How Do You Determine Church Size?

Are you a big church or a small church? The answer, in short, is “it depends.”

How do you determine the size number of your church and what do you compare it with?

The number one way that people determine the size of a church is by the number of people. But what number do you use? There are so many factors that could go into getting that number. Do you use the number of people who are members of the church, or do you go by the number of people in worship?

Your baseline is probably the average number of people in worship and Sunday school/kids programs on a weekend. But do you have people from the community who consistently attend church programs during the week and don’t come on the weekend, like an “extended church family”? We sure do. On a busy week and light weekend attendance, we can more people at the church due to our ministries and programs than in worship on Sunday. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but does that mean we should count those people when calculating how many people go to our church?

Now once you’ve figured out your number, what do you comparing it with? Say your church has an average weekly attendance of 150. If the other churches in your town or area are worshiping at about 50, you’re the big church. If you happen to be in the same area as a multi-site church with a couple of campuses, you may be one of the smaller churches around.

When you’re talking to a friend about where you go to church, how do describe how big your church is? Do you attend a big church or a small church? Well how do you know? Who’s writing the rules on what makes a big church a big church? A quick google search reveals no concrete answers, but according to this source – http://www.usachurches.org/church-sizes.htm – larger churches start at 301 in average weekly attendance.

One often overlooked factor when determining church size is how big it feels to the individual person. A congregation of 50 people worshiping in a church built for 250 is going to feel small, while a congregation of 250 worshiping in a building built for 100 is going to feel huge. And that’s not counting for all of the Christmas and Easter people that you see twice a year!

Overall, a church can be whatever you make of it, including how big or small you think it is. Do you think you go to big or small church?

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