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Success in God’s kingdom was never about the numbers, and it still isn’t today. God is already at work in your small church, and the best thing we can do is open our eyes to see it. When small churches focus on who’s not coming, we miss out on what God is already doing.
This post is for you if you’re …
- feeling a little beat up or burnt out
- tired of trying ideas that don’t work
- wondering where to find some help for small churches
Hope For Small Churches
Last year I opened an email from a pastor’s wife. She said she was in tears while going through our free 5-Day Challenge To Do Small Church Better.
Her husband, who pastored for 40 years, had recently retired. She explained that throughout all of those years, they felt like failures. As they moved from one church to another, faithfully pastoring, they never grew a church to the numbers they thought were successful.
In their eyes, they were the reason the church was not growing and they were not doing enough.
Processing through our 5-Day Challenge, what brought her to tears was realizing they were just like Jesus.
They had not served in vain; God was not disappointed; they had not failed at all. They served faithfully and loved fiercely –– just like Jesus.
We are missing so much of what God has for us if we continue to measure a church’s success by the number of people who attend. This is not the way of Jesus, and in fact, it’s not biblical at all.
The Problem With Studying Church Growth
My pastor-husband mentioned years ago that he was running into an increasing number of pastors with seminary degrees in church growth. He also noticed that pastors with degrees in church growth didn’t seem any more successful in growing churches than anyone else.
We’ve seen this truth throughout a few decades in ministry: You can do everything right and not grow a church.
Growing a church has nothing to do with the pastor’s preaching, the amazing worship, or even a good children’s ministry. I truly believe some of the best preachers on the planet are totally unknown to you and me! Some of the best worship teams and children’s ministry leaders are in the smallest places. God has them scattered all over, serving His people wherever He sees fit.
God doesn’t reserve all the best gifts to only bless people who go to mega churches –– that is not who God is. God’s church isn’t contained that way.
Why The Church Growth Mindset Can Be Dangerous
Some people who hold onto the church growth mentality, thinking there is a secret sauce to growing a church, quote from the book of Acts a bit. The phrase often repeated is, “God added to their numbers daily.” They teach that as God’s design for every church.
According to them, if we are faithful, our churches will grow. And this is a fabulous example of taking verses out of context. Acts 2 says that God added to their numbers daily. It doesn’t say that they did everything right, so people came. It said that God did something miraculous, not us.
“If we do it right we will grow” is a dangerous belief because it makes the growth about us, not Him. This belief is not taught in scripture anywhere.
In fact, the Bible is filled with the opposite: faithful people struggling.
The Ministry Of Jesus Didn’t Model Predictable Church Growth
Let’s look at Jesus’ ministry. On multiple occasions, thousands came to see Jesus preach. Of the 5000 people who came to listen to Jesus on a hillside, how many stuck around and joined His church? Not too many.
And when people didn’t come back, what did Jesus do next? Did He stop serving? Stop teaching? Stop healing? Did He stop to question whether God had actually called Him to do that work? Not at all.
Did Jesus grow a church? Nope. Not on this planet. He was persecuted. Spit on. He was abandoned. So why do we think it should be better for us?
Jesus had 12 friends. Twelve people followed him throughout His life on Earth, but in the end, even they abandoned him. So should we consider Jesus a failed ministry leader? Not in my book! He changed the planet by discipling only a few people, and He is our example.
Yes, we are called to share the gospel, to love God, and to love others.
Church Growth & The Biblical Measure Of Church Success
If we can’t measure church success in numbers, how do we measure it?
The Bible gives a few clues about how to know we’re on the right track. A big one is the fruit we produce, not in numbers, but in character.
Are you full of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and gentleness? Are you actively living in and feeling God’s presence in your moments? How are your relationships? Are you growing in compassion?
This is a tougher thing to measure and a tougher thing to do! It’s a daily grind of discipleship. If ministry flows out of your own discipleship, it has the potential to look very different.
It’s a lot easier to think of ways to grow the church than it is to truly live out our faith.
Externalizing our Christianity is so much easier to measure: doing tangible things to physically see the results of our labor, counting the number of events, the number of people, and measuring our time. We, humans, love numbers. We measure physical growth in meters or feet, bank accounts in dollars, and academic success in percentages. But as much as we like to measure success in numbers, it’s not how God designed His kingdom.
In fact, if we keep trying to measure our ministry success in numbers, we’re setting ourselves up for one of two things: pride or failure.
Try On Micah 6:8 As A Measure Of Ministry Success
Micah 6:8 says, “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
How’s that for a measure of success? Straight from scripture, God calls us to do three specific things.
- Act justly
- Love mercy
- Walk humbly
These are the lessons for a lifetime of practice. God placed us on this planet to be a light, to show His love, and to spread the good news.
If You Feel Like A Failure, You Act Like A Failure
I’m incredibly sad when I talk with people in small churches who feel like failures. Because the only thing that results from feeling like a failure is dimming the light God created in you to shine.
If you feel like a failure, you will act like you’re a failure. You will speak like you’re a failure. You will think like you’re a failure. If we’re focused on why we are not growing, we literally cannot embrace what God has right in front of us. We are blinded in our muck.
On the flip side, if you embrace the gifts God has for you right now in your church as it is, it is such a different ministry walk. Yes, even in the smallest of churches, God is already at work. In fact, He never stopped working.
But you have to be present to see it. You have to choose it.
Shift Your Perspective To See God At Work
If you want to make this shift in perspective, to see God at work instead of wondering why He’s not, here are three things to practice:
- Imagine differently.
- Abide in Him.
- Open your eyes to what He’s already doing.
When you focus on what’s not happening, it blocks your vision to see what God is really doing.
If you want a kickstart on making the shift, sign up to receive our free 5-Day Challenge To Do Small Church Better. It’ll walk you through a few scriptures, some questions to ponder, and a few responses to take.
Each one of us and each one of our small churches are like links in a chain, a part of a much greater story than the local church we’re in. His church does not rise and fall on your talent, your effort, your faith, or your failures. God’s the one holding the universe together, and Christ is the head of the church.
Small churches have unique gifts to offer that megachurches do not:
- A place to be seen: where every individual can be seen, known, and loved.
- A community that needs your contribution & your gifts to thrive: a place to be significant & make a difference.
- Relationships across generations: where mentoring happens & people do life together.
Our Call: Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly
Whether your local church has 20 active members or 200, stay faithful and love. This is a journey for a lifetime with Jesus.
Yes, the church has a long way to go in being perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect. We all need to continue to grow and get better at loving, forgiving, dealing with conflict, supporting others, and allowing weakness. But as we grow and grow up, let’s not allow numbers to distract us from the deeper walk of discipleship and community that God desires in our churches.
Remember our call in small churches is not to imitate large churches, but to imitate Jesus.
Read More
How To Create An Amazing Ministry Team Notebook
How do I receive 5-Day Challenge To Do Small Church Better.