Merging more rural parishes could worsen church attendance and leave rural priests at risk of burnout, a crisis meeting in Norfolk heard.
Almost 100 people attended the event at Norwich School on Saturday.
It was organised by campaign group Save The Parish (STP), which is calling for more funds to be ploughed into the grass roots to boost the number of clergy.
John Brydon, Norfolk STP chairman and a churchwarden St George's Tombland in the city, said: "I was trying to present a positive overview of what could be done for the rural churches in the Diocese of Norwich, to maximise funds to pay priests and to make the groupings of parishes smaller rather than larger."
He said the meeting aimed to warn against what the group calls an “oversight ministry” model where rectors care for groups of churches.
Mr Brydon said this could spread priests too thinly, creating impossible jobs.
It has also seen services reduced, with some Norfolk villages losing their Sunday services.
"Increasingly across the country we are seeing pressure on parishes and priests with ever larger benefices, minster groups and many priests off sick through stress or retiring early," he said.
"The number of priests leaving early or retiring is outstripping those who are coming forward."
Bishop of Lynn Dr Jane Steen said the diocese understood some of the problems faced by large benefices.
The bishop said funds had been found to reduce the size of two benefices in Norfolk and appoint two more priests.
She also acknowledged difficulties in encouraging priests to apply for large benefices.
Bishop Jane said people needed to work together and speak with one voice on important issues.
Journalist Emma Thompson, who worships in a rural church where she runs the choir, said lessons should be learned from dioceses entering what STP calls “doom loops”.
She criticised claims that parish amalgamation schemes were for the “better cure of souls”, as required by legislation, when she said this was not the case.
Ms Thompson called for more trained, ordained and paid priests, with funding to support them.
She also urged people to elect STP supporters to General Synod ahead of a promised debate on funding in July 2027.
"It is very sad that STP has sometimes been seen as the enemy," she said. "If we all work together, the parishes here can be saved."
The meeting heard that parishes were the biggest contributors to the Church of England. In 2024, they raised about £1bn to support worship, buildings and their dioceses through parish share.
Retired accountant Andrew Orange, who joined STP at its inception five years ago, said the Church Commissioners managed £11.6bn in assets.
He said little of the money passed to the church reached parishes because it was spent on bishops, cathedrals and wider church initiatives - the most controversial of which is a policy to spend £100m on reparations for slavery.
Priests are spread thinly in parts of rural Norfolk, with some overseeing up to a dozen churches as they struggle to keep on top of their workload.
Vacancies such as the priest-in-charge of the Saxon Shore Benefice of six rural churches between Hunstanton and Brancaster can remain unfilled for years.
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