Rapid Thriving Growth
I just read another blog posting about the growth of "Adam Hamilton's church", a United Methodist Congregation, The Church of the Resurrection, in Kansas City.
The profile talked about how Adam started that church "in 1990 and has seen it grow to more than 12,000 adult members and average worship attendance in the 7,000 range".
In Southern California I am inundated regularly with the "Purpose Driven Church" and Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, run by Rick Warren.
Prior incarnations included the Crystal Cathedral and Robert Schuller.
I am also familiar with Bill Hybels and Willowcreek Church in the Chicago area.
Throw in Rob Bell and the Mars Hill Bible Church for good measure.
Leave alone the folks like Joel Osteen or Bishop TD Jakes, who are big power players in the ongoing life of the church, but don't quite fit the mold I am thinking for they took over previous powerhouse churches, as did many in the denomination today.
But, my question begins with the viewings of these models of ministry, and the "Mega-church" model. I see repeatedly that the rise of the church is dependent upon the ability of the pastor to either inherit or to create from scratch his or her (Aimee Semple McPherson comes to mind) own church in order to create the mega-church. I continue to wonder if the mega-church is only possible if one is afforded the opportunity to create from the ground up which may mean moving sites, a new church start, or some other combination I didn't readily bring to mind.
This continues to spur my thinking that the church is driven by personality and if the transient pastor is to have a hope of making substantial change and providing for huge growth he or she is going to have to have bigger personality than anyone else in the congregation, be able to override the tendency of the congregation to turn inward and ultimately set his or her obvious stamp on the whole of the congregation...and then what happens when that pastor is gone.
Anyone with some insights about how to have or create such a personality or if I am just off-base?
Peace,
posted by David @ 5/24/2007
8 comments
8 Comments:
I'm in an L3 Incubator and all we ever do is read books by (fill in mega-church pastor here). Just about all of them include a Foreward by Rick Warren. This is clearly a lucrative industry. As for my tiny 2-point charge in WVa, I gotta think that God needs us too.
~c,
I hear you I took some institute classes in our area here in Cal-Pac using some of the same folks who wrote those books for L3 and have been with Mr. Miller for some of his course work.
The model is always the same...go out and do it on your own, whether the conference helps you or not. Which just leaves the local church begging.
I want to know how to change people rather than going out to find people who want change and working with them.
Peace,
I find it fascinating how the UMC has a love/hate relationship with the megachurch movement. I've heard pastors in the same sentence yearn to follow Adam Hamilton and simultaneously decry the kind of church that he has built.
John,
As one who has fallen into that boat from time to time. I think we all long to change lives...only we don't want to do it "that way", but we want the voluminous results.
I think the other part of it comes from the trap already set which proclaims the mega-church, but constricts the possibility for such in most of our local churches...namely "but it will never work here" mentalities.
Thanks,
I think the pastor as the biggest pesonality in the room is a scary ideal.
I've never been to a mega-church. My impression is that they are built on organization and accountablity. Everyone is connected to something and they show up to do that. The preacher on Sunday matters, but it is the connections among individuals that make it thrive.
This is what friends who have been to such churches tell me.
I've been at typical sized churches that were pastor-dependent. When the pastor left or failed in some way, the church was nearly destroyed by it.
Organization not personality. Isn't that a Wesleyan motto?
Since I have neither organization nor much of a personality, it's a good thing I'm a layman.
John,
I agree that one of the dangers of the pastor-driven church is that when the pastor goes the church sees serious deflation...I have yet to see the pastor leave the mega-churches I spoke of to know for certain whether they are "purpose driven" or "pastor driven"...it just causes me to wonder aloud...in cyberspace.
Peace,
I've never been to a mega-church. My impression is that they are built on organization and accountablity. Everyone is connected to something and they show up to do that. The preacher on Sunday matters, but it is the connections among individuals that make it thrive.
The first church that I joined after I became a Christian was a Baptist megachurch. One of the things that I liked about it was its anonymity. I could easily disappear into the crowd. No one knew me, and that that point in my life, I wanted that. It's something that just isn't possible in the church I am appointed to now, were we have about 25 on Sundays.
John,
This too is my experience, though in both instances the pastor was the pastor that oversaw the immense growth. Once it was a church plant. The second was a matter of huge suburban growth during the tenure of the pastor. Neither one has left as of yet...so my "how will affect the church in the long run" still holds.
I, like you, contend that intimacy does not begin in mega-churches, but provides a non-intimate setting to bring people...a non-threatening situation, if you will.
Thus, John Meunier's comment still holds true, people do go for the friends, but the friends were there in the first place.
Peace,
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