The Magic Number

Our plan is to plant Trinity North East with at least 50 adults. Why? Partly this is a recognition that church planting is hard work and that lots of church plants that start with 20 or 30 people struggle to make an impact or even get off the ground. Partly this is a recognition that Holy Trinity Adelaide as a network of churches is still pretty young and ‘playing it safe’. But mainly because we believe that a starter group of 50 will best enable us to grow more quickly and therefore be able to plant again sooner. This also recognizes that the dynamic of 50 people in a room can grow to 150+ without a massive feeling of change. In contrast a church that grows from 20 to 50 goes from feeling like a small group where everyone knows everyone else, to a dynamic where there isn’t the level of close relationships. At a purely statistical level, it apparently takes as long to grow from 20 to 50 as it does from 50 to 200… so why not just start with 200!