After losing his building, Pastor Jerry Johnston starts over

Jerry was a “boy wonder” among many evangelicals and even fundamentalists during the 1980’s. I remember the Sword of the Lord reporting on his crusades all the time. I first met him in the early ‘80’s when he spoke for a church where I was working — I’ve never seen anyone work people publicly and privately for money like he did. It was stunning and it left a horrible taste in all of our mouths. Apparently, it wasn’t a misimpression. I felt like this article had unusual balance in it for a change, btw. He’s been in the Kansas City quite a bit in recent years and it hasn’t been good stuff that put him there.

One other issue that wasn’t directly addressed here, but on which I have a growing impression is the topic of “megachurches”. Could we now be seeing the decline of the “mega”, “megachurches” — those which routinely run 2,500 plus and are largely built on the charisma of a dynamic leader and which amass large amounts of debt, facilities and over-head? While some have transition somewhat successfully after the founder or primary leader moves on, many more do not and I think as we see others — Warren, Stanley, Young, Jr, Osteen, etc… — retire or step down, many are going to re-think the whole mega-model. Interestingly, fundamental Baptists were the original mega-model guys with 9 or the top 10 largest churches back in the 70’s. While there will always be a few super large churches, I’m becoming more and more convinced that this is a trend that will be declining (though it won’t ever disappear) and that medium-sized churches of 1,200-2,000 will largely replace them. The larger churches have a reputation for a lack of congregational involvement and significant independence and autonomy on the part of the pastor and a handful (if any) key leaders. Some say that’s why they become mega-churches and others see it as an intrinsic danger. I think in the case of Family Church, the fact that there appears to have been little accountability and a lot of nepotism and ego in play indicates that internal leadership style and ethics may have been a major factor in this collapse and it may be more common than we realize in other super-large churches as well.

BTW…I’m not simply pulling this out of my hat, I teach Church Leadership for a large seminary and I see real evidence of this emerging. But I’m interested in hearing if any of you would agree or disagree and why. I’m mostly just doing some noisy thinking here and would like to know what others think.

at TTU many years ago. He sounded very much like Billy Graham.

God did use the guy to bring me to Himself. I was a “churched” kid who spent a lot of time running around game circles and drinking red punch. When I went to college, I found a bunch of SBC youth who had similar ambitions as I did. Our “faith” was meant to be fun and wholesome, and not much more.

JJ came to our church to do a week of “revival” services. I think he was 28 at the time. During the day, he led high school assemblies on the subject of teen suicide. He had a ton of emotional stories that frightened everyone, and at the end he played some audio recording of a teen’s last words before he killed himself. So at the end of the assemblies, all the kids didn’t want to return to their class, but hang around and be counseled. The youth leaders at our church saw this as a tremendous opportunity to evangelize, and this in spite of these assemblies being held at public schools.

So I, along with a bunch of my friends, was invited to attend the assembly at Westside high school (where, btw, 10 years later, 2 boys opened fire on their class mates killing 5 of them including a teacher), so as to offer “evangelistic” counseling to these wayward youth who would be sticking around afterwards. I was scared to death, because I had no idea how to counsel, let alone evangelize.

That night at church, JJ gave an excellent message on Isaiah 6 and the holiness of God. I was convicted by what I heard, and after returning to my dorm, God’s Spirit wrestled me into submission to Christ’s Lordship.

[Dan Burrell] One other issue that wasn’t directly addressed here, but on which I have a growing impression is the topic of “megachurches”. Could we now be seeing the decline of the “mega”, “megachurches” — those which routinely run 2,500 plus and are largely built on the charisma of a dynamic leader and which amass large amounts of debt, facilities and over-head? While some have transition somewhat successfully after the founder or primary leader moves on, many more do not and I think as we see others — Warren, Stanley, Young, Jr, Osteen, etc… — retire or step down, many are going to re-think the whole mega-model. Interestingly, fundamental Baptists were the original mega-model guys with 9 or the top 10 largest churches back in the 70’s. While there will always be a few super large churches, I’m becoming more and more convinced that this is a trend that will be declining (though it won’t ever disappear) and that medium-sized churches of 1,200-2,000 will largely replace them. The larger churches have a reputation for a lack of congregational involvement and significant independence and autonomy on the part of the pastor and a handful (if any) key leaders. Some say that’s why they become mega-churches and others see it as an intrinsic danger. I think in the case of Family Church, the fact that there appears to have been little accountability and a lot of nepotism and ego in play indicates that internal leadership style and ethics may have been a major factor in this collapse and it may be more common than we realize in other super-large churches as well.

BTW…I’m not simply pulling this out of my hat, I teach Church Leadership for a large seminary and I see real evidence of this emerging. But I’m interested in hearing if any of you would agree or disagree and why. I’m mostly just doing some noisy thinking here and would like to know what others think.

Dan, how does the current fad of multiple campuses (some in other cities/states) with video preaching jive with your statements concerning the “death of the megachurch”?

As one who lives in the city of Steven Furtick and the multi-sited “Elevation Church”, I’m watching this newer trend emerging from a fairly close perspective. When I lived in the Miami area, Fellowship Church (Young, Jr.) had a large satellite campus. Christ Fellowship (Miami) — home of co-author of “Simple Church“ ‘s Eric Geiger has five or six campuses and are really doing quite an amazing work after many years of regular existence as 1st Baptist Church of Perrine. (And I might add, that is an expositional teaching church — not “church lite”.) I am working in a rapidly growing church plant and there has been discussion of doing the same as part of their strategy as well. But again, I think I reach a similar conclusion — at some point, how many people can one person be expected to lead? Yes, I know that there are campus pastors, assistants, staff, etc…, but let’s be realistic — like a mega-church, these multi-site campuses are dependent on the personality of the Lead Pastor. How else could they convince thousands to go to various venues to watch a video tape? So what happens when the Lead Pastor is no longer there. Do each of those churches begin autonomous? Will each site — along with its varied demographic — automatically embrace the new leader with the same passion? Does the mother church abandon them if they become “unprofitable” and starting becoming a drain? Do the dissolve in a slow and agonizing death over the long haul? Can they be released to call their own pastor at an appropriate time prior to the departure of the lead pastor? Should a church be built on the charisma of a singular leader or should we acknowledge that they perhaps have a special annointing for that season of time? Are multi-site campuses a sign of growth or ego? As the former pastor of a mega-congregation myself, I’ve experienced, first hand, the blessings and the burdens of such an approach – perhaps that’s the root of these questions.

Lots of questions – not nearly enough answers.

Maybe the link to the MacArthur was on this sight, but MacArthur called multi-site churches “flat panel preaching.” He said that these aren’t churches but events. The people will never get to know the pastor at all, and will rarely ever see him in person. Surely, they will not get to see his character. These are all MacArthur’s criticisms.

I should have noted that at Christ Fellowship (Miami), they do not use taped or satellite-fed messages. They schedule their services throughout the week-end and Ric Blackwood, (Lead Pastor), Eric Geiger or one of several very competent associates teach live. Ric often does multiple services each week-end and rotates among the various sites. I would not put their approach in the same category of other multi-site churches at all — there are multiple differences beginning with philosophy. There is no affiliation between Christ Fellowship - Miami and Christ Fellowship — Palm Beach County. C/F - Palm Beach County is a huge megachurch as well, but has a philosophy/approach akin to Elevation and similar churches.