I begin with a disclaimer – I don’t believe the size of a church has any merit in the Kingdom. Neither do I believe a small church (under 200 in worship) or a large church has any advantages over the other. They both are called of God to perform the same mission … to carry out Christ’s last will and testament in both Matthew and Acts and make disciples of Jesus Christ. Churches that make disciples are great churches no matter what size. Churches that don’t make disciples aren’t churches no matter what size.
The truth is, small churches could be God’s gift to the US because there are so many of them. In many parts of the country it seems as if there is one or more on every corner. In every part of the country, we have enough small churches to win America to Christ.
However, every study I’ve seen shows that, except for the first four years of a new church, small churches are accounting for fewer and fewer of the people who claim to attend a Christian church. I’ve seen recent studies that show 50 percent of all US Christians are attending large churches and megachurches.
A few years ago, at the request of a major denomination, I spent two days consulting with eleven small, dying churches in an isolated valley in the Appalachian area. The eleven churches were strung out along a farm-to-market road over a thirty mile area. The total worship attendance of the eleven churches amounted to 125 people. Nine of the churches were separated from each other by no more than a mile and a half.
During the interview process, every one of the church leaders shared with me their church’s struggle to survive. I could feel the bitterness and despair in their voice as they spoke of the callousness of their denomination toward their plight and the loss of their young people.
During the interviews, I asked two questions: “Why are you declining?” and “What is the largest church in the area?” They blamed their church’s decline on the isolation of their location, the declining population of the valley, and the lack of help from their denomination. A favorite phrase was “We’re just a small church.” They also told me that the largest church in the valley had about 35 people in worship.
After listening to the eleven groups tell the same story, I was almost persuaded that I had found the one place in America where churches could not grow. On the way back to the airport I noticed a large, square box-looking building at the intersection of Nowhere and Somewhere. Other than numerous barns, this was the largest building I had seen in the valley. I asked the denominational official to drive by the building. We soon discovered that it was a five-year-old, nondenominational church with a very large parking lot, and averaged 800 attendees in four worship services, most of whom were young adults!
What’s wrong with this picture? Lots. The people I interviewed did little but complain about their smallness and the lack of help from their denomination. They were so absorbed in themselves that they could not or would not admit that it was possible to grow a strong, healthy church in their valley. They could not admit the presence of that big box down the street.
Here is what ten years of consulting has taught me about small churches and what can be done to keep them from continual decline.
Small churches tend not to make disciples because they are ruled by a few heavy-handed individuals who have a deep passion to be big fish in a small pond. Small churches are just about the last place left in the world where good-hearted people will put up with totally dysfunctional people. Maybe it’s time for the good people to treat them like the dysfunctional children they are and hold them accountable for their actions and require them to either repent or ship out. People just don’t join unhealthy churches.
Tweet ThisThere is only one reason why churches put up with dysfunctional people – they have forgotten why they exist. They are no longer focused on being God’s mission in the world. They are turned inward and focused on themselves. Perhaps it’s time for your small church to clean house.
Small churches don’t make disciples because they are oriented around taking care of their members rather than making disciples (large churches also do this). One of the myths about small churches is that they are more caring than large churches. This just isn’t true. The power of this myth arises from the fact that most small churches make the fatal mistake of falling for the most pernicious of all Christian viruses … the belief that the purpose of the church is to take care of each member’s every need. Perhaps it’s time to reclaim the church’s place in the community by asking your pastor to equip your leaders to go out into the community and make disciples.
Some small churches take pride in being small as if it were a virtue. Some pastors proudly proclaim that they refuse to play the “numbers game.” Others believe in the “righteous remnant” theory of the Old Testament more than the Great Commission of the New Testament. “We’re not declining; we’re just separating the wheat from the chaff.” Sounds like the same thing Jesus dealt with when he went up against the Pharisees. Numbers are people no matter how you cut it.
So what do small churches need to do to make disciples?
The answer is simple for any size church – they need to recover what it means to be a church. By definition, a church is a group of people who have been called out of the world for one purpose – to make disciples, not to care for one another. Churches don’t have a mission – God has a mission and it’s the church. The church has one reason to exist – to make disciples, pure and simple. Small churches need to reclaim what it means to be a church.
Small churches can elect to remain small and still make disciples by deciding to send people away to start new churches every time they reach their maximum size. By carrying out the Great Commission, they are part of the Body of Christ. By starting new churches, they remain small and help expand the Kingdom. This is a win-win strategy.
A Tale of Two Small Churches
Thirtry years ago, Ginghamsburg Church was an old, small, rural church with 90 people in worship meeting in a tiny brick and frame country church, located twenty miles from Dayton, Ohio. Today, it has over 5,000 people in worship at a new site. The principles they use today are the same they used years ago when a young pastor arrived with passion for the lost and a vision for the future. It’s a great place to visit because you can see both the little red country church and the new, modern worship center.
Six years ago, East Canton Church had 35 in worship and a pastor who had responsibility for two churches. Less than 20,000 people lived within a twenty mile radius of the church and the population was declining. In less than four years, the church averaged over 170 in worship and had become a teaching church for small churches. The pastor used the same principles at East Canton that the pastor of Ginghamsburg had used.
Two small churches: both were dying, but now they are thriving because someone decided it was time to be a church and make disciples. Folks, that’s all it takes … along with a lot of hard work and prayer. So go for it.
Question: What else have you found that keeps small churches from making disciples? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
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I think besides just wanting to take care of themselves and their building, small churches feel a bit hopeless. The neighborhood has changed, the young people have left, the neighborhood has changed drastically, they are getting older, younger folks aren’t moving into the area, there are lots of other churches out there, and they are content. I have seen a number of churches, regardless of size, that say one thing, but are really only interested in seeing the pastor bring more people in to sit in the pews and to have those people give enough to meet the budget, so the congregation doesn’t have to step up to the plate. Like Gil Rendle says, “folks don’t want change, they just want things to get better.” So the contentment becomes the great challenge. How does a pastor inspire or motivate a congregation to want to become active participants in making disciples and be in mission, and less interested in just being a spectator sitting in the pew? Pastors cannot do it all on their own. I have seen parishioner wring their hands in despair at the loss, but won’t open them to do the work.
Doug, the fact is, it pretty well is totally up to the pastor. If the congregation was going to do it, they would have done it by now. The long-term and lasting changes are in the hands of the congregation, but they’ve heard pastor after pastor after pastor tell them that they are the ones who should be doing the inviting and growing the church. In fact, it’s the pastor’s job … in a small church, almost their sole job … to bring in new people. Without exaggeration, we coach our small church pastors to spend 80 percent of their work time networking in the community with the unchurched (learn more at (a href=”http://churchturnaround.com”>ChurchTurnaround.com. The primary “in church” responsibility of the pastor is to preach and teach transformation and growth. When that growth comes because the pastor has been “out there” in the harvest fields the church’s culture begins to change from hopelessness to hopefulness. Then (and pretty much only then) will the congregation get busy inviting and/or re-inviting those in their networks.
On the other hand, you’re absolutely correct that the lasting growth isn’t solely in the hands of the pastor. The congregation MUST provide a welcoming and engaging and friend-making culture when the pastor is successful in bringing new visitors into the church. Until a church reaches over 300, it’s the pastor’s primary job to bring in new people – it’s the congregation’s job to keep them.
I was one of the people in that East Canton after 13 years of good quality growth it is back to where it was thanks to dig denominational leaderships do not large country churches.
I have found that a huge issue, in the church, is a wrong view of authority.
The church leaders are goldfish, acting like piranhas. They bite anyone who disagrees with them. The congregation thinks they have to decide between keeping peace, and being thrown out. The members become mindless and powerless. They seriously lack love. I also find that they don’t pray.
If you are being told, by the leaders, anytime you speak up, that you are bothered because you are not right with God, you are in a church with corrupt leaders. If you are told that you are causing disharmony in the brethren, you are in a corrupt church.
Keep in mind that these leaders are accountable to God, and it is not going to end well for them. We pray for them, because we are horrified at what will happen to them on judgment day. We obey God’s leading, when He tells us what to do about it. We love them, but we also love the congregation, who is being turned against God. We love the lost people who should be able to enter these churches, and find God. Souls are going to hell because of churches like this !
One thing I have found is that too many small-church pastors are so focused on running with the “big boys” they forget the mission of the church: to make disciples. It is a calling to be a small-church pastor; Jesus Himself began with twelve!
Hi Barry, Of course it is valid to observe that Jesus started with 12 disciples. However, it is also true that he often preached to the masses – in the synagogues, in the mountains and from the beaches and water. Arguably he did share lessons in small settings too… but it seemed from my readings that he liked the venues with hundreds or thousands in attendance. I think his example of reaching out to the large numbers is a good model to bear in mind as we establish our goals and strategies.
But Jesus wasn’t satisfies with staying with just twelve. It’s why he told them – and expected them – to make disciples and to baptize them and to teach them (ostensibly so they could make more disciples). Small churches that are satisfied with being small churches and wear it like a badge of honor need to check their baptism record for the year. If they are adding at least 20 percent of their current average worship attendance to the Kingdom Rolls (regardless of which church the converts choose to go) then by all means … stay small. But if a small church is like most small churches and are doing few to no adult conversion baptisms, then they should either refocus or turn over their assets to a faithful church.
Bill, I am a UMC retired local pastor and have pastored nothing but small churches. I have, however, 25 years of experience prior to pastoring working in hospital and healthcare Marketing and Development. I agree with everything you have said with the exception that all churches have more than the responsibility to make disciples. They have to take care of the disciples who are already there as well. It is not an either or proposition. Sadly most of the members in small churches are by definition elderly and feel as if they can’t do any more than keep up with those who are already members. In MS the appointments to small churches are falling to retiring or retired pastors, as well, because the small rural churches can’t afford to pay salaries for ordained pastors. It becomes a catch 22 that in my opinion has the wrong focus: who can this church afford, not who do we need in this geographical area to light the fire of evangelism and mission again that will build the “church of the whole” for the Christ. And until the Conference gets over the feeling of guilt over closing down a few small churches (forcing a few small charges in close proximity to merge) and acquiescence to the dysfunctionals who insist that they have to keep the doors open because great grand was married here, we won’t remedy the problem. One well placed young passionate pastor with abundant enthusiasm for evangelism, local mission and getting to know the nature of the larger community can do the wonders you point out in the two churches you mentioned in your article. One last word: We are not using the Intentional Transitional Interim Ministry in the way it is intended. I believe good Intentional Interims can make a big difference in changing the dysfunctionality of small churches (as well as larger ones). Thanks for your good work. I have followed your writing for years!
East Canton Church… where is it, is it also close to Dayton, Ohio or elsewhere. I want to check and see if the information you are saying is correct… but unless I can see the church on the web or find it on a map… otherwise it never happened. I go through an East Canton almost every day and if it this one then it is news to me. I can only find two, one in Ohio and one in Penn.
East canton church is in Pennsylvania. It is no longer a model church, but it once was before a denominational official moved the pastor because he was equipping and allowing lay people to do most of the ministry. if you check out the comments on the blog, far down the list of comments, a response from a former member of East Canton who verifies what i said in the article and what im telling you in this response. i hope that clarifies your concern and thanks for the comment. The more the better.
this example does go to show two things:
1. the pastor makes a big difference
2. denominational officials get in the way far too often. why would anyone force a pastor out when the church is growing. But they do it all time. You’d think they would learn.
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