The Role of the Church: Small, Medium, or Large?

Church Size

As you might imagine, the size of a church may have a huge impact on the role of the church and its capacity for carrying out the tasks of those roles. Church size could refer to a multitude of things: building size, membership population, number of attendees, or even giving rates. I think it is helpful to keep all of these things in mind when talking about church size, as they are often (but not always) correlated. A church that is large may the infrastructure for more avenues of ministry, such as leadership development or producing media such as books, bible study guides, topical pamphlets, or podcasts, while a small church may only be able to focus on the basics, likely Sunday worship, fellowship, and pastoral care. When we look at scripture, we see that our main call as Christians is to make disciples, and the primary and intended way for this is through the church. A church that does this fulfills it role and as disciple grow will hopefully increase to be able to increase its ministry.

Community Size

Related to Church size is community size. Church size is greatly influenced by the size of the community where it sits, but the community’s size may also change the church’s role. In a small community where there is little infrastructure for helping the community, a small church may have to step in to fill those roles for the needs of the community. In a larger community where there may be more non profits need based services, the church’s job may be different. While the church is still called to service, the most helpful and efficient way to do this may be through giving to these ministries rather than providing them from the church itself.

Related to this idea is the role of churches in cooperation. Larger communities are bound to have multiple churches. Some very basic human needs can be met by churches from any denomination and it is most effective when churches work together. Church size does not necessariily indicated more or less success. Some churches are just small, and some are just big. Some huge churches do really great things and take advantage of their specific gifts and some fall apart and get distracted from the gospel. This happen is small churches as well. Most important is a church that preaches the truths of scripture. Where this takes place, there is value, and there is the Spirit of God.