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Bible & Theology Issues 2,070 total votes have been cast on this survey | 29 user comments  ( edit survey )

What is the average size of a Sunday morning congregation in your church? Created: 4/28/2003 | Last Vote: 4 years ago | Comment: 14 years ago

Disclaimer: These surveys are created by PLUS or FULL Members of the site and, unless specified, are not created by the SermonAudio staff nor do they necessarily reflect the site's position on any topic.  •    Less than 50 people   27% | 561 votes  •    50 - 100 people   26% | 532 votes  •    100 - 500 people   32% | 664 votes  •    500 - 1000   6% | 130 votes  •    1000+   7% | 143 votes  •    No answer. Skip this survey, I do not care to vote on this topic.   2% | 40 votes

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2/10/10 4:55 PM Sabbatarian  | Fourth Commandment    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments John UK wrote: Re:: The Lord's Day WCF XXI.7. As it is of the law of nature that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him(a) which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week,(b) which in Scripture is called the Lord's day,(c) and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.(d) a. Exod 20:8, 10-11; Isa 56:2, 4, 6-7. • b. Gen 2:2-3; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:1-2. • c. Rev 1:10. • d. Exod 20:8, 10 with Mat 5:17-18. 11/17/08 1:17 AM Nathan  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments I like your "economic" analysis. In an economy where we can't be bothered to grow the church by converting the unsaved we have to share resources in a limited marketplace. (I like to speak of Gods people as impersonal numbers in a church system that loves to think in church growth terms.) This was before I completely left the Pentecostal movement, I was under a transitional move by God prior to complete extraction and becoming amazed at how unbiblical it all was. The Pastor of the church I was in was not tyranical unlike the one I had previously left. In fact it saddened me that I had to leave as he became swept away by the Toronto blessing. I now find it rediculously frustrating that whatever denomination one attends, they do not hold to a reformed doctrine. It's all new wine, even in non charismatic churches. That's where God I feel is glorified through what Sermon Audio does. 11/13/08 10:49 AM Neil  | Tucson    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Nathan, While ego may have played a part, if we look at your story in economic terms, then the pastors' behavior makes even more sense. There were a limited no. of customers (churchgoers) to be shared among the vendors (pastors). Perhaps your Pentecostal minister was one too many, so collective action was required to prevent further market share dilution. Attendance is hard for pastors to ignore since they are usually completely dependent on tithe income. BTW, as far as I'm concerned, a cult is any church, regardless of doctrine, in which the clergy exercises tyrannical authority over members. 11/13/08 1:36 AM Nathan  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments I have a problem with this question. I'll explain. Many years ago I left a Pentecostal Church for very important doctrinal reasons whilst seeing very demonic manifestations taking place and being encouraged. I attended a different church 30 mins away. This new Pastor from NZ was the "new kid on the block" and the ministers from around the area played hard ball and almost behaved like the mafia. We are talking ministers from Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Salvation Army, and Pentecostal churches. He would receive a call every Sunday from the ministers asking how many people attended his church on Sunday. He participated at first in innocence then it became clear it was a numbers game over who got the biggest numbers. It was an Ego Trip taking place. He refused to participate. Heavy treatment was put on him to report any new comers to his church and to send back anyone who went to his church from their church. He refused saying people could worship where ever God wanted them to worship. This was a mistake. The churches of the area started branding him as a cult leader and his church as a cult. It was a disgusting display that I have seen over and over again in many different places and churches. Who cares about the numbers. 11/11/08 5:43 PM St Jeremiah  | Salt Lake City, UT    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments At Jordan Valley Baptist...we can have up to 20 on a high for Sunday. Our evangelism does bring in some families. But we cannot keep new members for long since the larger Churches with more programs tend to draw them away. We are glad that the members we loose is going to some Church somewhere. Our focus is [URL=http://www.jordanvalleybaptist.org/]]]"We Teach the Bible"[/URL]. [URL=http://www.baptist411.com/churches/details/623/]]]Heritage Baptist Church [/URL] has no website. They run on Sunday morning between 50-100 on regular services. The Spanish Heritage Baptist is between 25-50 who attend. Though the numbers are high....few have committed themselves to be members who support the work of ministry. 3/4/08 8:24 PM Bernard  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments How can you even know the names of the people in a congregation of 100+ people, let alone know the people? Wouldn't it be better to split a congregation of 500 people into 10 smaller churches? 6/20/06 5:24 AM Confused    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Quote: "I think what our forefathers opposed was not the Book of Common Prayer per se but the fact that it was imposed upon the church by the king and the bishops." But then they had no hesitation in preparing with a view to enforcing (under the Solemn League and Covenant) the subordinate standards under parliamentary instructions?!! 6/19/06 11:22 PM msc    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments I'd rather be among the "frozen chosen" than among those melting at every cry for change and "user-friendly" services. Besides, the liturgy in the church I attend is far from "frozen", boring, or whatever other excuse exists among the user-friendly advocates(I just say they need to re-read the "Be still and know I am God..." passage ). As for numbers, it's about 200 at Sunday worship. 6/19/06 11:05 PM George T. Thompson  | Southeast Louisiana    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments No, Neil, Presbyterians are not opposed to liturgy since liturgy is inescapable. The question is, good, God-centered liturgy, or poor, man-centered liturgy. I think what our forefathers opposed was not the Book of Common Prayer per se but the fact that it was imposed upon the church by the king and the bishops. 11/26/05 6:28 PM RosaMarie    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments 35 maybe? 11/26/05 6:11 PM Mike  | New York    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Around 400 11/26/05 6:06 PM coora  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments I do not believe size matters. At present we worship in a congregation of 80 - 100 each Sunday. It was difficult to really meet folk at first as there is a core group of locals and a large itinerant group of holiday makers and mobile workers. We came from a country church which had grown from less than 10 to a regular 30 adults in about 15 years. Both groups have provided really good fellowship and teaching. 6/17/05 2:09 PM Neil  | Tucson    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments George, I thought Presbys historically opposed liturgy. Or was it just the Anglican form that was the problem in 1638? RC Sproul Jr's church (RPCGA) is also liturgical. 6/16/05 10:18 PM Traci    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments You may not be the frozen chosen but you might be the "frosted flakes." 6/4/05 3:41 PM George T. Thompson  | Southeast Louisiana    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Since our liturgical worship is fervent (and replete with loud amens!), we are not among the "frozen chosen" of Reformed Presbyterians. However, our congregation is rather small, so we must be the "select of the elect." 4/2/04 8:56 AM peter  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments as we come to worship God I don't really worry about why others havn't come I can only be responsible for myself and my own family. Look how long it took for the first modern convert in India. God is the one who provides people and the gifts they have to supply the needs of His Church which may meet from house to house or in a building rented for teaching purposes for over three years as we see in the scriptures. Sometimes we see the Church visibly, but usually there are many unsaved who think they are saved and there may be many Christians in different denominations. The local Church is really the body of Christ in each locallity. Does God worry about the number of people who do His work or does He use the weak and small things to confound the stong and great? 1/17/04 12:45 PM Adrian  | Perth, Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments It is good to have a small church that is all right with God but from our church's experience, the fear of "being about numbers" kept our church from growing and reaching out to the lost. People were too complacent and became stagnant in outreach. when people became concerned about the lack of growth, some people would say "its not about numbers". Hope that other churches can learn from this experience and be sure that while a church be small, the growth of the true Christian Church is inevitable and necessary, otherwise the Lord would have brought us all to heaven already if htere was no more potential to bring others to Christ. 12/29/03 8:11 PM David  | 'Bama    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments The building where my family and I attend worship (commonly called a "church") is filled with all of maybe 30 people on Lord's Day. The small number is due to our Pastor's Dabney/Knox/Flavel style of preaching - calmly hissing like a fire. No gimmicks, no crosses, no bands: just puritanical worship. It's interesting if one looks at the polls: the folks with the largest churches have the fewest votes cast. I'd chalk that up to the fact that this is a fairly conservative site (big churches are rarely so) and most folks attending their neo-monasteries are busy every night "doing church activities." In an age when the world has returned to hedonism, it's rather sad to see so many churches (or whole denominations) resort to all sorts of wordly/business TACTICS to lure people in. These tactics, mind you, are designed to mimic current music, business, and communication styles so as to be palatable to those church-shopping. Having been around the world twice in the Navy, visiting 72 different countries, I know the value of my anchor-like liturgical worship. Brandon made a great point. I also believe that once a particular church reaches about 25/30 families, or 150 people, they should look at starting another one. Rarely are people in gigantic churches truely MINISTERED to. 12/12/03 8:15 AM B. Rees  | Hong Kong    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments My answer to the question? "None of the above." Why? The question asks about the size of the "Sunday morning" congregation. Robert Bamford points out that there are people who worship on Saturday, rather than Sunday. But what about those congregations that meet in the AFTERNOON, rather than the morning? -- as the one I serve does. Why? No doctrinal reason, but a pragmatic one. Property prices are so high in Hong Kong that our congregation can't afford a full-time meeting place of its own. So we meet in hall that we rent for four hours a week, and the only time it was available for our use was on Sunday afternoon. 11/22/03 6:23 AM Sam Benedict  | Japan    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments You in the western world with multi-churched towns should be thankful you can go to a church with a dozen people or 1200 people. Here in my town TENRI, JAPAN pop. 70,000 there are 2 churches with less than 20 people each. Anyone want to take Matt. 28 to heart, you can read it in any version, it's pretty much the same.

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