Where are all the great Small Churches?
Would you know one if you saw one?
They exist. There’s no doubt about that. There are great Small Churches in every country, serving every ethnic group and virtually every language. They worship in every imaginable style of music, and they meet in every type of building – including no building at all.
But let’s face it, while most of us may know of several good Small Churches, most people don’t know a lot of great ones. Some can’t think of one.
Many people don’t even realize that a church can be both small and great. That has to change. But there’s only one way to change it. We need a lot more great Small Churches.
This was the 6th most-read NewSmallChurch.com post of 2013. Click here for the entire Top 10 list.
We Can Do This
No more excuses. It’s time for Small Churches to become great churches.
Good isn’t good enough any more. And it will be less acceptable with every passing year.
If that sounds intimidating, it doesn’t need to. Your Small Church has everything it needs to achieve greatness right now. You don’t need to wait for permission, or even inspiration. We already have the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
Here are five principles any Small Church can use to achieve greatness.
1. Know that Small Churches Can Be Great
Perhaps the biggest impediment to an explosion of great Small Churches is Small Church pastors who don’t know their church can be both small and great.
Greatness is not about achieving epic numerical growth – it’s not about numerical growth at all. Some of the most rewarding and kingdom-growing worship and ministry experiences I’ve ever had have been in very small groups, including very Small Churches.
That can be your church. You don’t need one more person, one more dollar or one more square foot of building to start being a great church. Your Small Church can be great. You need to know it, believe it and act like it’s true. Because it is.
2. Great Small Churches Don’t Look Like Great Megachurches
People don’t come to a Small Church expecting a scaled-down version of a megachurch experience. They come to a Small Church for a great Small Church experience.
Yes, there are principles that all great churches hold in common. But a great Small Church is not a miniaturized version of a great megachurch.
A great Small Church won’t have a smoothly-paved, well-lit parking lot with parking lot attendants and professional signage leading families to hi-tech, age-segmented children’s ministries.
Mom and Dad aren’t going to be handed a cup of finely roasted cappuccino from a smiling barista in the church lobby, before being led into a thoroughly post-modern worship space with form-fitting seats.
The worship team won’t be playing original songs from their best-selling CD to tightly choreographed lights and video. The pastor won’t be preaching a thoroughly researched, edited and focus-group tested message, backed by perfectly timed, custom-made graphics and video clips.
There are a lot of great megachurches that have all that cool stuff. But that’s not what makes them great. And if you, as a Small Church pastor, try to duplicate that on your Small Church budget, you will fail.
Yes, I said it. Fail. I know that sounds like lack of faith to some people, but it’s not. Because failing at those things isn’t even the worst of it. The saddest part is that the time and expense you’ll waste trying to be something you’re not great at, will be taken from the things you can be great at.
Yes, keep the place clean and uncluttered. Strip off the 1980s wallpaper and slap a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Make sure the worship team and the pastor are well prepared. But put your main efforts into people, not programs. Friendliness, not facilities.
Give people the space and time to meet with Jesus.
Then do something Small Church pastors can do that megachurch pastors can’t do – hang out in the lobby after the service. Build relationships. Pray with and for people. Tell dumb jokes. Laugh and cry together. Let people know how much they’re loved. Be a church family.
That won’t lead you to greatness. That is greatness.
3. Discover What Your Church Can Be Great At
Every church is good at something. Most are good at several somethings. Any church can become great at the things they’re already good at.
Years ago, our church discovered we were good at a couple things: 1) Training and sending people into ministry, and 2) Re-churching the de-churched. So we decided to work hard at becoming great at them.
1. To train people better, we offer very thorough, note-filled, bible-based sermons, an internship program, music classes, hands-on experience and a lot of one-on-one mentoring & counseling. Then, as soon as people get great at doing ministry with and for us, another pastor calls up and offers to pay them to do that ministry in their church. We lose some of our best people just as our investment in them starts to pay off. And that’s OK with us. We miss them when they go, but we’re usually training someone else right behind them.
2. Knowing that we have a gift for reaching people who have fallen away from faith, we foster an atmosphere where people can ask the tough, doubt-filled questions they’ve carried for years. I acknowledge when the bible says weird things. We let them explore faith, doubt and the bible at their own pace. That takes longer than picking what some church-growth advocates call “ripe fruit”, but that’s OK. They’re worth the wait.
What we’re great at won’t be what your church is great at. You may not even know what you’re good at yet, let alone great. So do what we did. Start doing the basic bible stuff. Experiment. See what works and what doesn’t. We have 10 failures to every success. So we toss the failures and keep the successes.
4. Refuse to Settle for Anything Less than Great
This may sound like the same kind of pressure we feel at some church growth seminars, so before you grab pitchforks and torches let me tell you what I don’t mean.
I don’t mean that we should never do anything at a less-than-perfect level. As we touched on in the previous point, there are times in everyone’s life and ministry when you have to do things you’re not good at or comfortable with because they have to get done.
The key word here is “settle”. Do what you need to do. Including doing some things at a less-than-great level when needed. But never, Never, NEVER settle for “I guess that’s as good as we’ll ever get.”
Settling is like sin. We allow people to be members of our church who are struggling with their sin as long as they’re not settled in their sin. A person who struggles with fornication, but recognizes it as sin and is doing everything they can to fight it can be a church member (but not a leader yet). But someone who unrepentantly gossips will be denied membership. (Yes, I’ve actually refused membership to gossips.)
The first person’s sin may be greater in some people’s eyes than the second person’s sin – even though it’s not. But the size of the sin is secondary to the person’s acceptance of it.
The same goes for churches of any size. Any church that feels like they’ve “arrived” at their peak, then settles in, is not just settling, I believe they’re sinning.
Never settle. Always be content with how God made you, but always strive for more of that. That may be the very definition of greatness.
5. Keep Doing What Your Church Is Great At
Great things take time.
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell famously talks about the 10,000 hour rule. He cites very convincing evidence that no one ever becomes great at anything without putting 10,000 hours into it.
At 40 hours a week, that’s five years worth of full-time work. And in my experience, five years working well at what a church is good at is a bare minimum requirement for true greatness.
The hours alone won’t do it. Talent, gifting, circumstance and God’s will factor into that equation, too. But there’s no substitute for keeping at it. Day by day, week by week, year by year.
This is another reason to keep yourself from being diverted from what you and your church are called to be great at. Every hour you spend not doing what you’re great at, keeps you one hour away from reaching your 10,000 hours.
You and your church are great at something – or you can be. Stop trying to be like the megachurch you visited or read about. Don’t try to cut-and-paste anyone else’s template, including mine, onto your church.
Be you. And be great at it.
So what do you think? What does a great Small Church look like to you?
We want to hear from you. Yes, you!
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(Greatness photo from Darin McClure • Flickr • Creative Commons)
