It's Not About Church Size, It's About Church Substance!
I have noticed this picture floats around the Internet. Two rabbits here may represent the two different types of people and the two type of carrots represents the modernistic church and the smaller church that remains conservative to the LORD. Let us try to explain about the two churches in the illustration of the carrots.
The leafy carrot with less substance represents the modernistic so-called "Christian" church
The first carrot has lots and lots of leaves. It looks promising to the world. The modern churches only care about size and they ignore quality. But looking at the picture, the carrot with lots of leaves on top but when you get to the bottom, there is hardly any substance to it. The modern churches today usually have plenty of members. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 warns, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."
I remembered when I viewed Pastor Ray Comfort's videos called "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversion" together with Kirk Cameron discussing Pastor Comfort's book "Revival's Golden Key". I have noticed how Pastor Comfort's book "Revival's Golden Key" was called a skeleton key because today, most people prefer an easy message of salvation. More often than not, many people claim to have received Christ but have never been confronted about their sins. Some Protestant and Baptist churches are falling apart no thanks to easy evangelism... where they declare a person saved just because he prayed a prayer or signed the back of a decision card without ever knowing the Gospel, no repentance, no feeling of sorrow for sin and later, they are assured that they are saved even if there is really no true evidence of an irrevocable conversion. Today's churches are just focused on making the Gospel as palatable as possible so they do some worldly gimmicks and trying to make the Gospel as non-offensive as possible.
Some of the modern churches today preach salvation without sanctification. In fear that they will lose members, they don't really bother to examine whether or not there has been any true signs of conversion after a person gets saved. As much as they don't want to admit it but the way they talk, they talk, "After you are saved, you can sin all you want." No true believer can ever say that because Hebrews 12:5-7 is clear that true salvation means God is going to chastise you whenever you sin. It's just stupid to how some people are claiming to have gotten saved but say, "Well some Christians never grow beyond their initial stage. They can go ahead, do drugs, deal with drugs, sin all they please, they will still enter into Heaven but without reward." It's stupid think how can one be saved but still revel in sin. People who revel in their sins are just as lost as people who trust in their own works.
Other modern churches preach a gospel of works which is very appealing. Man in his nature is selfish and there is the huge taint of arrogance. The doctrine of works salvation teaches that man can save himself. This can easily give in to the error of ecumenism and the extreme opposite of Antinominianism. The heresy of conditional security is also popular in some of the modern churches because it allows man to brag that, "Hey I made it! I made it because I did all I can to endure to the end." That is quite different than the Christian view (Calvinist or not) that, "I endured to the end only by the grace of God." The works salvation assemblies are high-minded, puffed up and just as lost as the people who revel in their sins while claiming to be Christians.
The sparsely leafed carrot with much substance represents the churches that truly belong to the Lord Jesus Christ
I have noticed how people more often than not brag that numbers make them right but the Bible shows a very different truth. Matthew 7:13-14 warns, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Jesus warned that there will be more people who are heading towards the road of destruction than to those who head towards the way of life. You may observe how today, people in various democracies choose the worst leaders like how so many Americans chose a godless man named Barack Hussein D. Obama for their president because of his popularity.
I remembered the time when I left the Roman Catholic institution when I was told, "Why did you leave the true church? We are the true church because of our numbers." I said, "Do you always base the numbers to what is right? Listen, a majority vote or a popular gossip cannot change the truth." Truth is always truth even if only a few or even nobody believes it, it remains the same. If people vote that there is no gravity, it cannot change the fact that God ordained gravity because He is the Creator of the scientific laws. It's funny how so many people appeal to popularity and claim to have a scientific mind like how many claim evolution to be true just because so many people believe it. When a church is truly filled with genuinely saved believers, when a church is truly rooted on God's Word, when a church is truly moving forward and producing works out of gratitude for Christ and it is a portion of the Bride of Christ, it is bound not to get many members.
Do you remember John 6:66 which says, "From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." Note that the number itself is 666, the Devil's number. Today in a group that claims to be Christians, you should expect that there will only be a few who are truly and genuinely saved. You should expect that when a church is firmly rooted upon God's Word and when it warns possible false converts that they aren't truly saved, expect those who just play church to depart sooner or later. It reminded me of how some people at Bible-believing, die-hard for Christ assemblies are going to leave sooner than you think. Remember that many of those who supposedly followed Jesus were just temporal disciples, they were disciples in name only but they were false disciplies like Judas Iscariot. 1 John 2:19 warns, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."
However we can see the might of a small church that stands for Christ, caring over true conversion instead of increase. While Christian churches should be concerned about increase but they should also remember the truth that quality can outweigh quantity. A church comprised of only 100 members but they are all true Bible believers is going to stand stronger than a church comprised of 1,000,000 members but most of them are false converts who claim to be saved but are living like devils, proving that they aren't saved. Remember the parable of the sower? Just imagine if one day, a group of Muslim terrorists or Communist troops attacked both places. The small church that's built of truly saved people may show some signs of fear at first, maybe someone will deny at first (note Christians aren't perfect) but later, that person who denied earlier may soon show signs of true conversion when the gun is pointed at one's head. Meanwhile, the false converts will be like Judas Iscariot - they will always choose their own skin and consistently fall away, renounce Christ and show several signs that such a person wasn't truly saved to start with.