LEBANON, TN – Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church is responding to critics who seemingly celebrated news of his congregation shrinking by approximately 90 percent. The clergyman took to Facebook on Friday (Jul. 31) to remind his supporters to consider Gideon and Jesus in the matter.
“Look at Gideon,” Locke told his social media fans. “Thirty-two thousand men showed up. God said, ‘Too many.’ He cut them to ten thousand. Still too many. He kept cutting until only three hundred remained. Not because Gideon failed—because God refused to let anyone say, ‘We did this ourselves.’ With those 300 He routed an army like the sand of the sea. The reduction was strategy, not shame.”
The pastor went on to say, “Look at Jesus. Multitudes followed for free bread and miracles. Then He preached the hard truth and ‘many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him’ (John 6:66). Even the twelve had a traitor. At the cross they all fled. Resurrection power wasn’t hindered by the crowd leaving. It was revealed through the ones who stayed.”
Pastor Greg Locke shared the reality of his church’s decline in attendance at its physical location last Thursday (Jul. 23). The clergyman reflected on his ministry’s time of holding worship services underneath a tent wherein thousands came from various parts of the country to be a part of what they believed was a move of God.
“Over 500 first-time visitors every single week,” Locke said of the time period. “More than fifteen thousand baptisms in the middle of a pandemic while the world told us to shut the doors. Over 7,000 people showed up for a 3 day conference in the blistering heat. We lived in the middle of that storm of favor and it looked like success from every angle.”
Success, though, came at a price. “Nobody tells you about the low-grade panic that sits in your chest when you walk onto a stage that big and realize you are responsible for the emotional temperature of thousands of people who showed up expecting a show,” Pastor Greg Locke shared in his open letter last Thursday.
“Mega church can feel less like shepherding and more like performing for an audience that will leave the moment the production value drops or something brighter comes to town,” the clergyman revealed. “And hanging over all of it is the heavy weight of the realization that your entire life will be judged by 30-second video clips taken out of context.”
Pastor Greg Locke admitted that in-person church attendance had gone from thousands per week to around 300 to 400 congregants in the open letter he shared with supporters last Thursday. Such a sharp decline in membership caused some to mock both Locke and his ministry.
“Well, when you claim to be an apostle, knowing that’s not possible, what did you think would happen,” asked one critic online. “I’m glad people are finally waking up,” another commenter said.
Pastor Greg Locke shrugged off the scrutiny in his address on Friday. “This is the slingshot principle,” the clergyman said. “Sometimes God pulls you back so the release can go farther than anyone expected. What looks like decline to the carnal eye is often divine preparation.”