By Femi Aribisala
The popularity of a church is eloquent testimony of failure and not of success.
They contradict the counsel of the Lord without batting their
eyelids. They plant church parishes like supermarkets in every
street-corner. They build cathedrals and church monuments like World
Trade Centres, each one striving to be the biggest and most
splendiferous in the universe. They gather thousands, even millions, of
“worshippers” in front of television-cameras every so often on the
mountains of Kilimanjaro. They are the new spiritual superstars; the
mega-pastors of the mega-churches.
In this conceit, my former church, Redeemed, takes the cake. While
Redeemed’s emphasis on branch-networking and exponential growth might be
a wonderful policy for a fast-food chain, as a framework for a
Christian organisation, it has tended to produce half-baked pastors who
exhibit flagrant disregard for godly propriety.
Carnal growth
In the world today, success in “churchianity” is measured by the size of
the congregation and not by changed lives. Accordingly, highfalutin
mega-pastors have fine-tuned church-growth strategies. It’s all a
question of numbers, numbers and more numbers. Numbers determine how
much money is fleeced from the flock. Numbers determine the extent of
pastoral control and captivity of men. When pastors meet, the unspoken
question is “how big is your church?” The answer determines social
status. Like Mordecai to Haman, the mini-pastors are required to bow
down to the mega-pastors.
Men like Pastor Sunday Adelaja of Embassy of God Church, Kiev,
Ukraine even maintain God gave them the specific mandate to establish
mega-churches. Adelaja claims God told him: “I am about to raise up a
mega-church in Europe, at this end time and I am calling people who will
establish those churches. Some people have already responded to my
call. Your destiny and that of millions of other people depend on
whether or not you will obey me. The primary assignment is to raise up a
mega-church.”
However, God does not raise up churches: he has only one church. He
does not ask men to build churches for him. Jesus says: “I will build
my church.” (Matthew 16:18). Moreover, God despises what men esteem.
(Luke 16:15). Therefore, he generally prefers the mini to the mega. He
says: “Woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the
roar of the seas.” (Isaiah 17:12). Jesus identifies God’s flock as
little, as opposed to large. He says: “Do not fear, little flock, for
it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke
12:32). Thus, Zechariah asks rhetorically: “Who has despised the day of
small things?” (Zechariah 4:10).
Kingdom dynamics
Indeed, according to Jesus’ kingdom dynamics, the popularity of a church
is eloquent testimony of failure and not of success. Jesus told his
disciples: “The world would love you if you belonged to it; but you
don’t- for I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you.”
(John 15:19). However, the world loves today’s mega-pastors. Nothing
rubbished Pastor Adeboye’s ministry more than Newsweek’s declaration
that he is one of the world’s most respected men. Jesus says: “Woe to
you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the
false prophets.” (Luke 6:26).
The wisdom of God is contrarian, “she calls aloud in the street; she
raises her voice in the public squares.” (Proverbs 1:20). “No king is
saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by
great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it
deliver any by its great strength.” (Psalm 33:16-17).
When applied to our vainglorious mega-churches, this means no man is
saved by the size of a church, neither are the wicked delivered by the
great charisma of a pastor. When we play the numbers game in churches,
we are guilty of trusting in the multitude of our mighty men. (Hosea
10:13). “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor
by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. Who are you, O
great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!’” (Zechariah
4:6-7).
One of the great mountains before Zerubbabel was Solomon’s temple.
Those charged with rebuilding it were intimidated that the new temple
would not have the splendour and majesty of the old. But God is not
concerned with size and other externalities. Through Haggai, he notes
that, in spite of its physical shortcomings, “the glory of this latter
temple shall be greater than the former.” (Haggai 2:9). Before
Zerubbabel, the great mountain of Solomon’s temple would become a plain.
When the disciples extolled the splendour of the Jerusalem temple to
Jesus, he replied: “All these buildings will be knocked down, with not
one stone left on top of another!” (Matthew 24:2). The same fate awaits
the magnificent cathedrals of today. However, the real temple of God,
the body of Jesus, remains impregnable. Jesus said: “Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19).
God’s verdict
In the kingdom of God, it is the stone the builders reject that becomes
the headstone. (Psalm 118:22). This prophecy is bad news for
mega-churches and their mega-pastors because it predicts they will
ultimately be rejected. According to Jesus, the first will become last
and the last first. (Mark 10:31). So today’s “first-class” pastors and
their majestic churches will eventually be humbled.
Isaiah says: “every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and
hill brought low.” (Isaiah 40:4). This indicates that, in the day of
the Lord, we are likely to discover that the big church is small in the
sight of the Lord and the small church is big. Mega-church “wanna-be’s”
readily sacrifice the doctrine of Christ on the altar of the
imperatives for a large following. But we are not called to
empire-building but to righteousness. Indeed, Jesus says to popular
mega-churches across the ages: “I know your works, that you have a name
that you are alive, but you are dead.” (Revelation 3:1).
David got into trouble with God when he became preoccupied with
size. When pride moved him to conduct a census in Israel in order to
glory in the size of his kingdom, God responded by decimating it with
pestilence which killed seventy-thousand men. (2 Samuel 24:1-15). Jesus
himself was not the product of a big “church,” but of little Bethlehem
Ephrathah. (Micah 5:2).
Why are Christians still so sinful? Why is so little of the
character of Christ evident in the churches? One major reason is that
too much emphasis is placed on numerical growth and too little on
spiritual growth. Indeed, the messages that promote numerical growth
often impede spiritual growth. Everywhere, pastors are engaged in
church-planting, for the primary purpose of increasing their dominion
and finances. The outcome is the mushrooming of churches that are
impressive to men, but contemptible to God.
Isaiah warns: “Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
and have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you
will plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings; in the day you
will make your plant to grow, and in the morning you will make your
seed to flourish; but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of
grief and desperate sorrow.” (Isaiah 17:10-11).
Vanguard
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