Big does not equal great

Hillcrest isn't a big church. Not at all. No typical church 'scorecard' would indicate that we are a big church. Not our weekly attendance, not our weekly giving, not the size of our budget. I think at times leaders, even church leaders, fall into the trap of thinking that bigger means better. The typical rationale, at least in church world, goes something like "we count people because people count to God" kind of an idea. And there's nothing wrong with that approach. Yet if all we count is the number of people attending a service, or the number of dollars given on Sunday, we are susceptible to the temtpation that bigger is better.

I suppose one could say that if Hillcrest were a bigger church in those kinds of terms, then I wouldn't be writing this post. That if Hillcrest were bigger in those terms, I would be more ok with being big, because I am big. Maybe so. And yet the people we work with in the community are surprised to hear how small of a church we are, thinking that the kinds of things we are doing can only be accomplished by bigger churches. That's not to say that Hillcrest has it figured out or that we at Hillcrest feel we have 'arrived' in terms of what it means to serve our neighbors. Far from it. Yet the freeing thing, the inviting thing, about serving the community, whether at a thrift store, a school, or a soup kitchen, is that any church, any group, can have impact. Size doesn't matter.

Jim Collins writes in How the Mighty Fall "the greatest leaders do seek growth- growth in performance, growth in distinctive impact, growth in creativity, growth in people- but they do not succumb to to growth that undermines long term value. And they certainly do not confuse growth with excellence. Big does not equal great, and great does not equal big" (54).