Megachurches are often the target of criticism. Common concerns focus on whether their size, production, and leadership models make deep discipleship, personal community, and accountability harder to sustain.
On this episode of “Live Free,” Josh Howerton, BlazeTV host and pastor of Lakepointe Church — a megachurch in Dallas, Texas, — speaks with fellow megachurch pastor Joby Martin of Eleven22 in Jacksonville, Florida, to confront some of the biggest myths surrounding megachurches.
Myth #1: If the senior pastor doesn’t know you personally, he’s not really your pastor.
Some megachurch critics argue that true shepherding requires a pastor to know his congregants personally and be able to shake their hands, for example, but Howerton and Martin argue otherwise.
Martin points out that in the Greek, pastor and shepherd are the same word.
“Jesus says He is the good shepherd, and David says in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, so have you ever shaken Jesus' hand?” he asks.
But there’s an important caveat. “Although I don't personally shepherd all the people, all the people need to be shepherded,” says Martin, highlighting the crucial roles of supporting pastors, care teams, and other staff members.
“We accomplish the roles of the shepherd. We're not caught up in the title of who gets the badge.”
Howerton notes how the apostle Peter in the first four books of Acts led a church of 5,000 strong. “We literally got a Bible verse that says the opposite of this,” he says.
Myth #2: Instead of getting bigger, large churches should be planting more churches.Another common complaint about megachurches is that they grow bigger instead of planting more churches.
“Please don’t fall into the tyranny of the ‘or.’ God always works in the genius of the ‘and,'” says Martin, “because guess who all the church plants come to? The big churches.”
And the reality is, many megachurches are planting other churches.
“By the end of 2028, we will have planted 1,000 churches around the world. There are more people that attend the churches that we have planted today than how many people attend Eleven22,” Martin adds.
The same is true at Lakepointe Church, says Howerton. “We have literally personally funded, coached, and planted … over a hundred churches in the hardest-to-reach urban centers in North America by the end of this year.”
“News flash: When we plant a church, thousands of people don't magically stop trying to come to my church,” he adds, emphasizing how church planting does not necessarily correlate to a megachurch’s numbers.
Myth #3: Because of their scale, megachurches are shallow in their discipleship.Megachurch skeptics are quick to accuse large churches of compromising deep discipleship for numerical growth.
“I would love to introduce you to our thousand or so disciple group leaders and let you tell them that to their face,” Martin counters, noting that he’s currently preaching “verse by verse” through the book of Matthew.
“What else do you want me to do?” he asks, “and honestly, I don't care what you want me to do. I'm not doing what you want me to do because I'm not trying to live my life for the approval of man but for the approval of Christ.”
“Galatians 1:10,” Howerton adds.
Myth #4: Megachurches are just big personality cults hyperfocused on the lead pastor.Because megachurches are often pastored by widely known charismatic preachers, critics will accuse them of being personality cults.
Martin acknowledges that sometimes this is a real issue, but it’s not because of the size of the church but rather the failures of the pastor leading it.
“Are there some bad actors and some guys that have been terrible stewards of platforms that God has given them? Man, sadly the list is long,” he says.
“What you don't know is the list is also long of churches that you've never heard of because they just don't make the news,” he continues, “and like you've said a million times before, planes that land safely, they don't make the news.”
After “[wrestling] through the parable of the talents,” Martin says he’s not sure if he’s a “two-talent guy or a five-talent guy,” but he’s certain he will not be a “a one-talent guy.”
“I got one and only life,” he says. “What do you want me to do? Preach less or tone it down or cap it?” he asks.
When people complain about the church getting too big, the question he asks is: “Who do you want me to un-invite?”
Martin notes that every time Jesus’ disciples tried to “cap it” by turning children away or attempting to control the size of the crowd, they “[got] in trouble.” But when they embraced the “feeding of the 5,000,” for example, they “[got] a high five from Jesus.”
Myth #5: Behind the scenes, megachurch pastors are greedy, abusive hypocrites.One of the biggest accusations hurled at megachurches is that they’re pastored by men who are charismatic and engaging outwardly but greedy and abusive off the record.
“Can you go find some bad ones? Man, there's no doubt. There's no doubt about it. And man, it puts a blight on the name of the bride,” says Martin.
“And I fear for that man when he stands before the Lord,” adds Howerton.
However, both men, who know all the famous megachurch pastors, can also testify that the opposite is also true: often these pastors are different behind the scenes but in the best way possible.
Howerton says there are so many stories they’re “not allowed" to tell about sacrifices and generosity these megachurch pastors have demonstrated that would stun their biggest critics.
To hear the full episode, check out the video above.
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Before America had a Constitution, it had pulpits.
Pulpits that taught citizens how to think about authority, duty, and the proper limits of government. The ministers later associated with the “Black Robed Regiment” understood that biblical truth must step through the church door. They addressed public questions because they believed theology had consequences for all of life and that pastors had a responsibility not to comfort congregations but to form their biblical worldview.
Critics often accuse pastors of turning biblical issues into political ones. In many cases, the sequence runs the other way.
For most of American history, pastors did not need permission from the state to speak about the moral and political questions confronting their people. They preached about slavery, war, temperance, elections, public officials, religious liberty, and national repentance because they understood the pulpit to be accountable first to God.
Restoring an old rightThe modern expectation that pastors should carefully separate biblical teaching from anything deemed “political” would have been foreign to much of the American church that helped shape this country.
That context is important because the fight over the Johnson Amendment is often framed as though churches are seeking some new political privilege. We are not asking the government to give pastors a new right, but to stop restricting an old one.
The origins of the Johnson Amendment are revealing. In 1954, Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson was facing a primary challenge from Dudley Dougherty, a wealthy young Texas politician whose fierce anti-communism appealed to supporters of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Dougherty was hardly a formidable opponent — Johnson defeated him by more than 40 points in the Democratic primary — but he had sympathizers in powerful conservative organizations, including the Committee for Constitutional Government and Facts Forum, a media operation established by Texas oil billionaire H.L. Hunt.
Johnson was particularly concerned about the Committee for Constitutional Government, which had circulated material promoting Dougherty. He asked his staff to investigate whether its activities violated election laws or threatened its federal tax exemption. The answer on the latter question was apparently no.
Johnson was undeterred. Having investigated whether existing law could be used against his political opponents, he now proposed changing the law itself. That July he introduced an amendment to the federal tax code barring tax-exempt charitable organizations from participating in political campaigns. It passed without debate. Churches, which had played no part in Johnson's dispute, were covered by the new restriction.
Freeing the pulpitThere was no sweeping national debate about churches corrupting elections. There were no extensive hearings over whether the American pulpit had become dangerously partisan. Johnson claimed to be confronting communist nonprofit organizations, but churches had become a source of political opposition. The law was written broadly enough, encompassing churches; they were heavily affected by its enforcement and soon began receiving letters from the IRS. The restriction ultimately extended far beyond Johnson's immediate political dispute, reaching into the pulpits of American churches for generations.
Today, the Johnson Amendment prohibits 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, including churches, from supporting or opposing candidates in political campaigns.
This restriction is at the center of the legal challenge by National Religious Broadcasters. Churches remain free to address public policy issues, including controversial ones, but pastors face restrictions when their speech crosses into supporting or opposing a political candidate. NRB seeks to protect the freedom of churches and their pastors to speak from the pulpit without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status.
The broader concern is what decades of uncertainty, legal caution, and fear of enforcement have produced inside churches themselves: a deep-seated culture of self-censorship.
'Political' ... or biblical?Critics often accuse pastors of turning biblical issues into political ones. In many cases, the sequence runs the other way. Politicians took questions involving abortion, marriage, sexuality, race, religious liberty, and justice and turned them into partisan battlegrounds.
These were biblical questions long before they were campaign issues.
Politics does not acquire ownership of a moral question merely because politicians begin arguing about it. Scripture had something to say about marriage, government, money, justice, and human dignity long before there were Republicans, Democrats, campaign platforms, or federal agencies. The church does not surrender those subjects when they appear on a ballot.
Perhaps pastors will stop being accused of bringing politics into the pulpit when politicians stop dragging biblical questions into politics.
That does not mean churches should become campaign headquarters. They should not. The pulpit should never become an appendage of either the Republican or Democratic parties. Biblical authority is diminished whenever Scripture is bent to serve political power.
But there is an opposite error: treating “nonpartisanship” as a reason for silence whenever Scripture touches a politically controversial subject.
A pastor should be free to preach biblical truth without compromise and apply it to the real-world questions confronting his congregation. If Scripture challenges the left on abortion, sexuality, family, or religious liberty, he should say so. If it challenges the right, he should say that too. The standard is not partisan usefulness. It is biblical fidelity.
That is why NRB entered the legal challenge to the Johnson Amendment.
The district court dismissed our case on jurisdictional grounds rather than reaching the merits of the constitutional claims. The case is now on appeal. NRB will continue fighting because the government should not stand between a pastor and his responsibility before God.
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Courage requiredBut the legal fight only reaches so far.
The First Amendment can protect a pastor’s freedom. It cannot produce courage. A court can remove a restraint, but it cannot make a church recover confidence in the authority of Scripture. NRB can fight for the freedom of the pulpit. Pastors must decide whether they will use it.
That question grows more urgent because Christians are being formed every day by institutions that have no hesitation about preaching their own worldview. Social media, universities, corporations, entertainment, political movements, and influencers constantly catechize Americans about morality.
When churches avoid the same subjects because they have become politically controversial, they do not create neutrality. They simply leave the work of formation to everyone else.
America does not need a more partisan pulpit. It does need a freer and more courageous one.
We are fighting to restore an old right: that of pastors to open the Bible, preach the whole counsel of God, and speak to the life of the nation without first asking the government for permission.
Comfortably smug leftist French President Emmanuel Macron drew a massive public backlash after attending a Céline Dion concert in Paris with his wife Brigitte on Friday night as firey riots continue to roil the country.
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