This post isn’t about what one of my friends calls ‘Toronto Bashing’, or quibbling with fellow Christians, but a very personal reflection on something that continues to unsettle me.
A month ago I wrote a friend from Salmon Run many years ago to catch up. She left Wesley several years before the turn of the century and went to New Creation Church, a church that media today calls a megachurch. We remained in semi-contact throughout the subsequent years nonetheless, as for a period of time after I first left Salmon Run 13 years ago, she was one of the few friends I could share with. I think she was pretty impressed with the services and ministries at NCC; enough for her to have sent me some of her new church’s publicity and media materials over the years in what I assumed to see if I was going to be interested in joining her to attend NCC services then.
Anyway; in one of her recent emails last month she said again that she was seeing several friends formerly from Wesley there now at NCC, and ventured to ask if I was still at Wesley. I replied in the affirmative, and also that I had no intention of worshipping at NCC as I had serious reservations about megachurches.
That was the last I heard from her, and it’s been more than a month.
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Now that I reflect on it… while I like to think that the friendship she and I had is in sufficient standing for me to had been candid, I can’t help to think that the absence of communication now had something to do with what I said. Simply put, I don’t know if she was offended.
If recent interview snippets with current members of megachurches published on media are of any indication, there seems to be great member confidence in their own activities – and that if their membership numbers are skyrocketing and the wealth resources for them to do get things done increasing so fast that it’s now reported in national media, surely they must be doing something right in these churches. Just 2 days ago for instance, The Straits Times reported the following (formatted slightly to save space).
Aug 30, 2010
Church raises $21m in 24 hours
Mammoth collection breaks New Creation’s own previous record
By Yen Feng
MEGACHURCH New Creation has broken its own record by collecting $21 million in donations in just 24 hours, proving again its ability to pull in the big money. Church founder Joseph Prince announced the news yesterday during services at the church’s Suntec location. The money was collected over one day last week on Sunday.
‘You people, you are amazing,’ he told the packed auditorium. ‘Twenty-one million in 24 hours. Amazing.’ The funds were collected by the independent church to raise money for its new home in Buona Vista.
But the kind of impression that the general public is left with continues to unsettle me. If public discussion rooms are any indication, the impression is increasingly one of distrust. The summative impression expressed by forum posters is that the Christian embodiment of humility, servitude and modesty seems to have got lost and it’s replaced with financial success, big resources and money for us to get into big property investments even.
It’s not my intention to get into a debate about Christian prosperity, that argument on where exactly in the bible does it deny believers personal successes and better living, or that argument that media is only selectively reporting on certain aspects of megachurch success and not on their other ministries and social outreach.
But – and I’m aware I’m threading on thin ice between an honest opinion and causing the inadvertent offence in our public blog – the more I read about big property investments on the part of churches, million dollar collections to build bigger church premises, flash bang services with laser lights… the more I’m convicted that those places are just not for me. Those testimonies of new found personal successes at work and living, charismatic preaching, emotion-driven and powerful healing at these churches might be attracting some worshippers to migrate away from their old churches, but it’s having the opposite effect on me. It’s become something that worries me whenever I read about it in media. As incredible as the successes of megachurches in Singapore and elsewhere might be, it’s also creating the kind of impression on people who’ve yet to receive Christ that will harden their hearts and attitudes.
Or maybe it’s just me.
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Sigh. It’s difficult to write posts like these, and it’s only on the rare occasion when I stick my neck out and say something here that isn’t about films, Hannah, photography or traveling.
And I really do hope that the friend of mine stopped writing only because she’s busy.
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