I Know What Love Is!

1Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

megachurch

[ˈmeɡəCHərCH]

NOUN

mega-church (noun)

1. a church with an unusually large congregation, typically one preaching a conservative or evangelical form of Christianity.
2. The previous is the dictionary definition of the terminology "Mega Church" This blog post is in no way blasting or condemning those that consider themselves Mega Churches, but i come to you in this blog asking, "what makes a church Mega"? From the one to the many, does Mega mean many, and what is the definition and call for the many in worship and ministry of Jesus Christ? 

3. 

   The Needs of the One Outweigh the Needs of the Many!

   
   
4. As I approach this topic, my inner Star Trek comes out when I think of the Star Trek Movie, "The Wrath of Kahn" when Spock states: " The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many" This makes me think of Matthew 18:12-14 in regards of the one lost sheep. 
5. The Parable of the Lost Sheep is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is about a shepherd who leaves his flock of ninety-nine sheep in order to find the one which is lost. It is the first member of a trilogy about redemption that Jesus tells after the Pharisees and religious leaders accuse him of welcoming and eating with "sinners." The two parables that follow are those of the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son. The parable of the Good shepherd, a pericope found in John 10:1-21, derives from it Matthew.

For me the definition of Mega Church is when a body of believers still can focus on the sheep as well as the whole flock. Beloved, what we see in the Philippians text is Paul telling us about our own humility and that we must thinks of others in the same importance that we think of ourselves.  

If a church, if a house of worship can take care of the one as well as they take care of the all, than they truly are a Mega. If a church can focus on the love for one as much as the love of many, if a church can go after the one lost sheep as well as the whole flock, then Mega truly fits the definition of that Body of Christ Ministry. 

In today's teaching of ministers, some believe that visiting the home-bound and the hospitalized is not a good use of the pastors time. Maybe it is my age, but my working with the one has always best prepared be to work and minister to the many. Am I so busy and serve so many that I can no longer be the shepherd that visits the sick, the lonely, and the poor?

What I am trying to say this morning and what Paul is try to say is if we find ourselves so Mega that we have lost sight of the one, than we have become lost ourselves. If we are so Mega that our pastors don't know us, and have never met us, than as the blue grass song goes, we have truly "got above our raising"

Love the many, but never forget the one.

Pastor Tim.