In Addition To “Why Is Your Church So Small?” We Need To Ask “Why Do We Want It To Be Big?”

By far, the most common question I’m asked about small church ministry is “if your church is healthy, why is it so small?” It’s a valid question, for sure. But recently I’ve started responding with a question of my own. Namely, in addition to asking small church pastors “why is your church so small?” shouldn’t we also be asking pastors of larger churches “why is your church so big?” If numerical church growth was as automatic for a healthy church as their question implies, why do we need so much help for churches to get big? Shouldn’t getting healthy be enough to bust through those growth barriers all on its own? Of course, we all know that bigness requires much more than health. It requires a relentless, purposeful push for size. Yet, as hard as we work at getting our churches to grow bigger, why have so few of us ever stopped to ask “what are the advantages of a church being big?” And is it really worth all the time, energy and money to get there? As much effort as we expend on increasing church size, the advantages of bigness should vastly and obviously outweigh the advantages of smallness. Yet they don’t.

May 18, 2018

by Karl Vaters

By far, the most common question I’m asked about small church ministry is “if your church is healthy, why is it so small?”

It’s a valid question, for sure. But bigness requires much more than health. It requires a relentless, purposeful push for size. Yet, as hard as we work at getting our churches to grow bigger, why have so few of us ever stopped to ask “what are the advantages of a church being big?” And is it really worth all the time, energy and money to get there?

As much effort as we expend on increasing church size, the advantages of bigness should vastly and obviously outweigh the advantages of smallness. Yet they don’t.

Author

Karl Vaters

Karl produces resources for Helping Small Churches Thrive at KarlVaters.com.
He's the author of five books on church leadership, including his newest, De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What's Next. His other books include The Grasshopper Myth and Small Church Essentials.
Karl also hosts a bi-weekly podcast,The Church Lobby: Conversations on Faith & Ministry, featuring in-depth interviews about topics that concern pastors, especially those who minister in a small church context.
Karl has served in small-church ministry for over 40 years, so he speaks and writes from decades of hands-on pastoral experience. He and his wife, Shelley have three children and two grandkids.

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