Comments on: Andy Stanley on: Small Churches http://www.derekmooney.com/2006/01/andy-stanley-on-small-churches/ derekmooney.com Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:11:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Britt Mooney http://www.derekmooney.com/2006/01/andy-stanley-on-small-churches/comment-page-1/#comment-44 Britt Mooney Wed, 25 Jan 2006 01:20:00 +0000 http://localhost/?p=64#comment-44 Funny.<br/>Amen, of course. There are so many things to address ....<br/>First of all, we have so many churches who do just what you're talking about ... and I think part of it is a will to compete, to draw others in. I think another part is that they think that the mega-church model IS success. I don't know if Andy Stanley would agree with that, but probably not. But lastly, in order to give the benefit of the doubt, I think many ministers and churches honestly think that they HAVE to supply every need in a program or service, to be inclusive of all their members in order to be a good "church." This is unfortunate because they do exactly what Stanley suggests, that NO ONE is ministered to, and what is even more tragic is that we develop a mentality within the Body of Christ that its all about ME and what I WANT out of worship.<br/><br/>I feel we see this in part because of our idea of a "pastor" as well. I'm all about spiritual leadership, but in many churches we have this mentality that everything is the "pastor's" job since we pay him. Some leaders of local assemblies foster this with their own control issues and others just submit to it because its their livelihood. Others, again, however unfortunate, are convinced this is how it is supposed to be.<br/><br/>These are gross generalizations, but big problems, nonetheless, that many feel powerless to address. This is perhaps the most tragic to me. Don't we have the Spirit within us? Isn't He that is within us greater than He that is in the world? We have not been given a Spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. You wouldn't know it by how most of us act, though.<br/><br/>Peace. Funny.
Amen, of course. There are so many things to address ….
First of all, we have so many churches who do just what you’re talking about … and I think part of it is a will to compete, to draw others in. I think another part is that they think that the mega-church model IS success. I don’t know if Andy Stanley would agree with that, but probably not. But lastly, in order to give the benefit of the doubt, I think many ministers and churches honestly think that they HAVE to supply every need in a program or service, to be inclusive of all their members in order to be a good “church.” This is unfortunate because they do exactly what Stanley suggests, that NO ONE is ministered to, and what is even more tragic is that we develop a mentality within the Body of Christ that its all about ME and what I WANT out of worship.

I feel we see this in part because of our idea of a “pastor” as well. I’m all about spiritual leadership, but in many churches we have this mentality that everything is the “pastor’s” job since we pay him. Some leaders of local assemblies foster this with their own control issues and others just submit to it because its their livelihood. Others, again, however unfortunate, are convinced this is how it is supposed to be.

These are gross generalizations, but big problems, nonetheless, that many feel powerless to address. This is perhaps the most tragic to me. Don’t we have the Spirit within us? Isn’t He that is within us greater than He that is in the world? We have not been given a Spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. You wouldn’t know it by how most of us act, though.

Peace.

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