Jacqueline Salmon from the Washington Post writes about a study released yesterday by the Institute for Studies of Religion out of Baylor University:

Congregants find megachurches offer more personal worship and sense of community than smaller churches, according to a study released yesterday that challenges the conventional wisdom that some large churches are too big to offer a spiritual experience.

Researchers at the Institute for Studies of Religion, who defined megachurches as those with more than 1,000 worshipers, found that their members were twice as likely to have friends in the congregation than members of small churches. They also displayed a higher level of personal commitment to the church — attending services and tithing more often than small-church members.

Interestingly, one of the keys to achieving a more personal feel is small groups:

To achieve a less impersonal environment, researchers said, megachurches consciously break down the congregation into smaller groups that meet regularly.

Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, which draws 5,500 people to its Sunday services, offers more than 100 types of small weekly groups — choirs, Bible study, sports teams and mentoring programs, the Rev. Grainger Browning said. “We are a large church during the weekend, but it becomes a small church during the week,” he said.

What do you think? Do you feel the size of a church affects the relational potential of its congregation?