wfn.org | Focus on Mission and Ministry, Not Growth, Concludes Small-church

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Conference 13-September-1996 
 
 
96351       Focus on Mission and Ministry, Not Growth, 
                  Concludes Small-church Conference 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
TOWSON, Md.--It's not growth that small churches need as much as it is 
committed lay leaders and a staunch refusal to fear change. 
 
     At least, that's what leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s 
small churches concluded during "Small Church Celebration II," Aug. 8-11, 
on the campus of Towson State University near Baltimore, Md. 
 
     Whether those lay leaders engage in ministries that appear almost 
spontaneously or more gradually, some sort of spiritual awakening is what 
sets both into motion.  That awakening often heightens the congregation's 
awareness of needs that exist either inside the church or out in the 
community,  and then it finds a way to respond. 
 
      "The whole concept of laity being called -- that's a new phenomenon 
in terms of being acknowledged ... though we've always [stressed] the 
priesthood of all believers," said Diana A. Stephen, associate for church 
development strategy in the denomination's evangelism and church 
development program area.  "I really do think that the stories of vital 
congregations are those who are not stuck on survival ... [but] mission and 
ministry." 
 
     The Rev. Steve Boots of Minneapolis said he's seeing more and more 
laypeople come forward these days to respond to -- or search out -- a call. 
"Pastors need to be making room so laypeople can lead," said Boots, who 
watched a recovering alcoholic at the Vanderburgh Presbyterian Church first 
conceptualize and then create a still growing Saturday-night worship 
service for those in recovery in an inner-city congregation. 
 
     "Those kinds of calls I've not experienced before," said Boots, who 
added that churches caught up in the anxiety of survival are often unable 
to relax enough to be creative in facing a difficult situation or able to 
contemplate carefully what "God is telling us." 
 
     Philadelphia Presbytery's small-church consultant, Janet Jones, an 
elder at Thomas M. Thomas Memorial Church, said too many churches have 
their "own idea" about what ministries are possible or probable in their 
neighborhoods, failing to focus on "Christ as the head of the church. ... 
Pastors and officers [often] do not help identify the spiritual gifts that 
build Christ's body. 
 
     "Everybody has [gifts].  And once you identify them, you're 
knowledgeable," said Jones, who feels that openness through prayer and 
Bible study are the foundations for discerning any ministry -- one of the 
reasons why her Chester, Pa., church is offering spiritual gifts workshops 
this fall. 
 
     Jones said her own 130-member church has grasped a vision and mission 
statement that was carefully developed by the church's pastors and officers 
-- with involvement at every level of the congregation.  "The vision drew 
us together," she said, pointing out that the Sunday school has added 22 
children since the "Super Cupboards," a church-based program that teaches 
mothers the basics of good nutrition.  The program is operated in 
conjunction with Penn State University. 
 
     Such strategic thinking, coupled with strong pastoral relationships, 
is how the now retired Rev.  Carl Geores saw churches take hold during his 
42 years of ministry in Maine.  "It all depends on the congregation. 
 
     "We're equipping the saints," he said.  "It's all relational.  Out of 
relationships come needs.  Out of needs comes program." 
 
     But what plagues meeting those needs, very often, is fear of the 
change that is necessary to meet needs now going unmet. 
 
     "There are so many changes going on in the world -- technological 
changes, changes in families. People are losing farms, moving out.  The 
church has a long and rich tradition ... and it's really scary for people 
to think the congregation might change," said Boots, who insists that the 
Presbyterian baptismal vows are one way to deal pastorally with a church's 
fear of dying or of change. 
 
     "In our baptismal vows we say we die with Christ in order to be 
resurrected.  We need to let go of fear, let it die.  We need to be asking 
ourselves ...  What do [we] need to let die in order to experience 
resurrection?'" said Boots, who is watching Bethlehem-Stewart Presbyterian 
Church experience both the grief and the power that intermingle when death 
turns into life. 
 
     Bethlehem-Stewart sold its high-maintenance inner-city building to a 
social service agency the church began 25 years ago.  It now leases space 
for worship there, freeing up approximately $20-30,000 yearly for ministry. 
"There was grief," said Boots, adding that congregation members describe 
selling the property by saying:  "We've sold the building.  Not the church. 
We'll still be the church." 
 
     And it is a solid core of visionary laypeople who provide the 
continuity in what "church" means generation after generation in 
congregations -- since pastors come and go, according to the Rev. Robert 
Sackmann, the executive in Ohio Valley Presbytery, where 73 of the 90 
churches have fewer than 100 people in attendance on Sunday.  So the 
importance of lay ministries cannot be overlooked. 
 
     For many congregations that continuity provides a sense of identity 
and purpose. 
 
     "The continuity of a small church comes from closeness ... though I'd 
not always say love," said Sackmann, describing congregations that are able 
to pull communities together during emergencies, such as a blackout or 
death, or provide a sense of community in towns that have lost their 
unifying centers, such as schools and downtowns, by hosting reunions or 
other special celebrations. 
 
     "Growth may be the outcome of a [ministry], said Sackmann.  But it 
should never be the goal. 
 
     "It should always be a by-product," he said, stressing that the 
conference's sole purpose was to celebrate the existence of small churches. 
"Our intent here," Sackmann told the Presbyterian News Service, "was not to 
make the small church large or larger.  No matter what the size of a 
congregation, it has value. 
 
     "If growth happens, it may happen accidentally or serendipitously ... 
when a church suddenly discovers it has a unique mission." 

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