Most Churches are Small…

Most churches are small. Here are the facts:

- Of the 380,000 churches in America, only 1500 are mega-churches (larger than 2500)
- Most of these mega-churches are in six major metro areas, with Dallas and Atlanta topping the list.
- 90% of churches in the world are 200 or smaller.
- 98% of Filipino churches are under 300
- Most churches that stop growing at 75 never reach another lost person, ever.

I am often asked if I think all churches can/should be big.
Depends on what “big” means.
        300 is big in Japan, not in Manila
        100 is big in Bangladesh, not in Nashville
        50 is big in Laos, not in Korea
        15 is big in Afghanistan, not in Nigeria

No, I don’t think all churches should/can be big. But I do think all churches can and should be BIGGER than they are right now. 

As long as there is 1 unsaved person in your family, in  your neighborhood, on your campus, in your office, in your city, then your church is not big enough and it needs to be bigger.
 

Big? Not necessarily.
Bigger? Absolutely!

Maybe we can’t all be big, but we can all be bigger. And we should all want to be bigger. We should all occasionally leave the 99 and go after the lost 1. Too many churches function as if the 99 are more important than the lost 1.

Warning: controversial statement coming…
Jesus seemed to put evangelism, not worship, at the top of the spiritual priority pile.

I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents (that sounds like EVANGELISM) than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent (that sounds like a CHURCH MEETING).    Luke 15:7

Wanna make heaven happy? Wanna please God? How about occasionally skipping the non-stop 24/7 worship/prayer/revival meetings that only involve the “99” and instead, engage your community and culture so you can find “1” who is not currently a “99” and introduce the “1” to Christ. 

That should ruffle some feathers.

Comments

[jason villacourt]

nice stuff... i'm new to your blog, but just wanted to say that i appreciated your writings, i've been reading through quite a few of them... cool.

-jason

Love the post on "size" Steve. It is true - JC said He would build the church, we are the ones to go. Funny how we get it mixed up. So much time goes into the "99" meetings vss the go-and-find. Example: It's only 2% of our awake-hours that is geared to a typical Sunday service time. We have 98% left to go... Ruffle away....

[Brent Garrard]

Love it....

[Frans Olivier]

Should we aim to be:
Big? Not necessarily.
Bigger? Absolutely
Biggest? Absolutely necessarily not

[Daniel Smart]

Great post. As someone who's carried the worship banner for many years I'd argue that worship is top priority, but that it's the long-game that counts.

i.e. more people worshipping God in heaven for eternity is more important than a few people just getting lost in worship now :-)

As Jesus said when teaching on worship, the father seeks worshipPERS.

[pageman]

The FIFTH "E" :)

[Gareth Lowe]

Great stats and great point. I will leave the worship vs. evangelism debate up to you and John Piper to fight out tho. Seems that Jesus, the early church and the Celts (eg Patrick and Aiden) got the mix right and had the greatest impact.

my point tho is that if Jesus told us to leave the 99 to find the 1, how more would He tell us to leave the 1 to find the 99?! This is exactly where I find myself in Berlin. Of a city of over 4m there are only 40 000 born-again Christians which is 1%. talk abt the importance of evangelism!

By extending this point from evangelism to missions i think we can make the case that maybe we should leave our "99" Christian countries and go to more of the "1" Christian countries - like secular Europe or Muslim countries?

tx for always focusing us on the harvest!

thanks for being honest and making me think deeper!