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For your reading pleasure..

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).

best article in a long long time.

5 stars !!

frosbel: best article in a long long time.

5 stars !!

Thanks. Came across it online and thought i should share..