That is where they gather to worship God, to hear the Word preached, to receive the Sacraments, to glorify God and to enjoy him, to experience the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, to be sent into the world as emissaries of Jesus Christ and the gospel.
We begin with the fact that the Presbyterian Church is a denomination of small churches, the vast majority of the more than 11,000 having fewer than 200 members. We are inclined to be admiring of larger churches, their strength, their programming, their mission, but the fact is that the primary unit of the Presbyterian Church is the small congregation — the one-cell church if you will — akin to the one-room schoolhouse of old.
Many of the smaller churches are dying, due to no fault of their own. Communities change radically over time. Inhabitants leave, replacements do not arrive. Whole communities and regions decline and die, though not completely.
Each congregation, however — whatever the size and circumstances — has unique opportunities to rebuild community and to live out its life for the sake of the larger community in which God has placed it with a distinctive call.
If each congregation sees as its charge the Great Ends of the Church (Book of Order, G-1.0200) — proclamation, nurture, worship, preservation of the truth, promotion of social righteousness, exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world — and turns to God in prayer and obedience with expectant hope, God will strengthen that community, build it up in many different ways (not always numbers!) and send it forth to bear witness to the gospel.
Paradoxically, the congregation will experience the rebuilding of community internally as it busies itself in the works of the kingdom beyond its walls. But to advance this work requires individual, group, congregational efforts to practice the disciplines of piety, involving Scripture reading and prayer, that connect each member and the congregation as a whole to the wellsprings of faith, which in turn provide the fuel for the mission beyond.
Such building of community requires time and space — outside of the Sunday morning schedule. It must be a self-conscious effort on the part of pastor and session. At the same time, as it develops it assumes a spontaneity and follows paths which could never have been predicted.
Sadly, the human fear of change and the need for control often stifle fresh thinking and initiatives. And the fear of outsiders prevents the church from being a welcoming presence to those who come and see what God is doing in and through the congregation.
Each congregation will have its own approach to building community, strengthening the mutual commitment of members one to another, harnessing energies for the mission that must be done.
Congregations that are “alive” will grow and serve in remarkable ways; those whose members live for themselves will probably be part of a church that lives for itself. Such members and churches are dying, and cannot fulfill the mission Christ has given to them.
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