16th July 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Big Church or Little Church? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (This series of articles was written a year after the first lockdown in March\/April 2021)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous articles are still available on the Premier Christian radio website – https:\/\/www.premierchristianradio.com\/Blogs2\/Yeshua-Explored \u00a0– (until they finally pull the plug!)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Roman Catholic Church has over a billion members, 2795 branch offices (dioceses), over 400,000 managers (priests), controlled by a CEO (Pope) and a board of directors (Council of Cardinals). In 1994 it had an annual profit of $4 million, with $200 billion in cash deposits and several billion dollars worth of solid gold and other treasures in the Vatican vaults. It takes just over \u00a31 billion a year to run the Church of England, financing 13,000 parishes and 43 cathedrals. Around 15% of this comes from its financial assets, which amounted to \u00a34.4 billion in 2008. The Methodist Church finance division has a mission statement that offers practical solutions which combine Christian ethics and investment returns. This is not an attack on them, as I\u2019m sure there are not many finance houses that have mission statements that offer Christian ethics as a foundational principle, but I wonder what John Wesley would think about a denomination growing from his efforts boasting \u00a3336 million of assets and that can offer a 42.8% return from its UK Equity Fund?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is this \u201cChurch\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBig church\u201d is not just confined to the major denominations. There\u2019s actually a lot going on, lots of programmes, strategies, campaigns and initiatives. The Church really likes to do things big: The Call, Global Day of Prayer, New Wine, Pentecost Festival, Big Church Day Out, Spring Harvest, Alpha, all mobilising Christians in their tens of thousands, or worldwide in their hundreds of thousands. Even with lockdown restrictions these days most Christian initiatives for worship, prayer and celebrating our faith are big corporate events, the bigger the better. Just sling it out on Zoom or YouTube. Same old, same old, just socially and geographically distanced!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our current Western society delights itself with big happenings in stadia, from sports events, to pop and rock concerts. It\u2019s where our modern day \u2018icons\u2019 come to be idolised; that\u2019s why people come to such events. However, they may delude themselves or rationalise it as just coming for the good vibes<\/em>. These places are designed for worship, perhaps that\u2019s why so many big Christian campaigns and outreaches tend to make use of football grounds. The big question is whether God prefers to be worshipped in such a way? Is the aroma of our worship more pleasing when facilitated by mega-watts of electronic amplification?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Big Church\u2019 has taken a battering as a result of Covid-19. Here\u2019s an extract from a recent open letter authored by a grouping of the larger UK Christian events, including Spring Harvest and New Wine. \u201cAs we contemplate two years without gathering in the normal way, we have had to rapidly learn to meet in new ways \u2026 \u2018free \u2019is becoming increasingly expected \u2026 so from us all in the UK that run a Christian event, we need you to know that most of us can\u2019t do it.\u201d <\/em>This is followed by a request for money. What they haven\u2019t considered is that God may not want them to do it any more. <\/em>Perhaps that is one of the lessons of Flockdown? It seems that this is not even to be considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is this really Church??<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Doesn\u2019t God prefer to deal with His people in their weaknesses and in their vulnerabilities? Isn\u2019t this the Biblical pattern?<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he said to me, <\/em>“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”<\/em> Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. <\/em>That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.<\/em> (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Didn\u2019t God choose Moses as a great inspirational leader although he was \u201cslow of speech and tongue\u201d? Wasn\u2019t Gideon the least significant member of the weakest clan of Israel, yet God chose him to defeat the Midianites? Wasn\u2019t Saul from the least clan of the least tribe, yet he became King of Israel? Similar story for David, the greatest King of all! Even Israel, His chosen nation for revealing Himself to the world, was \u201cthe fewest of all people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God hasn\u2019t changed His ways. Surely it is more in God\u2019s revealed character to respond to Mrs O\u2019Grady and her good friend Doris, meeting daily for prayer in their living room than with the Reverend Prophet Luke Atmee, broadcasting his religious declarations thrice daily from his gold encrusted pulpit in his million dollar cathedral of glass and steel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n