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Church Growth for Small Church (01)
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Paul Jang
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2008-03-24 15:26:07, hit : 2,869 |
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Church Growth for Small Church (01)
Most of large churches may have been growing in spite of no special projects as prescribed by the leading pastor of the church. But in most cases, small church does not grow without a special project (program). What are the reasons? First of all, large sized congregation may be the specific factor of growth by which the church can naturally increase (Wagner 1989, 136).
And second factor of church growth is laypeople- mobilization (McGavran and Arn 1973 trans. by Oh 1988, 128; Chung 1988, 12). If a small church does not mobilize its laypeople, it will be declined to a dying church because the growth through the laypeople may stop. But large church may somewhat grow without a positive mobilization of its laypeople because many laypeople of the church can be mobilized themselves by the good mood of the congregations without any special program.
In addition, the people of large church may get good opportunities to participate in various activity fields in the church (Wagner 1976, trans. by Kwon 1992, 131). In consequence of participation of the laypeople in the activities they may grow themselves in faith and give an influence on the growth of the church. Peter C. Wagner mentioned about the advantages of large church as follows:
It's not too big to offer opportunities for close friendship, more casual acquaintances, vital community involvement, sound biblical teaching, openings of Christian service of all kinds, a missionary program that makes a difference in world evangelization, the finest in sacred music, and...I could go on and on (Wagner 1976, trans. by Kwon 1992, 131).
And also large church may can have multiple ministries (Vaughan 1993, 100). Large church can effectively provide for the growth of church because it can afford to hire well-trained and experienced staffs (Wagner 1976, trans. by Kwon 1992, 130). Large church not only can hire more people who are specialists in one field or another, but they can afford to pay them enough to keep them (Wagner 1976, trans. by Kwon 1992, 131).
In conclusion, a large church can do everything that a small church can do except for providing a comfortable environment for those people who feel insecure with excitement and strangers (Wagner 1976, trnas. by Kwon 1980, 131). But a church can be too small for lots of things on the growth of church. This is a fatal weakness of small church for its growth.
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Introduction
Ch Growth 