There are inherent problems with overly large churches which do not have proper accountability structures and supervisors in place to deal with the brokenness that is a part of human life. All too often these giant congregations have NO external supervision, which is a problem in itself, because it is based on a non-Biblical view of ecclesiology. The early church most certainly had external supervisors— apostles, and their co-workers and eventually itinerant bishops as well. But that is not all. No local church is an entity entire of itself. It is part of the larger body of Christ and the worldwide church. We are all accountable to each other. Low church Protestantism that thinks that the local church should be self-governing is asking for big trouble, in a world full of narcissism and pastors on ego trips, sucked into the slipstream of celebrity culture. And such a church, all too much of the time, has been Hillsong…. Down Under and up here in the U.S. as well. I give some credit to the Founder of Hillsong for coming clean and dealing with some of the problems. Yet another major problem is that these churches are good vibe heavy and discipleship light. Where exactly is the serious ongoing study of God’s Word? It is all too easy in such a large church setting for a congregant to come in, be anonymous, hide in the masses, ‘enjoy the show’, and frankly not make any commitments to discipleship, or at best have only a reluctant willingness to do discipleship ‘lite’— less filling, tastes great. See what you think of Savannah Guthrie’s candid interview with Mr. Hillsong himself…..
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