When the two words small congregation are used, what picture comes into your mind? The answers to that question will be as varied as the people who answer it. For me it is a little church in the countryside that shared a pastor with an even smaller congregation. It was heated by coal and I, in my early rebellious years, put the stoker into the hot coal furnace and heated it red hot, then proceeded to burn my initials into the wooden boards of the coal bin. When the building was torn down I managed to find that board and I still have it.
Others will answer the question by identifying a certain pastor who connected with them in the midst of a boring VBS experience. One might point to a Sunday school teacher who really had bad theology but had a genuine love that hooked them on a vibrant faith. Someone else will describe a building with a steeple and bell or a cemetery surrounding the church building while others may say it was right across the street from a busy gas station.
These descriptions illustrate three components of the basic mix of every congregation: people, program, and building. But in small congregations that mix tends to be very personal and experiential. The small congregation doesn’t have to be rural; it can also be urban or suburban. Smallness brings with it an intensity that is at its best actualizes the Body of Christ to one another; at its worst it can be gossip, innuendo, and the opposite attitudes and actions to what Scripture entreats Christians to exhibit.
In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) most of our congregations fit into the category of small — 200 members or fewer. This immediately poses the challenge to congregations lacking the ability to call a seminary-trained pastor. When this happens, it usually results in a lowering of self-esteem for the congregation. The feeling is, “We’re no longer able to do church right.” How can the congregation afford to call someone who is a seminary graduate?
The only way is to share a pastor with another congregation, many times of another denomination. That experience alone can be liberating as congregations realize they are first and foremost members of the Universal Body of Christ. But this experience can also stress an ecumenical relationship when the two systems of call don’t match the experience of the congregations.
Many congregations are beginning to re-invent themselves while in the paradox of scarcity. Looking within their congregation they are finding gifts of leadership for the pastoral needs. It is back to the future as dedicated, intelligent farmers, public school teachers and a host of others take advantage of various programs to train those who are called to a Commissioned Lay Pastor role. This is how the early church figured out its leadership needs.
Another challenge to small congregations, especially those in rural areas, is the constant drain of energy, economy, and numbers. Rural congregations, and their suburban and city sisters, have a mutual need to make sure all are able to survive and minister. As farms grow larger, homesteads are lost and the families who used to live on them leave. Cities are growing and rural communities are shrinking. Many of those who end up in large congregations have been discipled in a small congregation. It is in the large congregations’ interest that small congregations do well; small congregations are at least in part the feeder system for larger congregations. If each large congregation, at Sunday worship, asked for a show of hands of those who were raised in a small congregation, members would realize the connection between their health and future to that of the small congregation. Small congregations are often the seedbeds of leadership. We make claims of being a connectional church; yet how many large congregations have considered some kind of a working partnership with a small congregation, or how many small congregations have the courage to approach a large congregation and explore possibilities of partner ministries?
While many small congregations will continue to experience the feeling of marginalization, there is also a paradoxical hope in their quest for a meaningful future. We must remind ourselves of two biblical principles that may lower some of the anxiety many are feeling. First, every congregation is ultimately God’s baby. There is a larger hand in our smallness, and size can be a surprising asset if it is used to meet the personal needs of people in a depersonalized society. Second, the church began as a marginalized society. It wasn’t until Constantine made the church official in the culture that we began to look at being in the center instead of on the margins. It was there that the power of the Holy Spirit used mightily the individuals who stood up for their Savior and spoke to their culture.
There is great hope for the small congregation when it seeks the creative help of the Holy Spirit, understands the power of paradox in its size, and celebrates the quality of the personal that comes with being small.
While small congregations want to grow larger, it is large congregations that have to intentionally work at developing small group ministries; go figure.
Ray Larson is full-time pastor of Crosslake Church in Crosslake, Minn., a new church development with 90 members. He formerly was pastor of other large and rural churches, and a presbytery executive.
