When is a church too large And how can that sort of thing even happen? A church is too large ( population wise) when it cannot possibly accommodate everyone present ministering the message of God in their hearts; and how it happens is a pointer to a much deeper issue than church size : how and why we gather.
You know, there are invitations to assemble that God sends out to his people; I saw one of them in 1 Corinthians 14:26 "How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, EVERYONE of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying". Christianity is not a spectator sport where people gather to watch somebody perform and entertain others. But that is precisely what the division into clergy/laity, or ministers/ congregation of our " churches " fosters. The advantage of having many children is to use them all as arrows , the purpose of having a team is to use them all, the reason for having an army is to use them all, and the purpose for the Church is for it to derive edification from every part.
Each one has a tongue from the father, a hymn from the father, an interpretation from him!!! That's your invitation to attend. If you dont have this IV, If you are not edifying the body , you probably shouldn't be there. People always parrot.. forsake not the assembly of ourselves together... But they forget to add ... but encouraging yourselves as we see the day approaching..., a gathering is not Church when all the team are not playing out divine strategy for the moment. When that happens its your cue to break it up, and apologize for wasting everybody's time. The denominational model that values unbridled population expansion above all else will have a problem with this. The church going christian that is eager only to go and receive will not like this. Listen folks God has put his message for the times in the spirits of all his children. It is imperative that we ALL listen carefully to hear what he is saying in our hearts and even more important to say it out quickly to his body. Quickly. Structures and formations that pretend that God only speaks to one or two men to deliver to others are a big part of the problem. From here you may ask yourselves when is a service too short , or church attendance superfluous!! The fellowship of the saints is a spiritually instigated meeting at the instance of God himself...not an appointment by humans to meet at their own instance.
A church is too big when you need an army of ushers, traffic control people, book sellers etc just to keep the arrangement propped up, all these people largely losing out of ministering and being ministered to. ( yes I've interviewed some of these security and ushering folks) And no!, traffic control is not an acceptable replacement for the spiritual service... Remember Mary and Martha?
I'm sure there may be other pointers that we are just running a show in many cases , but enough said for now. We must be wise brethren, as it is now Satan must really be feeling he has hacked Christianity's servers. You can tell him he has not.

Shared with permission.

One thing I know is God is not into numbers...
Yes, He would love everyone on this planet Earth to surrender their lives to Him.
However, a very large number will not...we're told in the book of Revelation...However I digress.
He can use a small congregation of 50-100...who are sincere, loving Christ-like people to evangelize the world rather than a congregation of 5,000-10,000 who attend church for an emotional show but lack the spirit of Christ.

MZLady39:
One thing I know is God is not into numbers...
Yes, He would love everyone on this planet Earth to surrender their lives to Him.
However, a very large number will not...we're told in the book of Revelation...However I digress.
He can use a small congregation of 50-100...who are sincere, loving Christ-like people to evangelize the world rather than a congregation of 5,000-10,000 who attend church for an emotional show but lack the spirit of Christ.

spot on.