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The following is an article originally written by Ed Stetzer for Outreach Magazine. RightNow Media is excited to work with Ed Stetzer on an upcoming project for pastors releasing in January 2025. We love Ed’s heart for the church and agree with his reminder in this article that small churches matter.
As I travel, I regularly tweet, “If you are pastor of a small church, I’d love to fill in for you this Sunday.” I’ve done it in Amsterdam, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and more. And I’ve loved seeing how God is working through small churches throughout the country and around the world.
Christians and leaders who are a part of small churches can sometimes feel like they are on the sideline of the mission, that larger churches are the ones that are really in the game. This feeling, however, doesn’t align with the reality of mission and ministry. According to one study, the median number for Sunday morning church attendance in the United States is sixty-five people. Seventy percent of churches average fewer than one hundred attendees.
The truth is, small churches have been the norm for most of Christian history. The megachurch is the outlier, a unique feature of late 20th-century Christianity in America. The bottom line is small churches have always mattered for the mission and God’s kingdom. And they still do.
Here are five reasons—among many others I could list—why small churches matter.
Jesus gave the Great Commission to the local church—to a group of disciples who would lead small house churches, and as I’ve already mentioned, the vast majority of churches globally and historically would be considered “small.” Additionally, in the language of the Great Commission we see the local church’s functions of discipleship in baptizing and teaching: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20a). So Jesus calls every church—and in fact every Christian—to participate in the work of making disciples. That includes small churches.
Here’s the through line: First, Jesus calls every local church to be the place where the Great Commission is fulfilled. Second, most churches are small. This means, third, that small churches must be a big part of Jesus’s plan for his mission. Jesus doesn’t look at the church growing throughout history and throughout the world and think, If only these churches were bigger, then I could really do something. Instead, he sees thousands—millions—of churches, and he sees them all as a big part of his design to reach the least and the lost.
A church that has dozens of people who attend every week rather than hundreds or thousands provides opportunities for those people to connect and grow in fellowship with one another. When people see the same people in weekly worship and at church events, they can develop friendships and deep relationships. Likewise, small churches rely on people actively participating in all areas of the church’s life, creating a sense of belonging. In a small church people can have a harder time thinking that they don’t need to serve, because they aren’t surrounded by a massive crowd. Then when someone does step into a role, they can feel like their contribution in the church really matters.
In some ways, small churches can function as extended families. Now, the words “extended family” can bring to mind the image of a weird uncle at Thanksgiving. But anyone who has an extended family network also knows how much it can provide a basis of support. In a small church, news about people’s needs “gets around,” and rather than devolving into gossip, such knowledge can lead members to care for one another. By virtue of the dynamics of their size, small churches present opportunities for community and care that larger churches must work harder to cultivate.
I mean this in two ways. First, small churches can adapt and pivot more quickly than a much larger church with more institutional infrastructure. Second, small churches tend to see people’s lives change in a greater proportion than larger churches do.
In terms of adaptability, small churches can respond to the needs of their community with speed and agility. Often larger organizations have bureaucratic processes that small churches have never accumulated. So small churches can pivot, launching new ministries to address emerging challenges. They can nimbly respond to specific needs in their neighborhoods in light of changing circumstances, addressing issues that larger churches might overlook.
Such flexibility for ministry and mission allows small churches to reach people with the gospel, serving them physically and spiritually. Research has shown that God usually uses smaller social contexts to bring about life change. Small churches have an opportunity here, because they can connect deeply with people in their community. For example, a few years ago I was a part of a research study on small churches that discovered something that might surprise many people: Small churches tend to experience conversion growth at a higher per capita ratio than larger churches. In many small churches, leaders are accessible and approachable, actively engaging with congregants regularly. This accessibility creates a sense of trust, as members feel comfortable sharing their concerns and prayer needs with pastors and other leaders. In small churches, pastors and other leaders can invest deeply in the spiritual growth of members because there are fewer layers of hierarchy. And members can invest deeply in one another. Such close connections between leaders and members can help build transformative relationships.
Too often we measure success by our cultural values. In the United States, we tend to value “bigger” and “more.” So American Christians tend to see big churches doing big things, and they value and celebrate them for that bigness. For example, megachurches can accomplish big things for the mission, sending staff overseas, resourcing tens of thousands, and more. We can celebrate these things while we also assess our cultural values in light of the full scope of reality. And here is the reality: most overseas mission work is done by groups and networks of small churches working together.
I work in a lot of large churches. Sometimes I tell them that the best thing that they can do is to stop doing mission on their own and start partnering with others. Most missional work is accomplished in “slices”—a small church takes ownership of one slice, another small church focuses on another, a mission board yet another, and so on. Such collaboration ends up accomplishing more than any individual large church can accomplish by itself.
Small churches that are currently independent might consider partnership with a theologically and missionally aligned network or denomination as a form of collaboration. For example, City to City—a network of churches started by Redeemer Church and Timothy Keller—is finding ways for churches to collaborate, as churches have done for centuries. In organizations like Cru, Wycliffe, the Evangelical Free Church’s global mission arm, or the Southern Baptist Convention, most missionaries are supported by collaborations of smaller churches. Such collective effort makes much more of an impact than any single large church.
Small churches are essential patches in the tapestry of God’s kingdom and his purposes in the world. Each small church has a unique story and many unique ways of worship, fellowship, ministry and mission. As the global church grows and connects across cultural and geographical differences, small churches will become increasingly important. Small churches have the opportunity to model contextualized ministry and mission. They can develop and empower leaders from diverse backgrounds and situations.
Many Christians are keying in on this next decade because 2033 will mark the 2,000-year anniversary of the Great Commission. (Now, even if the actual anniversary is not 2033, I don’t need to be that “well, actually …” guy who wants to correct everyone on the Julian calendar, and neither do you.) Many are forming 10-year plans aimed at finishing the work God has given us. Granted, some will focus on different aspects. For example, I was recently with Pentecostals who emphasize the 2,000-year anniversary of Pentecost. Whatever the specific focus, many anticipate this monumental anniversary with large goals. IllumiNations is an alliance of Bible translation agencies, for example, working to finish translating the Bible into all the languages—something that could happen in our lifetime. We can finish the task if we cooperate and collaborate, and small churches must participate for such cooperation and collaboration to succeed.
Members and leaders of small churches must embrace both a smaller and larger vision of their calling for the Great Commission. A small church can acknowledge that by itself with its dozens of members it will not accomplish the task (something true of any megachurch, too). No single church can “make disciples of all nations” alone. But this reality should not discourage the smaller church. Instead, this reality should encourage those in smaller churches toward ministry and mission.
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UBP, Ed Stetzer editor's column, Outreach magazine, 2024. Original found here: https://outreachmagazine.com/features/81396-ed-stetzer-the-power-of-small.html?
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