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Is there a Medium-Sized Church Crisis?

Orginally published on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 8:36 AM
by Todd Rhoades


Adam McLane thinks that he sees a trend with the current economic crisis. He thinks that the economic downturn is changing church size; and that large churches and small churches are doing ok; but that medium size churches (he doesn't say what size he considers that to be) are quickly turning either small or large. Here's his diagram:



Do you see anything like this happening in your area? How do you think the current economic crisis will effect church size, if at all?


This post has been viewed 865 times so far.


  There are 14 Comments:

  • Posted by Ron Fischer
    Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 9:52 AM

    I am not seeing this particularly in our area, I think the larger challenge is how “medium” sized churches can move to “larger” sized churches and what are the challenges of that stage.

  • Posted by
    Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 9:53 AM

    Bigger churches are struggling more financially because their year end givers who only give once a year were impacted.  As far as growth, churches that are hopeful are growing.

  • Posted by
    Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 10:24 AM

    It sounds a lot like the concept of the middle class being eliminated as people either become rich or poor with the economic turmoil.  The notion of a massive, stable middle class is something that only recently happened in the 20th Century, and I think that churches also emulated this from their roots in large cathedrals or house churches. 

    --
    CS

  • Posted by Chris Jane
    Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 11:05 AM

    Large, medium, small; all churches need to be good stewards of the tithe and offerings that God brings in. It may not be more important in an economic climate like this, but it is certainly not any less important.

    For the seven years of it’s life, our church has capped any current year’s budget to no more than 90% of the previous year’s income. That action has proved to be even wiser this year!

  • Posted by Adam McLane
    Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 2:51 PM

    Wow, so cool to see my diagram here at MMI!

    The intent here is merely that the current economic situation we are experience is creating MORE of a need for medium churches to choose their future. They seem to be trending towards becoming a megachurch (1000+ in weekly attendance) or to sub-divide into smaller, more efficient models of ministry. (Multi-site, house churches, etc.)
    The intent of the diagram isn’t really about giving or intake of cash… it’s that both megachurches and small churches can operate more efficiently that a medium church.
    I’m not presenting the diagram as gospel either, it’s merely a trend I’m seeing from the people I know. Big churches getting bigger, small churches getting more effective, and medium churches make big choices about their future.

  • Posted by Mark Robinson
    Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 12:38 PM

    Several years ago I came across the statement: “Too big to be small and too small to be big.” I think this statement has direct application to the issue of church size. My observation is that there seems to be a trend of people moving towards either larger churches, upgrading to benefit from what they perceive is superior programming, or towards smaller churches, where a person can become more relationally connected. I don’t know if this is as much a function of economics, as it is a reflection of consumerism.

  • Posted by Lukewarm Christianity
    Friday, February 13, 2009 at 1:02 PM

    I would have thought that the smaller churches would be worse off. So many startup churches are forced to close because of their difficult financial situations.

  • Posted by Peter Hamm
    Friday, February 13, 2009 at 3:38 PM

    [Bigger churches are struggling more financially because their year end givers who only give once a year were impacted.  As far as growth, churches that are hopeful are growing.]

    This is one of those reasons why I’m glad that our church actually doesn’t take a collection on Easter and Christmas. That way we rely more on tithers than tippers.

    I have no idea why (I have to give credit to God), but we are not yet seeing the pinch that others are seeing. Soon, I bet, though…

  • Posted by
    Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 12:48 AM

    We aren’t feeling it either.  Actually, we are seeing more people coming to church because they are seeing that they need God through this.

    We are small though.  I know a church that is 10 miles up the road and I think they are feeling it a bit.  They are a medium sized church.

    They are in the middle of a building program and the building is sitting half finished because they’ve run out of money.

  • Posted by Jon
    Monday, February 16, 2009 at 8:47 AM

    Adam - nice diagram!  I didn’t read your original post, but your comment makes a lot of sense.  When I initially saw Todd’s post I was going to say something very similar.  I think there are very few churches that have found their identity in being medium-sized.  I don’t think that has anything to do with the economic crisis, but you may be right that the economic crisis puts more pressure on all churches (medium-sized included) to choose their future, and the end result may be even less medium-sized churches.  The question is, what is a medium sized church?  Bigger than a house-church but smaller than a mega-church?  Or, bigger than a community church, but smaller than a mega-church?

    Thanks for your thoughts - I appreciate your insight!

  • Posted by
    Monday, February 16, 2009 at 9:25 AM

    I believe that this trend has more to do with whether the pastor is listening to the Lord.God has called pastors to study the Word of God and prayer but many have neglected this and have chosen to get busy with work such as things that their elders should be doing. Churches that become mega churches become mega churches because they learn to release others and delegate their time.

    However, I do believe that the economic situation has caused many to become hungry for God and the churches experiencing God in His fullness will grow because the Holy Spirit grows the church. The problem comes in when leaders make poor decisions regarding financial decisions. One of the greatest moves that I am seeing right now is multiple ethnic church services in one facility and purpose driven facilities where a facility is used for church services, rented out as community meeting places, and so forth.

  • Posted by Adam McLane
    Monday, February 16, 2009 at 9:53 AM

    @jon- in the comments of the original post I gave some ballpark numbers. Of course, contextualize them as mega in SoCal may be different from mega in Georgia or Vermont… for simplicity I called small under 200 in weekly attendance, medium 201-999, mega as 1000+. This is attendance, not membership. (Been to churches with weekly attendance around 100 but membership of about 2k!)

  • Posted by Brian Kluth
    Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 12:09 PM

    I am preparing to do a nationwide survey on what is happening with church giving and what churches are doing about it (http://www.kluth.org/survey.htm).  Regardless of a church’s size, it needs to become proactive on how it will inspire greater generosity in the future.  Here’s a link to the 50 BEST PRACTICES TO INCREASE CHURCH GIVING: http://www.kluth.org.org/solutions.htm

  • Posted by sskk
    Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 7:33 PM

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