There are far more small churches than big churches. This has been true for all of church history, and it still is today.
But the number of people attending big or small churches is changing. According to recent stats, most American churchgoers attend a large church. As Aaron Earls puts it, “Most pastors lead a small congregation, but most churchgoers attend a large church.”
Approximately half of American Christians attend the largest nine percent of churches. One unintended consequence of this demographic shift is that, for the first time ever, the majority of churchgoers are not known personally by the pastor of the church they attend. And the percentages keep shrinking as the biggest churches keep getting bigger.
This is not good news.
“But does it matter if your pastor knows you, as long as you’re known?”
No. And yes.
As long as people are being discipled, it doesn’t matter who’s doing the discipling. It could be the lead pastor, a small group leader, the youth director, or a mature bliever with no title at all.
But let’s not pretend that the high number of churchgoing believers who aren’t known personally by their pastor doesn’t have any unintended negative consequences for the congregants, the pastor, and the church as a whole.
For The Pastor
Knowing a smaller percentage of congregants means a less personal, therefore less pastoral connection to the people you’re called to serve.
When ministry is seen more through the lens of corporate success than pastoral care, it’s much harder to maintain your humility and stay connected to nonprofessional believers.
Too many lead pastors and staff pastors live so deeply inside a professional Christian bubble that it distorts their view of church, the ministry, and ultimately of their relationship with God. Even your personal spiritual life can start to feel performative if you’re not careful.
It’s not impossible to stay humble and healthy in this state, but it’s much harder and takes more work than we may realize.
Certainly this disconnect can happen in a small church, but it’s harder to stay aloof when the average churchgoer has access to the pastor in the church lobby every week.
For Church Members
When you know who the pastor is but they don’t know who you are, your primary church experience can start to feel less like it’s built on relationships and more on receiving a religious product from a Christian celebrity.
Knowing and being known by your pastor raises the likelihood of biblical accountability, both for the pastor and the churchgoer.
Christians who attend healthy large congregations need to work harder at making and keeping the kind of personal connections that occur more organically in healthy small churches. Attending a small group and participating in a ministry team is essential in all churches, but especially in a big one.
If the only church experience you’re getting is in the main room, you’re not being discipled. Hopefully you’re being taught and you’re worshiping. That’s good, but it’s not enough. Discipleship happens in small groups. Get connected.
For The Church As A Whole
When the only connection most people have with the pastor is viewing them on a distant platform or a large screen, the manner in which the entire body expects to experience God becomes less personal as well.
This disconnect is self-perpetuating. It’s now built into the system. The effectiveness of our churches is based on metrics and demographics more than how well the pastor is actually pastoring people.
You Can’t Fix The Church Problems You Don’t Acknowledge
This shift from smaller to bigger churches is accelerating, and despite some interest in micro- and house churches, I think big churches will keep getting bigger.
So, how can we fend off the problems I’ve noted?
First, the trend toward multi-site churches is a positive one. When it’s done well, it allows the hefty resources of a large congregation, but the intimacy of a smaller one.
Second, we need to realize that the unintended negative byproducts of getting bigger are real, they’re significant, and they’re a natural byproduct of scaling up. You can’t have the good without the bad, and you can’t correct the problems you don’t acknowledge.
Finally, while there are positives and negatives to all church sizes, the constant insistence that bigger is better and smaller is stuck has to change. Treating big churches as an example to follow and small churches as a problem to fix will only perpetuate the dangerous divide.
Healthy small churches need to be appreciated, financed, and championed. They’re not a problem to be fixed, they’re a vital counterbalance to the distance that scaling up creates, reminding us that no amount of numerical increase will ever be an adequate substitute for the strong relationships we all need.
(Photo by Luke Jones | Flickr)
