Celebrity pastors & megachurches bottom out

[Josh]

The last Latin Mass I attended had so many screaming babies that I could barely hear the liturgy. Nonetheless, it was music to my ears, particularly when compared to the Mass I attended prior to that which had maybe a dozen elderly women attending and it was so quiet I felt uncomfortable singing since I basically ended up with the loudest voice.

[Valerie]

Our Church probably falls in the category of mega church. Although I don't see Pastor Beggof seeing himself as a celebrity, he is invited to speak all over the country and other countries. Actually, our Church was birthed out of a men's Bible Study which grew. Pastor Begg was in his late 20s as a Pastor in Scotland, he was asked to consider relocating to the Cleveland Ohio area and becoming the pastor of this church. The first time he declined and after a while praying about it he felt the call to accept the second invitation.

Almost 40 years later it seems the church still gets new members all the time. We have a lot of associate pastors and elders. We have a lot of classes on Sundays that are led by the associate pastors in particular books of the Bible for people to become closer. There are also home studies in various cities. On the bulletin each week the financial statement is there regarding receiving tithing. It seems our church survived covid very well I'm sure with a church as large as ours there were people in different places regarding all of this. Our pastor and of course leadership team determined to follow our states guidelines. Once all that was dropped it's hard to say if we lost some but we continue to get new members and baptisms- our pastors do not get into politics. There was no talk of elections, Black Lives Matter, etc- they determine to preach out of Gods Word- not influence the crowd with current events. Occasionally Pastor will use some thing he read that alarms him- bit rarely is anything said other than the preaching of Gods Word.

We never wanted to attend a mega Church but ours seems to not be affected as described here- we still do appreciate Anabaptists and Eastern Orthodox, both have been totally new to us and totally outside of our awareness most of our lives but see the values in each.

We drive by Catholic churches on Sundays on our way to church and they seem to be thriving if you judge it by the parking lots and cars along the streets. I have heard EO is growing too.

[Josh]

I used to play Ultimate Frisbee with guys who went to Parkside Green and none of them ever talked to me about the Lord or invited me to church, including for a six month period before I was born again when I was very much seeking.

Once I became born again and started attending a Mennonite church, and became rather vocal about my faith, those guys invited me to attend Parkside Green.

Whilst that is simply an anecdote, the megachurch model seems to rely on “recruiting” people who are already saved from other churches. That doesn’t seem like a very good long term model.

[Valerie]

I used to play Ultimate Frisbee with guys who went to Parkside Green and none of them ever talked to me about the Lord or invited me to church, including for a six month period before I was born again when I was very much seeking.

Once I became born again and started attending a Mennonite church, and became rather vocal about my faith, those guys invited me to attend Parkside Green.

Whilst that is simply an anecdote, the megachurch model seems to rely on “recruiting” people who are already saved from other churches. That doesn’t seem like a very good long term model.

Interesting that is your experience. They're probably confused by your personal journey since you started out growing up in a kind of church you did they may not have seen you as an unbeliever. However this is in our church bulletin every single week:

"To see on believing people become committed followers of Jesus Christ"

So there you have it. The encouragement is to reach unbelievers I know that is my pastor's heart he spends a lot of time encouraging this. Right now on Moody radio he is doing a four-week series on his Truth for Life broadcast on evangelizing. Your conclusion is based on your personal experience of a handful of people from one of our satellite churches but I can attest to you Parkside is all about reaching the lost not stealing sheep. We have baptisms every month with a number of people and they give their testimonies. So your viewpoint of us being a reformed Baptist Church and also not evangelizing is inaccurate

[Josh]

I used to play Ultimate Frisbee with guys who went to Parkside Green and none of them ever talked to me about the Lord or invited me to church, including for a six month period before I was born again when I was very much seeking.

Once I became born again and started attending a Mennonite church, and became rather vocal about my faith, those guys invited me to attend Parkside Green.

Whilst that is simply an anecdote, the megachurch model seems to rely on “recruiting” people who are already saved from other churches. That doesn’t seem like a very good long term model.

Interesting that is your experience. They're probably confused by your personal journey since you started out growing up in a kind of church you did they may not have seen you as an unbeliever. However this is in our church bulletin every single week:

I’m fairly certain my participation in post-Ultimate drinking parties, cohabiting with my girlfriend at the time, and dropping F, JC, and GD bombs should have been testimony enough.

"To see on believing people become committed followers of Jesus Christ"

So there you have it. The encouragement is to reach unbelievers I know that is my pastor's heart he spends a lot of time encouraging this. Right now on Moody radio he is doing a four-week series on his Truth for Life broadcast on evangelizing. Your conclusion is based on your personal experience of a handful of people from one of our satellite churches but I can attest to you Parkside is all about reaching the lost not stealing sheep. We have baptisms every month with a number of people and they give their testimonies. So your viewpoint of us being a reformed Baptist Church and also not evangelizing is inaccurate

Valerie, if you think the EOs have the right doctrine… why not just be EO?

[Valerie]

I used to play Ultimate Frisbee with guys who went to Parkside Green and none of them ever talked to me about the Lord or invited me to church, including for a six month period before I was born again when I was very much seeking.

Once I became born again and started attending a Mennonite church, and became rather vocal about my faith, those guys invited me to attend Parkside Green.

Whilst that is simply an anecdote, the megachurch model seems to rely on “recruiting” people who are already saved from other churches. That doesn’t seem like a very good long term model.

Interesting that is your experience. They're probably confused by your personal journey since you started out growing up in a kind of church you did they may not have seen you as an unbeliever. However this is in our church bulletin every single week:

I’m fairly certain my participation in post-Ultimate drinking parties, cohabiting with my girlfriend at the time, and dropping F, JC, and GD bombs should have been testimony enough.

"To see on believing people become committed followers of Jesus Christ"

So there you have it. The encouragement is to reach unbelievers I know that is my pastor's heart he spends a lot of time encouraging this. Right now on Moody radio he is doing a four-week series on his Truth for Life broadcast on evangelizing. Your conclusion is based on your personal experience of a handful of people from one of our satellite churches but I can attest to you Parkside is all about reaching the lost not stealing sheep. We have baptisms every month with a number of people and they give their testimonies. So your viewpoint of us being a reformed Baptist Church and also not evangelizing is inaccurate

Valerie, if you think the EOs have the right doctrine… why not just be EO?

We don't rule it out, but we love where we go too- we went to Parkside to take a step away from feeling unsure. After leaving Charismatic/evangelical/Pentecostal & drawn to Anabaptist Orthopraxy, & EO historical,& Orthodoxy, we just needed to be where we fit better- which has turned into 7 years which we have a blessing of the EO friends and Anabaptist Friends but not a lot of fellowship. You know how it is to be more like minded with where you settle-

[Bootstrap]

The original study is here:

https://www.barna.com/research/openness-to-jesus/

A few graphs are helpful to see what it says. It's not primarily about celebrity pastors and megachurches, it is broader than that.

[Bootstrap]

[Bootstrap]

[Bootstrap]

For both non-believers and people of other faiths, the "hypocrisy of religious people" is the biggest factor causing them to doubt Christian beliefs.

The top 4 criticisms of Christians are:

1. Judgemental
2. Hypocritical
3. Out of touch with reality
4. Too involved in politics

None of these are things that characterized Jesus.

As Christians, we generally do not see ourselves this way. I wonder if we have a little denial going on sometimes, though ...