When Pews Are Few

Growth Comes In Cans

By Wayne M. Warner

My district superintendent asked me, “Would you consider helping a small congregation keep its doors open?”

Would I? But who wants a ministry no one has been able to turn around?

My previous 26 years in ministry had been full-time by choice. This will not enhance my career, I thought as I wrestled with a choice I knew others believed to be futile. This opportunity was not what I really wanted, but I was anxious for a change, and what would God say? I knew I was not the first person to ever face such a choice. I agreed to consider it.

When I met with the congregation I found a handful of members whose self-image was decidedly negative. Industrial transition had deployed core families elsewhere, and their primitive facilities had discouraged other stouthearted warriors. Moreover, the church could no longer compete for experienced leadership. Unfortunately, some of their best-intentioned decisions in recent years had only mired them more deeply in their suffocating situation. Finally, no leadership remained.

Even though they were discouraged, I discovered a delightful dozen who were so warm and responsive I decided to return with my wife for a second visit. Our educational experience had taught us to serve rather than be served. Much of our ministry had come out of similar pleas. We agreed to help for a few months.

In America there are islands of growing megachurches surrounded by established smaller churches. Many of these smaller churches have plateaued without reaching their growth potential. A few serve in limited-growth communities. Seeing this picture, a denominational growth consultant assured me, “Our calling is to preach, pray, pastor, guide, encourage, and lead the small church to desire to be faithful in mission, ministry, and outreach so it can become more effective” (italics added).

Helping the small church see that growth comes in “cans” is a calling worthy of the most capable leaders. Most churches are small at some point.

The challenge of resident pastoral leadershipwas an immediate concern. We were committing ourselves to an 86-mile commute twice weekly. By driving to and from our church we continued to provide our own primary support. We intended to help the church gradually assume ownership of its ministry role.

We renegotiated our terms of leadership a few months later, changing from a drive-in pulpit supply to part-time minister while we continued to build toward full-time residency.

A second need became obvious. Church records revealed that when the congregation filled their small chapel to capacity without expanding or relocating they experienced a downtrend. Records further revealed their roller-coaster attendance patterns ended right back where they started; locationwas a problem.

When a new General Motors plant moved to town, the seldom-used rail spur running beside the 50-year-old church was reactivated. We then had long pauses during the offering while the nickel-plate went through. Waiting through a long series of warning whistles at the corner crossing during the pastoral prayer did little to enhance worship. The new employer, however, brought new families to the community and new people to the congregation. We renewed our site search in spite of prior failures to agree on a place to relocate.

The opportunity we wanted came after a year of praying and searching. We negotiated for 5 acres. We now had 300 feet of highway frontage on the southeast edge of the city with an option to purchase more acreage. We eventually secured all 66 acres.

The potential for church growth was good, but required further pastoral commitment. I became the full-time resident pastor while my wife lived at our home an hour away and maintained her employment. We converted the parsonage. I occupied bachelor quarters, and we used some space for a needed office and Christian education purposes.

This life was not easy. Nevertheless, over the years the seven ladies, two men, and a handful of children bloomed into a vibrant, growing church family. Two Sunday school classes multiplied four times. Church attendance tripled, and the income multiplied to three times the amount received 4 years earlier.

This allowed us to spend several thousand dollars to improve our facilities while we pursued planned goals and prepared for the eventual sale of our facility. We became givers rather than receivers by choice. We also achieved an all-time high in missions giving. Congregational morale reflected the new joy of achievement. Seeing a need to further strengthen lay leadership, increase new member enlistment, and improve pastoral support we pursued plans for funding a new facility as we edged toward our fifth anniversary together.

We outlasted the effects brought about by losing our community’s largest employer. This was made more noticeable by my wife’s retirement. We passed the age at which most people retire, faced the problems of the plateaued small-town church, and established interesting guidelines for other small congregations that wish to take church growth seriously.

We established the following guidelines to turn this small congregation around and realized that with God all things are possible.

Prioritize Your Mission

We searched diligently for the apostolic sense of calling to church growth found throughout the Book of Acts. Recognizing the worth of maintenance ministries, we found that God both wills and gives growth. Therefore, the choice was ours; we could plan and prepare for continuing growth, or plan not to grow.

Focus On People’s Needs

God’s grace attracts people and that translates into growth. Changed people are the ultimate product produced by the church. We concentrated on seeing people through God’s eyes and loving them wherever we found them. Hurting, sinning, self-indulging, striking out, and worse, they needed what God had to offer. Every individual crossing our path represented a challenge for a changed life. Church members became gifted ministers offering salvation and a commitment to a potentially new life.

Remain Enthusiastic

We approached our problems positively and enthusiastically. We found God’s stepping-stones to maturity and growth turned a few months of planned ministry into 17 years. Positive enthusiasm and living in God uplifts people and helps them discover new options when they have had prior frustration and failure.

Stay Flexible

Traditional programs, methods, and schedules often conflict with growth as people insist, “We’ve always done it this way.” Using diagnostic objectivity and constant evaluation we worked at remaining flexible and avoiding rigidity, believing God blesses this kind of commitment to growth.

Be Accountable

When I was younger I was too embarrassed to share my financial needs with the church. After subjecting my family to a quarter century of insensitive demands for full-time-or-nothing ministry for an inadequate salary, I have become less hesitant to make my needs known to the congregation. Although it did not completely resolve the problem, I assumed a bivocational role when necessary. In addition, I gave more recognition to my spouse’s role as the congregation’s primary means of financial support for the pastoral team.

Congregations that want a full-time minister, but are unable to pay full-time wages, may have no justifiable option other than to allow the minister to supplement the congregation’s lack of income through outside employment. The church should not expect the spouse to do it.

Stay Consistent With Your Purpose

If the church is to reach the lost, it will require planting more new churches, many of which will be small. However, this will require a new acceptance of, appreciation for, and tolerance toward bivocational ministry.

As I served as an armed security officer at a busy downtown bank for the first 5 years of our pastorate, I made friends with a cross section of people I would not have reached as a full-time minister. Moreover, I watched my minister-wife effectively reach people of all persuasions in her role as a district manager of a fast-food chain — from touching pimps and prostitutes, to business professionals who were unchurched.

It required purposeful and persistent planning to keep our family relationships happy and healthy. During occasional low tides, I wondered Why, God, didn’t You lead me into a larger church with more of the benefits I could enjoy? But God did amply reward me and helped me understand that another small church had celebrated its second century from a new campus — although it was ready to close its doors when it called me.

Whether or not this church ever becomes a mega-ministry, I know I left it with new leadership and a new future. Finally, I know that growth comes in cans, because I found with God all things are possible

Wayne M. Warner is a retired pastor and freelance writer who lives in Battle Creek, Michigan.