The Size of the Dog in the Fight

Mark Twain said something like, "What matters is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog." There is a lot of wisdom in them there words. This is important to remember in a "bigger is better" culture that we live in (especially here in Texas). This is also true when it comes to churches. A bigger church does not mean it's better.

Churches of more than two thousand average attendees represent less than half of one percent of all churches in America. Yet, these mega-churches are often held up to be the models of ministry for all churches. I received an invitation by email to attend a church leadership  meeting sponsored by the Leadership Network (http://leadnet.org). I went online to register for the event only to find out that I could only attend the meeting if I directly worked with a church that averages over 1000 in attendance). Excluding those of us that work with churches of smaller sizes is an indication of how small churches are undervalued and underestimated.

Large churches enjoy the benefits of having more resources, but smaller churches have strategic advantages in the areas of authenticity, discipleship, evangelism, leanness, inter-generational ministry and leadership development. By their nature, small churches are more intimate and developing a sense of community comes more naturally. To capture some of the benefits of small churches, some mega-churches have opened up satellite churches.This "multi-site" approach has become more popular for mega-churches than building larger buildings to house all of their congregation under one roof. The multi-site approach enjoys the resources of a mega-church and the advantages of smaller congregations.

Data that supports the theory of a small church advantage is largely anecdotal because these advantages are harder to quantify. However, the qualitative data is present in the stories of thousands attending small churches. Although, there may not be sufficient data for me to proclaim here that small churches have significant advantages over large churches, I can say without hesitation that being small in size does not have to be a hindrance. The strongest endorsement of small over large church sizes is in the very real effort of large churches trying to emulate the the small church experience through small groups.

If you are aware of quantifiable research in the area of this discussion, I would be interested in examining it. 

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