Churches need one another. Our shared goal should be to help each other become as effective as possible for the Kingdom.
All tagged small church
The Important Role of Small Churches in Ministry Preparation
We frequently view these smaller churches as merely being recipients of help. Instead, they are partners that often serve as incubators for future ministers and lay ministers of all-sized churches.
A Call for Greater Consideration of Small and Rural Churches
When a small church closes, a community loses both its anchor and the energy generated when it responds to local needs.
For Ministers Who Aren’t Famous
As I’ve been reminded over and over during the last few months of studying the prophets, God’s plan of redemption is powerful, a solid promise, and a far, far cry from the often-hijacked definition of success.
Is Doubt a Sin?
May you find rest in the winter of doubt and receive the affirmation of spring.
Play the Cards You Hold
If we began our congregational ministry by assessing what we have to offer, we’d likely find it’s a lot.
Reflection Roundup: Light Bringers
Squaring off against the darkness, acknowledging its created separateness from the light that is God in the lives of people, is our posture for this season.
Reflection Roundup: Embody the Message
Embody the unchanging story, the gospel that is truer than true, where you are “you-er than you,” rather than living in response to an old memory tape.
Reflection Roundup: Prolegomena
Does a reluctance to ask for help translate to a theology of prayer? It may. This week, 10 other “first things” take the place of the pride that binds.
Five Questions With Austin Wright and Shawn Johnson
Small churches must answer the question, “How can we, as a small church, be faithful to what God has called us to be faithful?”
Reflection Roundup: Listen for the Voice of God
Is the voice of God always a word? Might it be found in a child’s exploration of a grandparent’s elderly, muscular hands? Is God’s voice in the soil they worked? Listen.
Are We Asking the Right Question?
“Why don’t they understand?” is not our best question in these moments as we attempt to understand our country’s struggles or our sibling’s perspectives or our child’s hurts.
Small Church Ministry During a Pandemic
Just like with so many other things, small churches enter into this pandemic with a unique set of strategies and difficulties.
A Special Project for the Church
They wanted to go beyond simply writing a monthly support check to local and foreign missions or benevolent efforts. They wanted to put their Christianity to work.
Close but Distant
Everyone knows each other in rural towns, but I have come to know that there is a difference between knowing of someone and actually knowing them.
Be the Best Part
I want the people whom I come in contact with to leave our time together, whether brief or extended, and think, “That was the best part of my day.”
Serving in a Surviving Church
What can a graying congregation in a shrinking rural community do?
Small Town, Small Church
Smaller churches carry great strengths that can support flourishing spiritual communities.
Urgent About the Right Things
If our urgency is misplaced, we will create unnecessary tension that ultimately pulls us – and possibly others – away from the will of God.
One of the Family: Becoming a New Minister in a Small Church
Becoming a minister of a small church means, for better or worse, you have married into a family.