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Originally Posted by Zodijackylite
The problem with huge churches is that there's less of a community feeling. People in a congregation of 500 people are likely to know the pastor and staff quite well, and also feel morally obligated to contribute more to the church, while some people who just go to church out of fear (whether or not they admit it) feel they won't be noticed if they don't contribute when each mass has 25,000 people there.
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I agree. Actually, I think even 500 is a bit too high, if you're just talking regular attenders and not also the twice-a-year-holy-day people. In my experience, you can just about get to know everybody in a body of 200-300, whether it be a church or a company. More than that, there'll be a lot of people who don't know each other and so don't relate well together as a single community. And a church is first and foremost a community, albeit one centered around the worship and observance of a particular deity and its belief system.
When churches get too big they get impersonal. Of course, they can offer lots of programs, and that's what draws a lot of people in: women's groups with free child care, skateboard parks and rock services for the kiddies, on-site espresso bars, low-cost summer camps and retreats, youth groups where the kids really do cool things, state-of-the-art musical and theatrical productions, even fitness centers. And some of the biggest churches even try to maintain the fellowship feeling by fostering small-group ministries within the big organization, groups of 10-20 who meet weekly and get to know each other closely.
Still, thing is, these churches are largely run by paid staffs and a ruling class consisting of the ministry and some top lay people who are valuable in the church ministry, big givers, or both. The little guy _matters_ little in the running of such a giant organization, and is encouraged to be passive. He just has to pay his membership and take what's offered. Yeah, a lot of these megachurches run on the membership system; marketing surveys showed it bothered people a lot less than pledging, _if_ they liked what they were getting for their money.
I'm not condeming this, necessarily, but it's not for me. And I do look forward to seeing how the megachurches do if hard times come and the membership can no longer support the large paid staff that provides all the services. Will the churchgoers just pack it up when the church no longer offers so many perks and goodies? Will they be empowered enough to start volunteering to keep things moving? Or will they care enough to do so? We'll see.