Are Big Churches As Healthy As Small Ones?
In C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity,” he writes: “The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.”
This idea, that the point of the church is to make disciples, is, at its core, not a highly contested one. But ideas about the way disciples are made and the context in which discipleship happens are much more varied.
And, in these conversations, the question of a church’s size looms large.
On the one hand, you have the small church. It could be anywhere from just a handful of members to a few hundred, but, in any case, there is a much greater likelihood for congregants to build personal relationships with those leading the church, a greater sense of a tight-knit community where everybody knows one another and oftentimes a wide variety of ages in attendance (with some congregants having attended for the bulk of their lives).
On the other hand, you have the large church. Maybe its attendance is in the upper hundreds, the thousands or even the tens of thousands. This substantial attendance often means the ability to acquire a large chunk of land and employ a staff of seasoned professionals for everything from worship leaders who sound like pop stars to trained baristas for their in-house cafes.
And with these resources and this influence, there is a greater ability to quickly raise money for disaster relief or needs within the congregation. There may be greater comfort for new believers not to feel like they are standing out in the crowd. And the culture might be one that more naturally attracts non-Christians.
It’s common for believers to criticize the size of a church, saying big churches are impersonal or small churches aren’t able to reach unbelievers.
What size is right for a church? Is there one at all?
To find out, I spoke with Karl Vaters. Vaters was a pastor for decades, and now he creates resources dedicated to helping small churches thrive. Back in 2024, he wrote a book called “De-Sizing The Church,” which investigates the way many churches pursued growth in attendance above all else, often to their detriment.
Vaters’ book doesn’t demonize church growth, but instead asks pastors and congregants to consider what it means to be a healthy Christian community, without anchoring that health to merely the number of people in the pews.
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Matthew Peterson is Religion Unplugged’s podcast editor and audience development coordinator. He took part in this past summer’s European Journalism Institute held in Prague, an annual program co-sponsored by The Media Project.