When I first joined my church, Victory Christian Fellowship, it was nothing like it is today. Back then, there were only over a hundred members, a far smaller group compared to the 1,500 members that attend weekly services today.
If I had to compare (not saying that I am) the way that things were done back then to the way things are, I would be lying if I did not admit that things are done a whole lot different now. The way we do services, the systems put in place to keep discipleship running, the manpower, the size of our center- everything is different.
But one thing hasn't changed for us- and for the hundreds of other local churches of the larger organisation that we are part of. That is the belief that small is big.
What does that even mean? Simple. No matter how big the church gets, leaders are always finding ways to shrink congregations. In this church, there is a high value for small group ministries. Services are assigned lead pastors and volunteer leaders.
Why go through all the trouble? Because the notion that God has given to us is that a church can never be too small. Church is not about having bigger attendances and bigger memberships. It's about keeping community strong and relationships real.
God would rather have a room full of brothers and sisters than stadiums full of strangers. God's original and only intent for church is to grow in relationships. Acts 2:44 describes the early church saying, "And all who believed were together and had all things in common."
There is a strong value in God's word for unity and relationships amongst the community of believers. That's why God calls us to be a part of a local church and not be cellular Christians - meaning we are meant to be one body and not separate units that exist apart from each other.
1 Corinthians 12:25 reminds us, "that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another."
Should we strive for bigger churches? By all means! Let's strive for the day that churches be filled with believers so that every tongue and tribe may declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, but unless we declare that together, we fall short of God's true purpose for the church.
God longs for each member to be living stones and to be parts of a whole, and we do this best by keeping churches small by building relationships and valuing unity in all things. Not uniformity, but unity in diversity.
Small is always big in the eyes of God, because it is in remaining small that we grow best.
