RadioShack Sound Systems & Faith-Infused Realism

Most leaders (volunteer or paid) find it easy to think about what they want to do and have and be after their ministry or organization grows. A preferred future is fun to think about. The current reality, especially for those in small churches, well, not so much. Here was reality at my first church:

• My annual worship budget: less than my current Wii bowling average.
• My band: Me. And occasionally Lori, a pianist who couldn’t read chord charts or leadsheets. So when she played, we had to do everything from the Maranatha! Green Book.*
• My sound system: Two words, squished together–RadioShack.
• My video tech: an 80-year old gentleman who sat 3 feet to my left and moved the transparency up and down (quite rapidly) on the overhead projector.

We can dream and scheme and spreadsheet our preferred future all we want. But no plan for future growth will succeed without faith-infused realism. Here’s what faith infused realism is NOT: [Read the rest at WorshipMinistry.com]

Small Churches are Small Because They’re Doing Something Wrong

That’s what a college classmate of mine heard when he did a ministry internship in a very large church. No, he didn’t just hear the sentiment. He heard the actual words: “Small churches are small because they’re doing something wrong.”

In some cases, this is absolutely true. But does that mean larger churches are large because they’re doing something right? Sure, sometimes. In the case of the larger church mentioned above, the senior pastor left (with his lover) after a long term affair was exposed. So, maybe not always.

The issue isn’t this over-generalization that small church = dysfunction and big church = health. We can all point to shining (and not-so-shining) examples to refute that.

The issue is that we believe it.

It’s how we’re wired in this culture. We see numbers, we assign value to those numbers. Lower numbers, lower value. A packed house means a great show. A smattering of attendees and forget it--there must be something wrong here.

How do we break this mindset?

I think we each need to relearn that our church is THE CHURCH. Bill Hybels (a mega-church pastor) has said (and keeps saying) that “the local church is the hope of the world…” He doesn’t say Willow Creek or Saddleback or Hillsong. Or even Northpoint. And he doesn’t say when the small church finally grows to 500. He said the local church. And Jesus said something even better, “on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

This has everything to do with Small Church/Big Worship. We have to stop defining our worship by how many singers we have. Or how big our band is. Or by the songs we sing. Or the songs we don’t sing. Or our doctrinal bent. Or how people express themselves during worship.

Instead, what if we defined ourselves as THE CHURCH, whether 40 or 4000. We are the body of Christ, the indestructible battering ram on the doors of hell. The royal priesthood chosen by God to bear His name for His glory.

We start believing that and our worship starts getting bigger.

Small Church/Big Worship - 2 or 3 More Numbers That Matter...

In the last SC/BW post, we talked about numbers. Numbers matter. We can't scale NorthWillowBackHillPoint down to 100 people. These large churches have more people on staff than most churches have, well, people.

But there are a few numbers that are common denominators, and no size church gets to claim sole ownership.


The first number is ONE. One God who sent his one (and only) Son. One who died for all. One who was resurrected and ascended, who sent His Spirit to make us one as He and the Father are One.

The other number is two. Or three. Gathered in Jesus' name, that is. He promises he'll be there among us. The trick is the preceding verse - if two or three agree.

Let's start by agreeing on a few things
1. We can't out-megachurch a megachurch.
Kmart couldn't out-Walmart Walmart. It almost died trying. Target didn't try. Target found their own a niche as a trendy discount store with insanely effective marketing. So be unique. You have an amazing mix of talents and gifts in your church that have positioned you to make a unique impact for the Kingdom. We have to quit trying to accomplish another church's mission. Let's tap into the One and figure out what us 2 or 3 (or 120) should be asking for in His name.


2. "Excellence" is nauseating.
I was with a young pastor who was telling me about how "excellence" was one of his church's key values. Even the way people like him say it - "EX-sel-lenz!" (I just threw up a little in my mouth.) The whole excellence thing is important - and I know where he was coming from: smaller churches have been notorious for phoning in many aspects of corporate worship. But excellence is SOOO subjective. And it's so easy to get caught up in trying to "be excellent" and forget to "be His."

I like the word 'remarkable' instead. Remarkable only requires that we go beyond expectations in some way. Your coffee might be Kroger brand and served in white Styrofoam. Your worship center may still have orange carpet (and matching pew cushions). Your band may only have two guitars a keyboard player. But if they can come together as trio (and not try to be the Hillsong-esque rock band), and play fitting arrangements, and draw in the crowd of 75 people to experience true worship of Jesus - now that's remarkable. You might just have someone "exclaiming, 'God is really among you!'"

It won't matter that your coffee sucks.

Small Church/Big Worship - Numbers Matter...

No one walks into a church of 100 and expects Hillsong United. But there is a slight disappointment when “Mighty to Save” isn’t that, well, mighty.

Numbers matter. I know I’m not supposed to say that. But when it comes to corporate worship, they do. The number of singers. The number of instruments. The number of hours put into planning and preparing the worship gathering. The number of dollars spent on the worship space – lighting, sound, décor. And the number of people that fill that space – there’s a difference between a group of 60 and 150. Between 225 and 700. Between a 1000 and 20,000.

But it’s more than quantifiable. There’s also a qualitative difference. At the extreme, think Broadway versus a community theater--both performing the same musical.


I was hired to play guitar in the pit orchestra for a local theater’s summer production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Turns out, the director had some connections – he scored a Dreamcoat actually worn by Donny Osmond during several of his 2000 performances in the Toronto production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. We had the same coat. We had the same script. We had the same music. We even had the wireless mics, the make-up, the lighting, the union musicians (except me…long, boring story), the velvet curtains and the glowing marquee. But Broadway (or the Canadian equivalent) still did it better. Broadway will always do it better. Better sets. Better actors. Better direction. Better lighting. Better sound. Better orchestra. Better wardrobe. All of it. Hands-down better. 

However.

Only an idiot would sit in the Renaissance Theater in Mansfield, Ohio and say, “Donny Osmond was a way better Joseph.”


We don’t judge a group of volunteer actors and underpaid community theater staff by the same criteria as a Broadway production. But in Western Christianity, we have people holding churches of 50 and 150 up to the standards of a church of 500, 2000, and even 20,000. Wait, let me make a correction: we are the people holding churches to those unrealistic standards. We don’t mean to. It’s just human nature to compare apples to apples – church to church. But the comparison is more like apples to orchards.

And that comparison is strangling the worship in smaller churches.

Smaller church worship ministries can’t be scale models of larger ministries. The lower attendance isn’t just a difference in quantity--there’s a completely different quality to a small church. And by quality, I don’t mean Kmart versus Macy’s. If we look at Merriam-Webster’s definitions, the Kmart versus Macy’s analogy is the 2nd entry for quality: “degree of excellence; superiority in kind.”

But the first definition of quality is: “peculiar and essential character; nature; an inherent feature.”

The smaller church has a peculiar and essential character that sets it apart from a larger church. It’s inherently different. And that’s neither bad nor good. It just is. And it just needs to be understood.

And that’s what this Small Church/Big Worship series* is about. If you’re part of a smaller church--paid or volunteer, pastor or lay-person, worship leader or team member, I want to help free you from trying to be what you can’t be (right now) and embrace who and what you are (right now). We’ll look traps and diversions that smaller churches fall prey to. We’ll explore some practical ways you can develop and thrive with what you already have, and find ways to grow more. And ultimately, I want to help you leverage your “peculiar and essential quality” to create remarkable times of worship that larger churches could only have in their Technicolor dreams.

*this series will be ongoing - no promises on how often or how much. I have a few thoughts written down, but it will largely take shape as I write and think - and get feedback from you. Please feel free to comment and email your thoughts and challenges.