Dear Sir,
In ‘Growing a rural church’ in the February issue of EN (an interesting article), Chris Sinkinson talks about ‘critical mass’ and needing a certain number within a church to be able to do useful gospel work. He says: ‘Less than [in the region of 30 people] and we may lack the critical mass to really be an effective church’.
I am sure that this is generally absolutely true and it was obviously a blessing to the church of which he is pastor that a local very small church closed and amalgamated with them. However, I want to briefly give the story of our Grace Baptist church in Streatham.
Hambro Road Baptist Church is situated in a very small and quiet residential road, with a much larger Baptist Union church in the very next road. When my husband and I became church members sometime in 1996, we brought the church membership up to the grand total of nine! Now our church membership stands at about 23, with the very real possibility of several new members in the near future. (In fact, with all these newcomers and their children, the church building, which is very small, is not far off full capacity!) This is obviously very slow and small growth, but it’s more than 100% growth all the same and as a church we are greatly encouraged.
In spite of our low numbers, God has blessed our evangelical efforts: there have been baptisms, Christianity Explored cours-es, we have a youth and children’s work and many of our members are involved in other gospel work (e.g. open-air mission, outreach to ex-offenders, etc.). Numbers aren’t everything.
Please pray that, in spite of increasing membership, church members remain united in Christ.
Yours faithfully
