Spectrum

Small churches seem to be taking something of a beating in this thread: as a PK, I grew up in big churches but got dragged around to small ones at various times. I felt uncomfortable and exposed when visiting small churches—there was no place to hide. Later I found that many of these small churches are family affairs—one or a few families who know each other very well. Their services can easily degenerate into an easy conviviality that hardly transcends a social meeting and is not welcoming to the stranger who feels very much an outsider.

Big churches have advantages—they have enough people to create a satisfying roar when singing hymns, maybe a good choir or a great organ, or a charismatic preacher--all the resources to put on a good show. They can provide support groups for people under stress, and a sufficient number of adult Sabbath School classes so that the seeker/doubter/liberal can find one that suits her (but no guarantees if the SS superintendent is of a dictatorial turn of mind).

As Loren says, in a small church a single problematic person can “cast a long shadow”. And small churches seem to attract problematic persons perhaps for that very reason. Adventism’s evangelism, heavily reliant on decoding obscure symbols and visions, tends to attract persons of a certain mindset and implicitly gives them permission to indulge in various exercises often leading to conclusions that might charitably be called idiosyncratic. But the main difficulty is with the fundamentalists, who want all doctrine, and the most inconsequential matters of behavior to remain as they were since the Fathers fell asleep.

But there’s an upside to small churches, at least potentially, which I did not discover until I was given the responsibility of planning worship for one of them week after week—a daunting task—especially if the worship is expected to provide a “good show” or a “good sermon”. Abandon those expectations, and a very small congregation can provide an level of worship experience and congregational participation beyond anything possible in a larger setting.

The key is to build the service around the reading of scripture and singing of hymns. Much scripture reading takes some of the burden off the preacher—he/she can construct a “sermon” (which be shorter than we’re used to) as a commentary upon the readings. In “my” congregation we would assign the scripture readings at the end of the Sabbath School hour, and nearly everyone participated—either by reading scripture, telling a story to the children, leading out in a responsive reading, reading a Psalm. This is what I call a “liturgical” service.

Especially for a small congregation, it’s important to have a well-defined form of worship— laid out in writing—into which a variety of content can be plugged. This is important both for the one who constructs the service, who is unlikely to be a professional pastor. It is also important for the comfort of visitors, who may be put off by effusive shows of “friendliness” and invitations for self-revelation.

I'll be interested in reactions. Don