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“Go sit in the corner.” - Mrs. Causey, my 3rd grade teacher
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Second grade. Mrs. Mim's class. It was a time of innocence and playfulness. We were kids who knew nothing of the gas shortage or the real world. The nation had…
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Painted Fingernails
I love painted fingernails on a woman. Simply put. There's just something about it that gives a woman that something extra special. It makes her more feminine,…
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I have some simple advice. And since I've been married twice and freely admit to my mistakes, you can take it for what it's worth. I can safely say that…
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It was the summer of '91 and the first time in my life since I'd began dating that I found myself alone. I just came off an engagement break-up and…
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Everyone remembers a couple bullies from their school years. But there's usually one in particular that always stands out. He was the meanest, snottiest excuse for a human being on…
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Over Is Right, Under Is Wrong
Just the other day, I had to change toilet paper rolls in two of our three bathrooms. I didn't realize it at the…
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It's as simple as that. This article could end right now and you'd all know what I meant without me having to go into it. But where's the fun in…
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One for every mood.All men eventually experience that first time in the condom aisle. Be it in the local drug store or the 7-11 down the street, we've all had…
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People can be divied into two types and it seems as if most women belong to that one group I don't. You know what I'm talking about, I'm talking about…
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I had a birthday this past Thursday. I turned 37. Getting older means different things to different people. Thirty-seven isn't a magic number by any means, to most people, but…
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Written by Ross Cavins
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Tuesday, 25 September 2007 03:26 |
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I heard someone talking yesterday about how this pastor and his church owned half a city block and had a membership of more than five thousand people. By "Big City" standards, that's small but by my little country church standards, it's huge. Too huge. It seems to me that big churches have become big business in America.
In Europe, way back in the time before the Knights Templar, the Catholic Church was the only game in town if you weren't Jewish. It was the epitome of big business, affording special privileges and tax-exempt status from the Kings and Queens of the land.
 A Big Church.
Enter America and the mass dissemination of every flavor of Protestantism. Add a few we made up along the way (Seventh Day Adventist, Mormonism, Scientology, etc.) and you have the land of choices. Religion has never loved a form of government more than ours, one that guarantees the freedom to give your money to any religion you so choose.
In America's beginning, the church played an integral role in the community. In most cases, the church was the community. As cities grew, so did the churches within their borders. Somewhere along the way, I believe the focus changed.
Big churches are worried more about having two services to handle the volume of participants than having a close-knit community. Sure they spend a lot of money to print posters and flyers promoting community and youth league sports and fall festivals but it's just not the same as the type of community a small country church creates.
Big churches are all about big business. That's an opinion I know, but I believe it's a true one. And to me, big churches defeat the purpose of what the church set out to do in America in the beginning. Draw together the community into a strong cohesive unit.
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