"With 13,000 worshipers, a $93 million campus and multimillion-dollar budget, can McLean Bible Church -- the Christian colossus in Tysons Corner -- possibly get any bigger?
Yes, it can.
The evangelical megachurch, one of the country's largest and fastest growing, is launching an ambitious expansion. It plans to build a "spiritual beltway" around the D.C. region by opening nine satellite locations to bring tens of thousands more into its fold. Through televised broadcasts, congregants at each location would see and hear portions of the same service at the same time. ..."
As much as I respect technology as a tool in communication, I am just a little skeptical about the need for this. A pastor I knew in the early 1970s went from a large Florida church to a small congregation in Colorado, saying that he wanted to get out of the ranching business and back to being a shepherd. Extending that metaphor, this seems a lot like corporate mega-ranching.
I find that fellowship in a congregation small enough that I know almost everybody is far more conducive to worship and spiritual growth -- and that the members are better equipped for the ministry to which every member of the Body is called.
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What is the Mission of McLean Bible Church? To impact secular Washington with the Message of Jesus Christ. Will a “small enough congregation” be able to do this, I wish.
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