Big Small 2025

The Changing Landscape Of Faith 

Many are recognising a surprising rebirth of faith in Christianity, a fresh openness and hunger for spiritual truth that is leading many to explore the bible or turn up asking questions of the church. Are we ready for this influx? Are our wineskins fit for purpose as God pours out the ‘new wine’ of the kingdom on a generation of spiritual seekers and travellers. 

BigSmall Learning Community

BigSmall is a Learning Community for Pioneers and Planters to initiate or grow a culture of spiritual parenting and missional discipleship, exploring new and revived wineskins, along with leadership principles and tools, coaching and support from experienced practitioners.  

The discipleship dilemma Dallas Willard said the most important question we can ask as a church is “what is my plan for making disciples?” The second most important question is “Is it working?”  Are we successfully growing disciples who are themselves making disciples or are we struggling to produce spiritual leaders? 

BigSmall - The Japanese have a word (Ōkina ko) that translates as ‘BigSmall’. It denotes something that is both small and big at the same time. This word captures the tension of the gospel as both transcendent and incarnational and how we can create sustainable and multipliable expression of good news. 

Gathered and Dispersed
The BigSmall is not an either /or perspective. We believe in a both / and approach. The old and new, the big and the small working together in creative tension. There is a time for everything. Every established church was once a new church plant and every generation needs pioneers of new communities. We invite you to journey with others as we explore the big/small mindset. Come and share a vision of church and hear others explore BigSmall thinking together, taking the Gospel to New Places and New Spaces 

What vehicle for the vision? - Many leaders wrestle with the challenge of how to structure their church; what vehicles to use in order to grow sustainably, and possibly even multiply and plant new churches. Because of resources we are often forced into choosing ‘how much should I focus on small groups or should I pour my best time and resources into our larger Sunday gatherings?’ This is a false dilemma that misses the missional genius of the 4 relational spaces.

The Four Relational Spaces - BigSmall as about growing a holistic understanding of how to grow disciples in the four spaces in which Jesus operated and in which we all experience relationships and the growth to maturity; the intimate, private, social and public spaces that people inhabit. Our challenge as leaders is about discerning the best vehicles, rhythms, frequency and focus of these spaces as we seek to fulfil the mission of Jesus in our context.

Our Journey is about integrating these spaces creatively and sustainably to service one another as we grow disciples who can make disciples. The vocabulary we use will ultimately shape our outcomes. Our aim is to move you and your team from a group who grows communities to a team  capable of multiplying communities.

Small groups that exist as a vehicle to serve or ‘prop up’ our larger gathering (real church) are hamstrung from the start and cannot produce mature disciples or lead to sustainable multiplication. If small groups are being used simply as a secondary vehicle to maintain Sunday membership, we will require a culture shift journey, which will take patient investment.

Missional Communities can become embryonic churches within the church, bearing their own missional vision and, done well, can lead to sustainable multiplication. If we can avoid the trap of making small groups an optional ‘add on’ but rather to imbue them with intrinsic value as a core vehicle for mission and effective discipleship, restoring the place of the home and the role of extended family on mission, investing personally and intentionally into key leaders, then we believe there is great potential to experience a harvest and the potential to seed a movement.

Oikos - We believe God is restoring the home, the ‘Oikos’ or extended family as a key vehicle of mission and church planting. Alan Hirsch points out that every seed has the potential to become a tree and that every tree has the potential to become a forest. This seed is the movemental potential of the gospel carried in every believer. The foundational first 300 years of the church were mainly built in the home and around the meal table and the church in the Global South continues to bear testimony to the fruitfulness of the home as a primary centre for church. 

Microchurch planting  We see God building a movement of micro churches across the UK. BigSmall and REACHLondon.org in partnership with the National Church Planting Network and Pioneer Network exist to strengthen and support this movement with resources and relationships, catalysing and connecting existing groups, networks and startups, inviting larger churches to resource and embrace this movement. 

‘Who has despised the day of small things..?’ Zechariah 4:10:

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