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How the Family Church Grows
Honest talk about leading change in the smaller congregation.
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Martin: I knew a pastor in a rural church in western Minnesota. He was delighted when, in the early part of his ministry, all his initiatives were passed in business meetings with no discussion. Then he was puzzled later when none of the decisions was implemented. He discovered that the real business meeting began after the official meeting adjourned. People would get cups of coffee, meet in the aisles of the church, review all the meeting decisions, and either ratify or nullify them. He learned to work within that framework, but he initially thought that all those yes votes meant something. The key word is "consensus." The small church gravitates toward consensus and feels anxious if there isn't at least a perception of consensus. What does growth mean for a church whose identity is as a family?Kathy: The family image still works: In a family there are children, and then those children get married and have children. That's how a family grows. Gary: Sometimes, though, when small churches grow, they get to a certain size and then fragment. Martin: The key word is slowly. There's a limit to how large a group can get and still preserve the family feel. That may be one reason small churches fight so fiercely not to grow. Our church is situated in a rural area, but we use the term rurban, because the area draws a lot of retirees from urban communities. It's about fifty-fifty between rural and urban people, and that creates tensions that affect nearly every decision we make—from whether to leave the lights on to how we develop ministry. Kathy: It's overwhelming for a smaller church when it suddenly becomes the "in" church—the sermons are good, the music is good, so it's the happening place to be. People feel invaded. Growth can have a negative effect if the church suddenly receives an influx of people disgruntled from a church split or frustrated with their former church. But in our case, we're seeing slow growth, almost all of it from conversions. With that kind of growth, it's much easier to envelop new people. Martin: When a congregation I served grew from around fifty on a Sunday morning to seventy, an elderly lady said, "I just don't know anyone around here anymore." What she meant was "I no longer can catch up with everyone's life on a Sunday morning." How do you respond to that concern?Martin: I sat down with many of the older people and said, "A lot of things have happened here through the years, and we're outgrowing this building. That's not easy. But you know what? The Lord is answering your prayers. Isn't it odd that an answer to prayer would bring some pain, some adjustment?" |             |
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