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DOES SIZE MATTER? PART 2 OF 2

by Jeffrey Hagan  
9/15/2014 / Christian Living

Introduction:
In this second part of our short series addressing the issue of there being nothing wrong with a small church or ministry as long as it's healthy, let's start by taking a look at what advice can be given to help a church or ministry go from small and struggling to small and healthy, small and stable, and small and creative.

As I'm sure you already know, or can at least imagine, there are as many suggested methods to do this as there are churches and ministries. However, there are some universal points as well. If there's going to be any hope of turning a small, struggling church or ministry into as mall, healthy church or ministry, there is a necessary point that can't ignore be ignored.

The Point: Stop considering being small a problem that needs fixing.
This seems easy, and maybe obvious, but it's easier said than done. It requires a completely different mindset and might be more difficult than many of us realize. Especially since many of us are probably not consciously aware that we've been hanging on to this thought all along. It's easy to say, "numbers don't matter," but it seems everything gets measured by numbers and growth.

The main problem with small churches and ministries in not that they're small. The main problem with them is that we think they are a problem, we think something must be wrong with them. Small is not the same as broken or ineffective because small itself is not a problem. It is the idea that being small is a problem that is actually the problem.

When we start off assuming that being small is a problem, it does some negative things:

-misapplication of resources
-chokes out creativity
-devalues leaders who operate best in smaller settings
-overvalues management, administrative, and business gifts, while undervaluing the
very shepherding gifts we are called to exercise
-we aim for false "success" and are blinded to true success
-etc...

On the flip side, what would happen if we all joined together and took the point above to heart and stopped considering being small a problem? If this false premise were burned in a trash heap like it should be, ministry leaders of all kinds, denominations, and non-denominations could move on to dealing with other legitimate problems together. We could continue on with all sorts of ministry that honors God, affirms life, and shows love to people. We could:

-locate, create, and share new resources to help small churches and ministries get
healthy and stay healthy
-find ways that churches and ministries of all sizes can minister to people of all types
-figure out how to plant smaller churches and ministries that fly "under-the-radar" into
unchurched areas perhaps hostile to Christianity
-become more open minded to styles of church and ministry that only work in small
settings
-spend less money, time, emotions, and energy on trying to grow churches and
ministries that were never meant to be big
-put to use strengths and gifts of leaders who function better in smaller, more intimate
settings

There are so many other things I haven't even included. Time and space does not allow for more, but these suffice to get us thinking. What kinds of things do you think might open up to us if we took this all to heart together.

We are at the point of asking what a healthy small church or ministry should look like.
So, what's the next step? Specifically, if churches and ministries can be small and healthy, what are the ingredients that make them healthy?

This is a fair and important question and just as there's a universal initial step towards health, I think there are a group of universal ingredients that define a healthy small church or ministry. I believe there is also one foundational principle operating as the base of them all. This will be looked at in a moment.

Characteristics of a healthy small church or ministry
What exactly does a healthy small church or ministry look like? Well, it looks like a healthy big church or ministry, at least in all of the ways that matter.

A healthy small church or ministry is not just a miniature replica of a healthy large church or ministry. Pastors who attempt this are usually focusing on external things, and it doesn't work when that is done. But under the surface, every healthy church or ministry looks the same regardless of how big or small it is, what style of worship it uses, or what denomination it does (or doesn't) belong to.

The principles that make big churches and ministries healthy are the same ones that make small churches and ministries healthy. And the same mistakes can ruin that health as well. So the characteristics of a healthy small church or ministry are the characteristics of every healthy church or ministry. But, just what are those characteristics?

Pick a model, any model, but please do pick a model.
One of the essential principles to having a healthy small church or ministry is to decide on what model you are going to use to become what God has called you be be. Or, put another way, every church or ministry needs a plan. I don't believe there's only one correct plan for all churches and ministries. As long as the model that is used is based on the fundamentals that Jesus gave us specifically The Great Commission and The Great Commandment. Within those parameters, each church or ministry should find and use the model that works best for them. But I do think it's necessary to pick a biblically based model and stick to it.

Thankfully, a lot of this work has already been taken care of. There are some great models to help a church or ministry understand what a biblical approach to ministry looks like. I saw an online example of the Natural Church Development model which is based on an extensive study by Christian Schwarz that was done to find out the characteristics all healthy churches have in common. He discovered the following eight characteristics:

-empowering leadership
-gift oriented ministry
-passionate spirituality
-functional structures
-inspiring worship services
-holistic small groups
-need oriented evangelism
-loving relationships

Any church or ministry that has all of those characteristics in balance would clearly be a healthy church. The most popular and probably widely used model has actually been around for centuries, but was brought into play again when Rick Warren used it as the outline for his widely popular book, The Purpose Driven Church. It's a model I've seen expressed in many different ways over the years. Most commonly I've seen it expressed as the acronym W.I.F.E. (worship, instruction, fellowship, and evangelism). But Warren's model consists of the following five characteristics:

-worship
-discipleship
-fellowship
-ministry
-evangelism

Any church utilizing all of these characteristics in balance would clearly be a healthy church too. UNLESS...

Why we do it is as important as what we do.
Unfortunately, while those lists are what we say we want for our church or ministry, too many leaders have a hidden agenda behind them. I know, because it use to be true of me as well. We don't actually say it. Many of us haven't even admitted it to ourselves so we might not even be aware we're doing it. But I'm going to go ahead and restructure this list and show you the hidden agenda that often is at work behind the scenes of each of these points:

-worship: so the church will grow
-discipleship: so the church will grow
-fellowship: so the church will grow
-ministry: so the church will grow
-evangelism: so the church will grow

Any church, or ministry, that exercises those characteristics along with those motives behind them, will NOT be a healthy church or ministry.This is true regardless of how well they do them.

But why is that agenda such a problem? I mean, we want the church to grow don't we? Of course we do. The reason it's a problem is because why we do things matters. In fact, it matters more than what we do. For example, why do we worship? Is it so there are more people filling up the seats in the church on Sundays? Or should there be a much deeper purpose than that? And if we're not doing it for the right reason, can we really consider it
worship? It is extremely important, especially in leadership, that we do the right things for the right reasons. This is true because "the wrong reasons can turn right things very wrong, very easily" (Karl Vaters).

Do the right things for the right reasons.
So, it's time to ask, what are the right reasons to do the five characteristics found on the Purpose Driven Church list? Or the eight characteristics on the list from the Natural Church Development research, or however many characteristics are on the model you find and decide to use? The reasons should look something like the following:

-worship: to tell and show Jesus how much we love him and how thankful we are
-discipleship: to teach us doctrine and help us become more like Jesus
-fellowship: to increasingly love one another
-ministry: to meet the needs of each other and the unfortunate
-evangelism: to share God's plan of redemption with others

Doing the right things for the right reasons produces healthy churches and ministries, even if it doesn't always produce large churches and ministries although there have been MANY large ministries built on the right reasons. Don't get me wrong, I am not against large churches and ministries in and of themselves. If doing the right thing for the right reasons results in a mega-church or mega-ministry, then more power to them. If we lead the church the way God intends and for His purposes, sometimes it will result in numerical growth and sometimes it won't. But it will always result in growth within the kingdom of God and that's what really matters.

What about you? Have you ever found yourself doing the right things for the wrong reasons?
I think we all have.

What now?
Too many church and ministry leaders spend far too much time doing too many things that aren't necessary for an effective, healthy church or ministry. But what are the necessary characteristics of an effective, healthy church?

I've got some great news. I've come across the absolute defining list of what is necessary, which I'm going to share with you in a moment. Before I do, let's cover a few things that aren't on the list:

-a church or ministry does NOT need to be large to be effective
-a church or ministry does NOT need to be small to be effective
-they do NOT have to have a mission statement to be effective
-they do NOT have to have a choir or worship team to be effective
-they do NOT need suits, ties, and dresses to be effective
-they do NOT need casual dress to be effective
-they do NOT have to have small groups to be effective
-they do NOT have to have a website, facebook page, or twitter account to be effective
-they do NOT have to have a building to be effective
-in fact, they do NOT have to have a pastor to be effective (there are plenty of effective
house churches out there)

Priorities:
None of the things listed above are wrong. Many of them, perhaps most of them, can make a good ministry even better. Churches where I've been on staff have done, or still do, many of them. But they're not essential, we are talking about necessities. When we start thinking these things are essential we start becoming obsessed over them which results in an "our way is right and other ways are wrong" mentality. We start wasting time, money, and emotion on them. We argue over them and alienate ourselves from other believers because of them. And, we start neglecting real needs because of our infatuation with non-essential issues.

What are the essentials?
Surprisingly, there are only two essential characteristics for a church to be effective:

First, people who authentically love Jesus Christ.

Second, people who authentically love each other.

Anything less than this is not church or ministry, and anything more is merely personal preference. No personal preference is worse than any other, unless it pulls people away from either of the two above essentials. And, no personal preference is better than any other, except to the person whose faith is nurtured and strengthened by it.

Conclusion:
The problem with our personal preferences is that we really do prefer them. In fact, sometimes we prefer them over the actual essentials and attempt to protect them with all of our might.

It's too easy to let non-essentials take over in our lives, churches, and ministries. The danger isn't really that we'll fail, but that we'll do the non-essentials so well that we'll treat them as a substitute for successful, effective ministry.

Maybe one of the main priorities of a church or ministry leader is, or should be, to not let our guard down in the battle to keep the non-essentials from choking out the essentials.

By Jeff Hagan, DCE, DMin, (ThD)

Jeff Hagan is the President of True Grace Ministries and Theological Institute. Interested? www.preacherjeff45.wlxsite.com/truegracetheolgical

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