I had a great conversation with Adam the other day about Church and it either confirmed that I’m NOT crazy OR that we are BOTH equally crazy.  I’m hoping for the former.  I’d love to  hear your opinions on the matter as well.

Really, my thoughts can be summed up into church size.  I have seen no spiritual advantages of a congregation of 5,000 people vs a congregation of 100.  Oh, I have seen some of the amazing things a large congregation can do because of their resources — but what positive affect does a larger congregation have on an individual’s spiritual growth?  I can’t think of any.

If you didn’t already know, I’m a member of the Village Church (which technically makes me Baptist despite my Wesleyan and Methodist roots) which is a multi-site, multiple thousand member church with an average weekly attendance of around 5,000 people across 9 different services in 2 locations.  The church’s small group model is that of “we are a church of small groups” — meaning the idea is to have everyone apart of a smaller group, which is where community is suppose to happen.  Home group leaders rely on home group coaches (each coach responsible for 3-5 leaders) and those coaches rely on area pastors for support.  Membership at the Village requires being in a home group.  In theory, every member would then be a part of a small group and a that group a part of a number of groups creating mini churches which breaks the 2000+ membership into much more manageable and practical numbers.

I’ve seen the flow chart, and I think it’s a great idea — but I haven’t seen a working example.  I’ve been to the home group leader retreat and listened to the new plan to make all of our ministries fit into our group model but I don’t really see how they intend to make this all work.  I don’t understand why we don’t plant more churches… or… equip and train people to go and serve in congregations where we already live.

My local church is anything BUT local for most of us who attend — why is that?  How much more effective would the local church be if it were local?  What do you think?  How far do you go to “go to church”?