I brought my oldest son to the kids event at the church Friday night called Friday's Rock. It was great and he was so excited. There were so many people there we stood in line to get in line. We had to fill out an emergency contact sheet and the woman helping at the table asked me if we had been to the church before. I thought that was pretty funny because I get a lot of "face time". I said "Yeah, we come" not wanting to embarrass her or pull the whole "Do you know who I am?" bit. You know you're at a big church when that happens.
It's things like this that illustrate the importance of small groups. In a congregation this large, it is easy to get lost in the crowd (apparently even for me). Having a place where you can experience accountability, belonging and care is vital to our spiritual growth.
You know you're in a big church when...
You can't see the building from where you parked.
The walk from your car to the building counts as your 30 minutes of daily exercise.
The camera operator is closer to the stage than you are.
The ushers have to swap out for empty plates halfway through the offering.
The pastor introduces himself every Sunday.
They have trough style urinals like the Kingdome had.
Every week in staff meeting, the pastor asks "Is there anybody new here today?"
The band has more members than your old church did.