For myself I think that if the pastor of the church has more people than he can care for the church needs to seriously consider dividing so it can continue to grow. I know some churches end up with a supersenior pastor, a group of senior pastors, pastors, youth pastors, pastors in training and so on but, for me at least, that ends up becoming more like a business than a church. If a person has the title "pastor" but they aren't involved in pastoring the congregation they aren't really a pastor. If you've got a dozen senior pastors with one overarching supersenior pastor, that person probably isn't the one who you go and talk to if you need prayer for something, so it's easy to see that they aren't adding a lot of value to the organisation.
I find myself instinctively somewhat uneasy at the thought of having big video screens to show the man who is preaching, especially if he's not even physically present. The whole point of the service and the sermon is to point towards Jesus Christ, and anything that has the potential to shift the focus onto the man who is speaking is something I think we need to be very careful around.
i think that’s what I dislike about that idea. The focus was on the MAN ON THE SCREEN and it was distracting....and gives the feeling we weren’t really being led by anyone.
Since I’m new here and don’t know most of you, let me tell you a bit about myself. I was born and raised Catholic but was never spiritually fed at Mass. I stopped going to Mass when I was about 24 and for years was agnostic, atheist, checked out UCC and dabbled in New Age.
I returned to the RCC about 15 years ago but again, it didn’t last. I checked out a United Methodist church, another UCC, three ND (non denominational) churches and a nearby Lutheran LCMS church which is where I finally settled. I’ve been there for about two years or so.
I love my church because I‘ve had dozens of questions and one of the pastors has been very tolerant and patient in answering them. I was made to feel welcomed, especially since besides Christmas and Easter, I go to church alone. My husband doesn’t like going to church and our daughter is grown and married.
It’s a conservative denomination but the services are contemporary with an awesome praise band.
We have Holy Communion twice a month and receiving Communion was important to me. I like their beliefs about The Eucharist and believe their teaching about it more than the RCC teaching of transubstantiation.
The services have informative messages which Is great.
Also, prior to Covid, we had free classes available and Bible Study.
Whew!
