With evangelical churches today, the word is 'big.'
Outreach Magazine is out today with its latest downloadable lists of the nation's top 100 largest Protestant churches and top 100 fastest-growing churches.
Leading large, as always, is Lakewood Church, Houston, with prolific author and TV broadcaster Joel Osteen at the helm. It's the size of some small towns.
Huh? Since when is Joel Osteen running a "Protestant church"? He and his father John Osteen come from a strong Word of Faith background. Osteen must be doing a pretty good job pretending to be Christian instead of Word of Faith if they can't tell the difference.
"Many megachurches provide intentional paths for new persons to move into deeper levels of the faith."
Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you."
Reckon these Megachurch folks can toss trees into the sea all the time.
Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according AS GOD HATH DEALT to every man THE MEASURE OF FAITH."
Perhaps the Magachurches think that God's "measure" is insufficient for their purposes.
"I wonder if we are truly on the verge of an era where smaller churches - where people know each other by name, are known by name by at least one of their elders and have to give sacrificially of their time and money to keep the ship afloat -- is coming to an end? Are we at a time when the form of Willow Creek has triumphed even in the midst of, on paper at least, a more orthodox theology?"
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