While the church used to sing, Lord make me better, now our prayer is Lord make me bigger! I heard another rant from an “arrogant young mega-church preacher”, attacking other preachers who aren’t on his level, or those who don’t have his supposed level of success! Does bigger always mean better? Of course God wants his house full, & God wants us to snatch as many folks as we can into the Kingdom! However; if all of our mega-churches were put together, it wouldn’t nearly equal up to the large group that’s on its way to hell! We need every solider! Big ones! Small ones! Online ones! Small church ones! We even need U! We need all of us! God didn’t call the mega-church to be the “catch all/cure all” for all of the ills of our society! While there’s scandals at churches of every size, the mega-church’s past year leaves somethings to be desired!
One of Bishop G. E. Patterson’s regrets late in life, was building a church so large that he couldn’t totally handle, where he couldn’t always personally touch more individuals! I was there with him & labored under him for 10 years & I have stories that U wouldn’t believe! Now since I’m heading to my late forties, I’ve been around long enough to not get excited about some of the stuff that I see out here(Prophets out for profits, Prophetesses that are “prophet-misses”, & Preachers only preaching what folks want to hear)! Flesh on parade most times! Every now & then, our prayer should be, Lord make me better, because bigger isn’t always it! Kingdom-Effectiveness is a better gauge! Never allow your large church pr team, large church fliers, & thousand seat arenas, get U so far out of touch with God that U feel like God can only use U! To the Black Church Folks-The ills of Black America, haven’t been healed by the rise of the Black Mega-church! As a matter of fact, right across the street from most of them, you’ll find tons of ills! God needs us all, not just the ones that have put their “big” on! Now this is real talk!
Yours In Him,
Pastor Stephen F. Smith
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Preach Stephen.Com-Pastor Stephen F. Smith 