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What is the right size for a congregation? Some would say it is one which can support a building, have a full-time minister, and which can offer programs that meet the needs of the members. Others might say it is one in which I can know everybody by face and first name. Still others might say one which is big and powerful enough to address issues in the community and world with measurable outcomes. There are many definitions of what is the right size for a congregation. When it comes to making a judgement about that, we are all like Goldilocks. Some might be too small, some too big, and some “just right.” When I was a general presbyter (one with administrative, pastoral and leadership responsibilities for the mission, ministry and maintenance of the presbytery), I could tell you from year to year how many members it would take for a congregation to be “just right” by the first definition. I do know that there is no “one size” which fits all.
According to Facebook, I have 267 friends. In reality, I have a few friends, some acquaintances, some people who interest me, and some who happen to be friends of friends. When I look at the vast numbers of "friends" some of my friends have it makes me feel unfriendly. As I reflect on my social connections, over the years, they have always been rather small circles. My nuclear family was just four of us. My extended family, particularly on my father’s side included several aunts, uncles and cousins. Among the cousins, there was a relatively small group of us who were close, and a larger group I barely knew because they were significantly older or lived further away. The neighborhood in which we lived was relatively small and there were few people my age. The elementary school I attended was small, and I can only recall about ten people I would have called friends. High school was much the same. There were eighty-two people in my graduating class. I knew a lot of people, but I would have called about twenty people as my friends. When I went to college, beginning at The Ohio State University, my freshmen class had fifteen thousand students. That was a quantum jump from my high school graduation class. OSU was too large and offered too many distractions for me. I didn’t make it to my sophomore year. I flourished in a college of about two thousand students.
A dear friend of mine grew up in a smaller to small mid-sized congregation in a relatively small town. She and her family were totally involved in the life of the congregation. After she was married and moved to a big city, she said she wanted a big church where she could become lost in the crowd. After a while, the bigness did not fit. So she and her family moved to a congregation of around two hundred fifty members where they could be more involved in the life of the congregation. It fit “just right.”
In large congregations, more than five hundred members, they usually become a conglomeration of smaller groups. Sunday school classes, the choir, fellowship groups, Stephen ministers, and a host of other smaller groups become the focal point for relational exchanges. I have known pastors of larger and huge congregations who have admitted there was no way they could know the names and faces of all of the members. Specialized staff tended to the smaller relational grouping.
In an excellent NPR article titled “Don't Believe Facebook; You Only Have 150 Friends,” we are pointed toward some serious considerations about what is a right sized congregation. The NPR staff writers drew upon the research of Robin Dunbar in writing the article/program script. Dunbar proposes that the number of people we can really “know” ripples out from five to the one hundred fifty ripple. Much beyond that we may know of somebody, but we probably do not really know them.
This might suggest that the ideal sized church, or subsection of a large church, might be in the neighborhood of one hundred fifty people. While it is true that we can gather for concerts or worship with thousands, we cannot build or maintain meaningful relationships with that many people. We have heard it jokingly said, “Last night, I was with two-thousand of my closest friends at an Adele concert.” We know that is a hyperbolic statement of the relationship of the speaker to the others at the concert.
If a congregation is to be a community, not only for corporate worship, but for mutual development as disciples of Christ Jesus, then the “right sized” congregation might be one hundred fifty people (give or take a few people). If we are to be of mutual encouragement and discipline, we need to be in a significant relationship with one another. To use a colloquial phrase, “If I do not know you from Adam” will I value your encouragement or discipline? In a congregation of one hundred fifty people we can know and be known; we can care for and be cared for; we can trust and be trusted. Maybe we are spending too much time, effort and resources trying to grow congregations beyond the 200 plateau. Maybe we need to look to stable, meaningful relationships which are more possible, according to Dunbar, in those congregations of around one hundred fifty souls.
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