When is big, too big?
Suppose a Bible church is growing - what are the signs that it is becoming too large and it's time to divide and multiply?
Of course, to some, the very notion that a church can be "too big" is heresy - aren't numbers a true sign of "success"? Certainly from a worldly point of view "too big" is not a valid category of thought.
But since the kingdom of God works differently from the kingdom of the world, and since all real spiritual growth in God's kingdom is through meaningful small-group discipleship (like Jesus did it), Schumacher got it right, small, really is beautiful.
Here are six signs it may be time to downsize by planting...
1. When people attend because of popularity
The moment folks begin attending because they've heard about the church, because the church is becoming "popular" (whatever that means, Biblically), because hits and subscribe numbers are on the up, it's a sign the church is growing in the wrong way - a worldly way.
What value is it if the saints in one city or district are simply recycled, marching from the latest faddy church in town to the next?
And remember, after marching up your hill, it won't be long before they march back down.
The kingdom is not being extended if the cards are merely being reshuffled.
The growing church might find itself ascending some illusionary ecclesiastical ladder, but what does it profit a church if it gains the whole world but loses its soul?
2. When it has become a preaching centre
A preaching centre - where all the spokes are connected only to preacher hub - is an institution unknown in the Scriptures. All the justifying myths attached to this common idea, such as "but there is no good preaching for miles around," "why not steward a superior preaching gift," "We can achieve more as a larger congregation" etc, are very easily debunked.
The truth is that the exaltation of one gift and one man above all the other myriad useful, needful, wonderful, Spirit-given gifts of the New Testament is unbiblical - and dangerous.
Imagine a body made up of just one gigantic eye, one humungous foot, one colossal ear, or one huge hand.
In one famous London church of the last century it was boasted that members of the congregation could see the exalted preacher in the vestry afterwards to have their spiritual problems solved. A spiritual clinic if you like. I trust in the cold light of New Testament Day the notion that one saint (whoever he be) could or should solve the problems of a 1000 other saints is seen as outrageous. "Carry one another's burdens" is the call of Christ, not go to some Christian guru and have him carry them for you.
3. When you are approaching the "80% rule"
There is a well-known socio-common-sense rule that says that when 80% of the seats in any given auditorium are filled that church ceases to grow. New people want to hide for their first few weeks, but if they are marched to the front row or squeezed into the only available nooky corner on day 1, they may not return.
We get it. Some people hate crowds. Do you? I do.
As a church approaches 80% capacity it's probably too big.
4. When living organism is replaced by human organization
Most churches look back on smaller earlier days as their "glory days" - and for good reason. With smaller numbers, if they wanted to do something different or exciting they could turn on a pin - and merely by word of mouth.
I heard of a church that decided - on the spur of the moment - to head out to the hills one easter morning for their worship service, followed by a McDonald's McMuffin, I believe. An impossible joy with a church bigger than 20/30/40.
When small new churches need more workers in one area of church life, they just chat to / phone / email their brothers and sisters. Easy peasey. Nothing formal, nothing "organised."
This relational ethos sits well with the local church described as a family of brothers and sisters.
But once a church requires corporate organizational machinery run by someone with a Masters in business management, you have lost something very precious and human and divine.
You've moved from organic to organizational.
5. When no-one can possibly know everyone
When it is actually impossible for everyone to have at least some small passing acquaintance with everyone else, again, you have lost something of that precious gift of fellowship. When folk ask people who have been around for a decade, "is this your first Sunday here?"
When everyone is lost in a sea of faces.
When you, the individual saint don't matter any more.
When you are a number, a mere statistic.
6. When the number of people not attending small groups is increasing
As a church grows numerically, it is all too easy for the church to attract a non-participatory fringe. Believers who have no connection to other saints in the body except on a Sunday morning. The "core" has stopped growing even though the periphery expands.
In New Testament body-speak this is equivalent to a collection of disconected eyes rattling around in a box. Lots of legs and feet trying to walk or move on their own. Ears hearing but passing the message to no-one else.
Without radical accountability to other believers through discipleship-size groups, it is impossible to grow in grace. (No matter what the quality of the preaching; for preaching alone never made a saint.)
The moment church numbers swell but the home group population remains static, the church has become too big.
What next?
When a church grows to this kind of size, a number of responses are possible.
The first is to keep growing in numerical size...
Or else you could take radical steps to make the church smaller to grow even more! To plant a church in a needy area of town or district, nurture it to teenage and then let it go. Then plant another church and let that one go too. Then another, ad infinitum...
(The letting go is just as important as the planting, BTW, for kids who are manipulated into hanging onto mom's apron strings when they should be standing on their own two feet normally rebel).
If a church takes this real or true-growth strategy, reaching out to new communities all the time and staying small, they won't be famous in this world. But who cares about transient illusionary here-today gone-tomorrow earthly glory if one day we hear the Lord's well done?
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