Rethinking the Value of the Smaller Church (Part 2)
Reframing the Paradigm
(Part 2 of 3), by Dr. David W. Smith, Certified Church Consultant
“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Well, you should not.” – (Yoda, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back). The Jedi Master was only partly correct. Size does have a bearing on how a church executes its ministry programs. Don’t take that wrong. I’m not saying smaller churches aren’t doing ministry well and that larger churches are inherently better. I am saying size plays a role in how a church does ministry. Smaller churches are growing in number, if not in size, and impacting their communities in unique ways. In a sense Yoda was correct, we shouldn’t judge the quality of ministry a church is doing simply by attendance, budgets, and staff complement. Reframing how we look at churches in relation to their size can help us understand how churches are doing ministry and change our evaluation of the importance and impact of smaller churches as we identify the strengths churches of every size bring to our common mission to expand the gospel’s reach and disciple believers into fully committed followers of Christ.
There are several analyses of the attendance figures available with a variety of proposed paradigms. I prefer the analysis provided by Reach Right in 2024. It’s comprehensive and easily understood. For the sake of ease of consideration, my categories mirror theirs.
Small Church (0-99 average attendees):
Of the estimated 350,000 churches in America, about 177,000 of them fall into the small church category. Small churches make up about 59% of all churches in America. They average 60 attendees weekly. Together, they average about 9 million worshipers each week. Many times, there are no paid staff in this church category. Research estimates nearly 26% of pastors in American report being bi-vocational. More than 70% of pastors of these churches are volunteer or bi-vocational. With few, if any, staff, these churches are almost entirely dependent on volunteers to lead and execute church programs.
Medium-Small Church (100-499 average attendees):
There are an estimated 105,000 churches that fall into this category. They average a combined 25 million worshipers weekly and constitute 35% of churches in America. While many churches in this category are financially stable, paid staff tends to hover between 1-5 with a situational mixture of full-time to part-time staff. Many pastors in these churches remain bi-vocational. They remain largely dependent on volunteers to lead and execute programs.
Medium Church (500-999 average attendees):
In the past, this would have been considered a larger church. Given the changing trends, it’s better to consider churches of this size as medium sized churches. They make up about 4% of American churches with only an estimated 12,000 churches falling into this category. They have a combined average weekly attendance of about 8 million worshipers. These churches generally have larger full-time staff who lead volunteers in executing programming.
Large Church (1,000-1,999 average attendees):
What was once a mega church is now best thought of as a large church. This category of church represents about 2% of all American churches with an estimated 6,000 churches in this category. They have a combined average weekly attendance of 9 million worshipers. Churches in this category average 10-20 paid staff who lead most of the church programs and oversee volunteers.
Mega Church (2,000-9,999 average attendees):
There are roughly 1,170 mega churches in America. They make up roughly 0.5% of all American churches with an average total weekly attendance of 4 million people. They generally have multi-million-dollar budgets and can average 20-100 full-time staff members. Programs are generally executed by staff with minimal volunteer engagement.
Super-Mega Church (10,000+ average attendees):
It might be an over-reach to segment out this category of church, but I think it’s worth noting as the uniqueness of how they operate is noteworthy. There are only about 50 super-mega churches in America. These churches average a combined weekly attendance of 700,000 worshipers and constitute only 0.01% of total churches in America. They have high multi-million-dollar budgets often with well more than 100 full-time staff members. Programs are almost entirely run executed by staff.
Conclusion:
What take aways can we derive from changing the way we look at churches based on their size? There are a few significant truths we can take away that will help us reframe how we look at small and smaller churches.
- Small (0-99) and medium-small (100-499) churches make up 94% of all churches in America. The other categories combined only make up 6% of churches.
- Small and medium-small churches average 34 million weekly attendees (61%) compared with an average 22 million (39%) among the other categories combined.
Smaller to medium sized churches remain the backbone of the religious landscape in America. They often serve the more rural and urban communities with most medium size and above churches in suburban locales.
Small and medium-small churches have much smaller budgets, few paid staff, and can seem to struggle much more than their larger cousins, but they aren’t necessarily unhealthy. Churches in these categories should not be discounted because they lack large buildings, staff, budgets, attendees, and programs. There are some distinct advantages to these churches that shouldn’t be ignored. There are challenges and benefits that come with increasing size – some healthy and some unhealthy.
Part Three will look at the challenges and benefits that come with church size and help us gain a real understanding of the impact small to medium-small churches are making.
Sources to consider:
The State of Church Attendance: Trends and Statistics 2024
The 2020 Faith Communities Today Overview
