As our discussion has moved past the point of this thread, I would be more than happy to email you my comments if you are interested in further converse. :)

sweeney.abi@gmail.com

But thanks Abi for your input…..I feel that discussing Ecclesiology with your “pastor” will definitely be a bit slanted……..because he will either conciously or unconciously defend his purpose for existence…… Although there is not a shred of Scriptural support for the “office” of a paid “senior Pastor” or the old Sunday morning Protestant Ritual….(The songs, sermon and offering)

@ EROPPER:

When discussing the early beginnings of Christianity with my pastor, he attributed the smaller, house-gatherings to the fact that at the Acts 2 point of the story, the early church was under considerable persecution from Jewish authorities. Not only had they just recently been forced to leave Jerusalem (rather abruptly at that) and go live in more remote/rural cities or entirely different countries, but large gatherings would have been easier for Saul and his cronies to identify (plus it’s safe to assume that the early Jewish Christians that had fled from Jerusalem might have brought the first news of Christianity to the places they settled in, thus making for initially smaller gatherings). We also know from historical accounts that the Christians in Roman and Greek cities encountered much more persecution later on from the Roman government, which might account for the smaller groups mentioned in Paul’s later letters.

So I personally don’t think that there is anything inherently, Biblically wrong with large churches. We just all need to be aware of the different kinds of social/communal messiness that comes with various sizes of churches. Sometimes I think people who have been hurt by one size of church tend to idealize the opposite, thinking that if all churches were just more “this way”, then none of this bad stuff would ever happen to anyone. That is just not the reality of the world we live in. It has nothing to do with size and everything to do with choice.

You are Just so real and Honest and Able to step back at reevaluate yourself! I commend you for being able to Do Publicly what a lot of others ( myself included until reciently) wont, or cant do! Your Awesome!

http://stephenstonestreet.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/loving-v-being-cynical/