Will A Mega-Church Pastor Please Correct Andy Stanley?

If you haven’t seen it yet, I am sure you will shortly, a YouTube video catching Pastor Andy Stanley in an honest moment of preaching as he ostensibly tells his mega-church that if they attend a small church (he uses the number 200) with their teenager they are being “selfish” and shortsighted (my paraphrase). In fact, he maintains that if you do take them to a smaller church you are “dragging them to a church they will hate” and you don’t care about the next generation.

You can watch it here:

Where to begin?

It was Jesus who said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”. I think Andy just confirmed what some of us wondered and that is whether it was time someone arose to challenge the real heart issues of the mega-pastors (or as Andy maintains…CEO’s). Now listen to me clearly…

I do not believe Andy Stanley represents ALL pastors with large congregations or works. Please read that last sentence again. I am not indicting ALL pastors of large works with his incredibly shallow statement. However, I am challenging his colleagues in large works to make this right. To suggest, infer, and even outright state that nearly 70% of all churches in America are automatically irrelevant to the next generation based on their size is…well…patronizing, patriarchal, and pathetic. If his statement was applied globally, it would be even more egregious. There has to be at least one pastor of a large work who Andy would recognize as a valid church (can you believe I just had to say that last line?) that would look him in the eyes and say, “Dude, what were you thinking? At the very least, you owe the clergy of this nation some clarification if not an apology”.

This moment is actually revealing and a God-moment to open up the festering frustration that has been avoided for several decades in the evangelical church concerning orthodox ecclesiology. The question of pragmatics and principle have been on a collision course for years and Andy Stanley has started the discussion. What constitutes a true church? Apparently for Andy the number 200 isn’t quite valid, at least for the parents of teenagers. It would be interesting to hear what the number might be?

…300? …400? …500?

Most people don’t realize that less than 1% of all churches attend over 1,000. So, if Andy’s structural threshold is the ability to divide the youth group into 2 substantive gatherings then I could infer that he believes 95% of all churches in America don’t care about the next generation. Does that inference get to stand unchallenged in the “mega-church” community without anyone saying, “Andy, let’s clean that statement up”?

Here is the real truth…If every mega-church in America closed tomorrow, Christianity would still be alive in the nation. On the other hand, if every small to average size church suddenly closed, this nation would be thrust into the spiritual dark ages. Don’t let the suburban landscape fool you into thinking that there is a gigantic church on every street corner. The urban and rural areas of our nation have untold numbers of statistically average or small churches that are reaching the next generation and their communities. My wife and I attended youth groups that were not numerically impressive, yet some of our greatest memories were what took place in those gatherings. Andy is under the mistaken impression that youth gatherings are only for networking and friend “connections”. I will grant him that these potential benefits are certainly a plus should they happen, but let’s be clear, youth gatherings are foundationally discipleship moments. We are training them in how to walk as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I am quite sure that Andy Stanley is doing his best to make sure that discipleship is taking place in their youth ministry, but why was it necessary to impugn by a vast over-generalization the youth ministries of tens of thousands of other churches? Why call into question the integrity of your fellow pastor’s churches? Some of these same pastors you impugned are working diligently to make sure churches like yours can continue to function in liberty. You should be thanking them and not discouraging them.

But let’s return to the point of the blog…Will any colleague of Andy simply say, “You blew it on that statement”? Will anyone stand and affirm the untold thousands Andy delegitimized?

America’s current spiritual trajectory is not good by any measurement. Now is not the time for a mega-pastor to alienate his colleagues. If a simple clarification or apology was issued my suspicion is that Andy would be appreciated and affirmed for his transparency and humility. Let’s hope he gets that memo…

Update… Andy Stanley has issued an apology for these remarks. We thank him and appreciate his sensitivity to all churches.