| | | | | | | | | | | | PRACTICAL WISDOM FOR LEADING CONGREGATIONS |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 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.
Read more from Allen T. Stanton » |
| | FROM OUR ARCHIVE: SMALL CHURCH MINISTRY |
| Reclaiming the gifts of small churches can help revitalize larger -- but declining -- congregations and entire denominations, writes the author of Imagining the Small Church: Celebrating a Simpler Path. Read more from Steve Willis » |
| Pastoring a small congregation was something that Andrew Hagen was not prepared to do either by personal experience or through seminary training. As the Lutheran pastor opened himself to the gifts of the church, he learned how to be the pastor that the church needed. Read more from Andrew Hagen » |
From a Mustard Seed: Enlivening Worship and Music in the Small Church by Bruce Epperly and Daryl Hollinger
Small congregations can have beautiful worship! In From a Mustard Seed: Enlivening Worship and Music in the Small Church, an experienced pastor-professor and an experienced church musician provide a model for faithful and excellent worship in congregations that average 75 or fewer people in weekly worship. While the limitations of small congregations are obvious to their members and leaders, the possibilities for creative music and worship are often greater than we can imagine. Epperly and Hollinger integrate theology, spiritual formation, and practical guidance for nurturing diverse, inspirational, and transforming worship in small congregations.
Grounded in a solid theology of worship, they provide tried-and-true approaches to congregational music and singing, worship planning, liturgies that transform, and healthy partnerships between pastors and church musicians. God is present in small congregations, and the authors help pastors, church musicians, and active laypersons awaken to God's activity in every aspect of worship and music. They illuminate possibilities for opening to God in worship and music through their own stories, the stories of congregations and their pastors, practical counsel, spiritual practices, and theological reflection.
Learn more and order the book » |
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