Monday, October 26, 2009

Perfect Church Size?

From Seth Godin:

Dunbar's number is 150.

And he's not compromising, no matter how much you whine about it.

Dunbar postulated that the typical human being can only have 150 friends. One hundred fifty people in the tribe. After that, we just aren't cognitively organized to handle and track new people easily. That's why, without external forces, human tribes tend to split in two after they reach this size. It's why WL Gore limits the size of their offices to 150 (when they grow, they build a whole new building).


If a church is going to create community, should it limit its size to 150 adults? Then "hive-off" new groups where people know each other, multiplying instead of expanding?

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