I just emailed to a friend and said, “It’s a good thing size doesn’t matter to God!”
We go to a small church. After 20 years, we are still a small church. Are we doing something wrong?
In I Corinthians 3: 5-8, Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for taking sides in following certain leaders like Apollos and Paul. “What, afterall, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. . . The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor (emphasis mine).”
There are many good books on church growth. I don’t know precisely what a “successful” church is suppose to look like. But I know what will be rewarded by God – each will be rewarded according to his own labor. You can be planting your whole life, or watering your whole life, and never harvest. Yet you will be rewarded according to your labor on that one purpose God has given you.
Size doesn’t matter. I will be rewarded according to how I labor on the purpose God gives me.
I need to be faithful in the little things God gives me to do.