Hey, it’s Brady,

There’s a huge thing happening in the American church that basically never gets talked about.

Most churches in America are under 100 people.

You probably already knew that.

Here's what you maybe didn't know: most churchgoers attend a church of at least 500.

Which means the average pastor leads a small church - but the average churchgoer attends a large one.

Of course, the big question is, "so what?"

My thinking is it would be incredibly naive to ignore the fact that there are two very different versions of "normal."

And so any discourse around American Christianity needs to be, in some way, filtered through this understanding - that if you randomly selected a pastor, they're likely leading a small church.

But if you randomly selected a churchgoer, they're likely attending a large one.

What does this mean for churches?

Our two latest podcast episodes dive into the data and we share our thoughts.

Watch part one here.

Smaller church, deeper discipleship - right? Lifeway surveyed 2,130 Protestant churchgoers, and both extremes came out on top.

Today, we'll unpack the church-size discipleship paradox, and why being in a group matters more than church size.

Hear our thoughts here.

Thanks as always for your time, attention, and trust. Talk to you next Thursday. - Brady Shearer