God Determines the Size of Your Church

We’ve all read the books and the blogs with the stories of church plants that grew from 1 member to 1,000 in 1-year. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but you know what I mean. There are tons of stories out there of extreme church growth, so much so that they drown out the stories of average growth. We consume church growth books like there’s no tomorrow, trying to not miss the next great wave or the great “aw hah” that will help us propel our churches from dozens of members to hundreds or thousands. I’ve spent countless hours online reading blogs and twitter feeds trying to figure out how to do what the successful guys are doing. Though I’ve learned a lot, I still have not found the magic bullet for making a church experience real sustained growth. I came to an important, liberating conclusion a few weeks ago that I’d like to share with you: God determines the size! We must remember that while there are scientific methods for growing plants, and even the human body, there is no scientific method for growing a church. Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 3:6 that only God gives the growth. In verse 5, he explains that we as ministers are merely servants through whom people believe, and the number of people who believe are given by assignment from God.


By no means am I discouraging evangelism and discipleship, I simply want us to understand that doing these things does not guarantee growth. Neither does a great children’s ministry, the warmest greeters, the best music ministry, or most catchy, relevant sermons and sermon titles.
I had a conversation with one of our members a few weeks ago. She’s probably in her very early 30’s and she previously attended the mega-church where I served as Youth Minister. We were talking about the church and the pace of growth (100 members in 21-months) and she made a comment that was shocking. She said, “I love our small church and I hope we don’t get big for a while.” She went on to say that she appreciated having a touchable pastor and congregation that knows her and notices when she’s not there. She also appreciates not being able to hide from serving in ministry. I realized after this conversation that some people need small churches. Could it be that God desires your church to be small to meet the needs of people who need all of the positive attributes that come with a small church? Have you ever stopped to think that people joined your small church plant, not because they wanted to get in on the ground floor of something big, but because they were craving something different than the mega-church in your area could provide? Maybe God has gifted you to be a small church pastor. It isn’t sexy and it’s not the thing that usually gets you invited to speak at conferences, but God isn’t judging you on the size of your ministry, He’s judging you on the substance of your ministry (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

If you’re like me, you’ve already tried dozens of things in an effort to get your church or church plant to explode. You’ve bought all the books, been to all the conferences, read all the blogs, and subscribed to the right twitter feeds, all in an effort to get your church or church plant to blow up. Are you tired? I know I am. It’s time for all of us to accept the fact that God Determines the Size!

God Does Not Owe You a Big Church

After sacrificing very good ministry jobs at mega-churches to plant a church, I thought it would only be a matter of time before God made the church that I pastor, a BIG CHURCH. It sounds ridiculous, but I know I’m not the only one. In addition, there are still tons of people who know me and my background who wonder “what’s the problem?” “Why hasn’t his church exploded with growth yet?” I’ve spent my first 21-months of pastoring either trying to prepare for a crowd or trying to figure out why the crowd hasn’t come yet. In the process I neglected the needs of the small number of people whom God had actually sent to the church. I have consumed myself with way too many church growth books, blogs, and conferences during my short tenure as a pastor. In hindsight, I should’ve been focused on growing myself as a Christian to be better equipped for the members that God has given me. At the end of 21-months I have accepted that fact that I may never preach to the large crowds that I ministered to as a staff member at the mega-churches. It is very humbling, but also very liberating. Now I can stop trying to figure out how to make our church the “it” church in our community and start focusing on true discipleship. I’ve come to realize that God doesn’t owe me a big church. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not the automatic reward or grand prize for being faithful in ministry.