I’m about to raise a question I have no answer for.

A friend whom I’ve not seen in decades called yesterday. In the course of the conversation, when I asked what church he attends, he said, “There’s a tiny church near my house. I’m not sure why I still go there, they’ve had so many fights and splits over the years. When someone asked why I stay, I told him, ‘The Lord hasn’t led me to leave.'”

Why is he still there? Why hasn’t everyone left?

Up in the country, in the land of my youth, a number of longtime friends attend a historic church that meets only Sundays at 8 o’clock. The building has no heat or air, as I recall, and maybe no electricity–not sure about that. Yet, the crowd packs out the little building. They have their service and adjourn to their homes or to some breakfast restaurant. No Sunday School, no evening service, and nothing else as I understand it.

Why do they keep coming? What’s the attraction?

This week, a minister from another state introduced himself over the internet as a bi-vocational pastor of a country church. “Sunday morning only” is how he put it. The people stay for lunch–dinner, they probably call it–and go home. The pastor named another church, with membership in the thousands, where he attends Sunday nights and Wednesday nights.

I find myself wondering why the members of his church aren’t coming to the big church with him. What is the attraction to the small church with very little to offer?

I’m simply reflecting on the question and don’t know all the answers. Readers are not only invited, but urged, to leave your comments and stories.

1. Some people don’t need much from a church.

I don’t mean this as a slam. Some people are just built different from the rest of us. The minimal-service church suits them just fine, for whatever reasons.

I know a retired pastor whose wife likes to attend a mega-church near their home in order to get lost in the crowd. After a lifetime of involvement in the lives of every person in their church, she would probably say, she’s tired. She just wants to go to church and worship and that’s all she needs.

The very thing that keeps them coming to the small church with minimal services is what draws her to the large one.

2. Some people don’t want much from their church.

I’m remembering a pastor in the Mississippi Delta from many years ago who was also the foreman of a plantation. John West would work on the east side of the Mississippi River during the week, then on Sundays pastor a thriving rural church just across in Arkansas. Once when he and I were doing a funeral together, he told me about that church. “The congregation is large enough to have a full-time pastor. But they don’t want one. They’ve actually voted it down. And the reason, I believe, is that if they have a man on the field all the time, he’s going to be after them to come to church on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights and to visit and witness. They don’t want it.”

If that’s the case, it’s an interesting comment on those people.

3. Perhaps it’s just that people are different and no two are alike. Maybe it’s that simple.

We all know that people’s tastes vary. I’ve known church members with a strong dislike for music. One man said, “If it was up to me, we’d fill the hour with your preaching.” He purposefully came to church late to miss most of the singing.

Some like contemporary, some traditional, some blended. Some like electronic doodads and their pastor with spiked hair and in jeans. Some want robed preachers and suited up choirs. Pipe organs, pianos, orchestras, pre-recorded music–it takes all kinds.

Some want all-evangelistic, others want in-depth doctrinal teaching. Some want their churches to be heavily into social ministries or overseas missions. Pep rallies or funeral services.

Some like it cool and some like it hot.

4. Perhaps it’s the fellowship. They’ve found something there they fear they cannot find in a larger church.

Once when I had preached in the historic rural church mentioned earlier, I asked a longtime friend why she and her husband attend there. Following the early service, they drive into town and attend both Sunday School and worship in their home church. “Why are you out here?” I asked.

She said, “The fellowship. There’s a family spirit here we don’t have in the larger churches in town.”

The fellowship. Is that what this is all about?

I’m just asking.

And what exactly is that family spirit? How do we get it and once we have it, how do we keep it?

Figure that out and bottle it and the churches of the world will beat a path to your door.

Do we lose this spirit as churches get larger, the organization grows more complex, and the demands of ministry suck all the air out of the room?

After all, I know enough people who belong to megamonstrous churches to know they would insist that their fellowship is just as strong as in the smaller churches. Would people keep joining if it were otherwise, they would ask and with good reason.

I don’t know. More and more people seem to be requiring less and less from their places of worship.

Let’s leave it here for the moment. Your comments are welcomed.

We plan to return to this issue later.