Small is beautiful? Really?

I’ve been waiting to write this blog for over a month because I was worried I was going to sound like a crank. And I don’t identify myself as a crank. So if this blog comes across as cranky, then I have miscommunicated. 

In January, the Presbyterian Outlook shared an issue with the title on the cover, “Small is beautiful.” The subtitle is “spirituality vitality is more than size.” Links to some of article are here:

Small is beautiful - The Presbyterian Outlook (pres-outlook.org)

The future of the PC(USA) is pastor-less, and that’s OK. - The Presbyterian Outlook (pres-outlook.org)

The great ends of the (small) church - The Presbyterian Outlook (pres-outlook.org)

I completely agree with the sentiment that “small is beautiful.” Just as I think that large can be beautiful. I believe spiritual vitality and energy in a congregation is much more than the size of a congregation. Congregations can be vibrant and vital no matter what their size.

In the thirty-one years I have served as a pastor, I have served two churches who for most of their ministry were small. I started at Community Presbyterian Church in Plainview Minnesota.  The first year I served we averaged 54 in worship attendance. Our worship attendance eventually grew to be 99 and then we fell back. Only two of those years did our worship attendance decrease.

And these numbers tell a limited part of the ministry that took place there. We significantly grew in the number of youth and children who participated, we started a contemporary service, we served in the community by helping to start a Youth Center and Migrant Council, we bought two parcels of adjacent property and did a million dollar remodeling project.

I came to Chain of Lakes Church in the north Metro of the Twin Cites as a new church development pastor and started with a meeting of seven families. That is the definition of being small! We have grown every year in worship attendance except for the two years of COVID. The past three months have seen us grow rapidly. We have had a large number of new families connect.  Our worship attendance of 85 in 2024 is already up over thirty percent compared to the same time period of 2023. I believe this number will go up for the rest of the year. And trust me I know that for some reading this blog our worship attendance seems tiny. Fortunately, right now it's growing fast.

I know there are many thresholds for being a small church, but it seems like Chain of Lakes is beginning to breakthrough those thresholds. 

The point of this is to say I have served small churches, and I have great respect for small churches.

But I’m not going to glorify a small church.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has diminished significantly over the past decades. And yes the word, “decades” in that sentence is plural. I find this decrease very hard to bear for I have a great love for this denomination. I share with every new disciple or new member class that that if you cut me open I bleed Presbyterian. And because I’m on blood thinner, I bleed fast.

I think every community in America needs a vibrant PC(USA) congregation. These communities need congregations who take prayer, worship and Christian education seriously while serving in the community and advocating for justice. These communities need vibrant congregations who celebrate female and LGTBQ pastors. This reality originates from our understanding of the witness that Scripture makes to Jesus and what Jesus would want. These communities need vibrant congregations where the governing bodies of the church are elected by people in the congregation.

When Presbyterian congregations decline the wider community also declines.

Having a church grow in numbers is difficult. It’s difficult for many reasons. One reason is less people are interested in God and church. The Pew Research Poll just came out with a study that shows that the number of atheists increased to four percent in 2023 compared to three percent in 2014. A quick Google search told me that 258 million adults live in the United States. Even if that number is not precise, we can see that a one percent increase means that at least two million more people are Atheist now compared to nine years ago.

But the difficulty of growing a church doesn’t mean that Presbyterians should accept decline or even celebrate decline.

When I read articles like the ones shared in the Presbyterian Outlook it feels like at attempt to rationalize our decline. We can’t grow because we don’t have pastors; we can’t grow because we live in a rural area; we can’t grow because of (fill in the blank.)

And when I read articles like the ones in the Presbyterian Outlook, I feel that we’re going to pat ourselves on the back for being small. Sure small churches can be spiritually vital; just like medium size churches can be spiritually vital; just like large churches can be spiritually vital.

I have never met a pastor who has said, “I’m really hoping that my church declines by twenty percent this year. I would really like for this congregation to be smaller.” I have met and talked to many Presbyterian pastors who lament their decline. They would like resources from denominational staff to help their congregations grow and examples from congregations who are growing.

The decline of congregations in the PC(USA) should be a clarion call to leaders in the wider Presbyterian Church (USA). If something similar was happening in the business world that business would change what it is doing. But nothing seems to change.

So I’m disappointed in the combination of these articles.  I’m not looking for articles that justify small churches. Instead I’m looking for resources and examples of congregations who are growing.