When I was growing up, I used to go to a small church. The church meets in a school and its made up of around 20 people, maybe more if they're at absolute capacity. Every couple of months they'd do a special event and people used to get excited when more than the average 20 would turn up for the service. "We had 50 show up" was a typical comment reflecting the feeling that the event had been a success because it had been well attended. At the time I used to really wonder whether there was any point in them continuing with such a small number of people - they may as well pack up and join a church of a decent size, with decent music, and more young people.
But on recent reflection, I think I was wrong to have considered smallness a bad thing. And I think the church leaders were wrong to be measuring the "success" of their church by the numbers of seats filled on Sundays or at special events. Because looking at the Christian communities in the New Testament, I think my old church's small "togetherness" which has been nurtured over years of a small group of people meeting together to worship God and support each other is pretty close to the types of things the Bible teaches about a church community.
I was listening to a talk on small group togetherness - so many things came out of it which made me think..and some of the things I really don't want to forget so I'm going to write them down. One of them was that church is so much more than a Sunday worship service and a mid week meeting. There are some churches which attract thousands of people - Hillsong in London, Assemblies of God in Bradford, Renewal Christian Centre in Solihull, Hope City in Sheffield...they literally have thousands of people streaming through the doors every Sunday. Young people, people who you normally wouldn't expect to see in church. At these churches you can expect a service which has the same level of production as a well produced West End show -they have all the components...a theatre like venue with a large stage at the front, a highly professional band with amazingly talented and inspiring singers and musicians playing songs which are easy to pick up and sing along to and have lyrics which move you, a Pastor or group of Pastors who are famous for their teaching or for their inspirational example or presence, a large congregation. But the thing is - a church can have all these things and still be in terrible shape. Because Church is more than having a brilliant and uplifting experience once a week.
I'm not saying that all large churches are little more than the producers of great shows - it is a great thing to have a gifted worship team who can really lead people into the presence of God, a Pastor who can teach what God is saying in the Bible clearly and in a way that hits home...and to be honest that kind of service can be an incredible boost once in a while...but these aren't the sole marks of a healthy, thriving church. If you dig a bit deeper into the lives of these large churches, the real mark of their health and their pursuing God's heart can be seen in the way they equip their members to live out their Christian lives 24/7, in their neighbourhoods, families and communities and how much people meet together in smaller groups to encourage each other, to allow the Holy Spirit to work through them and learn more from each other. Hebrews 3 talks about encouraging each other daily, Ephesians 4 talks about bearing with one another in love, about being joined and held together by every supporting ligament and the way Pastors and teachers prepare us for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up (so its the body of Christ which builds itself up - with some equipping from the pastors.) And this is the just the start...there's loads of stuff about how churches which live out community that comes from Christ look in practical, real life.
In a church of 20, the church is a small group in itself! Everybody knows everyone - it's pretty hard to sneak out of the back of the church when you make up 5 or 10% of the congregation! Anonymity isn't really an option! The thing is, if you see the same small group of people in your church often enough, if you pray together and wait on the Holy Spirit together, if you put yourself in a setting where you end up talking to them about life, about God, about the world, your experiences, problems...that kind of bearing with each other in love and supporting each other like ligaments starts to become a feature of your relationships with those people - and therefore of your church.
It's pretty impossible to nurture relationships like this with loads of people - there isn't the time nor the energy for it...but is it better to have lots of superficial "hi hi" relationships with loads of people who you see on a Sunday morning, or to spend some time working on a few deep ones where "hi" won't really cut it, where you check in with that person if you don't hear from them in a week, where you can enquire after the health of their soul and not feel like you're being intrusive, where you can be a support and allow yourself to be supported. To be honest, the idea of having vulnerable "talk", conversations of depth with a small group of people from my church on a regular basis has a lot of things which would put me off - I'd need to invest time and energy and commitment, I'd need to give up some Facebook time to make time for the people, I'd have to open up about my weaknesses and the things that make me angry, my faith would start to take on a corporate as well as an individual characteristic, people might tell me to my face when I do bad things or criticise some of my decisions or behaviour!...and I'd have to get over my judgemental, proud self and deal with people who are different to me. Who I perhaps would not normally choose to spend time with.
But then I think this kind of talk, this kind of support network is needed. We actually pay people (professional counsellors) to listen to us and talk to us. With a counsellor its great as you know you have their undivided attention for at least an hour, that they are totally focussed on you, that they won't answer their phone half way through the conversation and ditch you, that they won't just wait for their turn to speak, that they won't judge you for telling them the truth about what you are thinking or what you've done. There are some problems which most definately need counsellors...need therapy specific techniques...some deep rooted, long lasting hurts and issues which need a specialised "talker" to have some quality conversation to bring them out and help healing. But maybe also, us as small groups of Christians in our churches, could improve the nature of our talk - so that we don't have to turn to a stranger for support.
I guess the founding principle of all this would be the love and acceptance and strength we have in Christ. With him as a foundation, making us whole...it enables us then to seek him out in the context of a group of Christian friends...and to allow them to speak into our lives...and into our faith. In Ephesians 4 it says that "from him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."
I guess there's a place for Big Churches and Little churches. But I think if the big churches want to be more than an impressive worship service and a mid week prayer meeting or bible study, there needs to be lots of little churches amongst them, building each other up and growing in love.
