Thoughts about Church size conversation

After multiply lectures and class discussions regarding church size I found it appropriate to write this last blog post based off of those conversations and further research I did. I found this topic appealing because as a Christian growing up the size of a church is not something that I necessarily thought much about. Then when I went to college and had to search for a church to go to in college it became more apparent in my thought process. I just recently listened to a podcast by JP Pokluda the pastor and author of Harris Creek Baptist Church. His podcast episode on the rise and fall of the mega church was applicable to the conversations we have been having. I think we can often associate what is the “right” church size is mostly based off of what we are used too. Something that JP said in his podcast “Becoming Something” said is that we base tradition of what church should look like is based off of human tradition and we should be cautious to hold human tradition on par with scripture. I liked this thought because when Jesus preached in the Bible he preached to a couple people and that was church and he preached to many of people! I thought this was a relevant and an applicable thought to consider when we think about what is the “right” size of church. Another thing that stuck out from this podcast that is related to this conversation and to the scripture 1 Samuel 16: 7

“But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

How God views church and how he sees what we do. How does he react when He looks on us at a small church versus a mega church. How does His heart react? Is the churches motive to make much of God and not much of man? This should be the view of how churches should think about what they do.