Chico Alliance Church
Pastor David Welch
“The Advantages of the Small Church” Pt 2
Review
Many pastors of small congregations feel inferior or failures or intimidated by larger churches. I have wrestled most of my ministry career with the subject of church growth and health; what constitutes success. The criteria for a pastor’s success is people in the pews and bucks in the bank. I am not here to argue that small is bad or big is bad or small or large is healthy. Today’s message is a continuation of last week where I shared some of the thoughts gathered from my study and reading and conversations with God over the past several months.
93% of American churches (under 350) are small, while 80% (under 200) are very small. There are approximately 4,000 mega churches serving 100 million people worldwide. The innumerable small churches around the world serve over 1 billion people. So many places in the world have large impact through small congregations.
Last week I mentioned that there are 1.2 million CM&A members gathering in mostly small congregations throughout Vietnam despite communist rule and persecution. Not marketing but martyrdom lies at the foundation of this phenomenal growth.
Jesus expended much more time and attention of his three short years of ministry to the small group than the crowds. The early church grew through small gatherings spreading to towns and cities. From a Biblical standpoint is seems that the norm was small local congregations functioning as a family. The leaders were invested in the family. The members were invested in each other.
Some Reasons why I think smaller churches have an advantage.
There is Greater potential for intimacy
I am not saying all small churches do this but the potential is there. I am not saying the large churches don’t care about intimacy but it takes intentionality. Getting to know people is easier in a small group. Serving each other on a more intimate or specific level is easier.
You can more easily develop an intergenerational family atmosphere.
You can facilitate more spontaneous activity.
Family sharing, group encouragement, affirming baptisms, dedications
You can provide more opportunities to learn leadership (less formal).
You could feasibly pray for everyone in the family by name.
You can specialize in what you offer.
You can better leverage resources.
Some larger churches have extreme amounts of resources tide up in overhead.
You can better model real life.
All churches struggle, because all people struggle. Struggle and “issues” seem more visible in the small church.
These issues are generally behind the scenes in a big church.
On the outside…
Everything is exciting.
We all get along.
Lots of activity.
Get a break from the kids.
I don’t have to work at this.
I am not responsible for what goes on.
I don’t have to prepare my own food or feed myself.
There is a greater possibility for authenticity in a small group.
This is who we are.
If fits great! If not, OK.
We can be ourselves – unashamedly, unapologetically ourselves.
We can find value in our size with its possibilities.
The limitations of a small church force you to be more dependent on the direction and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
You can better do what you do out of genuine love for people rather than design programs simply to get more bodies in the seats.
Sometime the focus on increasing attendance causes compromise and attempts to make people happy and content rather than grow in their walk with God.
There is Greater potential for Participation and personal investment
According to a recent study, “Those who attend megachurches are likelier to volunteer less, contribute less financially…” than their Small Church counterparts. The study cites evidence that 45% of megachurch attendees never volunteer their time at the church, 32% give nothing or very little in the offering, 40% don’t belong to a small group, and 42% admitted they have very few close friends at the church. Vaters, Karl.
Since we don’t focus on performance, smaller churches can encourage on the job training.
You can more easily begin and end specific ministry opportunities.
One congregation started outreach in their community no one else was doing.
When other churches picked up on it, they pulled out and looked for other opportunities.
You can personally know and interact with the leaders.
The pastor is “one of you”, not unapproachable.
That is not disparaging of the large church pastor, it is impossible to connect with 100 members.
Several times over the years I have heard that pastors need to shift their emphasis from shepherd to rancher.
The shepherd cares for the sheep. The rancher oversees the sheep handlers. Many large churches recognize the need for the smaller group connection.
Whether big or small, God’s clear design for the church is meaningful connection and encouragement as the lifeblood for the health of the body.
The small church seems better able to facilitate those connections.
The larger church emphasizes inspiration and enthusiasm and tries to figure out how to get people to also participate in small groups.
Sometimes the percentage of people engaged in small groups is no better than smaller churches. 100 people out of 1,000 is only 10% deeper involvement.
We ARE a small group.
Small-scale churches can facilitate large-scale impact through greater participation.
We are often encouraged to focus on growth not health.
The assumption is that growth equals health.
Not necessarily.
A faulty pituitary gland can generate fast, but sometimes deadly growth.
Some may concentrate on health to facilitate growth
Numerical growth is still really the end game.
Does the fact that I have not grown any taller than 5-4 in the last fifty years mean I am unhealthy? I plateaued at about 17 and in the later years have possibly even declined. Does my vertical growth factor into my overall health or impending death? No! Other factors determine my health, like horizontal growth.
Does size have anything to do with ability to effectively function. Do the specific body members of a two-year-old function less effectively than that of a 20-year-old or fifty year old. Both have the necessary elements for a healthy life. Each may experience specific issues or malfunctioning parts, but all the elements are present despite their size.
God places the necessary members in a local congregation no matter how big or small.
Is a rose unhealthy or less valuable because it is not as big as a Redwood?
The objective of the church has to do with equipping the parts to carry out their God-assigned and designed purpose rather than expecting a professional to facilitate the growth.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:11-16
A family is not less satisfying because it is small.
The size does not determine the health - the relationships determine the health.
The size of a church do not determine the health of a church the relationships do.
Our focus should be on what is happening among those gathering.
My immediate family has grown to a considerable size with 12-13 adults and 10 plus children. It has become harder to interact on an intimate level when we get together than before. The same is true with a congregation family.
It is true the large church can provide well-funded, professionally led activities and programs but do those programs really encourage true spiritual growth or health?
Willow Creek; considered a mega-church released an extensive study in 2007 that proved otherwise.
They determined that the true source of spiritual growth comes by equipping people to take responsibility for their own spiritual growth not the number of activities provided by the church they engaged in.
Some of these programs can make people feel good, excited, entertained, maybe even inspired but the excitement fades like the excitement of a great movie or concert or church service.
Did any life changes take place? Perhaps it contributed.
Our focus needs to shift from entertainment to equipping.
God can use larger churches in a community.
Many of them have tremendous impact in a community through service and resources and visibility.
If they do not compromise their Biblical mandates.
They have been effective conduits for gifted teachers whose teaching affects people through media.
The church in Portland that grew to tremendous size decades ago and had a reputation throughout the region is now completely irrelevant.
Mars Hill in Seattle grew to a huge size but became unhealthy and disintegrated.
The writer of one book had this to say about his ministry.
“My church struggled for years trying to grow. I went to conferences and read books, but my church didn’t grow no matter how hard I worked and prayed. Out of sheer frustration I decided I wasn’t going to worry about growth any more. I was just going to preach the word, feed the flock, minister to the community and let God take care of the rest. As soon as I stopped worrying about growing, my church and I started getting healthy again. It’s been almost five years now, and we still haven’t had any dramatic numerical growth, and I don’t ever expect to, because a big part of being healthy is that we realized who we are. We’re a Small Church and I am a Small Church pastor. Vaters, Karl. The Grasshopper Myth
What if you minister in a small community of 600 people like my brother Mike and my cousin Larry after that?
Should he feel insignificant or of less value because his congregation was only 50 or dropped to 25?
Some large churches grow by drawing members from the smaller ones.
Despite the desire of church growth advocates for their strategies to reach the unchurched, that doesn’t seem to be how it’s played out. Reflecting on some very reliable statistical analysis, McNeal concludes that, “with rare exception the ‘growth’ here was the cannibalization of the smaller membership churches by these emerging superchurches.” Vaters, Karl.
One growth system focused on health but still assumed that small was unhealthy.
They assumed you MUST be unhealthy if you are small.
What if small IS healthy and not a problem to be solved?
Rather we need to discover and focus on our strengths.
All around the world in other countries small congregations popping up all over have become the fuel to the spread of the gospel and stir revival.
If we are small, the goal is to be a STRONG small church.
Here are some characteristics of a small strong church.
1. Clear Mission and service embraced by the group.
That will become a focus for this year to become more clear.
2. Compassion and care for each other
3. Community and sense of belonging
4. Self-reliant and sufficient
5. Opportunity to express worship and experience hope
6. Mutual involvement – team
7. Effective use of space and facilities
8. Regular giving and generosity
What about the Chico Family?
We should not try to be a miniature big church that tries to do everything the way they do it. We can’t be all things to all people. We should always have a welcoming front door yet a forgiving open back door. We should stop fretting about attendance and focus on what happens with those who choose to gather as a family each Sunday.
We have individual connection with our children.
We provide opportunity for our children to be involved in the service.
We have an informality that fosters closer relationships.
We have a strong commitment to strong Biblical teaching.
We have a love for missions and international workers.
We encourage more connection with work done around the world for Jesus.
We have a dedicated prayer team a phone call away.
I am proud of you. Prayer, perseverance, love, heart for God, commitment to the word
I consider it a privilege to pastor a small congregation.
I want to be remembered as a faithful pastor who consistently fed and loved the sheep.
That doesn’t mean we don’t explore issues.
That doesn’t mean we don’t address fixable deterrents to attracting others.
We can certainly do better on intimate connection and deeper relationships.
We can courageously evaluate our own thought and attitudes toward one another.
I look forward to this being the year of encouragement and coming along side.
We can do better at becoming a local community or family.
I would love to see more people within walking distance decide to fellowship here.
We are small but have generously shared our facility with the community.
We take care of the community’s children.
Many children we care for reside in our own school district.
We open our doors to Chico Pee Wees community sports group.
We open our doors to numerous community groups some large some small.
We need to continue to explore what we do best and identify the special niche God calls us to do in this community.
There has been and will be more discussion on this coming up.
