How small can a church be and still be a church?

[OakWood]

I put this into General Discussion because although it's a serious question, it's also meant to be a bit of fun too. I'd like to see some creative ideas here.

 

Imagine that you discovered a new country (like the North American pioneers), or you were forced by war or famine to flee to some remote wilderness and build a new community with just friends and family, or maybe several families.

You set up a new community. You build dwellings and you use local resources - wood and stone. You grow crops and maybe build a village.

You decide to build a church. Maybe it's quite a big church, maybe it is little more than a small chapel.

You are all Christians, or maybe the majority of you are. Do you have a pastor or can one of you act as a stand-in pastor?

Your village may be tiny but after a few generations you are expecting it to turn into a town of hundreds or thousands. If your community gets bigger you may have to build several churches or places of worship - perhaps one day, a cathedral may be built.

 

But when you are still small - how many people do you need to attend your place of worship in order to call it a place of worship?

The Bible tells us that when two or more people come together and pray, then God listens. So a church is not one man, but at least two.

But is two enough? What about three? One person can be the pastor (but is really just a prayer leader) and the other two are the congregation.

What about four people? That is even better. What about five or six, then you could have a family together - father, mother and children.

 

My original premise is: What would you do to get your community together as a church? How many do you need before you can be considered to be a church? What would the inside of your humble church be like? Does everyone have somewhere to sit, or is your church so small that everybody has to kneel down?

How small can your church be and still be considered a church?

If your community expands and you can eventually build more places of worship or build bigger churches, at what point do you decide that a church building is full? After twenty people?After fifty people? After a thousand people? You would eventually have to start dividing your community into parishes.

 

But let's go back to the small again. Is my church big enough with just two people in it, or do I need more people to really call myself a church?

[Guest man]

Matthew 18

20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."

[Sandyz]

"if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven."  Matthew 18:19  I think these churches with 43,000 people in them are way to big.  This is just my opinion, but I don't think anyone can handle more than 20 to 25 people at a time.  If it gets bigger than that they should form another group.  They should come together from time to time for corporate worship but small groups are the best.

Edited November 2, 2013 by Sandyz

[BFP]

I wouldn't bother with a building, per say..I think the building takes away from the "church" to be honest.  I am very much a believer of home churches.  Think of all the money that is poured in to these buildings to keep the lights on, the pews warm, upkeep, etc.  Money that is taken away from where it should be going, to the poor, the widows, the disabled and sick.

As for how many people you need to be a church...well the "church" again, isn't the building, it is the people.  And if there were only ONE believer in the community, what then?  Do you think that the Lord would not hear that one believer because there are not two or more gathered?  All you need is one candle to start a fire. 

[Hindsfeet]

I go to a small group every week, ~10 people, I look forward to it immensely. It is refreshment for the soul; a large drink of water, love and acceptance, an 'everything's going to be okay', prayer for each other, ministering and helping discern, giving strength and encouragement to fight, and push through the battles. This is my church.

 

Any amount of people, 2-3, who set aside a time to seek the Father, is Church.

 

 

 

Now getting a Tax Exempt status is a whole other story!! :-P

Edited November 2, 2013 by Hindsfeet

[OakWood]

These are all good answers.

 

"if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven."  Matthew 18:19  I think these churches with 43,000 people in them are way to big.  This is just my opinion, but I don't think anyone can handle more than 20 to 25 people at a time.  If it gets bigger than that they should form another group.  They should come together from time to time for corporate worship but small groups are the best.

 

Yes, you're right. Churches can become too big.

 

 

I wouldn't bother with a building, per say..I think the building takes away from the "church" to be honest.  I am very much a believer of home churches.  Think of all the money that is poured in to these buildings to keep the lights on, the pews warm, upkeep, etc.  Money that is taken away from where it should be going, to the poor, the widows, the disabled and sick.

As for how many people you need to be a church...well the "church" again, isn't the building, it is the people.  And if there were only ONE believer in the community, what then?  Do you think that the Lord would not hear that one believer because there are not two or more gathered?  All you need is one candle to start a fire. 

 

It doesn't have to be a building, it could be a tent. BTW, yes the Lord would still hear one believer.

However, if you did have a small community of believers, it may be a good idea to have a separate 'house' purely for worship, if that was possible.

[OakWood]

I go to a small group every week, ~10 people, I look forward to it immensely. It is refreshment for the soul; a large drink of water, love and acceptance, an 'everything's going to be okay', prayer for each other, ministering and helping discern, giving strength and encouragement to fight, and push through the battles. This is my church.

 

Any amount of people, 2-3, who set aside a time to seek the Father, is Church.

 

 

 

Now getting a Tax Exempt status is a whole other story!! :-P

 

I guess a small community that has formed independent of government wouldn't have to care about tax.

Ten people sounds like a good number to me. That's enough people to give a family feel, and a bit of variety of opinion, but at the same time giving enough intimacy for everybody to be familiar with one another. A church of 2,000 people would have a lot of strangers in it.

[BFP]

Although I hesitate to bring up the Amish here...LOL!  The families each take a Sunday to host the meeting in their homes.  Everyone brings a dish of food with them and afterward a meal is shared and the day becomes a day of worship, fun, and fellowship.  Now that, to me is an awesome way to spend the sabbath...

 

Tents are just not possible everywhere...Canadian churches would die pretty quickly if meetings were held in a tent, 

[OakWood]

You can look at it this way:

 

 

One person would still be heard by God, but it wouldn't be a church.

 

Two people could be classed as a church

 

Three people would add more power to the prayer

 

Four people would unconsciously shift it to a pastor-congregation relationship as one person would probably take on the role of leader

 

Five people would give it a family feel

 

Six people would probably work better if one person was nominally given a pastor/prayer leader role

 

And so on.....

 

The more people, the more prayer power, but the more chance that some would have wandering minds - go through the motions but not really be praying at all. There might be too many families, too many screaming kids and so on...

 

Bigger is better in some ways, but worse in others.

 

So, do you keep your churches small, even if your community becomes the size of a city? Could you have the best of both worlds and stick to small intimate parishes but keep a big cathedral for special occasions (as Sandyz said)?

I suppose it would depend on costs, land availability and various other logistics.

[BFP]

I think, in the community...the bigger the church gets, the more chance of divisions within it, so it would probably divide into two anyway...then three and four...