wfn.org | Small Churches Share Common Challenges, Common Bonds

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18-June-1998 
GA98100 
 
       Small Churches Share Common Challenges, Common Bonds 
 
                      by Allison Politinsky 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--How can you adapt a Christian Education curriculum to a 
church with four children?  Especially when the church curriculum is 
designed for 60 children and is not intended to be used by combining all 
ages of children.  That was just one of the issues pastors discussed 
together at the Small Church Breakfast Thursday, June 18.  
   Speaker Rosalie J. Potter, the associate director of Evangelism and 
Church Development with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), explained that 
small churches are those which have 100 members or less attending worship 
services.  Of the 175,000 Protestant Churches in the country, 50 percent 
have less than 75 people in worship, Potter said. 
   There are certainly pluses and minuses to having a congregation that 
small.  "You can get away with more," she added.  "Formality is not quite 
the same.  Everybody knows each other and people can share intimately in a 
deeper way." 
   That relaxed atmosphere makes for great storytelling, Potter continued. 
And, one of the best ways we can help each other, is to share our stories. 
She shared some of her own lessons by recounting humorous and inspiring 
episodes in churches where she has served.  
   In one small-town church, children left the front door of the sanctuary 
open to try and keep everyone cool during the worship service.  The 
neighborhood dogs decided to parade into the church and up the aisle to the 
pulpit.  The town newspaper reported the next day that the church had "gone 
to the dogs." 
 
   In another service, a mouse came climbing down the swinging lightbulb 
used to light the sanctuary and ran around and around the hot bulb until it 
finally jumped into a woman's lap. She shrieked, and the children came to 
her rescue disposing of the mouse with a hymnal. 
   A secretary in one small church was working diligently when she was 
interrupted by children playing out in the yard.  "Hurry, hurry," they 
said.  "We really need your help!"  When asked what the emergency was, she 
was told that they needed one more person to play touch football. So she 
did! 
   Then there are the stories of grace and outreach.  In one church of only 
75 members, the primary concern was mission, not budget and survival.  The 
congregation created huge food baskets for 110 families at Christmas, 
Thanksgiving and Easter.  The project got so large the church had to ask 
help from its neighboring churches in other denominations.  They needed 50 
drivers and enlisted townspeople and civic groups to help with packing what 
grew to 300 baskets each holiday. 
   "In addition, they helped buy some families plots of land and taught 
them how to plant food and prepare it for storage," Potter said.  "In 
giving we learn what others mean to us . . . Anything is possible 
regardless of a church's size, when you start giving of yourself." 
   "All the programs in the world aren't enough," Potter added.  "Learn 
what your story is.  What are the most exciting things that have happened 
to you?  You are disciples . . . you carry the love of Jesus in your 
hearts." 
   The group closed the breakfast by announcing another opportunity to 
share their stories and their ministry at the Small Church Celebration in 
Fort Collins, Colo. in August of 1999. 

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