Small churches ( Part 1)

“Dealing with the Spirit of Inferiority” 

Revelation 3:7, 8

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”: I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name."

We live in the day of the Mega Church. They have the large buildings, the kickin’ praise band, the larger than life ministries, the huge staff, and so many people that you hardly get acquainted with any of the folks that attend. The Mega Church is not your norm in America, but everyone seems to think that their model is the thing that we should pattern our church after. In fact we often feel inferior because we cannot match them in numbers or finance.

We have come to a place today where we think the church has seen its best days behind them. Most barely scrape by financially, hoping for volunteers and praying for people to be faithful. So many wish we could be just like those other churches that have the staff, the fiancés, and the large groups of people. But let me tell you here and now that the average church in America today only runs about 80 in attendance. So what that means the size of the church is no excuse for not doing and being the best that we can for God. 

So let me say something here:

-Small Churches are not wrong, broken, sinful, or theologically incorrect.

-We are not prayerless, faithless, lazy or old-fashioned.

-We will not automatically grow as soon as we fix what’s wrong, because there’s nothing about being small that needs to be fixed.

-Small Churches are not the best way to do church – we’re just the most common way. Big churches aren’t better than Small Churches, but Small Churches aren’t better than big churches, either.

-We are not closer to the New Testament church model than our big church counterparts

-It’s not about big or small. It’s about big and small.

-Being small is not an excuse to do church poorly. 

-While many small churches may not be able to afford a lot of things they’d love to have it cannot stop us from being everything Jesus has called us to be.

-We cannot wait until we grow to do what Jesus is calling us to do right here, right now.

-A local church doesn’t need to be big to do the Jesus stuff well and the Jesus stuff is the only stuff that matters anyway.

When we say, “We are just a small church…” our tone often implies a sense of weakness or inability, but there is nothing “little” or “insignificant” in the kingdom of God. In fact there are still people who want to be able to talk with the pastor, know other folks in the church, and cultivate relationships that will help them spiritually.