Texas Pastor Ed Young took aim at critics of megachurches in a recent social media post, characterizing criticism of the church model as “hypocritical.”
Young is pastor of Fellowship Church, a multisite megachurch in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He is also the son of Pastor Homer Edwin Young (but who also goes by Ed Young). The elder Young is pastor of Second Baptist Houston, another megachurch. The younger Young served on staff at Second Baptist before planting Fellowship Church.
In the social media video, which the Fellowship Church pastor filmed selfie-style, Young brought up a common criticism of megachurches.
“‘Your church is just too big.’ I’ve heard people tell me that a lot. ‘It’s too big. It’s a megachurch,’” Young said. “Well, that’s gotta be one of the most hypocritical statements someone can make.”
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“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,” Young continued. “And they never really say that about those entities, but they always say, ‘The church is too big.’”
“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,” he said.
Young then concluded, “If a church is around a lot of people, it should be big in the context of being big.”
While several of the Young’s social media followers responded with supportive comments, others raised concerns they have with megachurches, including celebrity culture and lack of pastoral care.
“If your pastor holds themselves more as a celebrity, doesn’t interact with the congregation other than going on stage and exiting the back, then, you lose value,” one person wrote. “The best church I ever went to was back in Michigan and all of the pastors had humility.”
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Another person said, “You’re not expecting your team’s coach, your favorite band or your favorite store manager to have a personal relationship with you like your pastor.”
