How big should a church be - contrarian view

Whenever I look for ways to improve spiritual vitality of a church, I find most of the links move me toward size growth. One approach even teaches you to "launch large." Megachurches get all the attention, and seem able to attract the remnants of small churches as they dwindle in size.

With so much emphasis on size, what is the value of smaller churches? Do they have a future?

Richard H Bliese says that small churches - rather than a relic of the past - are especially valuable in a post-modern culture. He says that small churches "can go places and risk ministries that larger churches would find undesirable or impossible." They can operate on the margins, to be bold, to be nimble.

Bliese suggsts we must abandon traditional ideas of what church is and redesign around relationships. It will need "meaningful worship, worship in which people sense God’s presence and grace-filled activity." It also needs "meaningful opportunities for building and practicing Christian fellowship."

In short, small churches have a continuing role in the kingdom. They must of course be willing to step forward. In many cases, small churches like being small, they are comfortable being comfortable. But for the church willing to stretch themselves, they can find areas of need in the margins. One local church here holds a weekly lunch for the workers in the adjacent industrial park. A few others pass out day-old bread or open a clothes closet. Some coordinate local participation in national charity events.

And help the out of touch and unchurched find community and hear a Gospel in their own non-church language.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to spend more time being relevant than maintaining the structure of a large organization. Start by reading Richard Bliese's article.

Builing missions awareness through "recycling"

One World Running is a charity that collects gently-used running shoes and "recycles" them by shipping them to those in need in the United States and around the world. It's especially poignant when a shipment goes to a country where shoes of any kind are hard to get.

Their model is to hold a 5k race where they ask the runners to leave their shoes at the finish line, to be cleaned and shipped with the money that was collected as an entrance fee.

The organization is not a faith-based cause, but only a humanitarian charity "promoting an awareness of health, fitness and nutrition." But there is no reason you could not partner with them. Make it a missions emphasis by taking Matthew 25 as your theme, and use some of the fees collected for missions and some for shoe shipping. At the awards gathering when it's over, talk about running the race with your best effort, about finishing, about staying faithful and providing a model for others to follow. (2Tim 4:7)

(You might also want to mention that no person is worthless, without use. The shoes that are too beat up to be suitable for shipment are sent to Nike in Beaverton , Ore. , through Boulder 's Eco-Cycle program, to be ground up and made into running tracks and playgrounds through the Reuse-a-Shoe program.)

When you do this, be sure you invite the local media, and give a press release to both Christian and community radio and news outlets a month before, so they can schedule themselves to attend. If they don't come, make sure you take some quality photos and write a "results" article with pictures. Giving the media advance notice will help them help you advertise, to gain a larger crowd. Because the purpose is not just to raise money and gather shoes, but also to have yet another opportunity to present the Gospel.

To quote Upward Basketball's motto: "It's not the shoes, its the souls."