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Does Size Matter? (Part 2)
Someone told me, “I love your church, but it is just too big for me.”
Their statement raises some questions:
- When is a church just the right size?
Is 12 just right? How about 120? Maybe 3,000?
- When does a church become too big?
Is there a magic number? Is it when all the people can no longer meet in one service? Or one campus? Or one state? Or one country?
If you like a small church, I guess you can find one and pray like crazy that you don’t reach new people, then the church will stay small…just like you like it.
Or… more tomorrow.
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Hi Craig,
The answer to this is simple…”it’s too big for me” is not what we should be concerned with. It’s a bit self-centered and assumptive that I can control what God wants to do in the lives of others let alone the church I attend or pastor. It should never be about us and it should always be about what God wants. We should not be answering how big is too big for me, but how big is too big for God? What is God’s expectation for me and the church I attend or pastor? As long as God still forgives people of sin, I’d have to conclude that any church that holds this belief with the slightest conviction will be a candidate for growing larger….which probably suck for people who don’t like growing churches.
Andrew, Great insight!
There is no perfect size for a church. Otherwise, congregations would become content once “perfect” is attained, and they would stop reaching new people with the gospel.
Andrew - awesome answer. Really puts it into perspective.
The bigger the better
I wonder when Jesus fed the 5,000, and understanding the crowds mostly travled by foot, if people left saying “It’s too crowded to see the Christ today”.
Goldratt’s “Theory of Contraints”: (1)identify your constraint, (2) focus on the constraint (3) follow it through (process of improvement)
The perceived constraint is intimacy…like Andrew said, a Christ-centered church sees the work of the Holy Spirit create the growth…and the intimacy…they are not mutually exclusive.
If we are intimate with God individually and corporately then we will intimately engage the world as they enter through the doors, and as we enter through theirs.
I believe we should let Jesus tell us whether or not a particular church is too big. As Oswald Chambers often noted, listening to flesh and blood can be dangerous to ones’ spiritual health.
I guess, for me, I would have to ask “How big is your vision for what God would want to accomplish through your service at this church?” Simply put, “How big is God in your eyes?” I grew up in a church where there were only 12 people attending on some Sundays (my family, another, and the pastor and his wife). When my wife and I first attended Lifechurch, there were approximately 300 people attending - and we felt like THAT was huge! We chuckle about it now - at how small OUR vision was at that time. Maybe we should ask, instead, “Would you consider committing to serve here for a few months and allow God the opportunity to stretch your vision for how He can use you?” I don’t think we should ever have to apologize for our huge vision and where it is taking us. Rather, we should encourage and motivate others to join us as we chase that vision.
I don’t know…lets ask God when he returns…
maybe restoring His kingdom forever is a bit to long?
Great posts and great comments. We want to measure by the outcome not the size. So if the outcome is were are producing an abundance of radical Christ-Followers who are growing themselves and discipling others. We can and should get bigger. If we aren’t succeeding at that it really makes no difference the size of the congregation.
What size is optimum? There isn’t a one-size feets all and I guess that might be why multi-site is the way to go.
As to what I would tell the person who says:”Your church is too big!” When a tree stops growing, it dies!
One thing to think upon though for limiting size. Think starbucks there aren’t too many 100,000 sqf Starbucks…the build some bigger than others but they build lots of them. With the idea of maintaining the sense of community. The Super Center just can’t fake the feeling of community and neighborhood.
Remember, Jesus fed the 5000 twice and it was really more like 10,000-15,000 people because they didn’t count women and children.
I often wonder what the folks who go to our Multi Site Campuses because the they’re smaller are going to do when they’re not smaller anymore! Hope they know were praying our brains out and working as hard as we can to keep them from staying smaller
Well said, all of you.We are apart of His Church, for His purposes, regardless of size. I thank God for His Church, for His people, and all that He is doing through it to accomplish His purposes, irrespective of how big or small its congregations. God bless all of you who faithfuly lead your large and small congregations to be fully devoted followers of Christ and lead others to do the same.
Been gone for a couple of days so haven’t had a chance to respond Craig. I had this one come home to roost just a couple of weeks ago. A man, whom I had asked to come into my office to talk, said, “People are leaving our church and I am concerned plus there are so many people I don’t know!” It had been a long day emotionally and physically so i wasn’t very sharp at the time. I should have said, “That’s great ______ that you don’t know everyone! that means we are bringing in new people.” But I didn’t and missed my chance. people are intimidated by growth and change and new people. I see nothing in the Scriptures that puts a lid on growth or size. I reckon it depends on whatever a person is comfortable with.
John, I go to a smaller LChurch campus in TN and we are believing that the current partners will be the minority one year from now!!!! Most partners are ready to ROCK n ROLL, reach out and GROW!!! I am sure there are a few that get overwhelmed in larger venues but I believe God will place them or lead them to be exactly where they should be.
The Church (Capital C) in reality is billions of people strong, (imagine what heaven is going to be like), so we ought to stop thinking about church within the confines of the church walls, and see that bigger picture. This is one reason I love lifechurch particularly their online outreach because it brings that bigger picture of a church without walls to life.
I also I agree with Andrew, our view of church has to go beyond ourself as JFK might say “ask not what your church can do for you but what you can do for your church”
We live in a consumeristic culture and every person we come in contact with will view our church from a consumeristic view point to one degree or another. We cannot ignore this but at the same time we cannot be driven by this. We need to be what God has called us to be. We need to maximize and reach and disciple as many as God gives us. It’s not about us or ME, it’s about Him.
Thanks to all of you for the great discussion.
I am a pastor of a church in South Central Kansas. The word “big” isn’t in the vocabulary of most of the locals. On the other hand “consistency” is. What makes our God such a great God is that He is constant. He never changes and never will, and that’s something we can focus on in ministry. In a world full of people constantly looking for things that are consistently inconsistent, the church has to be better at being constantly focused on Him and Him alone that He might meet their greatest need, regardless of a church’s size.
The church seems to be working so hard at being “relevant” when we serve a God that got there first with everything. Being relevant to me means someone got there first. God got there first. He theoretically is “relevant” to nothing physical, but “relevant” to all of us humanistically.
Again, the focus has to be on being relevant to Him, rather than the church being relevant to us. The person who is saying a church is “too large for me” or “too small for me” is self-focused.
If the church is relevant to His Spirit…people will come.
There are 500 people in our town, and we have a church with an average attendance of 300+. I like to believe we too are a “mega church”.
I like to think it’s because He is alive and free to display His power and Spirit. People will come for mystery and wonder and walk out with purpose.
Craig,
In today’s society we have so much at our fingure tips. If we want knowledge all we have to do is grab our phone, lap top, or library computer and Google it. As a pastor of a very small church I see the same peoblem today on both sides of this big or small debate. Those who prefer a small church want to be plugged in and noticed just like going to google they want it now, those who want big want to be stimulated and relavant, like the Blue Ray of church goers. Is there any thing wrong with these two, I’d say no we all must start some where. But, the real problem here is a generational gap. Will these two types want to Grow or stay stuck in that state. How can the Church keep them growing and going and not stopping and slowing? The Church today, I believe, is starting to understand what the Church missed 10, 20, or 30+ years ago. We must be relavant to those we are reaching. We are doing Church differently now we are doing it more relavantly. There are so many problems today and of history past that I think we missed an entire Generation that could have been better reached with the Gospel. So, If you want to reach people so they will be dedicated belivers and followers of Christ, then Don’t give up. If it is us four and no more, Check what your doing against scripture and see who God’s word tells us to reach and where, the How is up to us.
“When does a church become too big?”
OK, HAVE TO ASK….IS THAT A REAL QUESTION?????
I remember a guy who wanted a church in all 50 states…love that guy…love his passion, and his vision…..
Q: When is a church just the right size?
A: Size doesn’t matter its all about the motion in the ocean. Or, in other words, its about how the Holy Spirit is moving, the depth of the congregation, etc. Focus on those things and not others.
Q: When does a church become too big?
A: When the size impedes on the priority of discipleship.
As long as there is one lost soul in need of the Savior, our churches are too small.
Instead of measuring how small or too big the church is how about we add up how many people there are who are broken and lost. Then make sure we make room for them in our hearts, homes, ministry and our buildings. The broken and the lost are not in our buildings now, theyre outside of them. Can the Church ever be too big if Jesus came to a save a broken and lost world?
I pastor a church of 500 (give or take a few). I often wonder why it is not larger than it is, because I believe it to be God’s will to reach as many as possible. I don’t stress over the issue, but do press ahead.
I have never understood the mentality that prefers to resist church growth. It seems like some people wanter their business to grow and their bank accounts to grow, but they want the church to remain small.
How many people will be in heaven? Will that be too big?
6,960,584,791 as of the moment I typed that. And growing at the rate of about 2 per second. That’s the right size. Game on.
There’s a fundamental error in thinking happening: the church (local) is not the same as the Church (universal).
True, the size of the Church (universal) can never be big enough, but it is well known that the church (local) can be way too big. This is not a matter of making converts, but making disciples. Jesus didn’t disciple 5,000 people, but he did disciple 12 who went on to make more disciples.
But to use that to say that churches should be as big as possible is a breakdown in logic.
I’ve sometimes heard people dis a local mega-church they had left to come to our church … When they say ‘it got too big’, I ask two questions … 1) How big is too big? This lets me know the max time they’ll be with us … and then 2) What if our ‘too big’ cutoff was 5 minutes before you walked into our church? Surprisingly, some of them actually hang around for a while after that