GlocalNet

There are many challenges that a mega-church faces.  You’re not just a church, but you are a large operation with budgets, people, and operational issues - most of which are not the chief giftings of the senior pastor.  Your vision, however, is never to build a business or buildings, but to help people find Jesus and be disciples.  Most, though, not all, mega-church pastors never planned or expected to be mega-church pastors even though they did expect their churches to grow.  It just happened.  The church grew.  People came.  The pastors scrambled to make room for everyone and to be sure the ministries were operating smoothly.  Bob Buford has taught me personally, that I should always focus on what is unique to me, what is it I do that no one else can or does do.  I believe this is critical for ministries to ask as well.  When I think of the mega-church, there are some very unique things that, if it will, it has the opportunity to do like no other kind of church.  It’s a unique gifting, with a unique calling that can produce massive fruit.  As a pastor that leads a mega-church and also is deeply involved in global engagement type issues here are some things I’ve learned first hand that a mega-church can do beyond just having a big Sunday event:

1.  Serve as a base for multiplying churches.  You have the money, the staff, and the resources - if you choose to, you can start multiple churches every year like no one else.  I work with global “mega-church” pastors, but they would never call themselves that. They have not only the mega-church, but also the house church and everything else.  Multiply all kinds of churches, not just your kind.  Narrow your DNA and what you believe the church should be, but let the expression of that expand.

2.  Serve as a resource for whatever smaller churches need.  Be it curriculum, coaching, etc., if you’re willing to give, there are tons of churches outside your congregation that need help.  You have to be careful, however, not to teach it from your perspective, but from their perspective, or you set pastors and churches up for frustration.  It’s not the multiplication of your model as much as it is the DNA of your guts that they need. 

3.  Provide funds and volunteers for R & D.  The church today needs people with creative ideas willing to risk - what if mega-churches provided those opportunities and what they need to make it happen. 

4.  Focus on developing and serving entire cities.  NorthWood has learned the power of focusing on a single city.  Smaller churches that come out of NorthWood do that - and it impacts those churches.  But needless to say, when working somewhere like we do in Hanoi, Vietnam, when you have hundreds that are constantly going and doing things, over the years it begins to add up and the impact is significant.  I have a vision to see 300 cities radically impacted from churches that would tackle those cities with all their might and serve them. 

5.  Be a conversation point globally.  I leave for Georgetown today in DC for a conference between Muslims, Christians, and the West and the Middle-East.  There will be a couple of other pastors present. They are also mega-church pastors.  Government leaders, business leaders, etc., see impact by scalability and size of operation, be that good or bad.  There is an opportunity for the church to be a positive influence in the world if it will learn the world and serve the world and be a part of a new global conversation on everything. 

There are tons of DOWNSIDES to being a mega-church - we all know what those are - we hear about them all the time, but we are what we are, so the question is not do I do away with what God has given and made me, but how do I use it.