Bigger Is Better???

“The bigger the burger, the better the burger! The burgers are bigger at Burger King!”

What could possibly be better than a Whopper of a burger? Bigger is better, after all. Right?

Some might argue that a bag full of White Castles is better. I wouldn’t, but someone might.

Some might conclude a regular burger at McDonalds is better, simply because a Whopper is just too big for their small appetite.

Nevertheless, as an old, pretty wretched Gershwin song goes, “It ain’t necessarily so….”

For quite a while, I bought into the mantra—not so much with burgers, but with my life’s vocation. Actually, I did like Whoppers better than Big Macs back in the day, but that’s neither here nor there. My sights are set on a “bigger” topic.

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, the notion of “Bigger is Better” touched about every area of life.

The bigger mall was better than the local mom-and-pop department store. The big chain grocery store was better than the small neighborhood grocer. The big city was better than the small rural farming community. The bigger army with bigger guns and a bigger nuclear arsenal was better than, well, anything less!

And the bigger church was better than the small gathering of a few dozen in a small country church.

In my college years, whether intentional or not I can’t say, the message came across loud and clear. Really successful pastors lead big churches. Bigger churches are just better!

In six years of ministerial training, a stream of “successful” pastors visited the campus to address the entire student body in chapel, as well as the ministerial students in our weekly assembly. I can’t recall a single pastor who served a church of under 100 people.

• This pastor presided over a large congregation with a sizable Christian school.
• That pastor also boasted a radio ministry.
• This one was on TV. That one had a fleet of busses.
• This one just completed a million-dollar building program (remember, this was the 70s!).
• That one baptized over 100 last year.
• This one has published several books.
• That one got his picture on The Sword of the Lord!
• …and so on.

So what’s the message that a naïve, green ministerial student gets?

“If you’re going to be successful in the ministry, bigger is better! Bigger means God’s blessing!”

The point sank into my skull full of mush.

My first pastorate was a “small” church with a weekly attendance hovering around 70. The aging building was just south of the railroad tracks on the edge of downtown—a decaying town with several vacant, dilapidated storefronts.

Yes, I was excited to begin a life of ministry, but I had lofty goals for this little work. We were going to grow…expand…need a building program…upgrade the terribly outdated facilities…make this bigger!

Not long after my arrival, my bride and I attended a conference in the “big” Bloomington/Normal area. The host church boasted weekly attendance in the 600s, beautiful, modern buildings, a sizable Christian school, thriving children and youth ministries, a weekly radio broadcast, a bus ministry, and more.

As we sat in the auditorium prior to one of the conference sessions, I took in my surroundings, and made a comment that sounds very much like Jesus’s disciples as they were leaving the temple one day.

“Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” They commented to Jesus {Mark 13:1).

I leaned over to my wife, looking up at the vaulted ceiling and hanging chandeliers, and said, “Look at this place! I could see myself pastoring a church like this!”

I had no idea what I was talking about, but besides expressing more than a shred of pride, it reflected an underlying assumption.

Bigger is better!

This misguided notion affected how I approached my work and my life. One in the same, aren’t they?

Umm, no. But took me a while to get it.

Yes, I took a weekly “day off”—most of the time, anyway. And we took my allotted vacation times, as well. But there was usually this underlying, nagging notion that, since bigger is better, I should be doing something to promote “bigger”! I have to admit it. My work and my life were so intertwined that I had little interest elsewhere.

Four decades later, my perspective has changed dramatically. Life—and the Bible—provided needful correction.

On the “life” side, I learned that some of the “big names” held up as models for ministry really weren’t. More than one was unfaithful to his wife. Another one or two left the ministry because of an alcohol problem. Others became proud of their “success” and acted more like dictators over their little empires rather than humble shepherds serving sheep.

A few, in their quest for even bigger and better and more, ran their people (especially staff members) ragged. Their motto was “More of the 3 B’s!” That is, Bodies, Buildings, and Bucks. More than one of these “empires” proved to be a house of cards.

In addition to seeing the rot in some of the “bigger,” I rediscovered that there’s more to life than work. So many enriching aspects of life were either missing or suffering serious neglect. Friends? A few, but too few. Hobbies? What’s a hobby? I didn’t fish…play golf…collect coins or stamps…do woodworking…work on cars…. Nothing.

It took almost twenty years in the ministry before we bought bikes and took hikes. We were living in Vermont at the time, and nothing is big in Vermont! But I discovered a rhythm of life that is better. Don’t always live in that rhythm, but I know better.

Many times, we’ve been hiking somewhere, enjoying all the experience has to offer and teach, and I’ve thought to myself, “Why did I wait so long to take this up? Why did I think everything depends on me to make things bigger and better—when it ain’t necessarily so, anyway!?!”

The Bible also challenged my thinking and assumptions.

Trace it for yourself sometime, and you’ll discover that God seems to delight in using the small things! Contrast, for example, the families of Ishmael (much bigger!) and Isaac (had to plead for a son!) in Genesis 25. Or the family of Esau (Genesis 36) with Jacob’s meager dozen sons. Or jump to the New Testament. Jesus used a small band of 12 men…then 11…then 12 to change the world. And as the gospel message spread across the Roman Empire, it wasn’t megachurches that were established. For the most part, relatively small congregations gathered in homes.

Come to think of it, some of the greatest problems in the Church didn’t exist until it became accepted, promoted by the emperor, and grew in popularity. Got bigger, but arguably not necessarily better!

Anyway, reflecting back on those years of ministerial training, I’ve often thought how much more beneficial and practical it would have been to hear from faithful, hard-working but balanced pastors from small churches in America’s heartland, or the inner-city, or affluent pagan suburbs.

I could’ve benefitted from men who paced themselves, working hard but enjoying a hobby and building a better life. It would’ve been helpful to hear, “Don’t focus on ‘bigger’; concentrate on being ‘better’—a better man, father, husband…with a healthy, balanced, well-rounded life. Let God take care of the ‘bigger’ as He sees fit.”