There’s a lot of debate about small churches and megachurches lately. I loved Carey Nieuwhof and Karl Vaters’ recent podcast discussion on the topic.
For us at The Unstuck Group, the issue at hand isn’t whether or not a church is small; the issue is whether or not a church is stuck.
Karl’s church is by most definitions small, but he has a strategy to do ministry outside the walls of his church that isn’t focused on getting people to attend a Sunday morning service. If the church grows in attendance, so be it, but if it grows in health and effectiveness by living out its mission in their city and the Gospel spreads, that’s his true measure of success.
He’s not stuck, even though his church is small.
On the other hand, many small churches are stuck, and I think every pastor knows the difference if he’ll pose the question to himself and answer it honestly. We talk about helping your church grow in healthy ways because we know it’s about so much more than just attendance. We want to see people and churches operating more like Jesus.
A healthy church body sees fruit, in both great quantity and quality. It produces healthy disciples, and the Kingdom advances.
A stuck church, whether it tracks 200 or 20,000 on its attendance log, is an unhealthy church. Symptoms eventually surface and draw attention to their underlying diseases. That is why healthy growth is so important.
If you are a pastor of a smaller church and you want to see it grow — both in health and in numbers of people reached — join me and some friends for a free webinar on Wednesday, May 13 at 1 p.m. EST. We’re going to help you pinpoint where the problem might be so you can figure out how to start getting unstuck.
Register soon. Space is limited. DID YOU MISS THIS EVENT? You can watch the recording on YouTube:
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