People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
Large Churches — Part 1
A look at churches averaging 150 or more in worship attendance.
by James W. Moss, Sr.
The common misconception is large churches are strong. They are very fragile. Large congregations are held together with tremendous amounts of pressure by staff and laity. The larger they are the greater the pressure required to do so. At least at a point in their history they had to be faithful to the gospel. They provided quality, caring ministry. Some worked very hard to make the church large. I list several categories here 150-224, 225-400, 401-800, 801-2,000, 2,000-4,000, and 4,000 up in worship attendance. I will deal with just the two smallest groupings in this study. Approximately 75% of all Protestant churches in America have an average worship attendance of less than 150 on Sunday morning.
The people in these churches must battle a sense of contentment. Many say, "Why bring in new people? We can do anything we want now." or "Don't we have a great church? Why don't we just wrap it up in plastic wrap and keep it the way it is." These churches frequently fail to recognize normal attrition. An existing church must replace 10-15% of its worshipping congregation each year for maintenance. Efforts will have to be made to have the people see "the fields the are white with harvest."
A few of these are "churches of choice" in the community. "Churches of choice" are very dominant congregations in a geographical area. They are well known and respected. When a new family contemplates going to church, that church is one of the first they think of attending. As such they get a people flow the rest of churches don't experience. In smaller communities there is just one church of choice there. In larger areas there may be a few more. These congregations don't need to do a lot in the way of aggressive outreach. A large church by this definition may not be a church of choice in the community. To grow the average by 10, 20 new persons must be attending, 60 visitors must attend to secure the 20 new attenders, and 200 families must be cultivated to get the 60 visitors.
Many large churches are understaffed. Increasingly churches are hiring laity from their own ranks to serve as staff. In addition, a number of churches are hiring several part-time staff instead of one full-time person. This way a church can bring a variety of skills to the table without the expense of benefits.
I have worked with a few larger churches who probably were overstaffed. This may especially be true of some congregations in decline. The staff was in place to serve a larger number. One caution: laity sometimes withdraw from ministry as the professional staff grows. The staff must work hard at identifying, recruiting, motivating, training, deploying, and celebrating the volunteer staff. Staff salaries should not exceed 45% of the revenue of a healthy congregation.
The gift of administration becomes increasingly important for the senior pastor. Good pastors of small churches move up the ranks. They then try to pastor a larger church by the same model. They try to provide all the pastoral care and participate in every program of the church. They are driven bananas because they can't keep up. The larger the church, the more dependent the pastor must be on the skills and gifts of others. People must be set free to minister. However, it doesn't matter how large the church becomes, the senior pastor must know the people. That pastor must spend time with the people. How can you preach effectively to people unless you know them? A pastor can't know everyone in a larger church but certainly must know a cross section of the congregation.
The relationship of worship attendance to number of small groups still applies to large churches. Even in large churches, worship attendance will tend not to exceed 10 per existing small group with a maximum of 12. (Divide the annual average worship attendance of the church by the number of small groups in existence. If the answer is more than 12, that number will drop until it comes under 12 by either adding new groups or by having the attendance drop.) Small groups include Sunday school classes, care groups, support groups, task groups, and athletic teams. The groups should meet at least monthly or on a seasonal basis.
The leaders of these churches must be willing to be creative with programming and facility usage. Must everything be on the campus? Must everything be in specific time frames? The building will need to be used multiple times.
The leader must have the capacity to build team.
The leader must have the ability to create ownership for proposed changes among responsible people in the church.
The leader earns the right to lead.
Continue to Large Churches – Part 2
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August 12, 1999. Volume 2, Issue 11. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.