Texas-based Pastor Ed Young believes those who think megachurches are “just too big” are hypocrites.

The founder and senior pastor of the multi-site Fellowship Church in Grapevine issued the bold statement in a video shared to his Facebook page. Young’s church, for context, reported a weekly attendance of 24,000 in 2020. The preacher noted in his video many have told him his congregation “is just too big,” but asserted it’s unfair to criticize the sizes of churches in places with large populations.

“‘Your church is just too big,’” Young said, quoting what he’s heard from critics of Fellowship Church. “I’ve heard people tell me that a lot: ‘It’s too big. It’s a megachurch.’ Well, that’s got to be one of the most hypocritical statements someone can make, because the person making the statement goes to massive concerts. They would go to a game — a football game. They would go to a massive mall, and they never really say that about those entities.”

According to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, a megachurch is a church averaging 2,000 or more weekly attenders. There were roughly 1,170 megachurches in the U.S. in 2023, a decrease from the 1,750 megachurches reported by the Hartford Institute in 2020.

Young went on to boldly assert, “Hey, if you think the church is too big, then you’re not going to like Heaven, because Heaven is going to be a big place. If a church is around a lot of people, it should be big in the context of being big.”

In 2020, a Lifeway Research study found the average church in the U.S. seats roughly 200 people, but the median weekly attendance is 65 worshipers. Megachurches, it should be noted, only make up about 0.5% of churches across the country, serving about four million weekly congregants.

Young’s comments come as a handful of megachurch leaders have in recent months faced intense scrutiny for immoral and concerning behavior.

Most recently, Robert Morris, the disgraced founder and pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, was ousted from his prominent, longtime role in the spotlight after the now-adult Cindy Clemishire accused Morris of molesting her in the 1980s, when she was 12 years old.

“Like most believers, you don’t want to do anything that’s going to tarnish the name of God,” Clemishire told CBN News this summer of why she took so long to speak out about Morris’ alleged misconduct. “You don’t want to tarnish the church, you don’t want to hurt other believers, you don’t want to, you know, cause another person to not come to Jesus.”

Her goal, she stated at the time, is to keep Morris from continuing to advance in church leadership

Morris, when he resigned from Gateway as a result of the allegations, described engaging in “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” in a home he stayed in during his 20s. He further stated it “was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong.” Clemishire, for her part, took issue with the ex-pastor’s characterization of her as “a young lady,” given she was a prepubescent child at the time of the purported wrongdoing.
Sources:faithwire

http://theendtimeradio.com

ഡാലസ് : ഐ.പി.സി. മിഡ് വെസ്റ്റ് റീജൻ കോൺഫറൻസ് സമാപിച്ചു. ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 30, 31 സെപ്റ്റംബർ 1 തീയതികളിൽ ഡാലസിൽ മെസ്കിറ്റിലുള്ള ശാരോൻ ഇവന്‍റ് സെന്‍ററിൽ വച്ചാണ് റീജൻ കോൺഫറൻസ് നടന്നത്. കോൺഫറൻസിൽ മലയാളം സെഷനിൽ പാസ്റ്റർമാരായ ടി.ജെ. ശാമുവൽ, ഫെയ്ത്ത് ബ്ലസൻ, ഇംഗ്ലിഷ് സെഷനിൽ മൈക്ക് പാറ്റ്സ്, സഹോദരി സമ്മേളനത്തിൽ സിസ്റ്റർ ഷീബ ചാൾസ് എന്നിവർ മുഖ്യപ്രസംഗകരായിരുന്നു. ഞായറാഴ്‌ച്ച നടന്ന സംയുക്ത ആരാധനയ്ക്ക് ഐ.പി.സി. മിഡ് വെസ്റ്റ് റീജൻ പ്രസിഡന്‍റ് പാസ്റ്റർ ഷിബു തോമസ് നേതൃത്വം നൽകി.

26 സഭകളാണ് ഈ റീജനിലുള്ളത്. പാസ്റ്റർ ഷിബു തോമസ് പ്രസിഡന്‍റ്, പാസ്റ്റർ ജയിംസ് പൊന്നോലിൽ വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്‍റ്, പാസ്റ്റർ കെ.വി. തോമസ് സെക്രട്ടറി, ഫിന്നി സാം ജോ. സെക്രട്ടറി, ജോഷിൻ ദാനിയേൽ ട്രഷറർ, ബാബു കൊടുന്തറ ജനറൽ കൗൺസിൽ മെമ്പർ, ഫിന്നി രാജു ഹൂസ്റ്റൺ മീഡിയ കോർഡിനേറ്റർ, സാക് ചെറിയാൻ മിഷൻ കോർഡിനേറ്റർ, കെ.വി. ഏബ്രഹാം ചാരിറ്റി കോർഡിനേറ്റർ എന്നിവരും കോൺഫറൻസിൽ പങ്കെടുത്തു.

പി.വൈ.പി.എ. പ്രവർത്തനങ്ങൾക്ക് ഷോണി തോമസ് പ്രസിഡന്‍റ്, വെസ്ലി ആലുംമൂട്ടിൽ വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്‍റ്, അലൻ ജെയിംസ് സെക്രട്ടറി, റോഷൻ വർഗീസ് ട്രഷറാർ, വിന്നി ഫിലിപ്പ് ജോ. സെക്രട്ടറി, ജെസ്വിൻ ജയിംസ് താലന്ത് കൺവീനർ, ജസ്റ്റിൻ ജോൺ സ്പോർട്സ് കോർഡിനേറ്റർ. സിസ്‌റ്റേഴ് സ് ഫെലോഷിപ്പിന് കൊച്ചുമോൾ ജെയിംസ് പ്രസിഡന്‍റ്, ബ്ലെസി സാം വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്‍റ്, രേഷ്‌മ തോമസ് സെക്രട്ടറി എന്നിവരും നേതൃത്വം നൽകുന്നു.
Sources:globalindiannews

http://theendtimeradio.com

A preacher who was shot in the head last November is nearing a return to his ministry after doctors previously believed he would not be able to survive the mysterious gunshot wound.

Hans Schmidt, the 26-year-old outreach director of Victory Chapel First Phoenix in Arizona, discussed the progress he made since being shot on the corner of 51st Avenue and Peoria Avenue while preaching before a Wednesday night service in an interview with Phoenix ABC15.

“It’s a miracle, absolutely a miracle,” the father of two said, referring to his progress. “I should not be alive. Realistically, I should be dead, and because [of] His grace and His love, I’m still here.”

On the evening of Nov. 15, Schmidt said he remembers falling to his knee while on the corner preaching. He didn’t realize he was shot at first but concluded that “something’s not right.” He ended his street preaching earlier than usual, deciding to drive his car back to the church at nearby Victory Chapel First Phoenix.

Schmidt arrived at the church service but found himself unable to speak, which prompted his wife and brother-in-law to take him to the hospital.

“He comes to the car and I remember just seeing like blood and asking, ‘What happened?” His wife, Zulya, said.

“In my head, I was saying I’m not OK, but I wasn’t speaking. There were no words coming out,” Schmidt added.

On the way, he began suffering from seizures, and by the time he arrived, he was unresponsive. They didn’t realize that Schmidt had been shot until after a CT scan revealed the bullet in his head.

Both law enforcement and medical professionals told Schmidt’s wife that his chance of survival were not good, with a doctor telling his wife that there was nothing they could do and a police officer telling her more would be learned “after the autopsy.”

Zulya Schmidt said the doctors would do tests on her husband to see if he was responsive and he wasn’t responding. Schmidt was placed in a medically induced coma and woke up a month later.

Upon waking up, Schmidt told his wife, “It’s fine,” marking the first time he had spoken since he was wounded. In January, two months after the shooting, Schmidt returned home for the first time.

Schmidt detailed how the bullet passed straight through his brain, and lead fragments are still in his head, as doctors believe removal is too dangerous. While the street preacher has largely recovered from the shooting, getting his life back to normal remains an ongoing process.

He still attends speech and occupational therapy daily and had to relearn how to walk.

Meanwhile, the man who shot Schmidt remains at large nearly a year later. The street preacher said he had forgiven him.

“I don’t think that holding a grudge against him is going to change anything,” Schmidt said. “I think it’s important to forgive people. … I forgive him.”

“Every day is a blessing because I’m still here,” he continued.

Zulya Schmidt, who said she was repeatedly “pleading with God” through the ordeal, agreed.

“I’m so grateful,” she said. She recalled how she prayed, “God, if you can raise dry bones, then why not him?”

“There’s so many like people that are miracles, and I’m like, why not him?” she asked.

ABC15 reports Schmidt is “eager to get back to work,” noting how “doctors say he should be able to return to a somewhat normal life.”

A GoFundMe page set up to cover Schmidt’s medical expenses has raised over $93,000.
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com