Is Planting More Small Churches Greater Than Building Megachurches?

How did the church of Jesus grow for the first 1900+ years of its existence without any megachurches around?That’s how long it took for the first megachurches to appear on the landscape. They’re the new kid on the church block. Until the middle of the 20th century, the relentless growth of the church moved forward, not through growing bigger churches, but almost exclusively through the multiplication of smaller congregations. And that’s where most of the growth of the church still happens today.[ictt-tweet-inline hashtags="" via=""]Planting more small churches may be a greater tool for growing the church than building larger congregations.[/ictt-tweet-inline]In spite of this truth, there are those who insist that a healthy congregation will always increase numerically and that there’s something inherently wrong with a church that stays small – no matter what the reason.Indeed, many in the church growth movement focus almost entirely on growing individual congregations bigger. Supporting and strengthening healthy smaller congregations has taken a distant second place – if it’s considered at all.But there have been many church movements throughout history – and many today – that foster smaller congregations, including house churches. They channel their growth with great skill and intentionality through the multiplication of more congregations, rather than bigger ones.There are some strong stats showing that planting more small churches may be a greater tool for growing the church than building larger congregations.

Celebrate The Success, Support The Hurting

I’m glad for the recent appearance of megachurches and the church growth movement. The church growth movement has introduced or reinvigorated some much-needed principles that much of the church had all but forgotten, including the reminder that we must never settle for less.But it’s ignorant, hurtful and counterproductive to say that if a church is staying small, there must necessarily be something wrong with it. Just as it’s wrong to criticize bigger and megachurches merely because they’re big.Instead, let’s encourage, support and resource healthy churches of all sizes. The ones being planted, the ones that have existed for generations, and the ones that are hanging on for dear life.It’s hard to say we love the church when we ignore, discourage or belittle its weakest members.Real church growth doesn’t just support and celebrate our big, recent, but rare success stories – as great as those may be. Real church growth helps hurting churches, restores broken communities and celebrates the vast array small successes, too.This article first appeared on ChristianityToday.com. Used in its entirety by permission of author to republish.

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Political Firestorm: DC Church Elder Shares 16 Ways to Promote Unity Within Congregations

Editor's Note: Jonathan Leeman is an elder at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., editorial director of 9Marks, and author of several books, including Political Church: The Local Assembly as Embassy of Christ’s Rule (Bio as it appears at The Gospel Coalition). His response to a pastor who is wondering "how can the gospel show a better way" during the current political unrest in the U.S. from both outside and inside the church begins below.A pastor writes:

Members of my congregation are increasingly hostile and mistrusting of one another after the election, especially online. What is my responsibility as a pastor, and how can the gospel show a better way for our polarized culture if we can’t honor one another in our own churches?

Dear friend,That’s a great question. I trust most pastors and Christians believe the gospel is big enough to reconcile and to unify. It’s easy to say, “We’re Republicans and Democrats together for the gospel!” But living together amid our partisan differences is like eating a spoonful of pudding with gravel hiding inside. It looks sweet at first glance, but put it in your mouth and you’ll break your teeth.I’m not going to Pollyanna you. Maintaining gospel unity amid political disagreement is hard.It’s hard because politics, by its nature, deals with questions of justice, and the gospel requires us to care about justice. So if one member’s conscience tells him that a certain party, candidate, protest event, or slogan represents an injustice, while another’s conscience says the party/candidate/slogan represents justice, it will be difficult for either to back down.It’s hard because political engagement nearly always involves making alliances with groups of people who don’t agree on everything. So any given party, candidate, protest event, or even slogan probably represents a conglomeration of issues, three of which might be biblically good and three of which might be biblically reprehensible. Can a Christian get behind the cause for the sake of the good things, especially if no other candidate, party, protest event, or slogan represents those good things?And maintaining unity amid political disagreement may get harder. The more our culture looks to government to solve our problems and be our savior, the higher the culture-war stakes will become on both sides.Certainly, our church on Capitol Hill has felt its share of political tensions. Here are 16 things the pastors or elders try to do to help maintain unity.

1. Preach expositionally.

If you’ve trained your congregation on topical sermons, I dare say they’re going to be more accustomed to your personal and ideological formulations. As such, throwing in a politicized sermon or two won’t startle them. It will sound like what they usually get—a topical sermon.If, however, you’ve trained them on weekly biblical exposition, forays into partisan politics will alarm them. And that discomfort is good....

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