American Idols Series: Size

Americans are obsessed with size, the bigger the better.  In this episode,  we examine how this value seeps into the American church and influences the way we approach our faith.  We may not even notice how often we rely on size to make decisions or to determine the value of those things we engage with.  And when it comes to the church, while we can critique elements of both large and small churches, our main point is that we should put aside our bias towards size and look for better ways to evaluate the health of our churches. As one of the authors we cite has stated, our focus on size within the church has come at a significant price, and peeling apart the American culture’s obsession with size can help us see the cost it is having on our faith.  

Discussion Questions:   

Have you considered how often Americans focus on size, and how we prefer larger than life sizes?  Where have you seen this value expressed?  

Can you identify areas where you value something more or less based on its size?  Does this include the quantity of something, or the amount of followers, likes, views or reviews?  Are you tempted to believe that something is less valuable or even failing because it is smaller?  Can you think of examples where something being smaller actually increases its value to you?

Where do you see this value in favor of size seeping into the church and ways that we practice our faith?  

Can you identify the positives of larger churches and ministries?  What are some of the negatives?  How does our focus on size, large or small, shape our souls and our Christian practices?

How did you react to some of the statistics about church size and the growing percentage of people who are attending larger churches?  What about the description of some of the largest churches and the church growth conferences they sponsor?   

How did Francis Chan’s interaction with the subject of size lead him to reconsider the way in which he was ministering?  Have you considered the fact that crowds often abandoned Jesus when they found his words difficult to hear?  How does that compare with our assumption that churches growing numerically must be healthy and gospel-centered?

Karl Vaters points out that the obsession with size comes at a price.  Can you identify some of those costs?  Have you observed or experienced these costs personally?