Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:41)
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47)
But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand. (Acts 4:4)
Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. (Acts 5:14)
So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7)
Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord. (Acts 9:31)
The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord….He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. (Acts 11:24)
God cares about numbers, even if it is not the most important thing. There are those who make a show of stressing essential issues like doctrine, and in the process put down the very idea of a mega church. The irony is that in doing so, these people show that they themselves are contemptuous of the Bible, and care more about legitimizing themselves than what the word of God says.
There is nothing wrong with a mega church, except that it is not a super mega church. If there is anything wrong, it is not because it is big. It often seems wrong to care too much about numbers only because the churches, whether they are big or small, are deficient in even the most basic matters. They should be ashamed that they are running the congregations so poorly that they cannot afford to care too much about numbers.
A bad small church is not really better than a bad mega church. The difference is that the bigger church is also the bigger target. The bad small church attacks the big one to justify itself. Meanwhile, the mega church is so big that it doesn’t even notice the small church in order to attack it. If we attack the small church, we might find that it is just as corrupt as the big one.
The big bad charismatic preacher embezzled church funds, and it makes headline news. But have you heard about that Reformed pastor who was caught in adultery with one of his church members? Have you heard about the Baptist preacher who was arrested for child molestation? They probably preached against that big bad charismatic just last Sunday. These are not reported, because they make so little impact in the world that the news don’t know about them. I don’t fault them for being small. I just mean that they are not necessarily better.