I’ve been a featured blogger for a popular Christian magazine for the better part of a decade. But things have changed since Covid. I find them promoting younger voices and men that have big buildings and big crowds. Popularity trumps a real word from God. Men that labor in relative obscurity are despised. My hard-hitting articles used to be readily received and welcomed. Now some are spurned and rejected. It’s just an observation I’ve made. If you don’t walk the company line you fall out of favor. I’m prophet-hearted and I have never been a ‘Yes’ man, and don’t intend to start now.
BIG BUILDINGS, BIG CROWDS
Let me tell you what I’m seeing with big buildings and big crowds, and ministers who start small but grow big heads. The majority of them no longer have a private life with God. When a ministry grows big and organizational something addictive begins to happen that is difficult to resist. It becomes a machine.
Numbers become more important than people. Money rules. Systems that are put in place minimize relational dynamics and families. People get hurt. Leaders who won’t submit to the corporate vision are dismissed without question. Hearts become numb and people become disillusioned. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. The only way out is to fall in love with Jesus again. This is the reason for our school of prayer on YouTube:
The secret place is the only remedy for the mess the Church and its popular ministers find themselves in this hour.
When ministers become money-minded they lose the anointing. They no longer weep for lost souls. They’re no longer sensitive to people’s deepest heart needs. They won’t leave the 99 and go after the one. It’s a horrible thing to see. Keeping the corporate machine going is priority. It doesn’t matter if the minister just had a moral failure or an ugly divorce. Let’s cover it up and just keep it going. We got bigger fish to fry. We are reaching multitudes every week. We are starting a new campus.
CAMPUS CHURCHES
Let me tell you something about these campus churches. Most of them suck (forgive me, but they suck the true Divine life out of you), and have very little to do with New Covenant life and everything to do with man’s ego. In Jerusalem they had over 8,000 saints and divided them into homes and smaller groups. Jesus divided the thousands he fed by multiplying the loaves and fishes into smaller groups. Elders ruled the churches, not this one man hierarchy with P/C popes in charge.
IS BIGGER BETTER?
I’m sorry, but I’m just sick to my stomach of seeing the consequences of the “bigger is better” model. Are there any good, fruitful, and productive mega church models? Not many. Let me ask you something: Is it better to have a 10,000 member church that meets on one or two campuses, or 100 churches of 100 each, or 1,000 churches of 10 each? I did the math. There were between 400-500 homes in Jerusalem that ministered to the early saints, and their doctrine filled the city. Am I opposed to mega churches?According to today’s standards, the Jerusalem church was a mega church, so no I’m not. The pyramid system is the problem and it is inherently flawed, so even when hearts are pure, there will always be trouble with these Walmart auditorium box churches. But actually, most people like it that way. People want to have a king. They want their “man of God”. It’s easier that way. You can hide your secret sins and darling lusts. You don’t have to be in close relationship with anyone.
My wife and I are part of a growing church. Do you know what we enjoy the most about it? The smaller life groups that meet weekly. I love the friendships we’ve nurtured in these small groups. At our age, if it’s not relational and organic we get bored quickly.
WHAT THE LORD SAID TO ME
I asked the Lord one time about why we see no New Testament examples of individual pastor-led churches — not one example of a single pastor either. There are examples of plenty of apostles and prophets, a few teachers, and at least one evangelist. But no example of a pastor. Here is what the Lord told me when I inquired about that (subject to your judgement):
“The reason I give no example in the NT of a single pastor-led church is because the honor of such a ministry belongs to the Lamb who was slain and purchased sole possession of the sheep through His precious blood.” 🩸
Then He went on to say this:
“If more of My shepherds would esteem the holy blood, they would never again exercise control over My sheep nor abuse their authority. Instead, they would only desire to also lay their lives down for My sheep. Wherever this selfless compassion is found among My shepherds, there you will find true authority.”
And there you have it! And that is why none of the NT epistles are addressed to pastors or leaders. It’s always the saints. God sees His churches collectively, not individually. So tell me — why shouldn’t there be collective leadership?
I conclude with one of my favorite quotes that says it all:
“It is time for us to seek again the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Man’s lordship has cost us too much.”
A.W. Tozer
Bert Farias' books are forerunners to personal holiness, the move of God and the return of the Lord. They also combat the departure from the faith and the turning away from the truth we are seeing in our day. His recent five-book bundle, written under a fresh anointing, is a forerunner of what the Lord is doing in His church today.
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