Multi-Site Churches Are from the Devil

Okay, that title is homage to James MacDonald, who says congregationalism is from Satan and whom I had the privilege of spending a couple days with at the recent 9marks @ Southeastern Conference.  During the Baptist21 Panel, our moderator stirred up a bit of a hornet’s nest by asking me what I thought about multi-site churches.  Why me? I thought.  Mark Dever is sitting right there.  He loves talking about this stuff.  Aww… man.  Ask me about basketball.

So, after I finished my pity party, I answered my brother’s question, stated something like: “Thabiti, what arguments for multi-site have you found persuasive?”  My articulate response: “Uh, none.”

Okay, this should be the end of the post.  But because I’m in the Miami airport and the people-watching has become a bit weird, I think I’d rather invite you all to my misery and discovery.

Idolatry

At bottom, I think the kind of multi-site churches (realizing there are a few different approaches) that feature one pastor being beamed into several sites around a region—and in some cases around the country or world—is simply idolatry.  It’s certainly cult of personality multiplied and digitized for a consumer audience.  As a brilliant young man remarked to me this morning, “The pastor now becomes the new icon in the midst of the Protestant worship service.”  I think that’s well said.  Video multi-site tends to idolatry, pride, and self-promotion—even where the ambition of spreading the gospel is genuine.  In other words, the ends do not justify the means because some of the ends produced will undoubtedly be odious in God’s sight.   Keep Reading...

Congregationalism Is Used by Satan...Like He Uses Everything Else

Did you catch James MacDonald's critique of congregationalism yesterday morning? It’s not clear to me if he was referring to hyper-congregationalism or congregationalism in general, but since most of us at 9Marks hail from a congregational tradition, we thought it provided us with a good opportunity to think about congregationalism in general. It may surprise him and others that, in some circles in the SBC, 9Marks is seen (and critiqued!) as being advocates for having a plurality of elders and even giving those elders leadership in the congregation.

MacDonald offers five critiques of congregationalism, which I think we can see quite readily are indeed Satanic abuses of congregationalism:

1) Congregational Meetings Can Be Forums for Division: Satan will often employ many God-given gifts and institutions--from biblical marriage to civil government to biblical congregationalism--for diabolical ends. You name it, and he'll use it to undermine leadership, to divide friends, even to present a poor witness for the gospel. With congregationalism, for instance, Satan will use things like unregenerate church members, decades of failing to practice church discipline, and man-fearing pastors in order to make a congregation ornery.

I think of John Dagg who wrote, "We concede that the independent form of church government is not adapted to ungodly pastors, and unconverted church-members" (Manual of Church Order, 278). Of course, that's true of any church order. Still, you can feel it more quickly in a congregational members’ meeting. Keep Reading...