Growing Your Church Smaller

Dr. Bailey has been the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Covington, Louisiana, since 1989.  He formerly served as Professor of Old Testament at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from 1978 to 1995. He has authored five books: Step by Step through the Old Testament; Biblical Hebrew Grammar; Joshua: Courage for the Future; As You Go: Biblical Foundation for Evangelism; and (with Kenneth Barker) Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, and Zephaniah in the New American Commentary. He is the current President of the Louisiana Baptist Convention

You have a goal that your church must accomplish. If you want your church to grow, you must keep it small.

It’s neither an oxymoron nor a paradox. It is simply this: as the church grows larger, the fellowship must grow deeper. Deeper fellowship gives the church a sense of being small. That’s what you want–a sense that the church is small.

How do you accomplish making your church “small?”

John Maxwell said it this way: “You walk slowly through the crowds.” I once had a pastor who never walked slowly through the crowds. He was in constant motion. He never seemed to have time for people. Though the church really was small, he lacked giving any meaningful time to people. I never felt that he had time for me and, consequently, I never felt valued by him. As I look back over the years, I realize that he was a fine man. He didn’t intend to harm me. But his actions kept the church from accomplishing so many things which God values. My posts on breaking the 100 barrier and staffing to grow not to plateau deals with some of the same issues of growing a church.

Maxwell counsels giving people time. Walk slowly through the crowds. Smile, look people in the eye, shake hands, call names.

We all want to know and to be known. When pastors, deacons, teachers, and other church members walk slowly through the crowds spending time with people, we make the church small, caring, and intimate. When the pastor is too busy for people, he chokes the life and growth out of the church.

Jesus always walked slowly through the crowds. Remember the story of the woman with the hemorrhage? In the midst of a huge crowd with people pressing on every side, she simply touched the hem of his garment. Jesus asked: “Who touched me?” The disciples ridiculed Him because everyone had touched Him!

Jesus knew when a single, (seemingly) insignificant person touched Him. He walked slowly through the crowds and gave attention to people. He made the crowd seem small. We need to do the same with the church.

I know pastors will take this to heart. I want church members to do the same. All of us are the key to making the church small–that is, warm, intimate, personal, and caring. Please make it your responsibility to keep the church small even as it grows larger. In fact, keeping the church small will almost insure that it reaches more people.

You can follow Dr. Bailey weekly on www.waylonbailey.com.