{"id":1835,"date":"2012-02-21T03:00:08","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=1835"},"modified":"2012-02-20T10:41:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T18:41:19","slug":"5-lessons-small-churches-can-learn-from-larger-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/21\/5-lessons-small-churches-can-learn-from-larger-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Lessons Small Churches Can Learn from Larger Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Effective leaders have a knack for looking for ministry insights from a wide bandwidth of church sizes, types, and styles.<\/p>\n

The key is knowing what lessons to look for, and where to find them.<\/p>\n

Earlier I posted 5 important lessons large churches can learn from smaller churches<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But equally true, leaders of small churches, of course, can also learn much from healthy larger churches.<\/p>\n

But again, you need to know what to look for.<\/p>\n

Here is what I believe are the top 5 lessons small churches can learn from healthy larger churches:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>How to develop a spirit of innovation<\/strong>
\nSome smaller churches can fall into the habit of dismissing innovation because \u201cthat\u2019s not the way we\u2019ve always done it.\u201d Healthy larger churches are often quicker to adapt a posture of openness to creativity.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>How to foster a culture of leadership development<\/strong>
\nSome small churches don\u2019t embrace the development of the leadership gift to the same extend as healthy larger churches.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>How to provide spiritual leadership for the community<\/strong>
\nThe local church is called to provide spiritual leadership for the community; this need not be the exclusive purview of the large church.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>How to embrace the value of \u201cexcellence\u201d<\/strong>
\nBill Hybels has often noted that \u201cexcellence honours God and inspires people\u201d. Healthy larger churches tend to live out this value in a way that genuinely does both. In some small churches a demotivating attitude of \u201cthat will have to do\u201d can creep in.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>How to develop a coherent strategic plan<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>In some small churches the extent of planning is limited to pulling off another weekend service in seven days\u2019 time. Healthy larger churches often develop a stronger ability to prayerfully develop action steps to maximize ministry effectiveness.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent half my life in a small church, and half my life helping to lead a large church and I\u2019ve learned that both make significant Kingdom contributions. As leaders, some of us simply need to recognize that there are ministry-impacting lessons to be learned across the board – if you know where to look.<\/p>\n

What have you learned from churches that are larger than yours? What about from churches smaller than yours?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Effective leaders have a knack for looking for ministry insights from a wide bandwidth of church sizes, types, and styles. The key is knowing what lessons to look for, and where to find them. Earlier I posted 5 important lessons large churches can learn from smaller churches. But equally true, leaders of small churches, of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,478,7,705],"tags":[983,805,545,181,731,806],"class_list":["post-1835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-featured","category-leadership","category-strategy-2","tag-community","tag-excellence","tag-innovation","tag-leadership-development","tag-learnings","tag-strategic-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1835"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions\/1842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}