Ed: Sandy 25 to 30 years ago I may have agreed that "The odds are that there probably are a few who aren't building a personal empire, but you might not run into one in a lifetime" and then I read Joel Gregory's
Too Great a Temptation. Also for a long time I asked "Can any thing good come out of Bob Jones University and then I met Jim Holbrook when he pastored McGregor BC in Fort Myers Florida and built it into a Mega church. McGregor was not my ideal church nor was Holbrook an Ideal pastor for me. But I do believe he was sincere and honest in his attempts to follow the leading of the Holly Spirit, given his early training. I believe Jim Henery honestly tried to keep FBC Orlando Christ centered and did reasonably well at it considering the wild growth of the fantasy land that grew up around them. And I believe that he would have actually "expanded the SBC tent" had he been allowed to do so by those in control at the time.
We visited Idlewild in Tampa when it was still floating around from one rented facility to another, before they built their first first multimillion dollar campus. In my judgement they offered - offer great CHRISTIAN entertainment and clean social activity but their theology is thin. Yet from my observation they are an exception to you charge about megas being built on sheep stealing. Indeed some folk from other churches seeing their growth
wanted in on that. But they did not steal any churches members, the met p received needs that where not being met at other churches. And in reality most of their growth came -comes from people who have never been committed to any church. Tony Dungy's attendance there when he coached the Tampa Bay Bucks, didn't hurt them either. Yet I feel there is a Lot of ego demonstrated any time a church starts multiple campuses, and flying the "Pastor" from one to another via helicopter. Before my wife became a pastor and I had a choice
, my general rule was I am not interested in a church which is to big for the pastor to know who I am. Back when I was still a SBC loyalist I made the mistake of joining one of those in my home state of Indiana just because it was SBC. After a short while began church hoping. And was better know by the pastor of the First Baptist which was an ABC-USA church of around 200 members.
My point is you can not really judge a church or their pastor by their size.