Faith Works 10-9-2026
Jeff Gill
Small is beautiful, if that’s what you like
___
When I talk about the upsides and struggles of smaller churches, I know I’ll get email.
I also know what I will hear most often, which is how much people who like those sorts of churches like them. Which is true, and in line with much of Christian history. The “parish” however defined has been a core model for local faith community life across generations, a fairly tight geographic area with plenty of family and neighborhood connections undergirding the relationships within a congregation.
One big problem here, though, is like what you hear when you poll or survey in any form a community about retail. People will express significant preferences for “Mom and Pop” stores and family style restaurants; often they will even say they’ll pay more for such experiences. Except when tested, they don’t.
Big box retail comes in, marks down 5% or 10% below the Main Street locally owned store, and the tide turns. Chain restaurants and fast food show up on the edge of town, and the downtown diner sees traffic drop off. That’s how malls hollowed out urban cores, and then major discounters gutted the malls, and now online ordering and to your door delivery start to rattle even the supercenters.
Likewise, the historic churches built a block off of courthouse square or parallel to Main Street, almost all with no parking off-street, took a beating as retail moved to the margins; A-frame worship spaces popped up in the suburbs, then the giant worship spaces which dwarfed the kinds of sanctuaries many Boomers grew up in, sometimes in the malls that were themselves starting to lose retail tenants.
If you have a faith you were raised in, and a taste for having a church family, you can be an adult or even an empty nester and like a moderately sized building with just enough people each Sunday to challenge your ability to remember names. Yes, there’s a bunch of us, and quite a few of you also still read newspapers (even print versions!) and aren’t put off by the word “Faith” in the header of, say, a column.
There are also not a few people who are interested in spirituality, but didn’t grow up with or perhaps chose to not stay in a faith tradition from your youth, maybe even stayed away from such weekly gatherings for a season or two of your life, but read about prayer and meditation and God with interest. Some of you read here, and email me occasionally. And tell me how you’d prefer an anonymous space in which to gather with like-minded others over a pew-furnished room with a couple dozen people who all turn to look at you as you enter.
I think there’s a desire for family style church, but it’s not for everyone. That can be hard to hear: it shouldn’t be. I like to remind my peers that in the halcyon days of blue laws and Sunday closings the average weekend in most communities saw maybe 40% of the population in church. That leaves 60% choosing otherwise. Today, it’s closer to 20%, which is a halving to be sure, but it’s not new to see a solid majority of our neighbors deciding not to attend worship.
The big question for me about church size is that the rise of megachurches has not swept in as many new attenders as we once thought the seeker-sensitive model might. If a windowless space for image projection with excellent graphics, and a quality sound system for a skilled praise band and solid preaching, would bring in even 52% of the population, I’d set aside some of my hesitations and sing the praises of that approach.
I don’t think it’s bad, I just don’t see it making the difference we once anticipated in reaching new audiences, in changing hearts. But neither is business as usual. What comes next?
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s more familiar with family style traditional than not. Tell him how you think worship is most effective at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
Small is beautiful, if that’s what you like
___
When I talk about the upsides and struggles of smaller churches, I know I’ll get email.
I also know what I will hear most often, which is how much people who like those sorts of churches like them. Which is true, and in line with much of Christian history. The “parish” however defined has been a core model for local faith community life across generations, a fairly tight geographic area with plenty of family and neighborhood connections undergirding the relationships within a congregation.
One big problem here, though, is like what you hear when you poll or survey in any form a community about retail. People will express significant preferences for “Mom and Pop” stores and family style restaurants; often they will even say they’ll pay more for such experiences. Except when tested, they don’t.
Big box retail comes in, marks down 5% or 10% below the Main Street locally owned store, and the tide turns. Chain restaurants and fast food show up on the edge of town, and the downtown diner sees traffic drop off. That’s how malls hollowed out urban cores, and then major discounters gutted the malls, and now online ordering and to your door delivery start to rattle even the supercenters.
Likewise, the historic churches built a block off of courthouse square or parallel to Main Street, almost all with no parking off-street, took a beating as retail moved to the margins; A-frame worship spaces popped up in the suburbs, then the giant worship spaces which dwarfed the kinds of sanctuaries many Boomers grew up in, sometimes in the malls that were themselves starting to lose retail tenants.
If you have a faith you were raised in, and a taste for having a church family, you can be an adult or even an empty nester and like a moderately sized building with just enough people each Sunday to challenge your ability to remember names. Yes, there’s a bunch of us, and quite a few of you also still read newspapers (even print versions!) and aren’t put off by the word “Faith” in the header of, say, a column.
There are also not a few people who are interested in spirituality, but didn’t grow up with or perhaps chose to not stay in a faith tradition from your youth, maybe even stayed away from such weekly gatherings for a season or two of your life, but read about prayer and meditation and God with interest. Some of you read here, and email me occasionally. And tell me how you’d prefer an anonymous space in which to gather with like-minded others over a pew-furnished room with a couple dozen people who all turn to look at you as you enter.
I think there’s a desire for family style church, but it’s not for everyone. That can be hard to hear: it shouldn’t be. I like to remind my peers that in the halcyon days of blue laws and Sunday closings the average weekend in most communities saw maybe 40% of the population in church. That leaves 60% choosing otherwise. Today, it’s closer to 20%, which is a halving to be sure, but it’s not new to see a solid majority of our neighbors deciding not to attend worship.
The big question for me about church size is that the rise of megachurches has not swept in as many new attenders as we once thought the seeker-sensitive model might. If a windowless space for image projection with excellent graphics, and a quality sound system for a skilled praise band and solid preaching, would bring in even 52% of the population, I’d set aside some of my hesitations and sing the praises of that approach.
I don’t think it’s bad, I just don’t see it making the difference we once anticipated in reaching new audiences, in changing hearts. But neither is business as usual. What comes next?
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s more familiar with family style traditional than not. Tell him how you think worship is most effective at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
