Acts20.com

Just pondering some things...What would you consider to be a large church in the Church of God?

Welcome to Acts MrSippi,Just my opinion but it was based off of some good advice I was given in early ministry about 35 years ago when I asked a similar question.The response given me was, 'how many people do you minister to each week?'We were in our early 20's & our little church had grown quite large as in from 35to 350 in Sunday morning attendance & we didn't have any focus groups, coaches, growth seminars, small groups, worship teams, video games, fog, rock music, skinny jeans, coffee or tattoos & somehow we grew.We did have church however!Back then we had two Sunday morning services & everybody just did everything twice.Then we all came back on Sunday night & did it all over again except after church about 50 of us would invade Bob's Big Boy until 1AM.We thought nothing about duplicating the exact same thing on Wednesday nights & most times church didn't let out until 10-10:30.So in all of this we had a bunch of people who worked all kinds of jobs & shifts & they came to church at their own personal time when worship was available.If we added everybody up that called the church their home church we probably had over 450-500.I'm talking about legit attenders who took up membership & who were faithful givers & supporters ...not talking about the occasional Lookie-Loo.In 1984 we had a big falling out with the CoG & eventually left to secure a better facility which ended up taking about 3 years.So here is the point; in those good years of rocking the house & then we had those slim 3 years looking for our foundation again ...the Lord brought most of those folks back in again & this time we had a lot more room & it took off again in super growth mode.The same people who we ministered to during the earlier years remembered the quality of that ministry & they returned for a double dose lol.So I would say count all of them & use that number where you actually minister to the people.Don't double count the same people because that's not the same but we all have folks who can only make it every other Sunday or only on Wednesday nights. These are the people we minister to & they get blessed by your faithfulness.Maybe a church only runs in the high 400's on Sunday morning but they minister to over 700 throughout the whole month.This church where I pastor is about 100 on Sundays but we minister to way more than that throughout the month in multiple services and in multiple venues Empty nest syndrome is for the birds!Email me at: [email protected] planters are focused on just one thing ...introducing people to Jesus!

duplicat Empty nest syndrome is for the birds!Email me at: [email protected] planters are focused on just one thing ...introducing people to Jesus!

In the US 43.In Indonesia 2500

If the numbers are accurate that the average is 80-100, then I would expect numbers greater than that to be considered large, at least by some. To the person in a church of 25, 150 is a large church. But to those in a church of 300, it might be more in the 700+ category that they consider large. As per numbers, there are three different numbers to consider- Membership, Sunday morning worship attendance, and people ministered to by a church. None is a stretch, but they are three distinct numbers of people. So I've learned to listen to how they word it. We have 1000 members, We minister to 700 people a week, and We average 400 on Sunday morning, could all be truthful and accurate. But they all speak to a different set of numbers.

500 or more in attendance each week - Large5,000 or more - X-Large35,000 or more - Osteen-Larg

The average congregation in America has between 75-100 people on a Sunday morning (based on the survey you read). Most (80%) of COG congregations have less than 75 on Sunday. So statistically, if you pastor a church of 150 people, you pastor one of the largest churches in America. In the COG, that is a good sized church. But in the real world, it isn't.

Some of these ways of calculating just seem dishonest to me. I understand that one shepherds more people than the average Sunday morning attendance number. However, that is true in every church.I think the only honest way to answer the question, “What size is your church?” is to give your average monthly Sunday morning attendance. The particular pastor that I mentioned is always posting about his church of 700, when the state stats say 450. We do a disservice to ourselves when we fudge on those numbers. It is like taking a mulligan on every hole of golf and bragging about your golf score. To me, it makes it difficult to clearly track those numbers for my own assessment. (My soap box)

Try not to worry about judging the motivations of others. It will eat you up inside. To be sure, there are guys fudging the numbers. I know of one that counts the number of cars in the parking lot and multiplies that by 4. I’m a part of a ministerial alliance in my city with pastors of all different denominations. Most are Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist. Do you know those pastors never ask me “so how many are you running ?”.