Why IFB churches are not Mega Churches

[TheGloryLand]

Why independent Baptist churches are not mega churches,this may sound like a hard question but it is not. Jesus preached that it is better to give than to receive, this is one main reason why the independent fundamental Baptist church are not Mega churches, because the more they receive the more they give, they support many missionaries here and around the world. The more they have, the more they give, not focusing on building a building and having thousands of members. This is not God‘s plan, they are Church planters, to share the gospel and not man. 

Edited September 25, 2021 by E Morales

[BrotherTony]

33 minutes ago, E Morales said:

Why independent Baptist churches are not mega churches,this may sound like a hard question but it is not. Jesus preached that it is better to give than to receive, this is one main reason why the independent fundamental Baptist church are not Mega churches, because the more they receive the more they give, they support many missionaries here and around the world. The more they have, the more they give, not focusing on building a building and having thousands of members. This is not God‘s plan, they are Church planters, to share the gospel and not man. 

 

Sorry, but this isn't strictly true. There are many IFB mega-churches. I grew up in what was considered an IFB mega-church. We went from having around 300+ when my family first joined to having over 2K in services on Sundays by the time I was 15. There were SEVERAL IFB mega-churches then. NOW, because of problems within these churches, many have an attendance far below what they had back in the 70's, 80's and 90's. There are many IFB mega-churches right here in Tennessee. Yes, most of the time these churches greatly support missions, church plants, etc. But, the mega-churches within the IFB circles do that as well. You're type-casting, and this isn't a good thing.

[Bouncing Bill]

BT, I am curious. Which did/do you enjoy more, mega churches, large churches, medium size, or small churches? 

 

[BrotherTony]

35 minutes ago, Bouncing Bill said:

BT, I am curious. Which did/do you enjoy more, mega churches, large churches, medium size, or small churches? 

 

Personally, I enjoy the smaller to medium sized churches. The larger churches seem to be lacking in some things, ie., friendliness, hospitality, encouragement of others, etc. It's not in ALL larger churches, but in many we've been part of. The smaller churches are more like family, and the medium churches are usually more diverse in race, culture, etc. The church we're in right now is a small church, under 150 weekly in attendance. We unjoy the friendliness of the people, and like the way people look out for each other.

[TheGloryLand]

1 hour ago, BrotherTony said:

 

Sorry, but this isn't strictly true. There are many IFB mega-churches. I grew up in what was considered an IFB mega-church. We went from having around 300+ when my family first joined to having over 2K in services on Sundays by the time I was 15. There were SEVERAL IFB mega-churches then. NOW, because of problems within these churches, many have an attendance far below what they had back in the 70's, 80's and 90's. There are many IFB mega-churches right here in Tennessee. Yes, most of the time these churches greatly support missions, church plants, etc. But, the mega-churches within the IFB circles do that as well. You're type-casting, and this isn't a good thing.

Let’s say over 5000 members to be Mega Church. A church with not so many pastors for one place.

[Bouncing Bill]

4 minutes ago, BrotherTony said:

Personally, I enjoy the smaller to medium sized churches. The larger churches seem to be lacking in some things, ie., friendliness, hospitality, encouragement of others, etc. It's not in ALL larger churches, but in many we've been part of. The smaller churches are more like family, and the medium churches are usually more diverse in race, culture, etc. The church we're in right now is a small church, under 150 weekly in attendance. We unjoy the friendliness of the people, and like the way people look out for each other.

BT, I agree with you. I have been a member of a super-small church for over 30 years. We have been called a MASH church. People come in hurting, get patched up and God moves them on. One year we lost about 50% of the members. No one went away mad. It was changes in jobs that moved them to other geographic locations. 

It is family. For me I could never be in a large or mega church. 

[TheGloryLand]

6 minutes ago, BrotherTony said:

Personally, I enjoy the smaller to medium sized churches. The larger churches seem to be lacking in some things, ie., friendliness, hospitality, encouragement of others, etc. It's not in ALL larger churches, but in many we've been part of. The smaller churches are more like family, and the medium churches are usually more diverse in race, culture, etc. The church we're in right now is a small church, under 150 weekly in attendance. We unjoy the friendliness of the people, and like the way people look out for each other.

Also in many churches that are smaller you have more qualified and faithful volunteers , No mega payrolls in these churches. I don’t mind those that are serving full-time to get paid, but not everyone should be getting paid to do minor things. Like Singing in the choir.

[SureWord]

I like medium size churches. One small enough where you can actually talk to the pastor and not placed on a waiting list yet not so small where everyone is related. 

[BrotherTony]

23 minutes ago, Bouncing Bill said:

BT, I agree with you. I have been a member of a super-small church for over 30 years. We have been called a MASH church. People come in hurting, get patched up and God moves them on. One year we lost about 50% of the members. No one went away mad. It was changes in jobs that moved them to other geographic locations. 

It is family. For me I could never be in a large or mega church. 

Having grown up in what was considered a "mega-church," and then attending part of my college years in one, I grew to be more uncomfortable with them. While growing up, I didn't mind it so much because I could get lost in the crowd. As I grew older, I wanted to be a part of the folks in the crowd who were living for the Lord. It got harder to do in the mega-churches. I grew to love smaller churches during my first year of college as I was helping to plant a couple of churches. Then, when I was in Wisconsin at MBBC (now MBU), I helped plant a church in Horicon, WI. I was told that it folded a couple of years later because many of the people in the area had moved away because of economic conditions. The smaller churches are better for the individuals, better for the pastors, as they can give more freely of their time to individuals, and better for the community because the community comes to KNOW these people in the church, or already knew them because of school, work, etc.

[TheGloryLand]

On 9/25/2021 at 9:42 AM, Bouncing Bill said:

BT, I am curious. Which did/do you enjoy more, mega churches, large churches, medium size, or small churches? 

 

Small to medium, under 999 members, is a good size church. One pastor, and one assistant pastor. 

[BrotherTony]

19 hours ago, TheGloryLand said:

Small to medium, under 999 members, is a good size church. One pastor, and one assistant pastor. 

I prefer the smaller churches myself. But, I was raised in a church that had 350-450 members when my family joined in 1971, and grew to well over 2,000. We had over 20 buses running every Sunday morning (I was a bus captain for four years) and we had a Christian school, youth activities, Jolly 60's for the Sr. Citizens, and even college and career. The church that had the college that I went to my first year had over 2,000 members and ran as many buses. There were several churches in our area that were IFB mega churches. When I got out of these churches (the mega churches), the churches I attended were under 400 people. The church I'm attending now was running 140-175 people on Sundays, but because of the pandemic, is now running between 45-80 people. It's increasing, though. 

[Disciple.Luke]

I've attended two different churches that had over a 1,000 regular members but neither were baptist.

I have a hard time seeing how a Baptist church could function properly with so many people. I see church membership specifically becoming compromised with so many people to look after. It's been my experience that most people attracted to large churches are people who don't want any accountability and want to just get lost in the crowd. But not impossible. I know at least one Baptist megachurch in Greenville, S.C. that is has strong leadership and remains KJV only that seems to deal with large attendance easy enough.

It seems to me that most Baptists would plant another congregation in favor of creating a large mega church.

[BrotherTony]

2 hours ago, Disciple.Luke said:

I've attended two different churches that had over a 1,000 regular members but neither were baptist.

I have a hard time seeing how a Baptist church could function properly with so many people. I see church membership specifically becoming compromised with so many people to look after. It's been my experience that most people attracted to large churches are people who don't want any accountability and want to just get lost in the crowd. But not impossible. I know at least one Baptist megachurch in Greenville, S.C. that is has strong leadership and remains KJV only that seems to deal with large attendance easy enough.

It seems to me that most Baptists would plant another congregation in favor of creating a large mega church.

Most of the "mega-churches" that I know of from my time growing up in Illinois, have declined greatly oer the last 50 years. Faith Baptist, the church I grew up in  only had about 400 people going there when my family joined. Five years later in 1976,t he church was averaging over 1,500 in the Sunday morning services. by 1978, that was hitting 2200. Another church in the area, Averyville Baptist was running around the same. If you were to visit either one of these churches today you'd find there re only 200-300 people, if that! And yes, you're correct, most IFB churches would feel the need for more IFB churches to be around instead of continuing on as a mega-church.

[Salyan]

Smaller/under 999… TGL, you’re funny. Up here a small church is anything under 50 attendees (and that would be at least half of Western IFB churches). You get to 75, it’s a decent size.

[MikeWatson1]

It is interesting to see what people do going from a larger congregation to a small one.

I remember a young lady came in to our church of about 30 people at the time who was used to being in the back row, sort of incognito and and was all fidgety and seemed distracted.  Didn't like the exposure that comes with s small congregation. 

Course now they I think have nothing to do with Christianity.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by MikeWatson1
Wording out