20
One answer to both these problems, historically and contemporarily, has been small
groups, or ecclesiolae in ecclesia.
66
Howard Snyder says, "the Christian faith can be fully
experienced in some such 'subecclesial' or small-church form."
67
This has been the solution of
Willow Creek Church, which is both a seeker church and a megachurch.
68
As noted above, they
have intentionally decided to be, not just "a church with small groups, but a church of small
groups."
69
This implicitly recognizes the problems and limitations of megachurches.
There is a third problem, that, while not unique to megachurches, is accentuated by them.
It is the danger of ignoring the oneness of believers in Christ (the Christological boundary).
Certainly, any church, large or small, can have an isolationist spirit, but denominations, at their
best, have allowed churches to give at least some visible witness to the unity of the larger body
of Christ, without the doctrinal compromises perceived by many as a problem with larger
ecumenical groups such as National or World Council of Churches. A powerful incentive to the
formation of denominations was certainly the pragmatic difficulty local churches found in
accomplishing certain ministries alone (funding foreign or home missionaries, publishing
literature, sponsoring theological education), but there was also an ecclesiological basis for them.
Connectional ecclesiology was undergirded by the belief that local churches should be connected
to one another to manifest the unity of the body of Christ.
70
But megachurches, who do not need
66
See the historical survey in Howard Snyder, Signs of the Spirit: How God Reshapes the
Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1989).
67
Ibid., 277.
68
It should be noted that, while some seeker churches are megachurches as well, the two
terms are not synonymous. Seeker church relates to the style, especially that of the Sunday
morning service; megachurch relates only to size.
69
See n. 60 above.
70
For the development of this theme in early Baptist life, see G. Hugh Wamble, "The