disclaimer: this post may offend. If you're still offended 12 hours from now, talk to me. I'd be interested to hear your opinion of what I've gotten wrong.
I often times talk about the fact that my sister and I want to do similar work with our lives, but then joke that we will never compete for the same job because she tends to favor larger, "mega-churches" while I tend to favor a small, community church.
Then, if the conversation is in English, the following question is often: "what do you have against mega-churches?" No matter where the person stands on mega-churches, I can always say that they just aren't where I see myself serving.
In the last 24 hours, I have realized why.
1) My home church sent me a care package. They've sent me two so far this year and I am so so so thankful for their continued love and support. I wonder... if I had been working for a mega-church, would this have happened? Sure, money MIGHT have been easier to come by, but the support that I've seen in other ways would have been, I think, way less.
2) Last night, I went to a Wednesday night Bible study at a mega-church mission here in Budapest. I have been going here FAIRLY regularly since October and have only had ONE PERSON ever say "hello" to me. We realized pretty quickly that there was a language barrier, but she still said "hi." Now, I'm not going here to be welcomed. I'm going to be led in personal worship and study... but to also practice my Hungarian pronunciation (singing is amazing for this!). I mean, I can't really say from experience that smaller churches are better, because I've rarely gone alone to a new church before... and if I have gone alone, it's been to Mars Hill or Resurrection Life in GR, and the experiences are pretty much the same.
3) I wrote an email to the people working with youth at this mega-church and because they have a conference coming up, I asked if they needed any help with anything. I explained my experience and offered my free time. It took the church over a week to get back to me and it seemed like my offer to help was way out of line, but what they could offer was that they needed help with practical things like preparing the lunches. They made it clear they had no place for me as a leader because they don't know me, but if I would accept the terms they laid out, I could come. As a former youth leader, I understand why I wouldn't be a leader. In fact, I never asked to be a leader (hello! I can't exactly hold a conversation in Hungarian, much less teach a lesson!). But the fact that they pitched 'making sandwiches' as a menial job and something that they really don't need help doing, but a place where they could put me really struck me. To me, providing lunch for hungry teenagers is a fairly important thing... so to make it feel unimportant didn't really make me want to sign up. Maybe it was a language/mis-communication thing, but to make those who want to help feel like they're needed, but not wanted didn't really appeal to me.
Maybe I've done the same thing in the past. In fact, I feel like I probably have. To have been on the receiving end now, I wish I could change those reactions.
unfortunately, after re-checking my calendar, I found that the weekend has been filled with other things since I first wrote them, so I won't be able to even attend as a sandwich maker.
Also, on a side-note, be praying for the homeless mission that this church has. It's the same homeless mission that I worked at one day last October? November?... however, Zsolt, the director, had a vision of moving the mission into a hotel for more space and actual beds for the homeless. Well, they found a hotel. And after a while, the landlord finally said "yes, you can rent this building from me!" WOW! Pray that God continues to move and clear this path.
I know that these churches are enabling some great ministries and I can't discount that. sadly, much like the megachurches in Michigan, the people who run the missions usually know how to be a church and if everyone would follow those workers' examples, the new people or regular church goers wouldn't be ABLE to remain anonymous.
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