The megachurch and general church growth focus of most of American Christianity is at best a distraction from justice for all people and the planet and is at worst a direct enemy of the systemic transformation necessary to address the fierce urgency of now in relation to social justice and climate justice.

If my United Methodist Church and Christianity in general are going to make any difference for justice for people and the planet, we will have to die to the mega-church/church growth formula that tends to be lukewarm on justice issues and that caters to the corporate elite who are the biggest contributors to our very real and urgent climate crisis and the current sixth great extinction that we are causing as a species. Focusing on church growth and the creation of mega-churches and mega-rich ministers will never lead us as a human community where we need to be to care for the community of all creation, preserve a livable climate, and do justice for all persons. What the vast majority of megachurches are doing and will be doing going forward is not what we need to be doing as a church or as a society in the fierce urgency of now.

So, I would suggest, it is time for followers of the way of love and justice to let go of the idols of megachurches and church growth and do what urgently needs to be done if the human community is going to have any chance of survival at all by living fully into a prophetic stance of direct action to transform the systems that are literally killing us and taking out the majority of the other species on earth with us. Focusing on church growth during the sixth great extinction is a laughably pathetic response to the existential threat that the world is facing today.

The only chance at regeneration and resurrection of the community of all creation is for us all to die to the idols that keep us from moving into a radically new consciousness that embraces the reality of what we need to be for each other and the world. If our focus as followers of Jesus remains on the idol of church growth, the church will be culpable of accelerating the demise of humanity and the well-being of all life on this very good earth that is our only home. We must die to the idol of the megachurch in order to live more fully for each other and the earth.