Tom Arthur: Ego cathedral
I am haunted by the Crystal Cathedral. I cannot get it out of my mind. It is the nightmare of every second pastor, or every pastor who follows a personality pastor. I suspect it is on the mind of many at Rob Bell’s Mars Hill Bible Church following his recent announcement to step down as pastor. While I haven’t kept up with what’s happened since Francis Chan stepped down as pastor at Cornerstone Community Church, I suspect they are asking similar questions right now. Are these churches built on the personality and ego of one pastor?
I would guess that these examples are on the mind of pretty much every megachurch pastor. I tend to watch a lot of sermons by megachurch pastors (there aren’t many small church pastors with videos of their sermons online) and have noticed more and more how the teaching office of these churches is being diversified. Alongside Bill Hybels (Willow Creek) is now Darren Whitehead. Alongside Michael Slaughter (Ginghamsburg UMC) is now Nick Cunningham. Alongside Mark Beeson (Granger Church) is now Rob Wegner and others. Alongside Rob Bell (Mars Hill Bible Church) has been Shane Hipps. Alongside Robert Schuller is, well, Sheila Schuller Coleman. OK. Maybe not every church is diversifying the teaching office, but I think that in general megachurches are starting to see the crystal light at the end of the tunnel.
Another way big churches diversify is through satellites and multi-campuses. Willow Creek has seven campuses. Ginghamsburg has two. Granger has three. Then there’s LifeChurch.tv, whose number of campuses is hard to nail down since it has such a strong online presence (I recently heard about a new United Methodist church plant in Ohio that is using LifeChurch.tv videos exclusively for their teaching on Sunday morning), but currently has fourteen listed on their website.
All of this has got me thinking: I know we’re not supposed to compare churches, but when we do, why do we always compare our local church to a megachurch? Why am I generally asking the question, “Besides the name, why isn’t Sycamore Creek more like Willow Creek? Why aren’t we making an impact on that scale?” When I ask that, my church looks kind of pathetic and puny.
But what if I thought about comparing the West Michigan Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church to Willow Creek? Or how about just the Lansing District of the West Michigan Annual Conference? Suddenly the perspective changes. Now we’re talking about a church with fifty-two campuses in the greater Lansing area and some seriously well-trained campus pastors, and while the conference and district are in decline and losing members and attendance every year, it’s highly unlikely that they will have such a dramatic disappearing act as a megachurch like the Crystal Cathedral. We’re way too diversified for that.
None of this is to say that we don’t have a lot to learn from the megachurches of today. Perhaps one thing we could dream about is having a focused vision that is also big enough to point all those fifty-two campuses of the Lansing District in the same direction every week. What would that look like? It might look something like Adam Hamilton’s vision for a few excellent regional teaching churches providing resources (videos, ideas, themes, images, etc.) for those fifty-two campuses. But that would require all those campus pastors (and their leadership) swallowing their egos. And now we’re right back in the same mess that got the Crystal Cathedral where it is today.
I am haunted by my ego.
Tom Arthur is pastor of Sycamore Creek United Methodist Church in Lansing, Michigan.
Instead of comparing to other
Instead of comparing to other churches, why not look to the scripture to see how much our churches are faithful to that? We can learn from one another, but it can also become unhealthy and have us doing things out of sheer competitiveness.
response
thanks for this post. the thought that a local judicatory or association of churches could be compared to a megachurch is a new one to me, and a grateful insight.
i pastor a strong, small congregation (kennon callahan) and have found the work deeply challenging, not the least being keeping our folks' attention off of what the larger churches can do that we cannot and on what our calling to be a new humanity truly entails.
as you share in your honesty, this means, first i must keep my own feelings from an ongoing comparison in check. that is to say, what you refer to as ego must be constrained, or better said, replaced, with the more necessary calling of the daily work at hand. if i keep my focus on task i find a measure of freedom from comparison.
the only time this is truly a problem is when the megachurch plucks one of our families with their coffee bar or their diet class. aaaagggghhhh!!!!
Unified Vision
"Perhaps one thing we could dream about is having a focused vision that is also big enough to point all those fifty-two campuses of the Lansing District in the same direction every week." -- I wholeheartedly agree. As a worship leader at a struggling (but growing) UMC in Southern CA, I've seen the potential to do MUCH more of God's work than what is currently being accomplished, but there are too many "fife-doms" and as you say, many egos that currently prevent true collaboration from taking place. Many of our churches are afraid to share resources (intellectual or financial) for fear of "losing an advantage" or the perception of inadequacy from having to use "someone else's idea." What we need is to truly be "unified" behind our vision of making disciples for the transformation of the world. We'll never be the megachurch down the road, but with a truly unified vision, we can get much closer than one might think.
Blessings,
Dave
Comparisons
Hey "Guest",
I'm not suggesting that comparison is holy, but only admitting that I do it. I think we all do. But then I began to wonder about whether there might be a better comparison. Perhaps that comparison (between a mega church and a conference/district) is no more holy, but I think that when I make that comparison, I am less driven by competitiveness and tend to loosen up quite a bit.
Peace,
Tom
i also pastor a small church
i also pastor a small church in the shadow of some mega churches. I must admit after a couple of defections to the mega that it is sometimes hard to maintain a conviction about the micro. I wonder how the anxiety of staying viable in the micro compares to the anxiety to keep things moving forward in the mega?
Certainly the demise of CC is sensational, a chink in the seemingly impenetrable armor of evangelical mega-fifedom. Is it the sign of things to come? I doubt it.
I would like to think that i could simply become humble and grateful and peaceable by being a small church in the shadow of the mega but i am only human after all.
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