Here is a question, are we more interested in large communities or healthy communities? This is an important question for those of us in leadership in the church to ask ourselves. We can have both but if we build a large church before we care for the health of the present community, we will only amplify the problems with larger numbers.
On his blog Pivot, Karl Vaters asks this question and provides some answers. He writes after meeting with about 60 church leaders at a conference where the participants developed a list of the Characteristics of a Healthy Small Church. The list is not complete by any means but it is a good start and Karl did not just leave it with the list he also includes six lessons about the health of a church. I will list the six here but you should take the time to read and meditate on the article.
- it’s not about numbers
- None of them were about events or programs
- it’s not pastor dependent
- A Church can be healthy with limited resources
- Health looks the same in churches of any size
- The list is big, but doable
Each one of these lessons could be a post all on its own but it will take some time to unpack them.
