The young pastor said he felt like a failure.

He wasn't the first rural pastor I've heard say this. The center that I direct, located at a small United Methodist college, is focused on working with rural congregations to support community and economic development. Before this, I pastored a small rural congregation. I've been in his shoes, and I know other pastors who have been in his shoes, too.

"I always believed that if I did all the right things, if I got all the parts of ministry right, then my church would grow," he said. "But it's not happening. I feel like a failure."

He described his community: a rural county with a high level of opiate use, significant poverty and inadequate health care. He spoke with pride about the ministries of his church -- in particular, their community meals, where judges eat with the criminals they have sentenced. He knew the ins and outs of his community, both the stories and the data. And yet, he told us, his church continued to shrink.

This story is not uncommon. Pastors are often led to believe that success in their congregations is contingent upon increasing worship attendance. Missions and evangelism become tools by which to reach this growth rather than efforts by which to recognize and participate in the restless change that God is creating.

In many small-church contexts, numerical growth is next to impossible. But that doesn't mean that the pastors or the congregations are failures. I've heard many stories of small ministries that are succeeding -- measured not by the numbers but by the impact of their work.