Outrageous abuse of terminology
Nov. 1st, 2006 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dsrtaoA 'megachurch' is commonly defined as a church building in which 2000 people can be expected every Sunday.
A 'gigachurch' is merely 5 times that large.
Objection one: apparently a megachurch is really a 2-kiloperson church.
Objection two: a gigachurch should be a thousand times larger than a megachurch.
Anytime someone says "megachurch", please ask them whether there are a million people going there, or whether they consider each worshipper to be 500 times more important than each of their neighbors.
A 'gigachurch' is merely 5 times that large.
Objection one: apparently a megachurch is really a 2-kiloperson church.
Objection two: a gigachurch should be a thousand times larger than a megachurch.
Anytime someone says "megachurch", please ask them whether there are a million people going there, or whether they consider each worshipper to be 500 times more important than each of their neighbors.
I guess I'll have to think twice if I'm ever tempted to name a child "Meg" ...
Date: 2006-11-01 08:26 pm (UTC)(OTOH, I hadn't heard "gigachurch" before, and while "giga-" etymologically ought to be able to be used for merely "giant", not just "a billion of", I don't think I'd ever heard it as other than a metric-system prefix or parody thereof, so I'm inclined to agree about "gigachurch" being wrong. Maybe if it were a denomination that had a billion congregations, I'd call that a gigachurch ...)