As I’ve reflected on the small church, I’ve arrived at a few conclusions.
1. The small church is here to stay. Lyle Schaller, in a recent Christianity Today article, defined the megachurch as one with over a thousand members. For every one Lutheran megachurch, there are 299 that are not. There are 199 Southern Baptist churches, 599 United Methodist churches, 99 Assemblies of God, 399 Nazarene churches, 249 Congregational and American Baptist churches, and 299 Presbyterian churches for every one church in each of those groups that has more than a thousand members.
The media would have us think that megachurches will render the small church obsolete. I doubt it.
2. The successful small church is not an imitation of the large church. I admire the megachurch leaders tremendously. Many are personal friends. They are people of genius, of multiple skills, of great energy and dedication. However, they are exceptions, not examples of normal church leadership.
We make a serious mistake if we suggest other pastors can do what the megachurch pastors are doing. One of the most disastrous management situations I know was caused by the founder of a giant corporation not realizing that he was a man of exceptional genius and that other people couldn’t do what he could do. These great leaders are to be admired but not necessarily emulated.
Big church practices are not always a healthy or practical goal. For instance, most megachurch pastors inevitably focus on management-creating the right atmosphere, positioning people, and allocating resources. In normal churches, that’s not the primary function of the pastor, who is called to spend time on ministry, not management. Where the leaders of small businesses or small churches understand and utilize their advantages, they can be very successful. Genuine ministry doesn’t require the superstructure of the superchurch.
As I’ve visited small churches, in none of the healthy ones are there any apologies for size or scope of program. They recognize they are a different organization altogether. While both they and the megachurch are under the Lordship of Christ, their functions and ways of performing are different.
3. Successful small churches emphasize spiritual vitality more than organizational activity. In larger churches, many pastors focus more on the vitality and liveliness of the programs. In healthy small churches, the programs flow out of the individual members’ vitality, and the pastors see their greatest responsibility as feeding the spiritual vitality of individuals.
The joy of the Spirit is not determined by size. Largeness does not augment nor smallness diminish the possibility of joy. There may be more “excitement” in a large, dynamic organization, but this is quite another thing than spiritual joy.
4. Sermons in small churches can touch people more directly. Recently I visited with ten pastors in a small-group setting, and our conversation was much more personal and, I believe, more significant than my speaking to a thousand pastors at a national conference on preaching. I could read their faces, hear their questions, and address the personal problems much more specifically.
This is also true of the perceptive small-church pastor, who has the opportunity to tailor-make each sermon for the individuals in the congregation, rather than create a sermon that must fit the circumstances of thousands.
My wife, Mary Alice, is great in planning family dinners. We don’t have to beg anyone to come. I discovered her secret was not only that she’s a good cook but that she conscientiously discovers each person’s favorite foods and tries to have at least one favorite-salad, meat, vegetable, dessert-for everyone. I doubt guests would be as anxious to come if Mary Alice served only her favorites.
Like cooking, preaching can be especially effective when served to smaller numbers.
5. There is power in the few. After watching a number of effective small-church pastors, I realized they weren’t so much “leaders” as “coaches.” The best coaches work with a relatively small group. Vince Lombardi of football fame never had more than fifty or seventy-five players in any one year. Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys worked with less than a hundred. John Wooden, the basketball legend, had fewer than fifty. Christ had only twelve as his core. Great coaches do more than win. They personify the spirit of the sport and a system of approaching life, which they then impart to their players. Teams need not be large to be great. Their coaches understand the importance of focused effort by a few people working together.
Such, too, is the power of the small church.
– Fred Smith
Leadership Fall 1991 p. 86-7
Copyright © 1991 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
