Did you know that the majority of churches in America are under 200 weekly attendees? It's true. And most of these churches employ one or two hard-working pastors who wear multiple hats, and quite possible work multiple jobs.

It isn't easy to be a pastor of a small church, where the responsibility lies heavily on the shoulders of only a few men or women. That's why at Christianity Today, a task force has been commissioned to specifically design content that equips, ministers to, and resources small churches, small-church pastors, and any ministry that church might want to begin.

To find out more, we asked Laura Leonard, Managing Editor of BuildingChurchLeaders.com and co-leader of the task force, a couple of questions.

How did the Small Church Task Force get its start?

Laura: Amy Jackson, Managing Editor of SmallGroups.com, came to me. She'd gone to a conference where she'd been talking to people about our resources, their familiarity and what they were looking for, and everyone she talked to kept saying, "I'm at a small church and I feel like everything you offer is for bigger churches. You're assuming we have all this paid staff. I need resources that are for my scale, that don't require a large staff."

She and I were talking about how the truth is, we do have those resources at Christianity Today, but they're not always very accessible. Often, small churches don't recognize that those resources are for them.

We talked about how truly, we can do better at making resources for churches. So Amy came to me with the idea that we could create a small church task force.

The task force is comprised of people from every different brand across Christianity Today—everyone we asked to take part said yes. Now we meet together to discuss how we can create more content across our brands for smaller churches. Amy and I co-lead this task force because small churches are really at the core of both of our brands.

What have you accomplished so far?

Laura: Mostly, the realization that we need practical resources for small churches across each brand. That's why we wanted one editor or marketer from each brand—we needed someone to be thinking about how we can relate to smaller churches in every daily task they accomplish.

We've met three times now. Our goal is to figure out how CT can better communicate to, and resource, small churches. We're kind of figuring that out as we go, which has been interesting. We're trying to figure out what it means when we use the term, "small churches." And also, what kind of language do smaller churches respond to?

For example, most small churches don't actually call themselves small churches. For our last meeting, our assignment was to have two conversations with pastors who are at churches of 200 people or fewer. We had questions like, "If you saw a resource or an article specifically for a small church, would you read it? "

Pretty much to a fault, every single person we talked to said, "No, because we don't consider ourselves a small church." It was ironic, because every pastor was at a church of 200 or less—most were at churches of 150 or less.

What do they see themselves as, if not "small" churches?

Laura: I think these churches know they're smaller, but they don't like that as an adjective to describe their church because it doesn't feel very positive. Plus, there's always someone smaller and someone bigger. So the nut to crack is, How do these churches think of themselves? As average churches? You can't market or create content for the "average church." That's too broad. It won't help anyone.

Have you reached any conclusions on this topic?

Laura: Right now we're thinking of small churches in terms of churches that have 1-2 paid staff, or a bi-vocational pastor. There is a huge population of churches who have an extremely limited staff. We want them to know that our resources are there for exactly that reason—we're there when you don't have extra help.

What's the goal for this task force?

Laura: We see this task force as something that will last for this calendar year. We want a set definition for small churches and language we've incorporated for all brands . Whether it's a special section on the homepage, or just clearer language for pastors and leaders, we want small churches to be easily directed to resources that will be especially helpful to them.

We might even, eventually, create packages of material even across several Christianity Today brands. The goal is to find out, as a whole ministry, how we can better equip every church.

Are you at a small church? Help us think about how to best equip it. We'd love any feedback on what smaller churches need—speak up in the comments section below.

Ashley Moore is assistant editor of Church Law & Tax