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It is Good to be a Member Of a Smaller Congregation!
I want to begin this lesson this evening with some statistics. Unfortunately, not everyone distinguishes one church from another and often times the Lord’s church gets lumped in with every other church in America. That is the case with these statistics, but they can still give us a sort of snapshot look at the religious atmosphere in America s that we might catch a glimpse of some of the things that are going on.
(McMullen, Shawn. Releasing the Power of the Smaller Church. Standard Publishing, 2007. 17)
There are some really good things going on throughout our own brotherhood. There are TV programs, mission efforts, children’s homes and schools, schools of preaching, outreach programs, and congregations with Sunday morning attendances of more than a thousand! But there are also some pretty alarming things that are happening within the Lord’s body today. Those statistics just given are not exclusive of the churches of Christ. We are at a crucial juncture where if we don’t all get involved and become zealous for the work of the church, things are only going to keep getting worse. The good news is, though, if we want to make a difference, we can! And, there is perhaps no better place to do that than in the smaller church! You and I are in the perfect situation to make a positive impact in the church!
Bigger is not always better. There is a certain way that many of us in America tend to look at size: bigger is better. Why go to a regular Wal-Mart when you can go to a Super Center Wal-Mart? Why get medium popcorn when you can get a jumbo popcorn for only a quarter more? Why get a small pickup when you can get a full-size pickup? A big truck is bigger, stronger, tougher, and can haul more and go more places than a small one? Even though the only thing I’m going to be hauling is groceries and it’s too expensive to take off-road and risk damaging, it’s still bigger and better. Well, many of us look at congregations the same way, if it’s big, it must be better, but that’s not necessarily true. There are small congregations all across America which, despite their smaller size, are healthy, vibrant, and making a difference in their communities. If our goal is to serve God faithfully and to convert the lost, we can do that just as much in a smaller congregation as we can in a big one. In fact, in my opinion, the opportunities are greater in a smaller congregation than in a big one on a person to person basis.
A lot of the time when we compare smaller congregations, rather than looking for the good things that are found in a smaller congregation and looking at the good things that a larger congregation has to offer, what happens is, we look at what the small congregation doesn’t have and compare that to what a larger congregation does have and conclude that the larger congregation is better. I don’t think that is fair. Because of their size, there are going to be some things that a large congregation has and can do that a smaller one can’t, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t also some good things that a small congregation has that a larger congregation doesn’t, simply because it is smaller. There are some unique opportunities that being small affords us that large congregations just don’t have. I think it is better to recognize and appreciate the good that both have to offer rather than comparing the positives of one to the negatives of the other.
What if we were to take all of the good qualities of one person, excluding all of the bad, and compare that to all of the faults of another person, excluding all of the good? The one is always going to come out ahead of the other just because of the way that we are looking at them. That wouldn’t be fair. Chances are that both of them have both good and bad qualities and should be appreciated on their own level and for their own unique qualities.
Someone once told us in preaching school to never compare the worst that we do to the best of someone else. In other words, anyone who preaches on a regular basis is going to have some sermons that just don’t work out; there are going to be some that just fall flat. We shouldn’t compare one of those sermons to one of brother so and so’s when he hit a home run with one of his sermons once upon a time, because that is just not going to give us an accurate representation of reality. Not all of my lessons are going to fall flat and not all of his sermons are going to be a home run. It’s just not fair to compare my worst to his best.
The same thing is true for a congregation. If we look hard enough, we will find good things and bad things in every one. It doesn’t matter how big a congregation is, if someone looks hard and long enough, he will find something wrong with it. It’s not fair to ourselves to look for what is wrong with us and compare that to everything that we can find that is right with another congregation. Instead, lets focus on the good things about us and discover some of those things that make being a smaller congregation so good.
There are six unique opportunities that we have, being a smaller congregation, which we might otherwise not be able to have:
I. We have a unique opportunity to know one another.
In a smaller congregation we get the opportunity to know every other member of our congregation. With forty or fifty people, it is completely feasible to learn everyone’s name. If something happens to one of us, we all know who that person is and what is going on. We can all pray for that person and help him or her on a personal basis. When things are going good for a member of the congregation here, we can all find out about that, and because we know that person personally, and love them in a special way, we can rejoice with them. We can form close, brotherly and sisterly, relationship with each one. We can anchorage one another in a personal way. We can lean on one another and count on one another.
There Romans were told to be “kindly affectioned one to another one to another with brotherly love” and to “admonish one another” (Ro. 12:10; 15:14). Being small allows each and every one of us to individually take those verses to heart and fulfill those one a personal basis with one another. That is a tremendous advantage to being a smaller congregation! The Galatian brethren were told to “bear ye one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2). The Ephesian brethren were told to “forbear” and “forgive one another” (Eph. 4:2, 32). The Thessalonian brethren were told to “comfort” and “edify one another” (1 Thes. 4:18; 5:11). The Hebrew brethren were told to “exhort one another daily” and “consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” (Heb. 3:13; 10:24). Because we are the size that we are, we have an opportunity to do all of these things in a very special and personal way. We can we can literally and individually bear one another’s burdens edify one another and exhort one another because we know one another and can develop close, personal, relationships with each other. Members of many larger congregations cannot do that.
Can you imagine trying to develop a close relationship with everyone in a congregation of more than 1,000 members? It would not be possible. If you didn’t really know them, how could you really comfort them? How could you really bear one another’s burdens? The bigger a congregation becomes, the less personal it tends to become in a lot of ways simply because of its size. People can still be comforted and exhorted, but chances are, it will be in a less personal way.
How would you know when you have visitors? With so many people, it would be a whole lot easier for someone to walk into and out of a service without even being noticed. That doesn’t happen here. When someone visits us, we all know it, and we all then have an opportunity to introduce ourselves and to make them feel welcome and invite them back again.
It is good to be a member of a small congregation because, as the theme song to an old TV program named Cheers used to say, people like to go “where everybody knows your name.”
II. We have a unique opportunity to form intergenerational relationships.
It is not the biblical design for the church to have segregation among its members formed by generation gaps. There is great benefit gained by the older members mixing with the younger members and visa versa. It is fine to have different activities at times for the different age groups within the church, like VBS for the children, but we are still to be one body. Differences can form between older and younger folks to the point where the tension is so great between the two, it can actually split a congregation and the older or younger half can leave and go somewhere else. That is a tragic thing! There should be not tension between the young and old. “Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder. Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another: for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5).
The older members of a congregation should be the most spiritually mature and more firmly grounded in the faith. The older members should be teaching the younger:
But speak thou the things which befit the sound doctrine: that aged men be temperate, grave, sober-minded, sound in faith, in love, in patience: that aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed: the younger men likewise exhort to be sober-minded. (Tit. 2:1-6)
The smaller congregation, where old and young alike worship and work side by side with one another is the ideal setting for this type of thing to take place. Even if they wanted to, in many smaller congregations, there wouldn’t be enough members of any certain age group to form their own clique, but what an opportunity we have in a smaller congregation to get the most out of inter-generational relationships!
III. We have a unique opportunity to use our talents.
Most of the time, a smaller congregation means that there will be less people with extraordinary talents to use for various things. In larger congregations, you will probably find a handful of people who can read music, beat out time correctly, and sing with above-average ability who can do the song leading. In a smaller congregation, there may not be any. While it may look like a negative thing, I think it is actually a positive one. It means that those who would ordinarily not be able to lead singing in a larger congregation will be able to in a smaller one. There is less pressure to perform at a certain level or to measure up to someone else. A willingness to serve is often appreciated more than the level of talent that a person may or may not have. And, people tend to be more supportive and encouraging to those of mediocre talent in a smaller congregation. The result, more men of the congregation participate and do more. The same thing that is true for singing is usually true for other things as well.
IV. We have a unique opportunity for leadership development.
With a large congregation usually comes a large budget. There is sometimes the senior minister as well as an assistant minister, there may be a paid secretary, a youth minister, and outreach program coordinator. There may be people who are paid to come in and do the lawn. There are people who are paid to do the custodial work. There are people who are paid to do building repairs and maintenance. With a smaller congregation…not so much. Many can barely afford a minister, let alone pay for other things.
We can look at that as being a good thing or a bad thing. I think it is a good thing because it forces us to get involved and do it ourselves if it is going to get done. It gives smaller congregations to develop and nurture up leaders who can fill these roles.
In large congregations there are usually plenty of ladies who are available to be in the nursery, plenty of Sunday school teachers, and able men to lead in the worship services. That is not always the case in a smaller congregation, there is a need for those who are able to, to be recruited, trained, and encouraged to fill these roles.
Many larger congregations have plenty of elders and deacons, but many smaller congregations do not. The idea is not to just be content with not having any elders or deacons, but to develop men within the congregation so that one day we will be able to have elders and deacons.
Every congregation should be developing and encouraging future leaders and workers within the church. The small congregation provides the best opportunities for that to happen, because the demand for them is much greater in a smaller congregation.
V. We have a unique opportunity to impact our community.
Not every smaller congregation is located in a smaller community, but if it is, it has a unique opportunity to be effective in a small community that a large congregation in a big metropolitan area may not. As you already know, people talk and news travels very quickly in smaller, more rural areas and that can be one of our biggest friends or it can be one of our biggest enemies. If we are a caring and sincere congregation that helps others, the community is going to know it. However, if a church in one of these communities just kind of keeps to itself and doesn’t concern itself with the needs and interests of others within its community, that also will be known.
The editor of Releasing the Power of the Smaller Church (McMullen 22) writes,
A member of our church was talking with a prominent member of our community about food baskets our members were preparing for families in our town. The community member asked, ‘And what church do you attend?’ When our member identified our congregation, her friend observed, ‘That church is always doing something good!’
What a wonderful reputation to have!
Conclusion
A person is just as saved in a smaller congregation as in a big one. A person can serve the Lord as fully in a large or small congregation. A large congregation is not necessarily better nor a small one. But, just because a congregation is small by no means means that it is somehow inferior in its ability to offer positive opportunities for spiritual growth and development than its bigger sisters. There are good and positive things that are unique to bigger congregations and there are good and positive things that are unique to smaller congregations. Because we are smaller ourselves, that is what we looked at in this lesson this evening.
Rather than looking at bigger congregations as a reason for not getting involved and being negative, rather than saying, “I wish we had the same big numbers that bigger congregations have,” we should look at being a smaller congregation as a reason for being involved and being more positive. The smaller congregation has a lot to offer too.
I’ve heard it said before that with great power comes great responsibility. I think it is also true that with many opportunities also comes great responsibility. The Spring Dale church of Christ is a small congregation, but it is by no means handicapped in its ability to fulfill the expectations of God for a body of Christians in the 21st century. As we have seen in this lesson, the opportunities about here for every member. But, because we have so many opportunities here, and because each and every member has such a significant part to play, we are each responsible for the direction taken by this congregation as we head into the future. This congregation can be healthy and vibrant and impacting its community for good even though we may be small, but it’s up to us to decide that that is what we are going to do.
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