Churches think big by thinking small

That includes "loving the dickens out of people," he adds. "The people saw something and told their friends."

A charismatic man with a ready wit, the rector says he was aiming for "de-churched" people, those who left congregations because they'd had a bad experience, or been raised in a tradition that told them "they were going to fry in hell for everything they did that was fun."

Loneliness is one of the largest issues in personal life – lots of people have a hole only God can fill, he says, and being "spiritual but not religious" is not the answer.

"Tell me anyplace else where being your own authority works," he says. "Besides, Christianity is based on the idea of living in community.... It gets at that loneliness, giving you a connection to the Creator and to other people."

While a number of today's popular megachurches were new plants, the Rev. Bob Hyatt left his post at a megachurch to reach out to people that other churches were missing. Many in the younger generation, he says, "need to do church differently."

He was dismayed at seeing megachurch pastors "become CEOs, managers, and programmers, not shepherds." So in early 2004, he and a team of friends in Portland, Ore., met to discuss core values for a church different from a seeker or consumer mentality.

"Our priority was to form a close-knit community concerned about what God is saying through the scripture," he says, "and what we did on Sunday would flow out of that."

A dozen people began meeting in a pub, and now the Evergreen Life Community involves 120 people, the majority between ages 25 and 35. "One person in our core group said, 'I'm so tired of once-a-week church; I want to live life and faith with people, not just show up on Sunday, smile, shake hands, and leave,' " Mr. Hyatt says. "People want relationships, not programs; they want to do it themselves ... not be lost in a crowd."

At Evergreen Life, Hyatt does what he loves most: He counsels people about life and faith, and suggests what God is saying about the community's purpose.

"Then I ask, 'What do you want to do [to carry that out]?" The community has started home groups and is planning a house for homeless teens. It intends to start a church plant.

"We want to always be growing spiritually and numerically, but to limit our own size, we'll have to plant," Hyatt adds.

Deardorff has experienced the ups and downs of several planting projects and is deliberately aiming small as well. He calls His Way Inn a "cell church." They meet on Sunday evening to "celebrate" together, but the cell or "life groups" that meet during the week in people's homes are the heart of the church. As they help individuals on their spiritual journeys, they foster each person's ability to minister to others. Then the cells will keep multiplying, he says.

Carol Fillapelli shares that vision and is leading one of the life groups. "There are people who don't like a large church because the intimacy isn't there; they realize a life group is a safe place," she says. "If people are struggling with something, we'll discuss how the scriptures apply to what they're going through."

If church growth comes slowly, it's just God's timing, she feels. "Part of it is waiting on God to prepare us in the leadership and change us in the ways that are needed for the expansion to come."

Yet for some people, the need is already being met. Raymond Hart, who says alcoholism over the course of 34 years made him suicidal, has found a home in "this special group that is so kind and open-hearted."

He speaks with passion at the Sunday night service of his own communing with God. "We want more people to come here," he says to the small congregation, "but you are 'the real thing.' "

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