The Benefits of a Small Church

I like any pastor or leader wants the organization I'm a part of, in this case my church, to grow. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. However, there are some major benefits for being a small church. This weekend we had our first 24 Hours of Prayer in preparation for Advent. The awesome thing was that almost every person in our church took on an hour. We began at 5:00 on Saturday night and ended at 5:00 on Sunday night. Then we debriefed during our worship gathering. God met with us in a powerful way. It was wonderful listening as people shared about their encounters with God.

Here's the thing, though. Everyone knew that if we wanted to fill up 24 hours, they had better sign up. I wonder what the participation would have been like if we had double the amount of people. Would we have had two people sign up for each slot? I have my doubts. I imagine that many would assume that if they sat this one out, it would still be successful. With a small church, the value of participation is greatly increased. The same is true for discipleship and mission. We have almost 100% participation in Community Groups, Life Transformation Groups, and outward projects.

I love the DNA that is being created here. I do pray that God would continue leading folks our way, especially those with less than ideal church experiences, but more important, I pray that they would see this value of participation and get involved!