MEEEGGGAAA CHUUURRRCCCHHH

Church at 1pm in the afternoon! Who could pull that off? Saddleback could.

When I thought mega church I thought a big building, a big band, big crowds and a big attitude. I was mostly right, however their brand of mega goes much-much further. For those like us who had never even looked them up on the internet (www.saddleback.com) we visited the main campus at Lake Forest. When they say campus they mean campus. Three sets of traffic lights lead into the site, threaded through with dual-lane roads and there are at least a dozen separate buildings all with their own parking areas and courtesy trams from the parking to the various buildings. It took us 5 mins from moment of entry to the site till we were finally out of our car near the main “Worship Centre”. This building seated 3800 and the screens were two of the biggest I have ever seen. There was overflow seating all over this campus, the city (and the world actually) where it was streamed live – in fact shut-ins could also tune in live via cable TV.

It was polished, it was lively, it was visually spectacular, and it was brief – in and out in 1 hour 5 mins. Thankfully the preaching took up 40mins, was engaging, faithful to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, God honouring and potentially life changing. In fact there were a number of baptisms directly after the service in the specially built baptism pool just outside the auditorium. A guest preacher on this day, focussing on Peace at Christmas, it was an excellent thematic type sermon ranging over the New Testament whilst unpacking none of it. What it lacked in biblical exposition it made up for in theological reflection, pastoral sensitivity and evangelistic fervour.

Being a mid-day service there were just 500 in attendance which meant we couldn’t hear anyone singing over the band, but it didn’t seem to dampen the mood. They all seemed to be very conscious of the communion of saints due to the simultaneous video links to other sites. Unfortunately we also missed the kids and youth programmes as we had no idea how to access them and didn’t allow enough time in arrival to work that out. The visual and audio wow factor within the service was enough to keep us all interested wondering what would happen next. Their focus directly after the service on all kinds of excellent options in how to put our faith into action was exciting – kind of like a forecourt expo of possibilities. They have systems upon systems upon systems that ensure every opportunity is taken to engage believers in Christian growth and earthly action and to lead unbelievers to take Jesus seriously.

What did we miss? Declaring our faith together as a moment of expressing our common identity; Engagement with one another in the congregation – rather than just experiencing what others did up-front; reading the Bible together or hearing it read; Prayer – the Lord’s Prayer, pastoral prayer, gospel outreach prayer, world-wide focussed prayer, reckoning with our sin in confession and hearing we are forgiven; and Singing: audibly singing together – rather than just appreciating what they sang to us.

What did we gain? Fellowship with the saints, an appreciation for how others do church, a delight in the expectancy of an immediate gospel change in people’s lives, a thrill that God encourages the saints on a large scale as much as he encourages on a small scale, a reminder that large buildings don’t need to be dark ... high ceilings, and lots of large windows make for an excellent space to meet.

And while we really missed being with the saints of Shellharbour City it was terrific to be on the other side of the world and find a Christian church who welcomed us and preached the same unchanging gospel that salvation can be found in Christ Alone.