Served at a mega for many yrs. Then after equiping leaders and servants, God called me to a small-midsize church (250+). Here’s what I’ve noticed…

1) Overall attitude is TOTALLY different. In a larger “church”, there’s much more TEAM in everything, while smaller churches overall attitude is apathetic towards involvement and commitment.

2) Clarity of vision or lack of in smaller churches. It seems like every “gimmick” under the sun is talked about but action rarely gets done-talk is cheap, and people know that.

3) Lack of real authentic pastoral leadership. While you’d think as a servant you’d get pastoral care and guidance in a smaller church, what’s true is just the opposite. As soon as I arrived on staff at the larger church, I was “assigned” an overseer for my own personal life walk. I guess in the smaller church, the pastors are too busy, or maybe they figure I don’t need it (or worse yet, don’t want it-hey, I’m a person too). Contrary to belief, you shouldn’t get lost in ANY church, if it’s real.

4) Focus! With people on board with the VISION-MISSION-PURPOSE, it’s much easier. Ok, size doesn’t have anything to do with that…

5) Living as true examples - maybe it’s the “it’s all about me” attitude that keeps so many smaller churches from growing (and I’m not talking numbers-I’m talking about lives changed).

6) In smaller churches it’s so easy to call OUTREACH sending money abroad for ministry while your own community is dying. I had to contact another church in my town to do any kind of outreach locally.

7) Preach Pastor, don’t inform. It seems like with some smaller churches, nobody wants to “offend” someone by saying something that’s not policically correct. Pastor, preach something that’s going to hit my heart AND something I can LIVE out!. I’ve had enough of playing church-type sermons. Dynamic preaching (Ed Young, TD Jakes, Bill Hybals, Rick Warren, Tom Mullins, Eddie Long, etc...and I’ve served under one of them) is what hits everyone. THAT’s what people are drawn to, not a coffee bar.

8) Get the Holy Spirit out of the box! My observation with smaller churches is things are way too formatted ("we only have an hour so let’s get this done” mentality). If that means you’re lead to do an alter call and people come, so what if the next service is a little late.

9) Get organized-and STAY there. That’s much easier to do when you have a large base of servants, but it CAN be done no matter how many people lead.

10) Lead your leaders to LEAD. In a smaller church, it seems like the lead pastor sometimes thinks he is the only true called person that can ever lead anything. God places many people in place for specific reasons. Listen to God, then let Him do His thing. God equips many, and qualifies the called. Little is MUCH when God is in it.

Ok, most of these can go either way. BUT, if God is really IN it, does size really matter....? It seems to me what the REAL problem is no matter what size your church is, are you REALLY doing what God wants from His bride, or are you playing church and coasting? Time to fes up, church.

James 4:6 - But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourself before God, church, and HE will lead you towards righteousness.

Brian… I think my question was balanced.  I asked if it was a fair treatise or a whine session (David didn’t really have too much positive to say about large churches to say the least).

My only comment is that sometimes in a small church you are also a pew warmer.  I just wonder if the number of pew warmers (or, I’m sorry, seat warmers) are more only in the megachurch because there are more seats.

Do you see the slantedness of your statements?  The small church, to you, provides an opportunity to “connect to God’s people, and an opportunity to serve and give, and grow, instead of taking and consuming.”

That’s great… for you. 

But the supposition that most who attend large churches are ‘taking and consuming’ is what I’m questioning.  Remember too, that many people in large churches connect with God’s people, and are actively serving, giving, and growing.  The large church ALSO provides that opportunity.  Let’s not get hung up over size.

What I’m trying to get to is the overall attitude of the small church toward the large church.  In many situations, it appears that it is one of jealousy.  (I’m not saying that’s your take, personally) That’s what I don’t get.

Todd

I think the word “consume” has become a word with a completely negative connotation.  I think everyone “consumes"-- from people who like their small church, to people sitting on their butts in the back of the Mega-church everyone is consuming something.  I think whether people “sin” in their consuming is a different story.  Whether that happens is often dependant on how the church challenges the believers to live as bond-servants.  And to be honest the greatest servent is going to “consume” or reap benefits of being at their church and that’s not always “bad” or “wrong.”

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I think when it comes to church, the misssion is more important than the size.  The mission should always include growth.  When I say “growth” I mean spiritual growth.  Sprititual growth should always include numeric growth.  That is the great commision.

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Now, I do know of mega churches who have started and stolen 99% of their people, so that within months, they are huge.  And I wouldn’t say that they’ve done a great job at making new disciples.  The church that I pastor (on a team of 5 co-pastors) surveys the church every year and we’ve found that 50% of the people in our congregation were previously unchurched.  Still, not ideal, and yes we get some transfer growth, but many of our people are on mission for their friends and neighbors and I think that is what is important.

Todd, it wasn’t my intent to imply or state your question wasn’t balanced. It must have been your terminology that caught my eye.

You are right when you remind me that people can warm pews in small churches as well as larger ones.

But let me clarify some of my ‘slanted’ statements and then you can judge whether I’m biased or not.

Megachurches can do great things and use vast resources for the kingdom of God. People can plug into those churches and in turn, grow in their relationship with God because of some of those vast resources the megas have to give their people that smaller ones don’t.

Megachurches are reaching people who would NEVER step foot in another type of church.

But, some people do shop for churches, and while you can’t blame the megachurch for that mentality, it is an issue we need to consider sooner or later. I know people who go to church XYZ or church ABC because the singing is better, or the preaching is better, or the youth program has more toys to work with, or the singles ministry has more hot babes.

Now, to be ‘balanced’, you can have those rationales for the right reasons - mainly to honor Jesus or get closer to Him in your own walk - or for reasons that do not take Jesus into account at all.

I think Jesus wants us all to plug into some body of believers, where we can grow and become more like Him, and grow into mature believers who can get out and serve others and live our lives for Him, not for ourselves. For some people megachurches help them do just that. Others can do the same in a mid-sized church. For some people, small churches help them do just that, because they get lost in the vastness of a big church, and feel like they’re slipping thru the cracks.

Todd, your response helped remind me of a need for all sizes of churches in our culture.

As a church planter that is set to launch on this Easter Sunday all I can say is it takes all types and sizes of churches to reach different kinds of people. For me, larger churches are an inspiration. I find most arguments against megachurches to be completely unfounded. Every church has the potential of doing things wrong and right, regardless of size, but that doesn’t mean every church is. Instead of criticizing “potential” problems let’s praise “actual” results of large and small churches and thanks God for the increase.

Just a thought.

I think the “consumer” religious type hurts all churches, not just the ones they leave.

I used to be on staff at a small church (well, 250+) where a local big name church (Bethlehem Baptist Church - John Piper) built a satellite campus just down the street from us.  The fear was that we would loose people to this church, if nothing else because of it’s association with a big name preacher.  We did loose some people the first few weeks.  A number of them came back within a few months.  What we did discover was that while we lost some up front, we gained others as people would try that new campus out, and discover it was not what they were hoping for.  We were positioned to take in these families/people who didn’t want to be a part of a big church like that.  So in the end our church grew because a local mega church built in our neighborhood.

The thing we further realized is that only about 25% of the families in the area where our church was located were going to Evangelical churches.  Further, only 45% were going to church at all.  So there was ample market share even for a couple more mega churches to be built near us and not hurt our opportunity in our community.

Big Chris

I pastor a small church 150+ and have my issues with some aspects of the megachurch movement.

However… Pastor Charlton’s comments struck me as sour grapes. I don’t think most megachurch growth has been at the expense of the neighborhood church. The neighborhood churches were declining well before the megachurch movement hit. I think the megachurches have attracted many children and grandchildren of people who attend smaller churches. But the reason so many churches have been closing is because the same small group of people who had attended since the 1940s grew old together and eventually couldn’t sustain. That’s not a criticism - it’s actually a natural lifecycle if we truly believe churches are organic. It’s not fair to blame the megachurch for that.

BTW, consumer religion was not birthed by the megachurch. It is a virus that has infected us all and it was present in our congregations prior to the depart ure of anyone from any of our churches. If they didn’t have it, they wouldn’t have left. You can make the argument that it is the small church that give rise to the consumeristic tendencies.

You go Leonard, right on the money!

I pastor at a church that just barely qualifies as a mega-church by the common definition (2000+ per weekend).  A couple things jumped out at me as I read through this post and the comments.

First off, we never asked God for a big church nor did we really want one.  You could ask any of the pastors here and you’d get the same answer.  We went from 200 to 2000 in roughy five years.  If you had asked me in 2001 how many people would be coming around in 2007, I would have said we were praying for 500.  I say this because I wonder how many megachurches set out to be mega and how many (like us) just became megachurch despite themselves.

Secondly, we do an annual survey of our congregation and one thing we have learned is that about half of the people who attend our church had no church home before our church.  While that means that 1000 or so people are brand new, it also means 1000 have come from other churches.  It’s kinda the two faces of a fast growing church.

Thirdly, we don’t offer a whole lot more than most churches I know of.  We also don’t have “vast resources.”

Oh, and I hope no one throws any rocks at me for this one, but I’ll close with the words of Spurgeon:

“It has been noted that those who object to numbers are often bretheren whose unsatisfactory reports should somewhat humble them.”

Consumerism in a small church looks differently than a large church but it is still consumerism.  When someone says; I go here because I don’t like the parking at the big church down the street… or I go here because I want to feel like I know the pastor… or I go here because you sing hymns… I go here because you preach expository messages… I go here because it was too impersonal there, you talk less about money here, you work with kids better or worse.  We let people off the hook at the small church when they consume because they can make the reasons sound more spiritual.  It might be time to quite the “ big church feeds consumerism” and admit all churches feed consumerism. 

I have worked on staff at different size churches and the reality is that people go where they can feel significant or that something significant is happening.  People are drawn to experiences that matter. 

Studies have shown that the number one reason any person attends church is at the invitation of a friend or someone significant.  Why is it that small churches people do not invite others to their church.  My experience of 25+ years of ministry is that smaller churches program and speak mainly to believers while focusing on growing people deep in the faith.  (I am not saying this is wrong) Fast growing churches speak the language of the culture and develop ministries designed to reach people. 

Gotta go now, LOST is on.

I am currently serving in a small church (approx. 150-200).  The article did sound a little like public whining to me as well.  I attended a “mega-church” before coming to serve here and that church was very deep spiritually and actively tried to dissuade people who were coming from other local churches to not attend there, but to go back to their home church and work for change there.  Not all mega-churches are bad.