![\"mega](\"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/mega-church-2.jpg\" "\\"mega")
Everyone, it seems to me, wants to be successful in his or her chosen field.\u00a0 For me, what I do is a calling; not a job, not a profession, and not a career, although I hope I bring all the seriousness and commitment all of those categories denote.<\/p>\n
The highest aspiration among American churches is to one day be a mega church.\u00a0 I call it mega church envy.\u00a0 We somehow believe down in our heart of hearts that we\u2019re not truly successful unless we have a large church building, multiple staff, a great web site, and now the latest fad is a video venue where we can now spread the word to other communities.<\/p>\n
Let me be the first to say that I\u2019m not against any of those things.<\/strong> I\u2019ve seen them all work remarkably effectively.\u00a0 I\u2019ve sat in video venues and laughed, and raised my hand, and connected with God.\u00a0 So I am not anyone to pooh-pooh anything people are doing in order to reach people with the good news of the gospel.\u00a0 But I am completely opposed to the idea that I am not a legitimate, fully-functioning, healthy, Christ-centered, God-approved church if I don\u2019t have all or at least most of those things.<\/p>\n I saw last week where John Piper made the statement that we use video and drama because we\u2019ve lost our confidence in the power of preaching.\u00a0 And while I believe that statement is not true, as most absolute statements are, I do believe there is something we should hear.<\/p>\n Bad drama and mediocre video is a sign that we\u2019ve lost confidence in the power of the gospel preached as God has ordained.<\/strong> Yes, I said it; ordained<\/em>.\u00a0 God hasn\u2019t ordained videos.\u00a0 He hasn\u2019t ordained big screens.\u00a0 He hasn\u2019t ordained multi-site and a thousand other things we use.\u00a0 But He has ordained preaching<\/strong>.\u00a0 We know that.\u00a0 It\u2019s in the Scripture.\u00a0 We\u2019re told that over and over.\u00a0 Preaching is primary in God\u2019s Kingdom.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Jesus did, what Paul, Peter did.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the disciples did.\u00a0 What we read in the Scriptures are sermons, preaching, and it still continues today.<\/p>\n What I do believe is important is that we use every tool available to us including preaching: video, drama, sitting around tables, candlelight.\u00a0 I\u2019m for it all if it helps move us closer to Christ,<\/strong> closer to God, and closer to the life He intended.\u00a0 If those things are redemptive, if they bring about reconciliation, if they help us connect on a deeper level, I\u2019m for them all \u2013 social networks, Twitter, Facebook, throw it all in.<\/p>\n Here is my problem.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need it all to be an authentic, loving, Christ-centered church.\u00a0 You just need a heart for God, a heart for the gospel, and a heart for people. <\/strong> Take what\u2019s in your hand and do the best you can with it.\u00a0 It\u2019s called innovation.\u00a0 And God will give you more.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s stop the mega church envy.<\/strong> Let\u2019s look at those churches that are huge and recognize that they are blessed.\u00a0 They have things to admire and things to avoid, just like medium-sized and small churches do.<\/p>\n Here is what I want to do: be faithful to the calling and to the place God has called me, to the people He has called me to love.\u00a0 And at the end of the day, if I do that, whatever the fruit of that is, I\u2019ll celebrate it and give God the glory.\u00a0 So should you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Everyone, it seems to me, wants to be successful in his or her chosen field.\u00a0 For me, what I do is a calling; not a job, not a profession, and not a career, although I hope I bring all the seriousness and commitment all of those categories denote. The highest aspiration among American churches is … Continue reading “Mega Church Envy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}