In a recent magazine article in a certain Christian leadership publication, a group of pastors were profiled. They consider themselves missional in how they’ve managed the issue of facility for their flocks. Some of them, the article headline touted, are pioneers in ways to use church sites in a way that demonstrates the gospel.
Ok. So far so good. I’m in. I am totally in.
But before I could get to the end of the page I was disenchanted.
The first profiled pastor is the leader of a hip church in a large city. Finding meeting space became more difficult as his congregation peaked past 1,000. They rented a local school hall. It works for them. The pastor is quoted as saying how they’ve decided to stay put. Rent for them per year is in the six figure range, but compare that to buying a suitable building to house their large congregation and it starts getting into the millions.
They’ve spent over $100,000 on equipment so as to make it work in the rented school space.
And this is supposed to be missional how?
I know another church. It’s community is made up of less than 100 people. They are a group of mostly low-income thirty-somethings. Their rent per year is less than $20,000 and even that is a strain on their threadbare budget and it’s only for four hours in a building someone else owns. They have hopes of building sharing with others but it’s not easy. One local pastor is quoted as saying that two churches under one roof is like a two-headed monster. That’s the mentality this tribal-like church is up against as they struggle with the issue of space and how to best use their money and energy.
A couple of Sundays ago a family with three little kids came stumbling in late. People hollered hi during the service, happy to see their angelic faces. One of the little ones shouted, “It’s my birthday. I’m five!” Spontaneously the little church broke into a rousing chorus of happy birthday. The family glowed as the little girl relished the special spotlight during the service. Totally unscripted.
Totally undoable in a huge hall with 2,000 eyeballs concentrated on an elevated platform.
The contrast of these two communities is obvious. And it begs a host of questions, far too many than my humble article can address. So I’m picking one, and that is size.
Does size matter and should it?
Marketing guru and human behavior expert, Seth Godin, wrote about Dunbar’s Number in a recent blog post. Dunbar’s Number is a theory that was introduced by British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar. He theorized that human beings have the capacity to socialize with a group of people of no greater than 150.
Citing Dunbar’s Number, Seth Godin writes:
You might be able to stretch to 200 or 400, but no, you can’t effectively engage at a tribal level with a thousand people. You get the politician’s glassy-eyed gaze or the celebrity’s empty stare. And then the nature of the relationship is changed.
The power of small(er) is getting more attention in the last several years. Author Malcolm Gladwell put out a superb book called The Tipping Point: How Little Things can make a Big Difference. I agree with the premise of the title, and I bet the mom of the five-year old birthday girl would, too.
On my bookshelf I have a little red book aptly titled, The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make all the Difference (by Linda Thaler and Robin Koval) They write,
Getting noticed in a meaningful way is less about the grand gesture and more about the small, thoughtful things we do every day.
This sounds like common sense, yet let’s think about these concepts, about the power of small and of Dunbar’s Number, in the context of the size of a faith community.
If church is meant to be a community, a society of friends who have a common mission of discovering Jesus and revealing Jesus to those around them, then I cannot understand how it is that so many pursue the three B’s with a supersize mentality (buildings, budgets, and butts!).
The metaphor of small is not foreign in the teachings of Christ. When telling his followers how much faith they needed, he used a mustard seed as their measurement. That’s about the size of a poppy seed in case you’re not up on your mustard seed knowledge.
And kids? Let’s remember that Jesus paid great attention to the smallest and least noticeable members of the culture – the children. He forbade anyone to keep them away. His willingness to welcome the most insignificant citizens of the towns and villages tells us not only how much Christ valued children, but how small was was not small in his eyes.
Even his own social network was relatively small. Jesus did not set out to start a mega movement and neither did the early church fathers and mothers.
I”m not proposing the house church model as the ideal size for a faith community. But I am saying that I’m in agreement with Dunbar’s Number. Churches that let themselves become huge, bulging overcrowded congregations have created a space that requires a tremendous amount of energy (and staff and budget) that actually detracts from meaningful social connection.
I’ve gone to big churches before. I’ve been wowed by the spacious hotel-like foyers and sprawling campuses that offer a myriad of classes, events, programs and outreach. I’ve gotten caught in the swirl of activity, thinking how great it was that my church was doing so much to help people towards a greater knowledge of Christ. But then, like waking up from a fairy tale spell, I realized – I am not really known. Oh, a handful of co-volunteers from various ministries might know me in a shallow kind of way, and same for me with them. But who knows me? Or my family?
I am in danger here of going on a tangent about church-centered community life rather than communit-centered church life (hear the difference?) so I’ll rein this back in.
Church. People. Relationships. Size…yes, it does matter. If you want to be known and to know others in a spiritual fellowship than size does matter. That is why small is the new big. This is why social and business tribes are replicating quickly while mega-giant corporations are falling hard. And it’s also why, in my unscientific estimation, that mega will become megadinosaur while micro will inherit the earth.
Pam
Jack White of the White Stripes wrote a :50 sec song that sums up what you’re saying
Well you’re in your little room
and you’re working on something good
but if it’s really good
you’re gonna need a bigger room
and when you’re in the bigger room
you might not know what to do
you might have to think of
how you got started
sitting in your little room
It’s amazing to me how some people just don’t get it. The “missional” churches that spend 100K on equipment…seriously? Yet, I know it’s true. This is mostly why I shunned the term “missional” a while back…it had been hijacked by people tho believed it meant candles and goatees and church in a warehouse…who still spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their facilities and staff. That’s just attractional with different clothes on; there’s nothing missional about it.
this is so interesting…this taps into what society deems a “successful” church. i was listening to dallas willard recently who talked about how the success of pastors has become what the size of their congregation is, as opposed to how they are helping the poor, are they working with their community, are people getting healthy…success for a church in our culture, whether they consider themselves “missional” or not, is how many people they can pack into a pub, school, church building, etc. which is really unfortunate. this thinking is what makes the celebrity pastors untouchable by their congregation and churches focus on programs as opposed to people.
clarification: i would like to say i am not dissing large churches. i think we, as a community of “believers” need to not knock other churches — how can we be a complete body if we are constantly trying to cut the left arm off? the body should function as a whole and move in a way that builds muscle and strong bones in the body. if we are constantly tripping the right or left foot, we won’t get anywhere.
Good article, Pam. I’ve passed it along to some friends with BIG “missional” churches just to piss them off.
Kevin, I adore Jack White’s voice so you referencing a White Stripes song is so awesome. I will look for that song in our music collection. (My husband, who is an audiophile, has a large music collection that he downloaded onto our hard drive. In this case, size sooooo does matter! )
Hey Erin, seeing your comment here reminds me of how much you and I think alike and that I MISS YOU!!!!!! It is just wrong that we haven’t hooked up for awhile. You. Me. Coffee. Soon. Ok?
Hey Crystal, you totally are getting into a vein that I would love to bleed out and that is the idea of success. I have a kazillion questions about this idea of success. I recently discovered that there are actually people who study the science of success. Crazy. I hope to read up on this and crank out some writing about it. Success is so overrated in some ways, and yet underrated in others. But when it comes to faith communities, well, totally seems overrated…or maybe that’s not the right word. And yes, though I am clearly critical of big churches it does invite some examination. Like when is BIG too big? Is big ever ok? Does size matter to God, small or big? Can a church be too small? When is doing church BIG the wisest missional approach?
Obviously I have more to think and write about on this…I want to hang with you and Betty Lou first but not until my h1n1 is TOTALLY gone! I’m on the upswing, but still a littel eh…love you!
Chad, you are a trouble maker. I knew it the minute I met you in Boise! Thanks for spreading the word. I’ll give you proper notice that next time I’m in Boise…and by the way, the taping I did of you is stuck on my windows computer. But Jerry just downloaded Windows 7 for me so hopefully I can “unfreeze” it and get it edited and finally posted. You did such a great job with that interview. I’ll let you know whenever it happens. I’m gonna make you a star, baby…but a small one. Just to keep it real. And missional.
I love Chad’s comment.
Pam… Keep stirring it up, girl! You make us think.
Erin, I’m with ya, except I don’t want to give up on using a word that means what I want it to say, not what they want it to say.
Chad, I kinda think I could like getting to know you!
Pam, I recently unplugged from a church of about 40, because, in some ways, it is too big to be what I am looking for–intimate, personal, and safe. Sorry to say, just because big makes it hard to be missional, being small doesn’t necessarily help.
Crystal, you make a good point–somehow we need to bless the good in each other, even though there seems to be blessed little to bless some days. Many churches seem to be tripping themselves without needing anyone else to do it.
Nice
Pam, I love your eye for the unnoticed!
Good thoughts. Important ones. I’m intrigued these days by larger churches like Francis Chan’s in So. Cal. who are intentionally working on building a church without buildings (as they refer to it). Size usually happens around a rock star (or two), and I don’t know that it can be avoided in our consumer oriented culture. If a church grows beyond the 150 mark, how does it intentionally spin off another community? If it is growing because of the rock star pastor, nobody wants to leave him. A new community may not feel like the old one. There are interconnected webs of relationships that simply cannot be torn apart to plant a second community. Small groups that have intentionally planned on this strategy have, for the most part, experienced this difficulty.
So what is the answer? I have no idea. Growth is what living things do. How you manage growth is critical to the life of the organism/organization. I’m sure some really smart people have written books about this, but I haven’t read any of them.
Smart questions Randy…a few years back we attended a very small church that shared “rent” in a building with another church. Neither churches owned the building, but our church was so small and had so little, we were taken in by this other church. For me that was one of the best experiences ever. Pretty much everything that was there was borrowed or donated, but it was an experience like no other. I can remember the babies and kids actually getting up in the middle of a message and walking across the small room, or talking to the speaker! sometimes people would get irritated at this, but it was really such a gift. This was a vineyard church, sort of an emerging vineyard church. Then we moved to the country and went to another very small church that was completely different in denomination and look and EVERYTHING, but the thing that remained the same was the level of intimacy. There was nowhere to hide…we couldn’t get lost in the crowd. People knew us, and we knew people, and we experienced more of God’s love expressed in the most surprising of ways than we ever would have imagined. The thing was, these congregations did not grow. I don’t know why…they just remained very small, so there was never the worry of having to branch off, etc..makes me wonder WHY there was no “growth”??
Seems like a “both/and” scenario more than an “either/or”. I think the issue is gospel health not size. If a Christ community is transformative because Christ is center then it doesn’t matter if a church is large, small, beautiful, tattered, used, abused, rich, poor, nigerian, french or whatever the external assessment or worldly success benchmarks it achieves. Is the community growing, maturing and most importantly pleasing to God? I have seen many small churches make excuses as to why being small makes them less accountable, organized, lacking leadership development, clear discipleship pathways and ultimately make the mistake of spiritual pride by thinking smaller communities are more spiritual. I agree much with what Crystal said… we are called to be “for” other churches more than anything. Romans 8:23
In response to Shaun: I agree with you in theory and in the lofty grand scheme “it doesn’t matter if a church is large, small, ….”. However, I think many of us have seen the that it often is too easy for a larger church to get caught up with BBB growth (buildings, bucks, & butts), and less involved in affecting their particular world. (It looks like the church you are on staff with could well be different. That would be a good thing.)
While we all see that these should not be the primary goals, we have all seen places where that is the case. However, not only large churches can be guilty–small wannabe bigger churches can get sidetracked from their calling to follow Christ. I suppose at the heart of the issue is ‘What are we here for?’
My personal experience has been that individuals from smaller groups are more inclined to actually be missional in practice than individuals from larger churches–and it’s individuals that are doing the work of the kingdom.
That being said, individuals need to be part of a group in order to best be the body. So, I still believe in the concept of church.
Pam, I’m definitely oriented towards small for all kinds of reasons but Randy’s question about managing growth got me all worked up. I’ve been managed before in a church replication scheme and its no fun. It got me thinking about how Jesus managed the crowds. He made no attempt to harness the masses or organize anything. Sometimes he would just disappear. He seemed more concerned about working with the 12 and few others. It’s certainly not our style.
I think our current model of church requires us to ask management questions. Would we be asking the same questions if we had a different model or perhaps none at all? When I figure it out I’ll let you know
Two and one-half years after I said “yes” to Jesus, God moved me from a church of 150-200 people to one easily 10 times as big. I loved the foundation laid for (and in) me in my early days with the Lord. I also loved going to a larger church if only because the sound of that many voices raised in loving adoration to the Father feels like you’re in Heaven, surrounded by angels. Holding that precious picture close to your heart, it was a standing joke that if anyone was meant to speak with someone else at church it would only happen by divine appointment. Then, add to the mix that I was “plugged in”, drawing close to a small group of believers who, 18 years later, I would across the globe to get to if they needed anything.
I’ve heard many people say that big churches are great for those who prefer no accountability. The thing is, unless you’ve been sorely damaged by those who claim to be the Lord’s, you can find fellowship anywhere: a mega-church, a small church, a home church, even with much-loved believers who live far away and with whom you can only connect via phone call and e-mail.
So, does size matter? To some, yes; to others (like me) not so much…. God, and His love and grace, can be seen, felt, enjoyed and experienced, anywhere, as long as we’re open for it.
Keep on encouraging us, Pam! We all love to hear about the heart of God, as filtered through your loving eyes and words.
All of Heaven’s best to you and yours,
Margret
Love…love…love it!!! Reminds me that Jesus impacted the vast majority of people “outside the temple” — one on one.