“ ...we see a move back to smaller church gatherings”

Should our goal be to grow churches (regardless of their size) or to encourage faithfulness in churches? There are large healthy churches and small healthy churches and large and small unhealthy churches. I wish the focus would come off of how big the church is or how much it is growing in numbers and look instead on how the people are growing in the Spirit toward godliness. Should we be disappointed if there are a lot of small churches that never get bigger but equip the saints to faithfully serve the Lord. The pastor I had when I was a preteen was not focused on church growth, but he taught us and took us through the Bible Instruction Course (E-Free early 1980’s). When he passed away the next pastor came in- his focus was all on how to get bigger and get more people to come, but he spent little time teaching us teens the Bible. I wanted to be taught, but he wanted me to just show up for volleyball and pizza parties. I quit going to church for a while. Thankfully others came into my life that were more concerned with teaching me than with how many people came to church. I really feel the “church growth movement” is one reason why there is so much decline in our churches today. Now I am a pastor of a small church. I intend to remain faithful here whether it grows larger or not.