the new BIG

There was a time when bigger was better. It applied to almost anything: houses, cars, businesses, and churches. “Then,” Seth Godwin writes, “small happened”(Penguin Publishing, 2006).

Small is personal. Small is agile. Small can quickly adapt to change or challenges. It can be efficient, focused, and powerful. It multiplies easily. Small is beautiful.

God places great importance on small. Jesus told us that a good shepherd leaves 99 in order to retrieve one lost sheep and chose just 12 apostles. The church was born out of a group of just 120 people.

Many of America’s leading business ventures and most influential churches started small. In a garage, in a basement or living room. As they expanded, they found ways to maintain a culture of personal care, constant adaptation, and multiplication.

This is good news for small churches that want to harness the power of small. While larger churches have advantages in staffing, programs, and specialized ministries, smaller churches have the opportunity to be personal, to respond quickly, and to leverage their uniqueness to serve God and people. (Few small churches, however, seize this advantage.)

This is also good news for the local Baptist Associations. Our beloved denomination began cooperation by establishing a local association. In order to establish institutions, state conventions were established. In order to support home and foreign mission boards, a national convention was established. The complexity of their mission and size of organizations make it extremely difficult to transform. We know little about them, and they know little about us. In our association, we know one another, our field, and our strengths/needs. The association is personal.

Associations are positioned to greatly impact churches and communities of our county. This requires that we leverage relationships to collaborate- sharing our dreams, needs, and resources. Utilizing our power of small means finding and maintaining a clear focus that directs our energies into whatever best glorifies Jesus Christ and furthers His mission in the world.

Seth Godwin concludes his article: “Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big. Don’t wait. Get small. Think big.”