I’ve been fascinated over the past season as I’ve listened to people thinking through what church is, what it was, and what it should be. I’m up for the chat by the way. I think it’s important that we continue to think through who we are, how we engage, and where God is leading us.

However, one of the interesting things that have popped up (again) and something i am less up for, is the debate about Big church vs Small church.

For reference, by big or small I simply am referring to gatherings, which in all honesty isn’t the mark for me as to whether a church is big or small but that’s for another post. However for the sake of clarity I think this is the best way for us to talk about it.

I, along with my wife, lead a relatively large church in comparison with others in our vicinity. There’s been a few times over this period where I have been asked by church leaders, and others, whether COVID has shown us that ‘large church’ is now dead, and it’s time for the micro church to rise here in our context. At the same time I have also talked to my friends who lead smaller churches. They have shared their struggles around being small and how COVID has made it so difficult for them to function on so many levels. Their deepest desire is that they would be larger and have the resource to do all that they would like to.

So what is it? Is there a perfect size?

When it comes to large churches we can easily fall into two traps. We often glorify them or demonise them.

We glorify them by thinking that because they have grown and are seen as successful that their leaders and teams must be more gifted than anyone who leads something smaller. Because they often have more exposure than other churches we somehow feel they are more important and we need to listen more to them than that church down the street. We feel they have limitless resources and that life must be easy for them. If we are church leaders we can often have an unhealthy desire to see our church become like these large churches.

On the other hand we often demonise them because we feel that they have become ‘all about the show’ and have forgotten about the ‘real’ people. We can feel like the pastors of these are more like small time celebrities than true pastors of the people and that often there focus is more on the polish than the real stuff of the gospel. We maybe feel that their goal is world domination and that these ‘businesses’ are less about Jesus and more about the world around them.

However, when it comes to small churches we can also easily fall into two traps. We often romanticise them or criticise them.

We romanticise them by believing that because they are small that they offer depth and ‘real’ discipleship. Because everyone has a job, and more ownership of the church, we believe that this is definitely the way it should be. You can turn up and everyone knows your name, you can really journey with people. It’s about deep conversation and connection rather than the shallow show across the road in the amphitheatre.

On the other hand we can be critical of them because they haven’t grown….so maybe they are doing something wrong? Do they not have faith for growth? Do they not desire to reach their community and change the world? Is God not blessing them with more people because they are small minded and have no bigger vision?

You can add your own comments on top of these quick thoughts!

The reality is that none of these positions are helpful. Size is not really an indicator of health on its own. A church can grow for a healthy or an unhealthy reasons and it can become smaller in the same way. Its leaders can be brilliant or not regardless of the number of people they see on a Sunday and their faith cannot be measured by their attendance.

Is there a perfect church size?

Not in my opinion. I fully believe we need large churches, small churches and medium churches. Each has their strengths and each has their challenges. Each can be healthy or unhealthy but we need them all if we want to see people connect with Jesus and find communities to journey the adventure of God with.

Let’s not glorify, romanticise, demonise or criticise any church because of it’s size or shape. Instead let’s practise honouring and praying for one another as we seek to fulfil the Great Commission!