I sometimes get asked whether I think there’s an optimum church size to aim for. My response is usually to the effect that there isn’t an optimum size. Some people are happy in and with larger church gatherings. There are benefits to this. It means that a preacher can open God’s Word with a lot of people, it means that the church has a lot of resources when it comes to care, discipleship, ministries and missions. I don’t think you can put a ceiling on that. Some have suggested that 150-200 is the ceiling because when you get to about that size, the pastor cannot know every member personally. However, I’m not so concerned about that where there is plural leadership. The crucial point is that the eldership/leadership team are able to know all the members well.
On the other hand, there are those who welcome the intimacy of a smaller, house church size gathering and whilst a larger church can provide for some of this in home groups, the reality is that these members will struggle with the main Sunday gathering. Additionally, from a strategic, missional point of view, it may make sense to quickly replicate and multiply these small gatherings with a level of interdependence together. So you have to work out what you are called to do and who for.
But there is a size of church that I would encourage you not to aim for. Of course, if you grow into a larger church then you will at some point reach this kind of size. The point is that you don’t design your leadership structures, ministry programmes and especially your buildings for it. This is what some people have referred to as “the awkward size church.” Now, some people with church growth commitments talk about it as being around about the 200 mark because churches struggle to go through that size barrier. However, in my experience, there is a different “awkward” size. It comes around about the 70-80 mark.
Why is this an awkward size? It’s awkward because at this stage, people are still in a situation where they expect to know everyone to the same degree but are finding that they cannot. This creates tensions. It’s awkward because if you’ve grown from a church plant then you are just about managing. You’ve reached the stage where you can just about fill all the rotas, so you don’t have the same people trying to do everything and you’re able to put together children’s work rotas with enough volunteers, though there will still be weeks when there are gaps. You’re able to have one or two musicians every week and increasingly able to put together a full band. You have a few leaders to share the load and keep one another accountable. Financially you are probably stable.
What this means is two things. First, it actually takes a lot of operational effort to keep things running. A pastor is increasingly having to do two types of role that in a larger church are split up. He’s doing the classical pastor’s role of preaching and visiting. He’s also having to do a lot more operationally, making sure things are going smoothly, the kinds of things that an executive pastor or operations manager would do. His time and attention are divided, he probably feels that he is at capacity but the church are not in a position yet to afford or justify an additional member of staff.
Secondly, it makes it harder for you to do anything intentional. Specifically, you may not be concerned about seeing this church grow any more but that doesn’t mean that you don’t want to see the kingdom grow. So, you want to church plant. However, the congregation can see comfort in sight, they remember what it was like when it was just a few of them, when the same people were running round like headless chickens trying to play guitar, lead the kids work, set out the chairs an preach. They don’t particularly want to go back to that now, they are still recovering from the stress and strain. But here’s the thing. If you do plant at this stage, then everyone is going to have to go back to that. In effect, you create two new church plants not one.
So, my advice is not to go for that kind of size and not to try and plant at that stage if you can help it. I think you have got two choices. Either you go for rapid multiplication through a house/cell/small church model in which case you are always starting new gatherings whenever you get to about 20 people or you go long and plan to plant when you are at around the 150 mark.
Faithroots 