And almost every mega church was po dunk. Once upon a time.

This thought hit the spot for me yesterday. I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours with my good friend Shawn, and my new friends Geoff and Pastor Greg at Seacoast Church.

What great guys. What a great church. They now have 158,329 campuses in 67 different states on 14 continents. Or something like that.

The original campus (see Shawn, I didn’t say main campus, aren’t you proud?) is in the Charleston, SC area, near where I grew up. Being back in the Lowcountry always brings back good memories for me, but yesterday was extra special.

Chunks (our Executive Pastor) and Chris Brown (our Union Campus Director) were along for the adventure, and I was explaining this to them:

I realized fully for the first time yesterday what an impact Seacoast had on me growing up. I only visited a few times, but:

Seacoast was the first “parking lot experience” I ever had. I mean that it was the first church I ever went to where someone in an orange vest waved me into my space, with a smile. And someone at the door handed me a cool looking glossy worship guide, with a smile, and someone seated me, with a smile…
I mean that the sermon began in the parking lot.
Everyone seemed happy to be there, and happy that I was there.
Everything mattered.
That registered with me.

Seacoast also won the prize for the church in the area that I heard the most rumors about.
What kind of rumors?
1. They were a cult.
2. They didn’t talk about Jesus or preach the Gospel.
3. They had really good rock and roll music.

One of those actually turned out to be true. Hearing a song in church that was circa this century was nice.
It made a deep impression on me back then.

But sitting and talking with those guys yesterday, I thought about another rumor I hear a lot. It’s actually more like a misperception, or maybe even a myth.

I hear lots of guys, mostly jealous guys, ignorant guys, or jealous ignorant guys, say things like:
“Well, the only reason they can get away with that is because they’re a mega church.”
Or
“Mega churches don’t care about ____.”

Do you get a sense of where I’m going?
Most of the criticism I hear about mega churches assumes that they were always mega churches.
They weren’t.

Mega churches don’t start as mega churches.
They start as an invisible vision and passion in the heart of a man, then a group, then a bigger group, then a pretty big group, then a really big group, then an enormous group.

Every tree was a seed at some point.
Every 40 year old man was once a 4 month old baby.

What are the implications of this?
Good question. I’m glad I asked it.

I think it means that those who would envy and criticize the success of Pastor Greg and Seacoast, or any other ministry, need to remember this:
Greg spoke to 100 people every week in a dirty warehouse (I don’t know where they used to meet, actually, but that sounded good) long before he was speaking to 8,500 people in 3 different states at the same time every week.

Success means sacrifice. Greg could show you the scars.
I read this kind of cheesy quote in a book, probably a Maxwell book:
“The man on the top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
True.

We criticize someone’s glory, but we don’t know their story.
(I’m pretty sure that one was T.D. Jakes.)

Remember this next time you’re feeling jealous of someone. Be faithful with what you have been given. Let others do the same.

The guy on TV who you think is a big shot probably used to sweep floors at another church, once upon a time.

The guy with 1200 kids in his youth ministry probably organized his fair share of lock-ins and rock-a-thons and spaghetti suppers at Backwards Baptist Church in Small Town U.S.A., once upon a time.

The girl singing the solo probably volunteered to lead music for 3 year olds at Vacation Bible School for 5 years before she was asked to sing in the main service.

What I’m not saying in this post:

1. If you’ll sweep floors or rock babies you can pastor a mega church or cut an album one day.

2. All mega church pastors are great, humble guys. It just so happens that all the ones I know are. However, there are jerks who pastor 12 people, and jerks who pastor 12,000. Jerks are everywhere.

3. Big always means successful, or small always means failure.
Read this verse. Only God gets to judge when it’s all said and done.

As for me, I’ll assume the best about you and your ministry and cheer you on in what God has called you to do. Please do the same for me.

Tomorrow we’ll be here with this guy who started a church with a bunch of broke college kids and now pastors
“one of those megachurches… “

He gets some criticism.
Some people think he’s always been able to intro his sermon by riding a motorcycle into a 2500 seat auditorium with a sound system fit for a U2 show.
But I know the real story.

Every tree was a seed.
Every oak was an acorn.