{"id":69268,"date":"2017-07-10T00:02:33","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T05:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=69268"},"modified":"2017-07-08T09:23:18","modified_gmt":"2017-07-08T14:23:18","slug":"church-size-optimal-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2017\/07\/10\/church-size-optimal-number\/","title":{"rendered":"Church Size: The Optimal Number?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

"iceland-1354373_640_opt"<\/a>In a recent article over at Seedbed, Howard Snyder<\/strong> <\/a>asks this question and offers his view:<\/p>\n

[HT: JS]<\/p>\n

How large should your church be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Silly question<\/em>, you say. Depending on your theology or worldview, you might add:<\/p>\n

**** Large as possible! Bigger is better!<\/p>\n***

**** That\u2019s up to God!<\/p>\n***

**** I\u2019m shooting for 1,000 (or 2,000, or 3,000, or whatever).<\/p>\n***

**** I like small and intimate!<\/p>\n***

Here\u2019s a better answer: A congregation should be large enough to fulfill all the essential functions of Christ\u2019s body\u2014and small enough to really function as body of Christ.<\/p>\n

So we might take a quick look at \u201cDunbar\u2019s Number,\u201d which happens to be 150.<\/p>\n

I believe (as I have written in\u00a0Liberating the Church<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and elsewhere) that the three essential functions of the body of Christ, biblically speaking, are\u00a0worship<\/em>,\u00a0community<\/em>, and\u00a0witness<\/em>. The New Testament speaks much about all three. And importantly, all three of these key body-life dynamics are\u00a0social<\/em>\u00a0as well as spiritual. (Biblically speaking, of course, all spirituality is social, as John Wesley saw so well.)<\/p>\n

Since all church life is social, it necessarily involves social dynamics\u2014the ways groups and personal relationships function. It would be a mistake to think that \u201claws\u201d govern social behavior. But certainly social behavior is influenced and constrained by numerous limiting factors. It\u2019s hard to squeeze 100 students into a classroom that seats 25. On the other hand, the dynamics of a class of 25 will be much different in a room that seats 500 rather than one of more appropriate size. \u2026<\/p>\n

Robin Dunbar (b. 1947), an anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist at the University of Oxford, is the guru behind Dunbar\u2019s Number. Studying both animal and human organizational behavior\u2014including brain function\u2014Dunbar concluded that there is a \u201ccognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships,\u201d and that that limit is 150 persons. Turns out 150 is the maximum number of people that one person can have meaningful ongoing relationship with.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He gets stronger in his confidence on this number:<\/p>\n

God never made us to experience Christian community in congregations of 1,000 or so. Even 500 is often very unhealthy in terms of discipleship and real\u00a0koinonia<\/em>. It seems that 125 to 175 is a good healthy number, and 150\u2013200 generally provides a good basis for spinning off daughter or sister congregations. (This depends of course on the spiritual health of the congregation. An unhealthy or dysfunctional congregation will birth congregations that are similarly dysfunctional.)<\/p>\n

More basically: Something important happens to community, to\u00a0koinonia<\/em>, when congregations grow beyond 150 or so. How many times have I heard versions of this: \u201cWe seemed to lose something as we grew larger.\u201d Of course! Genuine community requires proximity, interaction, practice of the New Testament \u201cone-anothers,\u201d mutual encouragement and correction (Heb 3:13, 10:24-25).\u00a0This is not optional<\/em>\u00a0if disciple-making, not just larger congregations, is the goal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even if with this magical number of 150 as his guiding light, it seems to me Snyder\u2019s piece needs a more expansive approach, and it needs expansion in two directions:<\/p>\n

First, some churches will never get much bigger than a dozen or two dozen or three dozen. His pointed finger is at megachurches but some sensitivity to the smaller church is needed. When Snyder contends the optimal number is about 150 he tosses the average church in the USA (attendance around 70-75) under the bus. On top of that it is highly unlikely that churches in the 1st Century were ever 150. Most think there were about 5-6 churches in Rome of about 20-30 people. The exceptional study of Peter Oakes,\u00a0Reading Romans in Pompeii<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, suggests a household would be about 35 people.<\/p>\n

Second, megachurches may be 2,000 or 10,000 and even above 20,000 but it is entirely possible to break down megachurches \u2014 as a number do \u2014 into small groups or smaller groups. So, church \u201csize\u201d has to be analyzed with different metrics than church attendance.<\/p>\n

My contention then is that Howard Snyder has a good point, but it\u2019s not about church size. It\u2019s about optimal metrics for a church to function well and to develop the gifts of the whole church so that worship, fellowship, and witness \u2014 Snyder\u2019s big three \u2014 occur.<\/p>\n

Thoughts?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent article over at Seedbed, Howard Snyder asks this question and offers his view: [HT: JS] How large should your church be? Silly question, you say. Depending on your theology or worldview, you might add: * Large as possible! Bigger is better! * That\u2019s up to God! * I\u2019m shooting for 1,000 (or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChurch Size: The Optimal Number?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a recent article over at Seedbed, Howard Snyder asks this question and offers his view: How large should your church be? 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