The first time I talked about this topic, the assumption in comments was that the reason the medium-sized church is struggling is because of money. In my last post on the topic I explored the core problem… that there are no “medium-sized church people” in America. There are big church people and small church people. So… here were: Money problems are the effect and culture is the cause.
3 Financial Reasons the Medium-sized Church Struggles
1. People give to vision, not to guilt. What this means for medium-sized churches is that people simply aren’t going to give to a vision they don’t believe in. So if you talk about growth, the small church folk won’t give and visa versa. See number 3 for what I think the solution is.
2. Video killed the adequate preacher. A former student of mine summed this up well in describing the church she currently attends. “What I like about the worship leader is that he’s not trying to be Crowder or Tomlin.” In a society where everything seems fake, authenticity goes miles.
3. Big buildings are a waste of money. If you’re a megachurch you can spread that cost of a big building around. And massive buildings and huge programs are affordable for megachurches. Otherwise, I think most churches would be wise to shed their buildings and complext programs. This really squeeezes medium-sized churches. That’s why I think most medium-sized churches will go multi-site, video-site, house church, etc. See, I’m not predicting the death of a medium-sized church. I’m predicting that this size church will get creative in order to sharpen their mission.
Again, I’m not claiming to be an expert here. I’m just kind of putting into words a bunch of conversations I’ve had over the past few months. Share your thoughts!
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