As I mentioned in the last post, the Pastoral sized church is really in my sights at the moment because that is where the church I am serving is heading. This is not the "best" method of leading a church, rather it's an appropriate method for a church of this size, 50-150 active members.

The Pastoral sized church places the clergy at the center along with a small team of leaders (typically Elders depending on your denomination). This group displaces the patriarch/matriarch of the Family sized church and requires a degree of discipline and good communication with the church to accomplish it's leadership goals.

The pastor who sits at the center of a circle of leadership must be able to delegate authority in such a way that releases them from the burden of doing it all. If too greater hand is left on the reigns, the pastor will burn out, conversely, too loose a grip will weaken the entire structure of the leadership.

The central difference between a Family sized church and a Pastoral sized church is not only the leadership structure but the role of the pastor in meeting the spiritual needs of the congregation. The Pastoral sized church is expecting a called and trained pastor to minister too them directly rather that being a Chaplin style support to the church.

The pastor takes on an important and pivotal role in the congregation, you would not expect the pastor to be absent from any part of the church life such as bible studies and prayer groups. The pastor is also seen as on-call and the first call for people who are experiencing times of personal crisis. When a member of the congregation called the pastor, their expectation is that they would visit that day or very soon afterwards and it would be the pastor, not a designated pastoral care person.

This availability proposes an increased risk of burnout on the pastor and pressure on their family life and must be managed with a good degree of wisdom. Boundaries are key issue here, they must be publicly expressed, consistently applied and supported by the leadership team. The upside of this relationship with the congregation is that they will be fiercely loyal to the pastor and hopefully be attentive to their guidance.

The Pastoral sized church is similar to the Family sized church in that everyone still knows everyone else. They will at least know them by sight if not by name. When the congregation butts against the upper limit of this church size, say 130-150 people attending each Sunday an interesting dynamic occurs. As Carl Dudley put it in Unique Dynamics of the Small Church,(see footnote) they begin to feel "stuffed." Members wonder about the new faces that they don't know-people who don't know them. Are they beginning to lose the intimate fellowship they prize so highly?

At 150 members the pastor will feel like they are being drawn and quartered by the pressure and demands of 150 people trying to know them intimately, this is a key reason for a church to make the next leap to a Program sized church.

This is a key barrier to growth. It is at this point that the pastor and congregation need to make a conscious choice, either maintain an intimate relationship with the pastor or loose the grip and grow as a church.

I am not making a value call here, the context of many churches may be that a smaller more intimate congregation will be one that honors God. But this must be understood lest the church numbers drift ever upward and put extreme demand of the pastor.

A pastor with a strong personality, outgoing, expressive and rich interpersonal skills will fare will in the Pastoral sized church. They must be a person who can feed into the highs and lows of peoples lives as well as preach, teach and lead worship. This pastor will be the primary focus of the church.

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Dudley, Carl. Unique Dynamics of the Small Church. Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute. Another helpful book is Lyle Schaller's Looking in the Mirror (Abingdon Press 1984).

I find exploring the family sized church particularly relevant to me at the moment. I have just come from a Program sized church that has shrunk to a Pastoral sized church (and still acts Pastoral sized) to a Family sized church that is starting to break through to Pastoral sized.

A family sized church has fewer than 50 active members. Lets focus on ACTIVE for a minute. That doesn't mean count the heads of all the adults, it means count all those people that contribute to the live and vibrancy of the church.

Family sized church earns it moniker because it (dis)functions much like a family with appropriate parental figures. The matriarch, patriarch or both control all of the churches leadership needs and looks to the pastor to provide pastoral care, that's it.

The key to pastoring this church is to know your place. You will not be the source of authority, direction or leadership. You are there as a Chaplin of a small family and will come into conflict with this family if you do not understand this.

"It is generally suicide for clergy to get caught in a showdown with the patriarchs and matriarchs within the first five years of their ministry in that place"

This doesn't mean that you have a limited role here, just that your approach needs to be on a carefully calculated vector. You are there to pastor the parental figures as well as the "children" and your vision and giftings can play an important role in providing consultancy to the parents and working alongside them for the betterment of the congregation. But once they decide against an idea, drop it, it's finished.

The pastor should be aware of issues of triangulation. When people complain to you about the patriarch/matriarch and encourage you to lead a mutiny you need to redirect this energy into strengthening the relationship between the congregation and the parents. The dynamics of the family is such that most members will consider it too risky to be caught siding with the pastor against the parents when the issues involved are publicly exposed.

That is mostly the negative aspects of the role. On the positive the family sized church will provide someone with strong pastoral care skills an opportunity to work within their giftings and (God willing) be on the ground floor of the growth of a congregation into a much larger faith community.
With regard to tenure, typically the longer the pastor stays with the church the more influence the pastor will build with the congregation, especially if you stick with the congregation through difficult times.