Jesus Creed
I began my ministry career at the tender age of 20 (it seemed like a good idea at the time). When I accepted my first post as pastor, I was entirely seduced by the experts’ description of ministry success. The arc goes something like this: at some point in your life you sense a clear call from God to enter the ministry. It makes a better story if this happens after years of success in a lucrative secular career or a period of profound and sinful rebellion. After some sort of preparation—whether in seminary or careful perusal of church planting materials—you take a position in a small church. Over the next several years, your ministry grows. You see people reconcile with God; lives are changed. You feel confident you are squarely within God’s will. You’ve found your calling. You may move from church to church—usually to increasingly larger, more vibrant congregations—or your church plant grows rapidly. Soon your peers recognize your success and a publisher asks you to write a book about your story. You share it at conferences. You have arrived.
I was confident that this story would someday be mine. I came by the fantasy honestly. After all, I grew up in a congregation that exemplified it. It was small when we joined, but by the time I left for college, our youth group was larger than most churches.
So when I took my first pastorate in a small church in the middle of nowhere, I had a big vision for that rural congregation of 15 or so. I assumed it needed to grow exponentially, as my home church had. I assumed that it needed everything that made my home church grow—midweek programs, professional musicians, a dynamic youth ministry. Never mind that the church didn’t have enough members to run programs, any money, or any youth. I had read the experts. It was fortunate for them I came when I did. I was God’s man, I thought, to lead Anchor Baptist Church to the “real” church experience.
But something happened there that I hadn’t expected. First, the congregation helped me recognize that the small church is fully equipped to carry out the mission of God in the world. They didn’t need me to put them on course. They didn’t need to be more staffed or better resourced in order to effectively disciple the current members or to make a significant impact in the surrounding community. Everything the church needed, it had been given by God. I began to recognize potential and strengths where the experts had trained me to see limitations and liabilities. In fact, I began to believe that the smaller church is actually uniquely equipped to meet the particular ministry challenges of the twenty-first century.
The good news is, most churches are small churches. According to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, 94 percent of churches in America have 500 attendees or fewer each week. Only 6 percent—19,000 churches—have more than 500 attendees. Megachurches (regular attendance over 2,000) make up less than one half of one percent of churches in America. The narrative of success may be the one people write books about, but it is not the typical one. We have allowed the ministry experience of 6 percent of pastors to become the standard by which the remaining 94 percent of us judge ourselves.
… continue reading at the link above.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In