“I’m a Fan of Keeping the Church Small”
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, February 16, 2009
- Viewed 104
- (21) comments so far
[HT: The Dallas News Religion Blog] What do you think?
What do you think of this quote by Kirk Anderson, the pastor of a small church in Arizona...
"I'm a fan of keeping the church small. We're a relationship-based church, and I like to commune by name."
Comments
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Warren on Mon, February 16, 2009
People are misunderstanding the question. When I see things like “What if he/she preferred that there was no room in God’s family for you because he/she wanted to know everybody by name?” I realize there’s a problem with people seeing the difference between a local church and the universal Church as the body of Christ.
What the quote is talking about it keeping local churches small while growing and planting new churches (rather than just building bigger buildings). Nobody is saying that we need to limit the number of people getting saved.
Personally, I think jud has the right idea. Healthy churches reproduce - if we believed this and practiced it, we wouldn’t be building new sanctuaries, we’d be planting new churches.
Matt Perkins on Tue, February 17, 2009
Alot of people are going to be ticked when they get to heaven and realize that it’s not a small group. I’m just saying….
Warren on Tue, February 17, 2009
A lot of people are going to be shocked when we get to heaven and don’t need congregations and pastors to minister to us.
I’m just saying.
jud on Tue, February 17, 2009
I was shocked when I talked to a “regular” at the last large church I attended and discovered he was a Zen Buddhist who loved the fact that the Jesus he found there could co-exist with his practice of Buddhism. It woke me out of the stupor I was in for sure. When you move away from preaching repentance and dull all the sharp edges the illusion of growth and progress are almost guaranteed.
Of course not all large churches have become dens of compromise and pragmatism. There are tremendous large churches.
Peter Hamm on Wed, February 18, 2009
Warren,
I agree, and think it’s because in heaven, everybody will be a minister… kinda like the church is supposed to be on earth.
Jud,
Just because you have somebody who is “a Zen Buddhist who loved the fact that the Jesus he found there could co-exist with his practice of Buddhism” there doesn’t automatically mean that the church preaches that the two faiths can co-exist. There is a certain amount of responsibility never taken by the hearer that comes into play. In my last church I had just such a person, he conveniently ignored a lot of what was preached and said basically. But we didn’t kick him out.
Judging a church’s beliefs and practices by what one person in the pews believes, or even what many people in the pews believes, is problematic at best.
Sam C on Thu, February 19, 2009
My first response is “dude its not your church.”
My second response is well you can stay small and still grow in many ways. Lots of churches have plans to grow and then plant another church. Thats not a bad thing. I don’t think that’s what he’s talking about though?
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