Mega-Churches, and Culture-Current, Seeker-Friendly Christianity

A friend and I were discussing the relevance of "culture current" churches and the pros and cons of Mega-Churches today.

There can be no doubt that they serve a valuable purpose in societies where "religion" has lost its relevance and people generally seek a "spiritual" life apart from traditional religion.

There are many people, particularly teenagers and younger adults, who have not been exposed to the Bible and the formal life of the church. So, they have either no experience or only bad, irrelevant experience in a church situation. So, churches that provide "seeker friendly" services with current-style music and "helpful" messages will attract those that might never otherwise go near a church. Many people have become believers through these types of services.

However, the problem seems to be the ongoing spiritual life of those who becomes followers of Christ in these environments. Because the services are designed to attract people to the message - there is really no place to go once they're believers. They either keep hearing some creative variations on the same message and stay at the surface, or they look elsewhere for deeper teaching. Unfortunately, many times they just stop attending altogether.

Some of the Mega-churches have midweek services that provide deeper Bible exegesis and worship, but this is usually a much smaller group and puts strain on the teaching staff and can cause a kind of division between those that attend the midweek services and those that don't. It can lead to a real or implied sense of superiority/inferiority between the groups.

My viewpoint on the issue is that "culturally curent" churches are like meeting places for those that seek to learn about Christianity - a kind of Christian "entertainment." They are like a popular hangout where you can find new ideas and make new friends, but they are not the Real Church where communion with God and others occurs. A rather crude analogy for what I'm trying to say is that a neighborhood bar might be a great place to meet a future spouse, but you can't build a marriage there. Once the relationship is formed it must take on a life of community within itself, otherwise it remains on a surface level. In the same way, involvement in a relationship with Christ is not a one time experience, but an ongoing communion; like a marriage it takes work that goes beyond the "touchy, feely" emotions to become meaningful and life changing.

So, if you don't know Christ - you might want to learn about Him in a "seeker friendly" environment, but once you've made contact. Come into a place where you can live life with Him on His level.