I've long suspected that denominations are for the church something akin to the scattering of humanity from the Tower of Babel. That is: Though there's a New Testament call to unity, there also came with it a refining call to acceptance of diversity within orthodoxy (Some say I am of Paul, some of Apollos, etc). There's something about the gathering and centralizing that seems to be coded in our DNA that allows us to feel empowered. And comforted. Maybe it's nothing more complicated than the fact that we can trust in things that are hard to believe (and if the 19th and 20th centuries taught us anything, it is that mankind seems to find believing in a God more difficult than at any time in Western human history) if we can see more people acting as though they believe in them too. But it seems that for many reasons, God doesn't seem to want our numbers to increase IN THAT WAY. It's counter intuitive to believe that the church will actually grow if individual churches are smaller but more numerous. Pushing a string is frustrating.
The church thrived as disparate 100 member congregations with little top down orchestration beyond the primary mission to expand the reach of the Gospel. But we're very unlikely to survive the Megachurch phenomenon. No matter how we try to modify the megachurch into splinter groups, the reality is that people go to a megachurch because they don't WANT the small congregation where they can be known.
But a megachurch employs the giftedness of the fewest servants serving the greatest number of people -- and that not well. One megachurch of 1000 has one main pastor, one songleader, one adult SS teacher, etc. Split that church (say, by denominationalism, for instance) into 10 churches of 100 and suddenly there are 10 pastors, 10 songleaders, etc.
Dunbar's number isn't scriptural, but it's not anti-scriptural either. Dunbar wasn't an Apostle. But it's an interesting observation that folks are only capable of upholding approximately 150 relationships. About the size of a neighborhood church.
Sorry, but you raised the subject. It's your fault I just bloviated.
I've long suspected that denominations are for the church something akin to the scattering of humanity from the Tower of Babel. That is: Though there's a New Testament call to unity, there also came with it a refining call to acceptance of diversity within orthodoxy (Some say I am of Paul, some of Apollos, etc). There's something about the gathering and centralizing that seems to be coded in our DNA that allows us to feel empowered. And comforted. Maybe it's nothing more complicated than the fact that we can trust in things that are hard to believe (and if the 19th and 20th centuries taught us anything, it is that mankind seems to find believing in a God more difficult than at any time in Western human history) if we can see more people acting as though they believe in them too. But it seems that for many reasons, God doesn't seem to want our numbers to increase IN THAT WAY. It's counter intuitive to believe that the church will actually grow if individual churches are smaller but more numerous. Pushing a string is frustrating.
The church thrived as disparate 100 member congregations with little top down orchestration beyond the primary mission to expand the reach of the Gospel. But we're very unlikely to survive the Megachurch phenomenon. No matter how we try to modify the megachurch into splinter groups, the reality is that people go to a megachurch because they don't WANT the small congregation where they can be known.
But a megachurch employs the giftedness of the fewest servants serving the greatest number of people -- and that not well. One megachurch of 1000 has one main pastor, one songleader, one adult SS teacher, etc. Split that church (say, by denominationalism, for instance) into 10 churches of 100 and suddenly there are 10 pastors, 10 songleaders, etc.
Dunbar's number isn't scriptural, but it's not anti-scriptural either. Dunbar wasn't an Apostle. But it's an interesting observation that folks are only capable of upholding approximately 150 relationships. About the size of a neighborhood church.
Sorry, but you raised the subject. It's your fault I just bloviated.