Ed Young pastors Fellowship Church, a multi-site church in Grapevine, Texas. With a weekly attendance of over 24,000, it easily meets the Hartford Institute for Religion Research’s qualification for mega church status, which is defined as any church with a weekly attendance of 2,000 or more.

But over the years, Pastor Young has heard complaints that his church is too large and in a recent Facebook video, he responded to these criticisms by calling them hypocritical, the Christian Post reports.

“Well, that’s got to be one of the most hypocritical statements someone can make 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, and they never really say that about those entities,” Young said in his Facebook post.

And he is right.

Many believers have no problem joining tens of thousands of people in a massive stadium on a Sunday afternoon to watch their favorite football team. So why should they complain about the size of a church?

Young’s criticism makes sense, if church is intended to be a spectator sport and all we are there to do is watch.

But this is not how the early church functioned.

In his letter to the Corinthians we see a different type of church, where people weren’t just watching a game, they were all on the field playing.

Paul starts off by describing the typical service with these words,  “What is the outcome then, brothers and sisters? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All things are to be done for edification” (1 Corinthians 14:26 NASV).

Many people participated in the Corinthian services. There were those who had a psalm, which commentators suggest may have actually been sung in some instances.

Some brought a teaching, while others gave a prophetic revelation, and then there were those who spoke in tongues and interpreted.

But there was one big problem.

It seems that they were all trying to do this at the same time resulting in confusion and chaos.

So Paul sought to bring order to this mess.

He didn’t tell them to stop participating, he said it had to be done in an orderly fashion. One person sharing at a time.

They still had their main teachers who shared during the service (Acts 20:9), but there were moments during the service where everyone had an opportunity to get on the field.

Two chapters earlier, Paul told the Corinthians that the Holy Spirit had given every believer a spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12:7).

The Holy Spirit intended for these gifts to be used and of course the big question is where and when was this to happen.

It’s obvious that these gifts were intended to be used during church services for the edification of the believers (1 Corinthians 14:3) and bringing unbelievers to faith (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). Other gifts, such as healing, could be used outside the church to build the Kingdom of God (Acts 8: 7, 12).

It is not my intention to bash mega churches, they are obviously meeting a need or people wouldn’t be going to them. Many mega churches have recognized this weakness and set up small groups which provide greater opportunity for participation.

But the main point is this, If church was intended to be a spectator sport why is every believer given a spiritual gift?