Small Church Advantage

I read a great article by Seth Godin the other day titled "Should Small Businesses Whine?" and immediately began thinking within the context of the church; here is what Seth wrote...

"I bought some clothes from a merchant via Amazon. The company that I ordered from shipped the wrong item. I sent it back and was told it will take three or four weeks to process my return. A month!

I wrote back, asking why it would take so long. The response, "Thank you for your inquiry. To answer your question we are NOT an big company like Amazon we are actually a small company, That is why it does take us a little longer than others."

Of course, you'd think a small company could be faster. More important, you'd think the company would realize that I couldn't care a whit about how small they are... I just want good service.

If your small company can't deliver a better experience (in areas people care about) than a big one, why on Earth should someone do business with you? I'm not saying you must have faster service, a bigger website, lower prices and twenty-four hour a day phone support. I'm saying that for some of your customers, you have to be monstrously, demonstrably, better.

The web is a great equalizer. A tiny business can have a better website than a huge one. A tiny business can do better customer support than a big one. A tiny business can write a better newsletter than a big one. Maybe not for everyone, but everyone is for the big companies. The passionate minority is happy to embrace the small company. As long as they focus and don't whine about it.

Small is a weapon, not an excuse."

After reading Seth's post I started thinking about small churches that make excuses because they are small. "We can't run programs like the larger church"; "We don't have enough staff to minister properly"; "We can't attract people like a large church can"; etc. etc. It's almost like the response Seth got back: "You know we are NOT a big church like the one down the road so we can't minister to you properly..."

Granted, there are some things that smaller churches can't do: large productions, big lights, loud booming sound systems, orchestras, etc. But, being a small church doesn't give you the right to whine. There are advantages of being small; one advantage is the ability to provide very relational ministry. Small churches provide the opportunity for more people to do more ministries. In a small church, smaller positive changes make a larger impact.

Just because a church may be small does not mean that they can not be effective. The fantastic thing is that the same Holy Spirit is available to the small church and to the large church. Being a small church is a weapon, not an excuse.