What’s the best timepiece in the world?
Most people assume Rolex is the ultimate but the brand’s reputation owes more to marketing than manufacturing, which is not to say the company doesn’t deserve respect. After all, it pioneered the first waterproof and dust proof casing, an automatic changing date, and several procedures used to mass-produce premium watches.
From its beginnings in 1905, Rolex made great watches but it wasn’t until the 1980’s that its reputation skyrocketed. That’s when young, urban professionals (yuppies), went looking for status and flashy ways to show their wealth. They embraced Rolex, triggering a huge surge in demand and a massive price hike. A DateJust that cost $900 in 1981 sold for $2,350 a decade later, even though the model had barely changed.
Ironically, several assumptions about the Rolex are not true. For starters, only special editions and the most high-end models are handcrafted. The 1 million others made each year are mass produced by highly efficient machines. Nor is the Rolex the most accurate watch. According to experts, a $25 Casio will tell time just as well, if not better. Spending thousands gets you only jewelry features, not more accuracy. And it’s simply not true Rolex watches hold their value best. While used ones do sell for a higher percentage of their original cost than many brands, Rolexes are not always a safer buy than others.
What the Rolex offers is recognition and status. But popularity is just one sign of a good product. In the world of watches, the best are made by companies little known to consumers, such as Fortis, Chopard, Alain Siberstein, and Patek Phillipe. The most exquisite watches sell for more than $2 million!
Though success brings prestige, it can blunt a company’s growth and innovation, its drive to be better, and the uniqueness that built its reputation in the first place. The same holds true of churches. Though most Christians still go to ones of 200 members or less, there are nearly 1,250 North American mega-churches of 2,000 or more. Houston’s Lakewood Church is the most mega of all with 47,000 members.
Big churches have always been around, including Charles Spurgeon’s Baptist Metropolitan Tabernacle in London which drew 5,000 weekly in the 1800s, as did the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles where radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson preached. But size isn’t the issue. Few Christians would decry a powerful church with thousands of Bible-believing, Jesus-living followers devoted to the cause. And let’s be clear, most mega-churches do incredible work, offering everything from drug-counselling to day care.
Nor do I have a problem with many of the traits and techniques of mega-churches. Our own congregation of 50 embraces many, including casual dress, contemporary music, the use of video, and a preacher who can’t stay still behind a microphone. But what’s concerning is the subtle sense in the Christian community that a church must be big to be healthy or successful.
Yes, big churches are flashy and generate some status, but they’re often criticized for white-washing sin and sacrifice, stressing marketing instead of morality, and targeting young, urban professionals with the means to support big buildings and even bigger budgets. Critics also grouse about consumer-driven tactics that focus on meeting member needs instead of putting God first, and about making Christians comfortable in coffee-cupholder seats, instead of sending them into a cold, dark world to be leaven, light and love.
Let’s be clear that small churches can be just as guilty. So we all need to emphasize the Savior, not the saved; the message, not the methods; and the mission, not the money. Some of the most exquisite churches are those most people have never heard of, working with precision and devotion to craft followers of Jesus. They’re Biblically accurate, and they do everything possible to affirm and maintain the precious value of their people while still calling them to service and sacrifice.
The purpose of the church is to ensure “we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we’ll be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ” as we “speak the truth in love and become more like Christ” who will ensure his church is “healthy, and growing and full of love.” (Eph. 4:13-160)
Guess that settles it: size doesn’t matter. Grow where you are. It’s time.