What if God’s plans for our great gifts of teaching, leading, innovation and faith are different than our plans? What if he wants us to use them in the service of a smaller congregation for most, if not all, of our ministry years?
Can we be OK accepting God’s will, if that’s what his will is? And if a lifetime of small church ministry is possible, let alone likely, shouldn’t we spend some of our ministry training time preparing for it?
Speaking of which …
3. How to Pastor an Innovative Small Church
Check the class schedules for any 10 ministry training schools or seminaries you choose. How many classes include teaching on the skills needed to pastor a small church?
Some?
One?
Any?
Then check upcoming ministry conferences for the same thing. Any different results?
Now go to your bookshelf and eReader. How many of the pastoral ministry books you own teach small church pastoring principles? Until I wrote The Grasshopper Myth, there wasn’t one on my bookshelf.
Thirty years of my ministry. Hundreds of books bought, read and studied. But not one book on how to do the job God called me to do. That’s why I used the preface of The Grasshopper Myth to tell readers this was the book I wish someone else had written for me.
We haven’t done this aspect of ministry training well. It’s time for that to change.
If you’re a seasoned minister like me, let’s help the upcoming generation of pastors. Let’s give them what no one gave us. We can start by being honest with them about the type of ministry most of them will have.
And no, this is not a defeatist attitude. Far from it. When you recognize, embrace and passionately fulfill God’s call on your life to pastor a small church, you will find it to be a profound privilege and blessing. To you, to the people you pastor, and to the community your church ministers in.
It’s not settling.
It’s not missing out.
It’s not “less than … .”
If you don’t let it be.
Let’s stop acting like we’re embarrassed by all the small churches in the world. Maybe there are so many of them because small churches are God’s idea—not our failure. Instead of making pastors feel guilty that they didn’t “make it” when they pastor a small church, let’s help them do it well—and passionately.
It’s time to embrace the wonder of the ministry God has called most of us to do.