THE BEAUTY OF THE SMALL CHURCH - CHAPTER 1: MOST CHURCHES ARE SMALL CHURCHES

For the purposes of this series, I am employing the following definitions:

1. A "small" church is one which has less than 200 average in Sunday morning worship attendance.

2. A "mid-size" church is one which has less than 1000 and more than 200 average in Sunday morning worship attendance.

3. A "large" church is one which has more than 1000 average in Sunday morning worship attendance.

If you take time to look at the numbers it is obvious that most protestant churches are small churches. Everywhere you look, you find small churches. Let's take a look at a few.

In the Episcopal churches in the USA, 59% of the churches have less than 100 members. 75% of all episcopal churches have less than 150 members. (Source: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/ecusasize.html)

73% of all Church of the Nazarene churches have less than 100 members. (Source: http://ext.nazarene.org/nazfact/sizes.html)

Research Office statistics indicate only 28 United Methodist Churches fall into the megachurch category, with 259 in the very large church slot. 99% of UMC's have less than 668 in attendance. Less than 5% of all UMC's have over 350 in worship. To add further perspective, one half of the 36,085 UMC's (1999 data) have less than 55 in attendance. (Source: http://gbgm-umc.org/researchoffice/bdm/0105.cfm)

In my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), I asked the good folks at Lifeway to run a report for me to count the churches based on Primary Worship Service(s) Attendance in 2006. They very graciously attended to my request and sent me the following report:

1-99 attendees = 25,217 churches (62.7%)
100-199 attendees = 8,305 churches (20.7%)
200-299 attendees = 2,850 churches (7.1%)
300-499 attendees = 2,126 churches (5.3%)
500-749 attendees = 788 churches (2.0%)
750-999 attendees = 336 churches (0.8%)
1,000-1,999 attendees = 425 churches (1.1%)
2,000+ attendees = 139 churches (0.3%)

Total Churches = 40,186

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw these numbers. This data, which I believe to be more representative of actual people in the pews, reveals that the SBC is overwhelmingly a denomination of small churches with 83.4% (33,522) of our churches having an average worship attendance of less than 200 people. At the other end of the spectrum, only 1.4% (564) of our churches have 1,000 or more in attendance each Sunday. More than ever, it appears that we are a convention of an overwhelming majority of small churches.

With so many small churches across the landscape of America, why is it that small churches are not viewed as "successful" as their large church neighbors? Part of it might be the "bigger is better" view of the American culture. Another reason may be that we are greatly impressed with the ability to measure "church growth." When we can measure things like baptisms, members, attendees, money, etc., we seem to be able to quantify God's work in a church. If we can measure God's work in the church, then it is only a short leap to the definition of processes that will produce such numbers. Therefore, according to those things which can be measured, the large church seems more "successful" than does the small church. Our Christian bookstores are filled with books written by "successful" pastors teaching the principles which you can implement in your church so that your church can be "successful." Christian conferences promote large church pastors teaching large church principles that are promised to produce large church numbers. Is it any wonder that when the majority of our pastors, small church pastors, return home from such conferences they feel like they are failures?

I do not believe pastors of small churches are failures. They may seem to be failures in the eyes of the world, however, the eyes of the world is never the standard to which pastors are to be held. The scriptures remind us that Jesus said, "I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18). From this scripture, I would assume that Jesus is building all sizes of Christian churches, not only large churches. From the statistics we have seen, it appears that Christ is building mostly small churches. All Christians are entreated to keep "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith," we would do well to keep Christ in view and not a worldly standard of what makes a church "successful" or not.

In regard to success, is it possible that the activity of God in His church consists of more than that which can be measured? Is the activity of God only seen in numbers such as baptisms, money, and attendance? I think not. There are many intangibles in a church which can never be measured statistically but are still vital to church health. For example, are people growing spiritually? Are widows being taken care of? How about orphans? Is there brotherly love among the people? Are strangers being entertained? Is there true community among believers? (James 1:27; Heb. 10:24-25; 13:1-3; 1 John 2:15-16) The list could go on and on. The success or failure of a church is much more complex than mere numbers and measurements. The work of God is far different than our work (Isa. 55:8-9).

When we begin to compare one church with another, we begin to slide into the merely human arena of comparison and criticism. In 2 Cor. 10:12, the apostle Paul warned against such comparisons, "For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." In other words, we should not be comparing one church with another because it is not wise in the sight of God to do so. If we begin to compare to such an extent that one church is deemed to be a "success" and another church is deemed to be a "failure," we run risk of criticizing the work of Christ Himself.

Let us bear one another's burdens and not seek to hold one up as better or greater than another, lest we be found to fight against God Himself.