Carey Nieuwhof is a name that is rising fast in the Christian blogosphere.
Seven years ago, Carey founded the fast-growing, multi-site Connexus Church (about 1,800 people) in the small city of Barrie, Ontario, Canada (population 128,000).
His primary blogging topic? Church growth.
I, on the other hand, have spent 22 years pastoring Cornerstone Christian Fellowship (about 200 people), a 54-year-old church in Orange County, California (population 3.1 million).
My primary blogging topic? Small Churches.
We were bound to butt heads, right?
If all you knew about us were the mini-bios I just gave you, it would be obvious where that butting of heads would take place. He should see me as a sad underachiever who needed his condescending help, while I would be looking at him with jealousy and/or ridicule for putting numbers first.
A Civil Conversation on Church Size?
Instead, here’s what happened. Carey and I had a couple conversations online after I wrote some comments on his blog about 18 months ago. He responded kindly and thoughtfully.
Then he wrote a post in which he quoted me. After that, we chatted about how to take this important conversation even more public, so he invited me to be a guest on his podcast. It came out today.
Click here to hear the podcast. Then take a moment to use his comment section to thank him for being open to have this conversation.
In the debate over church size, it should never be which size is best (though that’s the title Carey teases us with), but how can we all work together. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and.
So what do you think? How can big and small work better together?
We want to hear from you. Yes, you!
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