| Dennis Bickers | EPC Pastors of Small Churches |
| Self-esteem issues | Assessment of worth/value (#4): in a “bigger is better” culture, the small church and pastor feel that they must be doing something wrong. |
| No common vision except survival | Vision/Mission (#6): A church’s small size limits people’s thinking about what may be possible. There is little confidence or desire to move forward. |
| Exclusive due to strong family ties | Closed Fellowship (#5): A sense of “family” can lead to the church being a closed group. Others coming in will change the equilibrium, so there is little interest in mission to their community. |
| Resources are usually limited | Resources (financial, human, and physical) (#3): A large proportion of income is devoted to basic staff and building expenses, leading to a survival mentality. |
| Too much is frequently expected of the pastor | Expectations on the pastor (#7): Members expect the pastor to do it all and be their personal chaplain. They are reluctant to acknowledge that others could handle ministry tasks. |
| Leadership is in the hands of a few people who may or may not be spiritually qualified | Lay leadership (#2): Lay leaders tend to recycle, are overcommitted, and resistant to training. |
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Common Small Church Issues
Welcome to the first posting of the Z-4:10 Network 2009 Book Blog. About 25 people around the country have told me they are reading The Healthy Small Church. There are probably others reading it that I'm not aware of. I'll put up a new posting each Monday. This format is intended to promote conversation, so please join in by clicking the comment button below and checking back to follow the conversation. Comments are moderated, so there will be a delay before you see your comment on the site. The author, Dennis Bickers told me he would check the blog from time to time and may join in as he's able.
This week's posting only covers the introduction. When I first read The Healthy Small Church about three years ago, it was these few pages that grabbed my interest and kept me reading. Bickers' observations of small churches line up closely with the top 10 most pressing issues identified by pastors of EPC small churches. It verifies what someone wrote (Lyle Schaller?) - that small churches have more in common with other small churches across denominational lines than they do with larger churches in their own denomination.
Here's how Bickers' observations of "unhealth" in small churches line up with the consensus of the most pressing issues faced by EPC ministers (the number in the EPC column is the consensus ranking, with #1 would be the most pressing issue):
Download the complete "Top Ten Small Church Issues" document with more complete descriptions.
Each of these observations can be turned on its head and become a descriptor of health. For example, the small church may have a healthy understanding that small size does not mean insignificance. Or, rather than being dragged down by what they can't do, the small church finds the "one, exellent mission" that energizes it and moves it from a survival to service mentality (see chapter 2 of Kennon Callahan's Small, Strong Congregations).
Do these issues ring true in your own context? Is there another issue at the top of your list? I would especially appreciate hearing your your stories of how your church has addressed "unhealth" and how those things are transforming into healthy characteristics. To be specific, how has your church improved it's self esteem? What vision for reaching your community has captured your small congregation? How have you moved from being friendly to each other to being truly hospitable toward visitors? How have you creatively found resources for ministry? How have you addressed unrealistic expectations on the pastor's time and responsibilities? How have you identified and trained new leadership? And so on... Your story may be just what someone else needs to hear.
Please join the conversation. You're also welcome to email me privately.
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Quick post, treatise later, a couple of these jumped out at me. One was the lack of vision. We seem to be split between those who want the church to be there for their funeral and those who realize the church "can" do more in our community. The division seems, for the most part, to be along ages.
ReplyDeleteThe second point was the limited resources. This is the second small church I've served and in Kenton those with resources do NOT use them as weapons to get things done their way. That is refreshing.
I'll post something else a bit later this week after I read the intro.
Peace
Alan Wilkerson
Portland, OR
I pastor a church that is only two years old. The self-esteem issue was not really an issue until recently. Now that we have hit the two year mark and there has not been substantial growth, only small growth, I find it present. Especially for me.
ReplyDeleteRight now we are blessed not to have financial restraints. In addition, being new means we are not that closed of a fellowship (at least we like to think that way), and the expectations upon me are realistic. So the main issue that has emerged is self-esteem
So trying to turn the self-esteem issue around has been a goal to focus on mission. To ask the questions, why is our church here in Haywood County, North Carolina? What are we to be focusing on as a church in reaching out in our community? What is our process of discipleship? What would we do if 50 people showed up one Sunday and came to faith in Christ? What would we do then? How about one?
In focusing on our mission and narrowing it down, we then can say "no" to many things. The idea is to remove the temptation to try to think and plan like we are a bigger church (related to self-esteem). We can then try to focus on what we are called to do and do it well.
Josh Cole
Providence Church
Waynesville, NC
Josh has given an excellent insight. One of the reasons many small churches suffer from low self-esteem is because they are trying to do too many things in order to compete with the larger churches in their community. Small churches do not have the resources, people, time, and financial, to offer a wide range of ministries, and they shouldn't try. When they do try to offer too many ministries they feel that everything they do comes up short of what the other churches are doing.
ReplyDeleteI tell church leaders in my workshops that small churches can accomplish more by doing less. When a small church understands its God-given purpose or vision it can focus its resources on only those things that will enable it to achieve that purpose. With a clear target it can better focus its efforts, and as it begins to achieve that purpose its self-esteem will begin to improve.
I want to thank everyone who is reading my book and look forward to reading more of your comments.
The whole "range of ministry" issue is big one for smaller churches. If a church with 500 each Sunday lose 10 people because a program isn't there the loss can be absorbed if it is even noticed.
ReplyDeleteBut if a church with 60, like Kenton, lose a family of 3, because we don't have a program we've lost 5% of the population and it's noticed. Such a loss also impacts a congregations' self worth.
I can't help but wonder how many of these smaller churches use to be large churches after WW2 and had all the programs. Some of the people still around here remember those days and I can't help but imagine other churches have to believe if they just offer the program THEY were attracted too things would be just like they were in 1955.
Peace
Alan
The losing of a family and the impact it makes is maginified somewhat in smaller churches. Our congregation runs about forty to sixty on Sunday mornings. I attended a larger ARP church in my youth (200+) and I remember families leaving and they were missed but the impact was quickly overcame and little disruption to the life of the congregation occurred. However, in the small congregation the impact can be profound. Often one family can impact several ministries of the church.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly (I think) is the impact of the loss on the emotional level by the remaining church leadership and members. The loss feels much more personal in the close knit community of a small church.
Our church realized early in our ministry that we could not offer everything the "big boys" down the block could. We decided to place our greatest emphasis on the teaching ministy of the church from the pulpit and lay leadership. We run very few "programs". What we seek to provide is a church culture that will produce a mile deep christianity rather than a mile wide.
We are not totally devoid of programs or activities. We normally gear our ministries to short bursts of activity to avoid burning out our people. Emphasis is also placed on programs and activities that are family friendly and provide the Pastor and elders with interaction with our church families.
God Bless
Richard Sistare
Ruling Elder
Clover EPC
Survival chews away at our highest intentions to be purely missional. We have an outreach ministry at a local retirement center and some of the worshipers there have become members. Based on our success in that ministry, we’ve considered expanding to other retirement centers. Our concern, however, is that such a mission does not result in growth for the main congregation. Without growth, survival is at stake. I agree with the idea of discovering what a congregation does well and expanding it, but there are certain excellent missional pursuits (such as prison ministry) that simply don’t yield any church growth.
ReplyDeleteWe keep hoping that others with a vison to minister to retirees might join us, but so far church growth and mission seem to be disconnected.