The Big Picture For Small Churches (Review)

“There is nothing wrong with being a small church. God uses the little flock just as much as the massive congregation. But ….it’s not always easy to remain hopeful and cheerful when we are few in numbers.”

Warboys Baptist Church is 18 members and 25-30 in total on a Sunday morning and evening. During the pastor-less period prior to my arrival in 2007, the church read the first edition of this book. You’ll have to ask them whether I’ve provided them the quality teaching John urges us to provide!!

Here are 4 takeaways focused on 4 quotes:

Truth being communicated in a context of love

John brilliantly sums up the unsaid worldviews of our Cambridgeshire village of 5,000 folk:

Hedonism: Living for pleasure in this life
Consumerism: Happiness lies in what you can buy
Relativism: There’s no absolute truth outside of ourselves.

We are finding that this outlook is very resistant to the gospel.

Yet John reminded me that it is “nevertheless vulnerable to true Christian love.” Christians behaving with genuine kindness and friendliness are powerful weapons. And build a foundation for the proclamation of the truth one day.

John notes the growing number of lonely people in our communities. These are surely great opportunities to show the compassion of Christ and to pray for chances to share the truth in a sensitive manner.

If you are a pastor, you (and I) have got to stop complaining

Ouch. The rebuke that struck me. If I (and other leaders) of smaller churches are always gloomy and glass half-empty then that depresses the whole church. There’s obviously a place for lament and realism, but sadly many of us are just whiners.

John inspires us not to whinge by teaching lessons from Isaiah 6. Other factors motivate me to kill complaining – it’s sinful; pastoring a larger church is not paradise etc.

‘Go and tell’ and ‘come and see’

In evangelism, both approaches are fine. Relax a bit! Some church members are good at going out there and telling unbelievers about Christ - in public conversing or private conversations. That’s great.

But we can also invite folk to church services and events – come and see us, and be with us. These ‘come and see’ events can be full-on gospel preaching or full-on friendship-creating BBQs, where non-Christians can see us and be in our building (if we have one).

These twin approaches are both church-based and both perfectly fine.

When the church is beaten to its knees, it needs to be on its knees in prayer

We can never pray enough. We can never pray enough for growth. There’s a depressing way of asking if your church is praying enough – because the answer is always no.

I reckon though that John’s chapter on prayer in the life of a small church does better than that. John encourages us to pray and gives practical advice. And he doesn’t offer cast iron promises of numerical growth. For us, we began a monthly 45 minutes extra prayer time for members only, to pray specifically for our village and environs.

Many more lessons to ponder from the book. Take a look at Philadelphia church (Revelation 3) a church of little power… probably a small church.

John prompts me again to remain hopeful and cheerful.