- One of the worst things to befall the small church is revolving-door leadership, especially pastoral.
- Small churches are not driven by programs but by relationships.
- The primary hope for plateaued and dying small churches is pastors who will remain there long enough to effect a significant turn-around.
- No one serves a small church for the money or the prestige.
- Anything worthwile that will happen during...ministry in a [small] church will probably take much longer than anticipated.
- Denominations need to examine how they can better equip small-church pastors with the resources they need.
A long pastoral tenure doesn't guarantee a healthy small church, but I suspect it would be difficult to find a strong, healthy small church that has a frequent pastoral turnover. The relationship of pastor and congregation in the small church is more like a shepherd or “lover” than a corporate executive. People in the small church “want to be respected far more than they want to be directed” (Pappas, p. 83). A relationship like this only develops over a period of time in which trust can build. When I was being interviewed to be pastor of a small congregation, one of the Elders provided hospitality overnight. He asked some pointed questions trying to discover if this would be a long pastorate or not. If not, he didn’t want to invest time in the relationship. He had good reason for asking, not only personally but also corporately. Taking up where the quote left off, Pappas writes: "Abrupt or frequent transitions ensure that all available energy will be expended in adjustment and recovery, leaving precious little for mission, evangelism, discipleship, and growth."
If I had the proverbial "magic wand," I'd make the attitude that the small church is a stepping stone to a larger church disappear. First, that attitude devalues ministry in the smaller setting. Second, because small churches are not just different in size but different in kind, effective ministry in a small congregation is not the kind of "farm team" training that larger churches are looking for. Pastors leave small congregations for all kinds of reasons, both bad and good. Not all will stay for 10, 20, or 20 years. Some will move to larger churches, some will move to other small congregations. I wrestled with moving from a small church setting to ministry in a denominational office. I felt like I had betrayed that Elder who asked if I was going to stay or just move on to another church. Ultimately, I couldn't turn away from the call to serve at the EPC's General Assembly. The key is, while you're in the small congregation, you're not biding time. It's an opportunity to invest in and see the fruit of the wonderful relational dimension of small church life.
What statement in this chapter struck you? Click "comment" below and let us know which one and why.
On a whole different topic - get acquainted with one of the EPC's newer small congregations - Grace Point in Dubuque, Iowa.
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Ed,
ReplyDeleteGreat comments. I believe the numbers on all churches (across all denominations and independant churches) is much worse. I studied this at length many years ago but have not pulled the data in years. I remember reading that 18 months is the avg length of first call, three years was the average of all calls.
A book that shaped my attitude about pastoral identity, vocational holiness, and the discipline of stability was Eugene Peterson's "Under the Unpredictable Plant". I read it in seminary, have lead studies in it since and have given over 20 copies to Candidates and Commissioned Lay Pastors. I've likely read it about 5 times.
I've been in my first call for almost 9 years. The goals I had in mind for my first three years are still being reached but I have experienced the work of God in ways that I never anticipated. It is a special thing to be deeply involved in the spirituality of folks for years, to baptize and later marry people, to see them stumble and rise again, to be a part of the grace of God.
For whatever reason God takes His time sanctifying us - we as pastors should take time to shepherd the flock. What an honor.
#3 - "The primary hope for plateaued and dying small churches is pastors who will remain there long enough to effect a significant turn-around."
ReplyDeleteYes and no...
Theological answers aside, I think the primary hope is getting lay leaders encouraged, engaged and equipped. In that sense, it doesn't matter how long the pastor is there or not!
I've worked with several UMC churches. I've been told point blank by their leadership that they know the pastor won't be there for long. While this dynamic may be changing within this denomination, the churches that accepted and embraced leadership were much healthier.
If it depends on the longevity of the pastor, the small church is in trouble...
Ed--I actually like your last paragraph. I remember words of wisdom from a charismatic Anglican priest who told me that our time is one of transition; the megachurches will begin to wane precisely because they are following the trends. He told me to take heart that we should be like beacons in a storm of ecclesiastical relativism. Our small churches are the "small group ministry" and its only a matter of time before people long for the intimacy and relationships they afford.
ReplyDeleteWe’ve had a most excellent year in terms of membership growth, finances, and completing a major parking lot project. We feel blessed!
ReplyDeleteOur challenge, now, is leadership development—but not quite the same issue as on the blog. Our elders and deacons do strike me as having great spiritual maturity, on the whole, so that issue is not so salient. But we simply cannot find enough people willing to serve as deacon or elder. Partly, there were some highly negative experiences, before my arrival, and even at the PCUSA congregation years before, that have permanently turned some people off from ever serving again. We have an excellent crop of potential leaders among our new members, but they need to be members a year or so, we think, before being asked to lead. We have simply decided to let the size of Session and the Board of Deacons go down to the level of the people we’ll have. We do not wish to push the less than willing, or the less than qualified, just to fill a quota.
But what we do want to do now, intentionally, is leadership development, so that the crop of potentials that is coming up can be converted into the crop of actual leaders!
How can we do such development?
On another issue, many of our number came from a much larger congregation. It is hard to change mindset to accept that we really are a small church. There were many overly organizational schemes in the past to set up our ministry along bureaucratic lines that are really appropriate for a larger group. We do believe that we have potential, and are fulfilling it, to grow into a medium size church (I think that means breaking 200 in membership? Or maybe there’s an accepted figure for worship attendance?). In the meantime, we ARE a small church and need to craft our ministry with that reality in mind.