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The Problem with Programs (or Bigger is No Longer Better) by Bob Hyatt
...For years, in addition to buying the specious "bigger is better," we have been addicted to a one-size-fits-all mentality in the church. It’s called "programs." The problem is, people aren't "one size fits all"... and that's why programs are so awful. They assume just that. Here's the way to enter our community. Here's the way to work into leadership and grow in yourrelationship with God here. Whether I am a young suburban/middle class, well-educated female, or a Vietnam vet from inner city Detroit, most churches tend to assume that my spiritual needs and progress will be strikingly similar.

And what other way is there to do it? When you are shuffling 3,000 or 10,000 or (good Lord!) 25,000 people (darn that Joel Osteen!) around the bases, you have to standardize. Everyone gets pretty much the same thing, regardless of whether that's what they need or not....

...But if pastors are ever to be able to abandon the role of CEO, programmer, manager, game developer, party planner, ad nauseam and get back to the business of being shepherds... of being spiritual directors... it's going to mean some hard choices and the slaying of certain sacred cows.

The first (and biggest) is the sacred cow of size. If 100 people in your church are good, then 1,000 must be great, and 10,000 must surely be a sign that God is blessing.

Well, that may or not be true (I know cults that have had churches in the thousands), but if the biblical principle/example Christ set for us is that a shepherd knows his sheep and calls them by name, how in the world can that happen when our community gets over a certain size? I'm still haunted by a phrase I heard a pastor say once: "You look familiar... am I your pastor?"

No--- I can't share intimate space with everyone in my congregation. I can't even relate personally to all of them....