Small Church, Big Church
Church Marketing Sucks referenced this blog with a downloadable pdf document entitled "Development Barriers to Church Growth." It's a short little booklet that outlines some of the common reasons that churches of various sizes have difficulty getting to the next stage of growth. Similar to the growth of small businesses, there are various issues like the need for control or the desire for closely knit groups that often hinder growth.
I've mentioned several times in this blog recently that my company is going through another one of our growth phases. We're in the process of a major re-organization because we can't support more staff and more customers doing the same things that we did when we only had six employees and twenty clients. Likewise, church growth is most often hindered for many practical reasons rather than spiritual ones.
This pamphlet has a nice summary style and it's brief and easy and simple. It breaks down various levels of church growth and itemizes the major barriers that churches at each level have in trying to grow. It has a lot of valid points but it certainly seems to be written from the perspective of someone who has accomplished that growth already and it therefore offers this information in a somewhat brusque manner.
I think it makes a few good points about the lack of growth at my old church, FCCC. The booklet says that 85% of all churches in North America have less than 200 people, with an average church size of 70 people. FCCC fell into that category easily with less than 100 people. The booklet concentrates half of the content to churches of this size since they exist everywhere and they have a strong tendency to stay small.
Granted, this booklet is speaking in general terms so not everything applies to my old church. I do like this one quote, though: "A small congregation, for the most part, has a "small" mindset of might even hold "small" as a spiritual value." (Reference to Page 3.) I don't really appreciate the simplistic and sometimes insulting explanations that this booklet provides but I think that a lot of these points are true enough. Regarding that one quote, people do value small over large and we do support that value in spiritual and Biblical terms.
The second half of the book deals with growth barriers for a few stages of growth beyong the 200-person mark. At the 200-400 stage, it makes several points that apply directly to the growing pains that Open Door has been going through in the last two years or so. Specifically, it refers to the need for multiple services and the associated requirement for more volunteers.
So I recommend checking out this little pamphlet. It should be a quick read. It might not be a cool refreshing drink of water if you're going through some of these things but it might be a splash of cold water to the face that we can use to think about a few issues more thoroughly later.
7 comments:
My problem with the pamphlet is I'm not convinced that 'small' is a problem. Does evangelism necessarily mean growing the size of your church? Without agreeing with this premise the rest of the pamphlet sounds like a prosperity gospel for pastors.
I liked the article - it has some interesting ideas. I agree with your friend Abe, and also think that some of the "mind-set changes required (i.e. becoming age-divivion focused) are not a good thing (it seems to me that in trying to meet specific age-related needs, we miss out on meeting greater needs, like different ages working together, to accomplish mentorship like in Titus 2). It presented large churches as an ideal, and i am not convinced it is always the ideal. That being said, small churches can gain a lot from being open to expansion, and open to greater division of labour in the church. I found this to be a helpful article. Thanks JAG
I think that 'small' is a problem in the same way that 'big' is a problem. Big can mean a focus on numbers and appearance, small can mean a focus on comfort and appearance. Big can mean too many programs, small can mean not enough ministry. Big can mean the pastor is greedy, small can mean a pastor is needy.
If the numbers game is "prosperity gospel" then the un-numbers game is "poverty gospel."
Being small isn't a problem but not multiplying is a problem. Being big isn't a problem but not growing spiritually is a problem.
(Man, I'm on a roll here...)
Thanks for the reply, Natalie. I didn't know that my audience had expanded until I spoke to you on Sunday.
I'm not so sure about the age-division suggestion either. For example, that may not be necessary in a cell-based church. That being said, that step may indeed prove necessary at a certain level of growth for certain kinds of churches. I only put so much faith in my own inexperienced theories.
As a comparison to when my own company was small, the idea of a boss that didn't know everyone personally and that didn't know what everyone was doing was absurd. Multiple levels of management was a ludicrous idea and an official social committee was laughable. And yet, here I am with my company and we've realized the necessity of such things.
Perhaps the small-to-bigger-to-big transition also reveals how limited our ideas and assumptions can be. I know my experiences in business and church have shown and changed many of my ideas over the years.
I preach the "poverty gospel".
Now, now, Battle. You know what I meant.
I don't think that a pastor should have to work two full time jobs because their church never grows. I don't think that churches should be unable to help others in need because they have no resources because they do not grow. I don't think that a church should refuse to support missionaries because they do not grow. I do not think that churches should force youth pastors to work for free because they do not grow.
This is what I meant. Churches should not rob from their workers and burn them out because of "spiritual" reasons. If the average pastor leaves ministry within their first five years in Canada, one reason is that we're preaching "poverty gospel."
Jamie, your stance makes total sense to me.
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