Criticisms of Megachurches

I’ve heard criticisms about megachurches lately. A megachurch is simply one that is about at least 5000 strong. I’ve heard comments from various sources that they are all about commercialism, consumerism, even materialism.

Point is are these megachurches falling short of doing God’s will? I think for a start, their critics are barking up the wrong tree. They’re focusing on the medium rather than the result. People can criticize all they want but in the end, these megachurches are winning way more souls to Christ. Not that churches should compete to win more souls. But criticizing each other is not helpful to the cause of spreading the gospel.

One interesting thing I’ve noticed is while the megachurches get a lot of criticism, the small churches never get any! It’s as if it’s ok to be small, but big is bad. Stay small and you’re fine. Big? Ah…people are attracted to your prosperity message, your music, your style etc.

This problem is similar to Christ’s era where the Pharisees did not like the fact so many people were drawn to Jesus. They accused Him, “How could you drink wine? How could you mix with the tax collectors and prostitutes? You don’t look holy like us?” In today’s context, it’s like saying, “How come you’re drinking beer? How come you’re dressed so trendily? How come you don’t wear shirt and tie and look holy? How come you mix with worldly people?” and so on.

The point is Jesus knew in order to win these people, you’ve got to relate to them. Paul did the same thing too. The disciples Jesus picked were not your typical goody two shoes men. He picked those who could rough it out. True enough, in less than 200 years, the world was evangelized for Christ. To win the lost, we have to be amongst them, not hiding behind a church’s 4 walls talking about ‘deep’ scholastic stuff which half the world doesn’t understand. We have to play our music the popular way. We have to preach the gospel in a way people will respond. It’s one thing to preach and hope people are listening and another to preach and get people’s attention.

Being a Christian sometimes means having to be radical. Remember, we are supposed to reach out to people, not people reach out to us because they won’t. The critics will have always have issues. But Jesus didn’t come to set traditions. He came to save people. As for the megachurches, may the Lord bless them as they continue to do His work in this nation and beyond.