Little Church vs. Big Vision
I have a reoccuring conversation in my life with lots of people. They all say something like this, “I don’t want to attend a “big” church. It’s so much nicer to be at a church where I don’t get lost.” I never correct people when they say this because I know that what they are really saying is just that they want to feel loved, valued, and a part of a community. Their personal experience is probably from a large church that failed to make them feel those things.
However, that statement also makes me nervous. It makes me nervous because it walks a fine line of forgetfulness of our mandate from God. We need to be growing and God’s churches need to be full. We need to continuously be praying for God to bring increase in our church and the other churches in our community. We need to hope and pray that our building is to capacity and our parking lot is a mess. Those are great problems to have! We need to grab a hold of the growth mentality and participate in making that happen.
Partnered with that, we need to make our small groups the foundation for making people feel loved, valued, and a part of a community. That’s the heart of the church! And it can’t be one or the other. We shouldn’t be growing and miss out on the aspect of community within the body of Christ.
So, here’s to a very large church! I’ll be satisfied when everyone in our community knows Jesus and is plugged in to a great church. How’s that for a goal?