On Main Street in Small-Town America
Small congregations in small towns can make a big difference as they join Jesus on His mission. If you think about it, in the gospels, most of Jesus’ work was not conducted in big cities but in small towns. That means if your congregation is situated in a small town-setting, Jesus has already been showing you how to make a big impact.
Before we dive into the “how,” consider the following:
Recent surveys show that 92% of U.S. congregations have 250 or fewer people attending weekly worship services. 68% have 100 or less in attendance. The chart below shows the trends in LCMS congregations between 2002 and 2022. Larger congregations are shrinking which is resulting in there being more and more smaller congregations.
What should our response be? To give up? Does Jesus write off all those congregations because they are too small to be effective? OR, could Jesus be up to something here? Could it be that small congregations in some very important ways have an advantage over bigger congregations. And, if so, how?
Let me offer you a recent example. I was talking last week with a congregation in eastern Montana. The town has a population of 630 residents and the congregation has about 30 regular attenders each month. The pastor is bi-vocational (that is, he has a day-job to supplement his part-time church salary). They said their claim to fame is that they are the town furthest away from any Starbucks in the U.S. (LOL!)
Most of the congregation’s families have lived in the town for generations. Most everyone knows most everyone else. There are six other churches in the community.
What can they do?
If they settle for operating as they have in order to maintain their status quo, they will continue to make little impact on their little town and they will eventually close. Right now they worship together on Sunday, have a Bible class, and struggle to maintain any programs. Sound familiar?
However, in the gospels, Jesus shows us how to make a big difference with a few people in a small town.
When a few people have their lives changed by God’s love, and they begin to change the way they live, they begin to effect the people around them in very positive ways. On the one hand, if church people live in the community the same way they always have, no one will notice. But if church people start to live an intentional life of love in the community - noticing people, caring, asking questions, listening, responding, helping - the community will notice and be effected.
The good news is that our lives have already been changed by God’s love through Jesus. All that’s left for us to do is to now live an intentional life of love for the good of our neighbors (see Ephesians 5:2). In other words, we already freely receive from Jesus in worship and His Word. Now we get to go into our week and into our little community looking for people who need a little of what we have already received in abundance.
This isn’t about simply feeling love for our neighbors. This is about loving our neighbors in such a way that our neighbors know they are being loved by us. It is love in action. It is love on purpose. It is love that helps.
This makes a big difference in small towns.
Imagine 30 people heading out of church each week with a simple purpose (mission): they look for people who need a little of what they already have in abundance. Imagine 30 people living generous lives of love in a town of 630. It wouldn’t take years to see the effect. It would be weeks.
When 30 people who have love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness head out and live on purpose, the town of 630 will soon be experiencing that love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness in real life. And with that reality in play, the congregation of 30 will soon be growing. Not because of new programs, not because they spiffed up their worship services, but because the town will finally be experiencing what small towns in the gospels were experiencing 2000 years ago:
Changed people living changed lives on purpose for the good of their neighbors.
It’s not a crazy pipedream. It could start happing in your small congregation in your small town this Sunday and next week.
If you’d like to talk with Greg Finke more about how you can start such an adventure in your community, please contact him at finkeonthemove@aol.com.