Let’s just rip the Band-Aid off:
The size of your church is not a spiritual scoreboard.
And no, your small attendance doesn’t automatically make you more faithful than the megachurch down the street. The same is true the other way around and we’ll address that one in a future post, but for now hang with me.
I’ve heard the quiet grumble all too often: “Well, we may be small, but at least we’re faithful.” It’s the humblebrag of dying churches. It’s what pastors whisper to themselves after another Sunday where it feels like the only thing multiplying is the empty chairs.
Here’s the hard truth: Faithfulness and fruitfulness are not enemies. Go ahead and read that again. They were never supposed to be. But we’ve turned “faithfulness” into a security blanket to shield us from the sting of ineffectiveness.
Not too long ago when talking with a brother pastor, I was asked, “What are you all doing that’s causing the congregation to grow? My reply was simple, We’re teaching the Bible man. That’s really all we’re doing right now. And God is just blessing it. The look on his face was one of sheer amazement. Then I was shocked by his reply “There’s no way that just preaching the gospel can draw people to the local church.”
Umm…What?!?! If we’re using anything other than the gospel to bring people to the church, then we’re doing it WRONG!
Let’s be clear—faithfulness does matter. Of course it does. God calls us to be faithful. Faithful in preaching the Word. Faithful in prayer. Faithful in loving people and making disciples. But faithfulness isn’t an excuse for fruitlessness. If your church hasn’t baptized anyone in years, if your community doesn’t even know you exist, if your idea of outreach is a potluck for people who already know Jesus—maybe it’s time to stop blaming “culture” and start asking better questions.
Sometimes we wrap our lack of impact in the language of purity. We say ridiculous things to excuse our laziness. Things like:
“We’re not about numbers.”
“We’re not here to entertain.”
“We’re not going to compromise to attract people.”
Sure. Fine. But are you actually reaching people? Are lives being changed? Is the Gospel going anywhere outside your four walls? Because Jesus didn’t say, ‘Go therefore and preserve a faithful remnant of the already converted.’
He said make disciples. Of all nations. That’s movement. That’s growth. That’s multiplication. As much as we may not like to admit it, Jesus was about growing the church! He wants heaven to be one heck of a family reunion for a family that’s growing larger everyday.
On the flip side, just because a church is big doesn’t mean it’s healthy. You can pack a room with smoke machines and still be spiritually bankrupt. A full building doesn’t always mean full hearts. But let’s not pretend that size automatically means compromise, either. Some churches are big because they’re faithful—faithful to the Word, faithful to the mission, and faithful to reaching people where they are.
We do not have to compromise the teachings of the faith in order to reach our community. We don’t have to give up the ghost for our churches to grow (wider and deeper).
God doesn’t grade on a curve based on attendance, but He does expect fruit.
Jesus cursed the fig tree not because it was small, but because it had no fruit. Let that sit for a minute. If you and the church you attend were that fig tree, what would Jesus do to you? I’m sorry if this sounds convicting. The reality is we’ve all grown a little complacent with just making it. But that’s not at all what God had in store for his church!
So what do we do with this?
We stop playing the comparison game. Get a group of pastors in a room and ask them how church is going. The first answer is generally the size of their worship on Sunday. That was not the question.
We stop idolizing bigness and romanticizing smallness. I talk to a lot of pastors these days and I hear this more often than I would like to admit. Not only is it a sheer numbers issue for them, it’s also a comparison game. Whether they’re not as big as the box church who has all the programs and young people in attendance. Or they just love how intimate they are so that no one gets lost in the crowd. Neither are the point of the church in the New Testament!
We stop blaming the world for not listening and start asking if we’re actually speaking their language. Why is the world and the culture around us not listening? It’s because we’re not saying anything they want or need to hear. We’re ignoring their biggest needs and preaching about our pet peeves. We start programs and ministries that we want, and totally ignore the main hurts present in our community.
And maybe—just maybe—we stop using “faithfulness” as a polite way to avoid talking about the fact that we’ve grown largely complacent – aka comfortable with not growing at all.
Being small isn’t a sin. But staying small while ignoring the Great Commission might be.
Let’s kill the pride that masquerades as humility. Let’s stop hiding behind noble-sounding phrases that excuse our lack of vision, creativity, or effort. Let’s be faithful—and let that faithfulness drive us to innovate, to risk, to adapt, to stretch, and to expect that the Holy Spirit might actually move when we do.
Because here’s the deal: God’s kingdom is not stuck. It’s advancing. And if we’re standing still and calling it faithfulness, we might just be missing the point.
Faithfulness isn’t passive. It fights. It moves. It multiplies.
So stop hiding. Own where you are. Repent if you need to. Dream again. Risk again. Plant seeds. The church of Jesus Christ is meant to grow. Not always in numbers. Not always overnight. But always in reach. Always in depth. Always in Gospel impact.
Small or large—be faithful. But don’t use that word to cover up what Jesus is actually calling you to do.
Let’s be faithful and fruitful. The world is too broken and Jesus is too worthy for anything less.
