Bob,

Sorry I haven’t posted a reply in a while. I have kind of been on a discussion list break for a while :). I was reading some of the comments and your response and it got me thinking about size as a value for a church. Is the structure (including size) the driving factor or is multiplication the main focus? And if multiplication is the focus when should a church spin off another one? And (I know too many ands) does church have to consist of a building or big meeting, a trained pastor, a certain size and/or format? Or, could a church be a small group of people who gather in their own faciltiy (their home)and receive teaching in non traditional ways (video, shared resources) and are networked together as a large group? If money going to facilities wasn’t an issue and people were cared for and known and using their gifts in their own church, would size be bad? Also, what do you see the relationship being of these small churches that are planted at a certain size thresh hold? Do they still stay connected? Do they stay on the same track together? Or, do they go separate way? Do they try and tackle the big issues in a community like poverty or disease piecemeal? Or would the size of their network together have a bigger impact in a local community?

I know these are a bunch of questions and I am typing stream of consciousness here but I think there is value to both big and small so the question should be not why should we be big or small, but how can we have the good or high points of both?