Two Excuses...

I have heard spoken and expressed by many small churches in my experience two particular excuses when it comes to why they don't feel they need to grow in numbers.

Before I go there, though, one brief statement.  Numbers themselves are not the final be-all and end-all of a congregation.  Just because you can fill the pews 3 times every Sunday and twice on Saturday and boast a membership of thousands does not mean that you are a good church and have it all together when it comes to doing what you're supposed to do.  There's a lot more to being a "good" church than just numbers.   This is a topic for another day, but I just wanted to state up front that numbers are not necessarily the goal of a congregation.

So, that said, what are those two excuses.  First, the one that I think is definitely legitimate and important.

Church X down the street has a membership in the thousands.  That's fine for them.  But we most certainly are not Church X.

This is VERY true.  First of all, when churches compete, the Kingdom loses.  It should not be the goal of one church to out-do another, nor should it be the goal of a church to try and take membership from another.  When comparisons between congregations happen, this is inevitably the result.  So Church X has larger membership?  Big deal.  The point of being a bastion of the Kingdom in the community is not to compare yourself with other gatherings of the faithful but to be faithful yourself.

The danger, though, is when we use this same statement to stand off and just do our own things.  "We're not church X" turns into "They're big enough, they don't need us to be involved" or, for that matter, "They're big enough, what can we possibly add?"  Congregations are not intended to be insular, I believe.  If you look at Paul's letters and other stories from the book of Acts, different congregations were always reaching out to other congregations.  They shared the letters around for one thing.  They sent money to each other.  They shared ministers, sending guys like Paul, Timothy, Titus, etc., to other gatherings to help share their talents, strengths, gifts and abilities.  So Church X is big.  Well, that doesn't mean they necessarily have all the talented people.  You may have a "star" of the faith in your congregation that you can share.  Or the reverse.  Or, perhaps, your congregation is too small to have certain kinds of ministries but Church X has them.  Should we stay separate? I don't think so.  Nothing says anywhere that churches need to stand on their own.  Why not volunteer with a ministry at another congregation?  If your congregation doesn't have the funds, means, or resources, why not help out at another congregation?  This does not mean you need to leave your home congregation, it just means that congregations can help other congregations because, after all, even across denominations, we're all one Kingdom, one Body and confess to One Lord.

Secondly on this excuse, someone pointed out to me the concept of the body of Christ in a slightly different bent.  First of all, within a single congregation, there's a diversity of gifts and talents and such that makes up that particular body.  And that combination of gifts, talents, abilities, strengths, experiences, passions, etc., creates a kind of DNA for that congregation (concept borrowed from Ed Stetzer).  So, each congregation is going to have a slightly different DNA and so each congregation is going to have different characteristics that will lend themselves to different patterns of growth.  In the larger context, to go along with what I stated above, this means that combinations of congregations make a kind of Kingdom DNA for any given community.  The combination of fellowships and churches make for a unique mix that, in their combination, do a wonderful work of God in the community.  When those churches remain separate, though, the Kingdom is incomplete and God's work cannot proceed as well.

So, this first excuse is over all pretty good.  It acknowledges the differences in congregational DNA, it acknowledges that it is not a spirit of competition by which we are to live but a spirit of unity, and it opens up the doors of diversity so that churches can share resources and we can lift each other up in our communities.

Now, the second excuse, though.... I have a bit of a problem with it.

I think it's just fine for us to stay as a small congregation.  After all, it isn't size that matters.

As mentioned above, the second part of that statement is, in part, true.  Numbers is not what matters, really, when it comes to congregational health.  A large congregation is not the same as a healthy congregation, nor is a small congregation a sign of an unhealthy congregation.  However, consider this:  What is to be the mission of the church in the world?  Is it simply to maintain the status quo?  Are we supposed to protect our traditional congregational setting and family atmosphere?  Is our goal to make sure that we provide stability, constancy, and a historical presence?

I don't think so.

We are to go and make disciples.
We are to do greater things than Christ did.
We are to "draw all men to Christ".

Now, does this mean we're always going to be successful?  No, I don't think so.  There are a lot of other factors involved, primarily the idea of human free will where people choose whether or not they will follow Christ.  So, the efforts of the church may be in good faith, but if there is a spirit of resistance in the community, things could be a little more difficult.

Even if the congregation is not actively out canvassing the neighborhood, specifically with evangelistic activities aimed at "converting" a lot of people, one item of evidence in the New Testament is that, when the church is being the church, the church will grow numerically, not just spiritually.  Taking care of each other, taking care of the community around them, showing love to all, living up to a different standard than the rest of the world...all these things cause people to sit up, pay attention, and start asking questions.  And coupled with prayer and bringing God's Spirit to bear means that the Kingdom will grow.

So, why is it acceptable, then, if the congregation doesn't grow?  Again, remember, numbers aren't the goal.  But in some sense, they are kind of like a temperature gauge of the health of the congregation.  If there is godly, Kingdom-centered work going on in the congregation, if the people are living it out in their communities faithfully, if they are interacting with the world around them, being salt and light in their communities (and not just sitting comfortably at home), then the church would be showing a good "temperature" by actually seeing growth in numbers.  People would be drawn in, wanting to see what these Christians are all about.

But if a congregation is fighting among themselves, if they are insular and sitting comfortably in their pews, if they look askance and sideways at people who are "not like us", if they choose to act at a distance giving just their tithes to the congregation and not getting their hands dirty, if they aren't relating to people as Christ related to people, then the temperature will be bad.  Either the church will stagnate and not grow or shrink, or the church may even shrink as congregational members start seeking places where they can actually feel like they are working for the Kingdom.  Read the letter to Laodicea in Revelation 3.  Or, for that matter, there are a number of such letters in Revelation.  Or, read 1 & 2 Corinthians, realizing that these are letters written to a church that need a LOT of correction... and when the first one didn't work, Paul had to write the second one.

Does this mean that, automatically, your church will explode into a mega church if you start doing the right things?  Not at all.  Again, there are a lot of factors that contribute to church growth.  However, the excuse is not valid.  I can't find anything that says that it's well and good for a congregation not to grow in numbers or at least try.  I find the opposite.  Where the Spirit is moving, the church grows, sometimes in large numbers ("and thousands were added to their number that day") sometimes in small bits and pieces.  But the church is always growing and has, as it's goal, to bring all humanity to Christ.

So, the question I leave you with is this:  If your church is not growing, why?  Is there something that is unhealthy in your congregation that is getting in the way of the Spirit?  Is there an attitude of "good enough"?  Is there some barrier in the community that needs to be covered with prayer?  Do you need to look at your DNA again and figure your shape so you can be the most effective?

But please... no more excuses.