NEW ECCLESIOLOGY - Imitate us, not God!

Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.

Hebrews 13:7

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

Colossians 3:1, 2

This new ecclesiology focuses on the physical breadth of the plant and superficial feeling of the people; both of these are horizontal qualities. For any given mega-barn, these might not have always been the focus, but they seem to be the focus now. I cannot find these ecclesiology in the bible ... anywhere. In fact I find just the opposite. We are to be imitators of God.

In any instance I can remember, where one church was held up as a model for others, it was either for their works of righteousness (e.g., Macedonian generosity or Berean devotion to the Scriptures) or for their sins (e.g., Corinthian immorality or Galatian apostasy) or for their persecution (e.g., Judean suffering at the hands of the Jews).

This is just one man's opinion but it seems to me that a new ecclesiology has kidnapped a portion of the Western church (even some pieces of the non-western church). Apparently, feet want to be eyes and knees want to be shoulders simply because they are located higher on the Body. [See below]

If my memory serves me, 80 percent of the Sunday-go-to-meeting crowd worships in a church with an average attendance of less than one hundred. And I believe the latest figures tell us the mega-barns, taken together, are less than five percent.

For the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it.

But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.

1 Corinthians 12:14-27

I realize the context of this passage is on individual believers but I also know it is legitimate to make application to the churches as individual members as well.

And I don't fault the mega-barns for being big, that is the work and blessing of God; what I oppose is the exporting of a horizontal-human church growth theology that causes the sheep to take their eyes off the King.