Small Churches, Big Mission!

You might be wondering why in the world am I writing about small churches. After all, we have almost 750 members and are getting closer and closer to averaging 500 each weekend in worship. Well, the reason is that I really believe in the "connectional system" that is the essence of the United Methodist Church. What affects one, affects all. What is done connectionally is greater than the sum of its parts.

The front page of the "New World Outlook" for Jan/Feb 2009 has a beautiful picture of one of our many small churches with the words, "Small Churches, Big Mission!" This is an important subject because 69.2% of United Methodist Churches in the USA have an average worship attendance of 40. In our Dakotas Conference, 79% of our churches are small membership churches with an average attendance of 39.

The magazine is filled with astonishing stories of ministry being performed in and through many small membership churches. I think a lot about the great ministry many of these churches perform and wonder what I/we could do to help them (as the Army says) Be All They Can Be. There are several things that come to mind:
1. Pray for them. In order for us to do that we have to sincerely believe that "we are all in this together" and bigger is not always better. Praying for someone means more than thinking of them occasionally and then going our merry way. It means not thinking that everything revolves around us, but looking around and thinking about the big picture of ministry.
2. Support them. I am not sure what all of that may include, but it might mean helping with teacher training, Sunday School materials. developing cooperative VBS programs, etc. We who are fortunate to be in a larger membership church must continually look outward for opportunities to link ourselves with churches that just cannot do some of the things we are blessed with the ability to do.
3. Think outside of the box. The future holds many exciting possibilities for the church. It, indeed, might not look anything like the present, but we have to be dreaming the dreams and opening ourselves to new and innovative ideas. For example, maybe larger membership churches need to become "Hub-Churches. These hub-churches might be a way to share resources (physical as well as fiscal) and work throughout a larger region/area in ways that serve our Lord even greater than ever before.

The Spirit of the Living God is at work in the life of small churches as well as those that are larger. But, we do not have the luxury of "going our own way" in ministry. To do so is to miss the very essence of Christianity and fail to exercise the very core belief of the United Methodist Church.

This is a very important issue as we look at the future. It is certainly more complex than my small attempt to think it out.

Just thinking. What do you think?