God-Size Your Church

Abingdon Press

Chapter One

Would you like fries with that? How about Supersizing your drink and fries for just forty cents more?" Supersizing a drink or fries seems reasonable to our fast food–addicted culture. But think about this: What if I asked you whether or not you wanted a regular or a Supersized church? How would you answer that question? What if I asked you about Supersizing your impact? Would you rather your church have a regular-sized or a God-sized impact in your community? Before you answer these questions, let me ask you one more. Do you think a bigger church always has a greater impact than a smaller one?

Church impact is often considered only from a numerical and program standpoint. A focus on numbers alone does not tell the whole story. There are many more dimensions than numbers to tell the story of what God is doing in your church and community. I believe that God-sizing your impact is all about the pursuit of a God-placed passion. I believe there is a God-sized impact for your church just waiting to break out in your heart, in the life of your church, and in your community. If you are passionate about fulfilling the Great Commission (and the fact that you are reading this book is a good indication that you are!), then you want to find the way to maximize the influence of your church and ministry in your community. God has given each of us an opportunity to lead and participate in a kingdom adventure. Our challenge is to fulfill the divine mandate He has given us. The Apostle Paul said it this way: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever" (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).

Not long ago, I was in Utah, finishing a day of teaching lay leaders from a denominational group about taking their churches to new levels of ministry. Then a unique question came to my mind. I'd already spent three hours with them and hoped I'd get a different answer, but the fact that I did not suggests how difficult the core issues really are. Here was my question—"If you were in the hospital today, how many of you would expect a visit from the senior pastor of your church?" That 80 percent of attendees immediately responded with that expectation is one reason that they are in churches with fewer than two hundred people in attendance each week. After some good clean joking about whether they really believed in the Protestant Reformation and the priesthood of all believers, we were able to discuss the difference between reaching more people for Christ and taking care of those already within the church family. (Full disclosure here: I am totally in favor of people being visited in the hospital; I just don't think it has to or should normally be the senior pastor of a larger church.)

Throughout this book, we will be on a journey of discovery. Many times we have come to believe that the community cannot be reached for Christ because of the hardness of people's hearts. Although that may be true in specific cases, another fundamental reality is often also at work. We reach our limit of being able to influence our town because we demand that our churches structure themselves a certain way, take care of each other a certain way, and conduct our ministry in ways that are most comfortable to us. Our journey of discovery here will force us to confront our core passions. Is it more important for us to have our churches meet our needs or have an effect on our community? The choice of our strategic and ultimate values, rather than whether our churches are big or small, is the real issue behind God-sizing our churches.

God-Size Your Church comes with a personal passion. I believe that God wants our churches to reach more people for Jesus Christ, to establish and secure them in their faith, and to equip them for kingdom work in the world. God longs for lost people to know Him and saved people to share Him with others: "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness" (Colossians 2:6-7).

This book not only comes with my personal passion for reaching lost people for Christ; it also comes out of my experience in starting a church in what I call a rurban community (rural on its way to urban). Carson Valley Christian Center (www.cvcwired.com) was started in 1998 after ten months were spent gathering a core. Now we are preparing to celebrate our tenth birthday. I fondly tell people that today we are living in and I am leading CVC 3.0. We have discovered a consistent need to develop and grow the ministry of the church as we move toward health. In fact, I'll take this opportunity to make a confession. For many years, I was so focused on reaching visible and numerical impact that I neglected some important but less visible aspects of health and lasting family and community impact (more on that later). Today, I'm pleased to tell you that I see God at work in our church, making it a dynamic, growing, healthy, God-sized church in our community. I'm excited to share with you part of our story as we learn together how to lead and live in clusters of believers who are making a difference every day in their families, their work, and their neighborhoods.

Researcher Dave Olsen, in his book The American Church in Crisis, estimates that up to 94 percent of American churches are either at a plateau or declining in relation to population growth in their communities. If his research is true (and many other researchers agree with his numbers or suggest even higher levels of decline), then the American church is in trouble as it relates to how we reach our culture for Christ. But rather than giving in to despair, I think that God is even now beginning to show us what He has ahead for us. Several bright lights on the horizon will help us see God's plan for our ministries fulfilled in the coming years.

As you read this, God is right now beginning a movement of externally focused churches in smaller areas that are having a God-sized impact on their local communities. Pioneers in the megachurch movement like Willow Creek, Saddleback, Northpoint, and Fellowship Church paved the way. But today, many churches like Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, Perimeter Church in Atlanta, and a host of smaller churches like Hayward Wesleyan Church in Hayward, Wisconsin, Ripon Community Church in Ripon, Wisconsin, and the Rock Church in Sacramento are having God-sized impacts in their communities. My friend Mark O. Wilson has a blog (www.revitalizeyour church.blogspot.com/) devoted to encouraging pastors of small and rural churches, reminding them that small communities are no barrier to a God-sized influence. As he reminds his readers, "Your church can touch the world, regardless of your location. You can make a big difference right where you are!"

Many other churches are bringing us to a new horizon, a place where churches with a passion for impact believe God can bring more than just a regular-sized effect in their local communities. They believe He will create a God-sized church...