Churches across Europe are finding that the development of mid-size communities is a successful tool in church planting in post-Christian European society, and the groups may also translate to U.S. churches. 

For example, the main church auditorium at St Andrew's (Chorleywood, UK) holds around 350 people. But less than five years since planting mid-size communities alongside their services and small groups, the number of actively participating members has grown from around 400 to 1,500.

Five years ago, the church had a diminishing attendance and less than 12% of the congregation was in small groups, says Andrew Williams, associate vicar at St. Andrews. "People were asking, 'What does the church have to offer me?' and not contributing to the life of the church, rather than saying, 'We are here to serve a lost and broken world,'" he says.
Above photo: A mid-sized community in Oslo, Norway gathers for "fellesskapet"--known in the U.S. as fellowship.

Today, 72% of the church members belong to oneof 32 mid-size, missional communities, engaging in mission-focused activities such as serving neighborhoods or working with the deaf community, the elderly, and homeless. 

On some Sundays, the groups meet on a rotating basis in large celebration-style gatherings in the main church building. Other Sundays, the groups gather in the community, using coffee shops, community halls, libraries and schools as their meeting place.

Andrew believes mid-size communities release the potential of ordinary believers to get involved in the outward dimension of church life. While many leaders in the groups are not able to plant attractional churches, they can use their gifts to establish a missional community.

"Faithful Christian people need to be released," he says. "During the early days we would go and have supper with new mid-size community leadership teams, and at the end of the meal they would say, 'I've been carrying this vision for many years.'

"Mid-size communities with a missional focus create an environment where they see the gospel still works. As confidence rises and people are transformed by God's grace, it becomes the complete rediscovery of the adventure of faith."

One of the strengths of the mid-size model is its emphasis on relationships, according to Marlin Watling, who planted a Vineyard church in Heidleburg, Germany four years ago. As numbers grew to above 70 people, Marlin found the dynamics of church-life changed.
   
"In Germany, people are very event focused," Marlin explains. "We struggle with the fact that we want to have church more than the event, but people come back to the event as the incarnation of the church. Clusters move what we do to a more relational space, allowing us to be relational on the one hand, and missional on the other."

Mid-size communities can also take on a life of their own and become independent groups networked to the congregational core, as is happening in some of the clusters associated with the Normisjon Storsalen church in Oslo, Storsalen.
  
"What is really happening is that the small groups are growing out from the celebration and the cluster is more like a small church beside the mother church," says Trond Lohberg, the church's pastor. "Most people quit the mother church and start a cluster. We are growing them organically and not organizing them. Those who have caught the vision and are doing clusters have more of an apostolic gifting and really want to reach out."

Trond is convinced about the potential of mid‐sized groups in church planting. "For my part the cluster is the church," he states. "The mission field is so big. We haven't reached it in the traditional way; we need new ways. Some of the clusters will be released from our church. If they are only 10 people, they are still a church and some of them will grow up to be a celebration and a church in their own right. "

To discover more about the potential of mid-sized communities, download Mid Sized Mission: The Use of Mid Size Groups as a Vital Strategic Component of Church Planting.