Some thoughts about church size

Posted by Josh Howerton on Apr 25, 2011 | 4 comments

Yesterday was EASILY one of the most exciting days in The Bridge’s history.  We crammed 450 people into the building to hear the gospel, 17 people said they’d trusted Christ, Kids’ rooms were WAY more than packed… it was awesome.  But after a day like yesterday, there’s a feeling that some of you might have had or will probably have in the near future.  ESPECIALLY if you’ve been around The Bridge for awhile and known the joy of a small, tight-knit community you either have or will think something like this…

“The church is getting too big.”

A few thoughts on this from a guy whose most comfortable church size so far has been 120 people…

• There’s a tendency to attach a moral value to church size.  Small churches call big churches “too big” and say “they’re impersonal and just care about the numbers”.  And big churches shake their heads at small churches for “not caring about evangelism.”  Both can be true.  Neither makes one size the “right size”.

• Observation: the first church ever was 3,000 people in Acts 2 and it grew to 5,000 people by Acts 4.  After the pattern of some really lame bumper stickers: “‘Big churches aren’t wrong.’  - God”

• Church health, not church size, should be how we evaluate the “goodness” of The Bridge.  We should never have the shallow goals of simply “getting big” or “staying small”.  Biblically, our goal should be to “mature… to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” as a church body (Eph 5:13).  This means intensity in unity and discipleship (at which small churches are sometimes better) AND it means intensity on mission (at which large churches are sometimes better).  A leadership axiom the staff talks about ALL THE TIME is: “Growth does not equal health, but healthy things grow.”

• People often think in these two categories…
  • Faithful churches (which usually means “small churches” to them)
  • Unfaithful churches (which usually means “big churches” to them)
• Instead, there are four categories…
  • Small, faithful churches
  • Small, unfaithful churches
  • Large, faithful churches
  • Large, unfaithful churches

• None of us – and I mean NONE of us – want to stand in front of God someday and give an account for an attitude or action that resulted in fewer people knowing him and glorifying him.  Trust me.

Bridge Family, these are really exciting times.  The number of stories of life change, the intensity of worship we’ve been seeing in our WG’s, the number of people being saved by Jesus, the increasing love for Scripture… that’s Christ-exalting stuff.  If you’re struggling with church size, this might be a time for you to examine your heart and ask the question, “Do I really care more about what glorifies God than what is most comfortable to me?”