I try to be a champion for small churches. This doesn’t mean I’m anti-Big Church. Sure, I have my issues with them, but I’m also fascinated and thrilled by what some megachurches are doing–Granger, Quest, Willow Creek, Seacoast, Lifechurch, and many more. And yet…small churches, despite their own “issues,” deserve more respect than they get.
Keith Dury’s column last week was called “Seven Advantages of Starting Out in a Small Church.” He tries to encourage his ministerial students at Indiana Wesleyan, most of whom come from large churches, to consider beginning their ministry in a small church. One of his points was “Small churches give you a chance to do everything.”
In one year at a small church you’ll get to do 25 times the things you’ll get to do on a large church staff. Weddings, baptisms, funerals, hospital visitation, budgeting, preaching, prayer meetings, leading board meetings, and a hundred other things are normal for a year’s work in a small church. On a large church staff you may serve ten years before you get to do 90% of a minister’s ordinary work.
In a later point, Drury emphasizes that small churches let you preach, whereas if you’re on staff at a church of 1000, you may rarely (if ever) get the chance to preach. (And yet you want to be called a “preacher”?)
The same issues apply to laypersons. In large churches, you might take spiritual gifts tests and then get slotted into roles consistent with your test scores. If your test-determined gift is Hospitality, then you become a greeter. I really really despise that, for several reasons.
For one, your “gifts” will vary, depending on the test you take. I normally score high in Teaching, Administration, and Giving. But in a recent online test, Music, Writing, Hospitality, and Giving were my high scores. And in another, my high gifts were Giving, Hospitality, Missionary, and Music. Way too many questions are based on what you currently do or have done. If I attended a large church, my piano playing wouldn’t be of sufficient calibre and would go unused and unappreciated. But I use it all the time in a small church, and thus, Music emerges as a key gift. It has nothing, in my view, to do with any actual divinely-imparted gift.
Additionally: why limit your Christian service to one or two areas (your areas of giftedness)? As a layperson in a small (120 persons) church, I’m able to do some of everything. I operate in the areas of many of the gifts, regardless of whether those are “spiritual gifts.” I give, I show hospitality, I teach, I lead, I evangelize, I encourage, I show faith, I serve, I show mercy. I even preach occasionally.
When a church need arises, my involvement never depends on a stupid test score. If I feel God wants me involved, I do it. Whether or not I’m any good at it. How is that theologically wrong?
In a large church, I could do only a few things. And I wouldn’t be able to do the thing that gives me the most joy (play the keyboard). But in a small church, there are no restrictions. I can do it all, and I’m severely needed. I like that.
