The Big Picture for Small Churches (which is brilliant, by the way), John Benton helpfully boils it down to these five things: Quality presence, Quality welcome, Quality teaching, Quality hospitality, and Quality prayer. These are the basics as far as churches go. Basics that any church can do well.

I was watching a bit of post-match analysis from Roy Keane after England’s dismal loss to Greece. He was characteristically pretty miserable about them. But then, it’s hard to deny that they deserved it this time. His main takeaway – as has been that of many a football commentator and pundit for many decades – was this: they just didn’t get the basics right.

If in football we talk about getting the basics right, in basketball we tend to talk about fundamentals. You don’t wind up on the receiving end of absolute pastings without failing to work at the fundamentals. You can do all the fancy trickery under the sun, but if you can’t do the basics on defence or don’t commit to running back to help, all your skill will be for naught. You’ve got to get the fundamentals right before we talk about anything else.

We probably baulk at fundamentals (for different reasons) in the church. So, I think we’ll stick with basics. But it still holds true. Many a big church has come a cropper because it has run away with itself and forgotten about the basics. Many a small church has thrown the towel in because it doesn’t think it can operate on the necessary level whilst failing to spend any real time considering the basics, basics even they can do. In the church, we’ve got to do the basics.

The question is, what are the basics? What are the core things any church, of any size, can do well? What are the things that the Bible wants the church to be about? Helpfully, in his book The Big Picture for Small Churches (which is brilliant, by the way), John Benton helpfully boils it down to these five things:

• Quality presence
• Quality welcome
• Quality teaching
• Quality hospitality
• Quality prayer

These are the basics as far as churches go. Basics that any church can do well.

By quality presence, we mean presence in our community. Being around as faithful witnesses to the Lord Jesus. It is through our presence in our community we will get opportunities to speak of Christ and share his gospel.

Being welcoming is Church Basics 101.

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