by Tim | Apr 23, 2010 | God, The Church World |
Here are five churches I’ve attended during this time of transition, along with some reflections of each one: Church of the Highlands This church thrives on building excitement among its members for their church and their faith. Out of all the churches I’ve attended, I think this church is the one that I most often hear given a bad rap by other people from other churches. I think this is mostly out of envy for the worldly success this church has experienced. I think people serving in much smaller, struggling churches feel like they can’t compete with a church like CoTH who has so many resources, fame, and momentum. My question is…why are we trying to compete again? A danger I see with CoTH is that it is easy to feel pride at what you’ve accomplished, and pride often comes before a fall. Yet those from smaller, struggling churches who would “Amen” me are full of envy or spite towards CoTH. In other words, they have the same pride issues within themselves. While we often measure churches by numerical standards, this is not necessarily a reflection of true discipleship. As I stated at the beginning, it’s true that this is a “feel good” church. It seems the number one aim is for people to leave CoTH feeling uplifted and excited about faith. This can give a plastic view of faith–when you only see smiling, attractive people on the worship team who always seem happy, or the pastor is perceived as a superstar, etc. Is that true to life? Yet I believe there is more to this church than simply...
