What do smaller churches get wrong when they look at bigger churches?
From an article by the Affinity Network
In every generation, large city churches have set the example for smaller churches: Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Lloyd-Jones at Westminster, and Lucas at St. Helens. But today, to an even greater extent, large churches and their pastors impact decisions in churches all over the world.
Some of this can be an immense blessing. However, for all those positive stories, there have also been small churches whose members have become jaded trying to live up to a lofty standard.
What things do smaller churches get wrong when they look at bigger churches? Here are eight suggestions from Tim Wilson:
1. Searching for silver bullets
All Christians want to see souls saved so the temptation is to look for an easy solution. It’s tempting to believe that revival will begin if you only use this new programme. You’ve tried Purpose-Driven, Missional Communities, and Messy Church. None of them worked, but this new idea will. Usually pastors after a few years learn this lesson, but church members will still believe the secret is out there.
2. Copying the outcome, not the process
It’s easy to copy and paste ideas from big churches. But how likely is it that Tim Keller’s methods in New York would work in Nether Alderley? A better attitude would be to examine how Keller decided on those methods. In his church planting manual, he outlines how his launch group thought seriously about the people they reached before choosing methods. Copying that process in your area would be much more successful.
3. Burying your Talents
In the ‘Parable of the Talents’, my hero is the two-talent man. He may not be as gifted as the five-talent man, but at least he isn’t bitter like the man with one talent. As a church, accept that you are a two-talent church. You’ve not got as many gifts as a big church, but you’ve got exactly the gifts God has decided your community needs. Choose to invest those talents well, rather than long for more.
4. Reverse snobbery
An overreaction to our culture’s obsession with big city churches can be a reverse snobbery; It’s easy in big cities, They just steal all our young people. This competitive spirit helps no one. We need rural churches and urban churches, big churches and small churches. Take what you can from bigger churches, pray for their success and don’t give way to envy.
5. Playing 11-a-side with five players
You can’t play 11-a-side football with only five players. Yet often that’s what small churches do. Of course, you can’t run a youth work to the same standard as a church of five hundred. The numbers make a huge difference. However, while you can’t play 11-a-side, you can play 5-a-side. You can have two committed church members who pour their lives into ten kids.
6. Ignoring your peers
You may agree that you can learn little from big churches. Yet you never set aside time to learn from those around you? Have you ever spoken to nearby churches? For example, you could ask; What new songs work well for you? What resources are you using for your children’s work? What evangelistic events have captured the imagination? Find nearby churches of a similar size and theology and you’ll often get good ideas.
7. Despising the small wins
When a family business is counting their profits, they don’t compare themselves to Amazon. Yet too often smaller churches compare themselves to big churches. Zechariah rebuked the Israelites for despising the day of the small things, and we need that rebuke too.
8. Distraction from the centre
In the running world, there are many people who love to focus on the hacks. Buying an expensive watch, getting the perfect training plan and eating the right supplements. As good as this is, it distracts them from what will really make them faster: going out and going on runs! The power of the church is the gospel. Any truly successful bigger church (or smaller church!) will have this at the core. They will preach the gospel, pray with expectancy, and love generously.
Read the full article here.
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From an article by the Affinity Network, 14/11/2023