bet he know how much he’s making in his next book deal…

However I’ll bet he doesn’t know The Lord Jesus nor do the 45,000 people in attendance to his sermons every weekend, and they call themselves Christians? How do you lead to instruct others on what you don’t know or believe yourself? I don’t pity as much the ‘MANY’ because like I said previous what they want is; “Their Best Life Now” and that's all they will get because hell awaits them. Who I deeply grieve for are the ‘FEW’ that are there earnestly seeking the Word of God but are not being fed because of the 'MANY' and their GREED!
 
Yes, my experience is the head Pastor always encourages the offering. It almost seems self-defeating to switch to someone else whom the congregation may not know or trust as well. If I give, it’s because I’m convinced the head Pastor and his work are all for the Glory of God. Switch to someone else I don’t know, asking me for money and I may not give anything at all.

As to your question, maybe he thinks it’s beneath him to ask, or maybe somehow he feels guilty since his salary is a percentage (maybe even too much of a percentage) of that offering? Or maybe he’s on the up-and-up and just has a different way of doing things? I don’t know him so I can’t say?

If you’re curious than look him up. I did a few lookups on NetWorth.com and was very surprised that many of these mega-


That was exactly my initial thought...I noticed he walks to the side with his head down as someone from the pastoral support comes up and discusses giving offerings. They are building another church in a different part of our city (they already have 2) and need a few hundred thousand more. They already have 3.5 Million.


The website you provided goes to HP Networking solutions....
 
I looked all over our site and there is nothing that says how much the church is making in tithes or how much our pastor makes (which has to be a ton).



Wait...I found it....24 mill.
 
It's just every service he has someone from the pastoral support team pray for it instead of himself. Not sure why.
Most pastors prefer someone else running with the tithing / offering message. They don't want to be thought of as the person asking for money. It makes perfect sense.

There is not much to discuss on tithing. A church needs money and pastors a decent salary, they should not have to beg for it. So tithing / giving regularly is a good habit / pleases God. The two mega churches near me preach completely different messages on tithing, its rather funny. The one quotes the law as is ''God will curse you'' if you don't and the blessing 'test God with your tithe, you will get tenfold''. The other, only preaches on tithing to its members, never to the unsaved and never the curses or demanding / claiming a tenfold return :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: . They have offering boxes on the wall as you exit the church.
 
Wowo Tink....

Don't know what to say to that-BUT there could be other 'things' included in his 'Salary'. Also, how much does he 'give back' or donate? I would think in CA a humble Pastor could get by on 500K-750K. I tell you right now if we had that kind of dough-we'd be building a Bible College. Could be he is investing in future projects like the building of new church buildings. Hard to say without being a member of the board....

It would be nice to think 23 mil is going out to the missions field-that would probably pay for most of the 25K missionaries in foreign lands for a few months anyway. (estimates vary)

The nice thing about our Pastor is he likes to keep things 'real' while applying the Word to our human condition. Quite frankly I don't know how he is surviving on his current salary with 5 kids: 26K a year. (On top of that he tithes and and has refused at least a third of his paychecks this year alone to cover church ministries) In my opinion he should be getting twice that, but our little church can't afford that right now-that's nearly 25% of our budget already. And we are only sending about 12% to 'missions'. If he has his way, we would be sending about 50% to missions. He is very Gospel delivery driven-which any Pastor worth his salt should be.

God bless my Pastor and his family, keep him safe and wise; prohibit him from falling as so many others have in these days. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ; AMEN.
 
Could any of you touch on the offerings part I mentioned about my church? Does that seem typical/normal?

There is no prohabition against praying for the offering but my thought was to the time you mentioned, at the invitation.
That seems very odd to me.

I would want the last thing said or spoken to in a worship service to be about the Lord Jesus Christ, not money or an offering.
 
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