Small Church Ministry
Most churches in the world are small. As many as 90 percent are under 200, 80 percent under 100.
Is this because the pastors of those churches haven’t mastered church growth? Or could there be other factors at play here?
These are valid questions, but they have surprisingly ...
Today's article was written by Bernie Harding, the community pastor of Peel Elim Community Church, where her husband is the pastor. Peel is a town of 6,000 people on the Isle of Man. Bernie is responsible for running the community centre, kids church, some evangelism projects, ...
There are a lot of small churches in the world.
By most estimates, over 90 percent of churches are under 200, and over 80 percent are under 100. In fact, it’s not unusual for half of the congregations within a denomination to have 50 or fewer people in attendance.
So why ...
The body of Christ is made up of many parts.
Various denominations, liturgies, styles, and sizes.
And nowhere is that variety more evident, more delightful or (let’s be honest) more frustrating than in the amazing menagerie of small churches.
Big churches matter. Medium-size ...
Small churches and their pastors seldom get the credit they deserve.
Including from small church pastors ourselves.
Yes, it’s true. Often the biggest critics of small churches and the people who pastor them are staring at us in our mirror.
What Am I Doing Wrong?
Too many small ...
Why are most churches small?
The common wisdom is that they’re stuck. They’re broken. They must be doing something wrong. If they’d get their act together and fix what’s wrong, they’d start getting bigger.
Certainly, all of that does apply to many ...
The typical church has about 75 attendees every week.
So if you pastor a small congregation, your church isn’t broken, it’s what’s known as normal. And normal doesn’t need to be fixed.
But for the most part, the books, conferences and classes about pastoring ...
There are a lot of small churches in the world. Over 90 percent of all churches, by most counts.
Yet perhaps the most common moniker used for small churches isn’t
- Small and normal
- Small and commonplace
- Small and typical
- Or even small and holding strong
It’s small and struggling.
Small churches are not better than big churches. Big churches aren’t better than small ones.
The arguments we have about size are silly, dangerous and missing the point.
Everyone has something unique to contribute.
As for small churches, here are some of the most undeniable, ...
There are healthy churches of all sizes.
In recent years there’s been a renewed emphasis on defining health numerically. But that’s not the only way to measure church health and effectiveness.
In my previous article, Effective Small Church Metrics: Why Average Results ...
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