Mega-Church Vs Small Church

I attend a mega-church, but I am always surprised by the large number of people, including many fellow Christians, who hold very strong negative views, about any mega-church, without having any knowledge of how any particular mega-church is run or operated.
This is not to defend every mega-church, because we have all heard of scandalous behavior from some of them, either through the media or word of mouth, but that same scandalous behavior has also taken place in small churches, but because they are small and less well known, very few get hear of their misdeeds. Mega-churches, because of their size, tend to be well-known, therefore the news of any wrong that may happen in them, spreads wide and further, as opposed to a small church.
There is no perfect church and no church is bad or good, just because of its size.

The number of those who ate was five thousand men, besides women and children - Matthew 14:21

In the preceding scripture, we are given only the number of men, who were the heads of the households. The number of women and children is not given, but we can safely say, that men plus women and children, made the number more than ten thousand people.
Ten thousand people is a mega-crowd, which in our time, would equal a mega-church. So, if Jesus preached to mega-crowds, many centuries ago, when the world population was much smaller, why should anyone hold negative opinions of every mega-church, in our time, when the human population is much bigger?

Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children - Matthew 15:38

Here again, if you add the four thousand men plus women and children, the number of people will be almost or over ten thousand. Jesus preached to mega-church size crowds. And if we lived in a perfect world, every church today would be a mega-church, because there are more people today,than when Jesus preached to mega-crowds, in the past.
Furthermore, we have mega this and mega that in our time, like mega-stores and mega-farms, because small stores or small farms are not enough to meet the needs of a growing population.

The problem is how you teach and encourage 10,000 people at a time? Mega churches require mega amounts of money to run them. The early church met in people's homes. The money they raised went to the poor, not to wealthy preachers. Sure, the worker is worthy of his wage. But some salaries seem to be based on a business model rather than a fellowship.

I've been involved in very large churches and and also a small home based fellowship as well. I much prefer the home based fellowship. It's a family, not a bunch of strangers who happen to get together on Sundays.

It's easy to meet the needs of thousands of believers without a megachurch setting. Go back to the original pattern of meetings in homes. (Acts 2) Watchman Nee founded thousands of churches in China. His principle was something like cell division in the body. When a group got to about 30, it would divide and so a new fellowship would form. He also had meetings of every member in one place for more structured teaching. This took place monthly, at least while the church was permitted to meet. The Communist takeover in 1948 saw the end of that.

The church in China flourished because groups were small and many. The authorities were not able to shut down every group. Every group had leaders who had learned under Nee. They were able to continue after Nee was arrested and imprisoned.

Another issue is false doctrine. if you have 10,000 people who are taught false doctrine, it's like spreading a disease to a large crowd. If one small fellowship goes off the rails, it is much less damaging. Many Christians simply accept whatever the pastor says because he is the pastor. I know too many believers that have been deceived because they fail to study God's word for themselves.

I

In a perfect world, house or home fellowships would be ideal, but everyone doesn’t live in an environment where this is practical. I fully understand the challenges and dangers of dealing with large numbers, but we cannot dial back time, the future is all about mega this and mega that, however imperfect it may be.
And I believe, that people are very creative and would learn fast from any problems and make the right adjustments or corrections.

By your philosophy, we should all be Roman Catholic. And if Christianity is outlawed in you nation? If the Bible is declared to be hate speech, as is possible under existing laws? Britain is on the verge of becoming a Islamic republic. They have a few very large churches. Christians are already harassed and persecuted by the police, who fear Muslims more than they fear God.

There is a huge difference nowadays. Megachurches have many wealthy people in them, & usually the wealthiest sit on the elder boards. They make all the decisions. I'm not saying they're bad, but the lower middle class & the poor can fall through the cracks when it comes to their needs.
There's much more temptation in megachurches, especially with leadership. The career-minded leader wouldn't consider a small church at all, but would leave his church immediately for one that has a better benefit package or a more ... "powerful" church that would have great influence in their city.

The truth is, hirelings look for megachurches to surround them with power, money, and influence.
You are right that smaller churches have similar problems. Hirelings have to start somewhere.
It's simple to tell. Are they rich? If so, they will have a rich young ruler syndrome, not being able to sacrifice their valuables for the Lord.
The reason being they already have their reward, & they won't part with it.

One of the biggest problems with megachurches is their need for $$$ to keep the whole thing going. Typically they rely on the false doctrine of tithing to generate enough income. Guilting and compelling people to tithe is common. Having wealth isn't bad necessarily. But where is it going? In megachurches the largest chunk goes to pay the staff and building maintenance, not helping the poor. They're usually outfitted with large screen TVs and expensive audio systems; they don't give that stuff away.

I live in the USA, where we enjoy freedom of religion, but my heart goes out to my fellow Christians, who live in places, where they are persecuted for their religion.
Extraordinary circumstances demand extraordinary actions. But for those who cannot worship freely, they can come up with their own creative ways, to worship. In other words, whatever works, depending on the circumstances.
I fully understand your point and wish everyone, were free to worship as they choose.

Just like I pointed out in my opening post, people assume that whatever happens in one mega church happens in all mega churches? And the same logic could be applied to small churches.
But of course, abuses do occur in some mega churches, but it is unfair to characterize all mega-churches the same way. And on the other hand, small churches are not perfect either, but because of their size, little attention is paid to them, and when wrong things are happening, few people know about it or care about it. Small churches easily fall under the radar of public scrutiny.
As for proper management, it is up to the people who support a particular church to demand proper accountability.

I agree, not all churches are perfect, even small ones. However, megachurches, by their very nature, have to have a large inflow of cash. Most of them (I didn't say all) resort to pressure tactics like tithing to get the cash they need. I'm not assuming that, it's a known fact.

Because the NT churches were small. local and non-denominational (except in Corinth?), I tend to prefer that model.
However, in my own experience as a former Minister of Youth and Education, I like the Goldilocks view: not too small
and not to big, but large enough to have a viable ministry for all age groups, especially youth.

Also, when I was a youth I attended a church that began as a mission of the First Baptist Church and grew to twice the size
of FBC, but never started a mission of its own, but after I left it hired a pastor whose goal was to become a mega-church,
which I deemed to be wrong. More recently we joined a mega-church that has three satellite churches, which I guess can
be viewed as missions, and it also sponsors home Bible study/fellowship groups, which might be viewed as quasi-local house churches.

Speaking of local, I also am a member of the most local church to where I live, which happens to be conservative Methodist,
but unfortunately neither of the churches I belong to have preachers who apply Scripture to controversial and political issues,
which is what I am most interested in, so I confess that I often play hooky and attend CC instead.

Does this answer your question?

Jesus himself preached the word of Father. The only flesh and blood to ever been perfect. Man has since tried to imitate Jesus and can't perfectly do it. I am glad for others wanting to preach truth. Yet the unredeemed flesh we are in, can't do it, not perfect as is done by Father through Son, being resurrected where new life is installed by Father in the Holy Spirit of Truth in those Father sees are sincere. As, I see this amazing truth given me to appreciate and never take for granted again. by Faith I left the old man in the dust as if dead. Romand 6:1-12
Yet, God by Son the two as Won (One) for us did it, John 19:30, John 1:29 that is done to stand in love and mercy given us first by God to respond to and love all, even those that have done us wrong and others as well. Now, what is true love and can we do it? 1 Cor 13:4-7 I tried and could not do it, I needed God to impute 1 Cor 13:4-7, anyone else need this too, thank you?Father I know you will as I see you do that, for anyone that is sincere, and you know best Jeremiah 29:11. Thank you, I see you know who will not misuse you in this gift and so you give, as the Corinthians did not at first see this amazing gift, then did, repented 2 Cor 7 after seeing what they were doing wrong and not standing in trust to PaPa, Father, Daddy, these saw to have compassion one for the other and were given it, true repentance, thank you

During the covid scare many churches here in the U.S. were closed. Some forced some others by their own decision. Christians are persecuted here as well, just not as openly. The lgbqxyz is being promoted and Christians are considered evil now in some places. The bible is called hate speach. The left/marxists have tried to eradicate Christianity for decades. It started when prayer was removed from schools and has continued to spread. The war on Christmas is real. Biden declared Easter some type of tranny holiday. Thank God word salad Harris didnt get in office.

1. No matter the size of the gathering of people God can speak to everyone [Jesus preached to 5,000 and 4,000 (men) {but add women and children more like 20,000 and 16,000}] and everyone got something from God

2. I have learned that those who oppose tithing generally can't pay their own bills but condemn those who are faithful to God [the job and finances come from God to begin with so it's already God's and we're just being good stewards with it and we show it with tithes]

3. There's always something a little fishy about most Churches [mega Churches typically are governed by those with finances and the smaller Churches are generally governed by family (wife, children, brother, sister, parents, etc)

4. No matter the Church size it's a really good practice to have smaller home gatherings and to get involved and to connect with as many Brothers and Sisters in Christ one possibly can

Jesus had 12 souls for which to give His Father an account.

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me."

How many souls do you think God will entrust to a man today?

When called by God, a gigantic yes or no for the present, that is important to hear from God all in all, not the self in excitement.
Jesus went out every morning to pray, all alone he went daily to get his instructions for the day
One morning, the disciples went out after him, found him, finishing prayer. Said to him, hey were we were yesterday, those people are so excited, lets go back there?
Jesus said I have my instructions for the day, I am going over there. Such as Paul says, put past behind him and move forward to what is next, as called to go and do, then move forward and not get caught up in excitement. Watch out for the leaven of people, learn contentment in all things happening good or bad presently.

Philippians 4:4 encourages rejoicing always, and Proverbs 3:5-6 promises God will direct your paths.
Learning to not trust in me, and others as well Phil 3, thanks. I do not know other peoples motives, God does, and mine also. So, I see to not put any trust in my own thought(s) that might not be mine to begin with. Yes Evil is that tricky and knows how to plant thought(s) that is why I see to take all thought captive to the obedience of Christ. What? Yep. What was/is the obedience of Christ?
I do nothing or say nothing, unless Father tells me
Are we each personally willing to learn this truth too, thank you. I am in process learning from my mistakes and not always learning and doing it at first. Yet have learned and now do, yet am not perfect, only Father, Daddy, PaPa is as Son said in Matthew 19. With man it is impossible, with Daddy, Father, PaPa all things are possible. Here we all are presently after the cross in the resurrected Son as forgiven, reconciled to Father. Can we say Thank you to Dad
Can we ask for the new life offered us in the risen Son? Yes and then be new and not have to worry anymore as we all worry still, being taught to do that worrying if sin, as if God did not take away sin?
God, either did it by Son for us or did not? you choose, thank you John 1:29. John 19:30, Hebrews 9:14-17, Hebrews 7:11-12
Galatians the entire Epistle, woe woe is me Isaiah 6:1-7, what has happened to believing God only and then doing it by trust
Now, we are told go here, go there by other people, really? Is that what God wants for you? To be controlled by others? Not even yourself, why? Because flesh knows not truth, and will not be perfect, only Father, Daddy, PaPa is, love all is the response I see, the only true response I see is love and mercy to all sincerely, thank you

None, no flesh is pleasing to God, but Son's alone. The only perfect one ever. Now as risen we no longer know Jesus in flesh anymore 2 Cor 5:16. Thomas you believe, because you see, tasted and touched
How much more blessed will others that believe without having to see, taste or touch?
All Souls are entrusted to God Father through Son's done work to believe and be set free in love and mercy too, thanks
John 4:23-24

Thanks for your insights.