Big Ideas for Small Churches
Developing Your Small Church’s Potential by Carl S. Dudley and Douglas Alan Walrath, Judson, $6.95
Reviewed by Dave Wilkinson, pastor, Moorpark Presbyterian Church, Moorpark, California
“Small churches are not smaller versions of large churches.” Nor do small churches share the same history, face the same problems, or enjoy the same opportunities. But every small church can become a more vital fellowship and more effective in reaching men and women with the good news of Jesus Christ.
This is the theme of Developing Your Small Church’s Potential, co-authored by Douglas Walrath, director of the Small Church Leadership Program at Bangor Theological Seminary, and Carl Dudley, professor of church and community at McCormick Theological Seminary. The book is filled with the kind of insights that seem obvious once somebody says them. It is only four chapters long, but each chapter is loaded. I underlined and made notes on almost every page.
In the first chapter, “How Change Is Challenging Small Churches,” Dudley and Walrath paint a picture of three churches in three fictional towns.
The first church is in Matthewstown, facing the challenge of a declining population. “The overall pattern of change in most rural areas is one of loss,” they write. “Moreover, the loss is selective. … Persons with better abilities are more likely to leave.” This selective loss has the greatest impact on the mainline churches that draw their participants from middle-class and upper-middle-class groups. “During the last several decades, most mainline congregations located in rural settlements, villages and small towns have lost members, usually not as a result of weak church programs or pastors, but because so many of those who compose their traditional constituency have moved away.”
A second type of church is the Fringe Church in Marksburg, a once-rural area that is becoming a suburb. The authors describe a village in change and a church in crisis. “In the space of only a few years, the churches and homes and stores that formed the old village were submerged in a sea of suburban houses, condominiums, apartments, and shopping centers.” Newcomers to the church find a closed-door atmosphere. Most newcomers go to newcomer churches that rapidly eclipse the old church in size and ministry. The church is a shrinking island of old-timers holding on to the old, village way of life.
The third small church, St. Luke’s, is the City Church, which faces the challenge of a changing population. The natural constituents of the church have moved to the more affluent outer city. They commute back to church and complain about the lack of parking, but have little or no contact with the people who are now the neighborhood. As those with ties to the church die or tire of the commute, the church declines.
As the pastor of a “newcomer” church in a fringe community near Los Angeles, I called Dudley and asked, “What about us? We are a small church that doesn’t plan to stay small. How do we keep from developing the attitudes that led the Marksburg church to pull within itself?”
He told me that “a church will not turn inward as long as it is growing. Growth creates change, which produces more growth in an upward spiral.” The question is more for churches caught in the opposite spiral of decline and stagnation.
Chapter 2 focuses on how congregations interact with their communities. They identify several slots congregations can occupy and the growth advantages and liabilities of each.
I was especially intrigued with Walrath’s way of categorizing small churches according to the “social position” they have gained in the community they serve. “I discovered that residents who did not participate in any congregation were selectively unchurched. They knew which church they stayed away from. They knew which church they could fit in to if at some point they chose to participate. And if my church was not that church, no matter how deeply they appreciated the ministry other church members and I gave them, they still would not participate.”
I called Walrath at his Maine farm to ask: “How does our church move people who identify our church as their church of nonattendance to start attending?” He suggested the most effective way was to identify a community need that concerns these people, start acting on it, and publicize the ministry. “These people will come to the church to be part of the mission. The advantage is that they come to be discipled, not just to be there.”
Building bridges between “old timers” and “newcomers” is the goal of Chapter 3. One of the most important parts of the book for me was the discussion in this chapter of the differences between “relational Christians,” whose faith is grounded in who they are with a group, and the “rigorous Christians,” whose faith is more individual and who feel called by God to shape the “future history” of the congregation. Being a card-carrying rigorous Christian, I was impressed by the description of relational Christians, who feel called to help “ambitious, tense, and unnatural” Christians like me act more warmly.
Developing Your Small Church’s Potential concentrates on preparing the existing congregation for change. I asked Walrath for suggestions on helping newcomers accept old-timers who may not express their faith in a rigorous, intentional way. He said it is the pastor’s role to interpret the existing congregation to the new people. Most small congregations that have survived have done so because of the relationships. The pastor needs to say: “It was the blood, sweat, and faith of these people that built this church. It was the nurture, care, and dogged commitment of these old families that allowed this church to survive so that now it’s here to meet your needs.”
In Chapter 4, Dudley and Walrath tie together the analysis of the first three chapters. The goal of seeing who we are is to envision what we can become.
“Imagination has power,” they write. “Churches are unlikely to accomplish what they cannot imagine themselves doing. Many possible changes are frustrated by the absence of a common faith, ‘a confidence’ among members that they could accomplish something different.”
Church Leadership: The Next Generation
Seizing the Torch: Leadership for a New Generation by Ted W. Engstrom and Robert C. Larson, Regal, $7.95
Reviewed by Gary Wilde, editor, church resources, David C. Cook Publishing Co., Elgin, Illinois
After a lifetime of serving the cause of world evangelization, Ted Engstrom, president emeritus of World Vision and former president of Youth for Christ International, is still on a crusade-a mentoring crusade.
His message: to prepare for the unique challenges of the 21st century, Christian leaders must begin stretching out their arms-like Olympic torchbearers-to pass the flame of commitment and excellence to the leaders of the new millennium.
Startling trends lend urgency to the task. Our world is increasingly:
a larger world-with 1.5 billion new people as we reach the year 2000;
an older world-with one in every seven people soon to be over 60;
a developing world-with 80 percent of the population living in developing nations by 2025;
an urban world-with at least 22 cities with over 10 million citizens each;
a poorer and hungrier world-with 1 billion people undernourished;
a world of the knows and the know nots-with information becoming the prime world industry (“If the auto industry kept up with computer information advance, a Rolls Royce would get 3 million miles a gallon, cost less than $3, and you could put six on the head of a pin”). Yet we are faced with rising illiteracy and a less verbal, more visual pool of potential churchgoers. In such a world, the Bible will continue to decline in influence.
So future Christian leaders face evangelism future shock. The overemphasis on technological solutions to human problems, coupled. with the increased search for fulfillment through self-centered activities, will severely test the church’s ability to make its message relevant-or even heard.
Does this make you uncomfortable? That’s good, according to Engstrom, who wants us to meet worldwide obstacles with spirit-empowered vigor “because the problems defy common knowledge and cry out for uncommon leadership.”
He feels pastors, tempted to view themselves as purely local practitioners, soon will be forced to acknowledge the future look of evangelism-a worldwide look.
Is it realistic to think the typical American congregation could be motivated to develop such a world vision? And how can a pastor, so occupied with local church concerns, find time to move aggressively in world evangelization? Ted responded to these questions in a phone interview. “There’s nothing like being there-seeing it, getting a burden for it by rubbing elbows with the people. Every pastor ought to head out to a mission field just to get captured by the vision of a gospel that has worldwide impact. The payoff is to come back brimming with enthusiasm for the challenge.”
Engstrom also directs a prophetic voice toward his own back yard. Western society starves for spiritual renewal because the wrong things motivate its people. “If you have difficulty motivating people for ‘things above,’ it is often helpful to stand back and survey what is motivating them here below.”
The bulk of the book tackles the question of how to confront today’s realities. Engstrom’s answer: develop solid Christian character among our emerging leaders. Along with devoting whole chapters to such areas as accountability (use it only in a positive manner to establish the basis for approval), goal setting (make much ado about a “to do” list), and priorities (put family before ministry, absolutely!), Engstrom deals with the matter of greed.
I asked Ted what standard of living he felt heads of major ministries ought to expect. “I don’t feel I should make the same amount of money as top business executives. It’s true I could have made four or five times more in secular work, but I don’t resent that. You have to maintain a servant attitude no matter what level of ministry you have-whether rural pastorate or head of a suburban megachurch. As soon as servanthood goes out the window, you’re headed for trouble.”
The book candidly reveals some of Engstrom’s fears. “Though I’m very excited about the new century, I’m discouraged and disappointed with the undue emphasis on materialism, humanism, and secularism within the church. We’re apparently not willing to sacrifice very much.”
Some readers might find fault with the book for not giving more how to’s. However, Ted warns, becoming an effective, principled Christian leader is vastly more important than learning a particular management technique.
You will find little fault with the book’s ability to transport you into the big picture. What touched me was the vision of a “vast cloud of witnesses,” like an Olympic crowd, watching to see what we will do with our great gift of salvation in the coming years. Will we run the race with renewed strength and wisdom, or will we falter? Even for the uninterested or faint-hearted, Engstrom leads the cheers: “Don’t hold back. Seize the torch.”
Phases in Becoming an Effective Leader
The Making of a Leader by J. Robert Clinton, NavPress, $7.95
Reviewed by David R. Leigh, assistant pastor, Easton Baptist Church, North Easton, Massachusetts
Fuller Seminary’s J. Robert Clinton sums it up: “Forewarned is forearmed.”
The warning: Becoming a leader is a tough course-required for pastors-and it takes a lifetime.
The arming comes with understanding the process God uses to shape leaders and can mean the difference between graduating summa cum laude or dropping out (Lawdy, how come?) as a leader.
Knowing the challenges of the stage we’re in can turn discouragement into encouragement, Clinton says, because we see how our experiences fit into God’s overall plan. We also gain insight into what tasks will best train emerging leaders under us.
Where are you in God’s leadership development process? Clinton offers a six-phased “generalized time-line” based on 420 historical, biblical, and contemporary case studies.
Phase I, Sovereign Foundations, begins at birth. In Clinton’s life it was the prayers and example of his Christian mother. But for a non-Christian, this phase might include growing up on the streets of the inner city.
“God providentially works through family, environment, and historical events” to shape basic character and instill life lessons, Clinton writes.
In Phase II, Inner-Life Growth, the emerging leader “seeks to know God in a more personal, intimate way.” Clinton points out the distinctive of great leaders like A. W. Tozer, Dawson Trotman, and Watchman Nee: their dedication to prayer and the inner life.
“The leader learns the importance of praying and hearing God. As he grows in discernment, understanding, and obedience, he is put to the test.” Clinton calls each of these tests a “check.”
The integrity check: Amy Carmichael yielding to the “Holy Spirit’s convictions” not to buy an “extravagant and impractical” dress.
The Word check: Watchman Nee giving up his romantic pursuit of a spiritually disinterested young woman upon reading in Psalm 73:25, “There is none on earth that I desire beside thee.”
The inner-life phase is crucial because “mature ministry flows from a mature character,” Clinton writes, and “a mature character comes through difficult processing.”
In Phase III, Ministry Maturing, God gives the emerging leader small ministry tasks that lead to larger ones, which affirm the leader’s calling. He or she learns spiritual discernment, such as how to recognize spiritual warfare, and relational skills, such as how to handle conflict.
A pastor who recognizes this phase in an emerging leader might assign small ministry tasks and increase them until they become apprenticeships.
For instance, when Michele saw a Sunday school need she felt inadequate to fill, her pastor persuaded her to try. Today Michele spearheads a monthly prayer meeting, coordinates Bible teaching for a small group, and spontaneously responds to needs.
By Phase IV, Life Maturing, “the leader has identified and is using his or her spiritual gifts in a ministry that is satisfying. He gains a sense of priorities concerning the best use of his gifts.” The result: mature fruitfulness.
Don’t be surprised if, when you get to this phase, you find yourself embroiled in some kind of ministry conflict. Clinton recalls being removed from a leadership position and how it taught him to be more flexible, less overbearing, and more submissive to spiritual authority.
In Phase V, Convergence, “God moves the leader into a role that matches his or her gift-mix and experience so that ministry is maximized.”
This is the phase we all strive for but too few achieve. Reasons vary. A lack in our personal development may hinder us, like a young man Clinton knew who was so anxious to minister that he skipped necessary seminary training. An organization may hinder us by keeping us in a limiting position. Or providential circumstances may prevent it, as in the cases of Trotman’s early death or Nee’s imprisonment.
Finally, in Phase VI, Afterglow or Celebration, the “fruit of a lifetime of ministry and growth culminates in an era of recognition and indirect influence at broad levels.” Others seek out such leaders because of their consistent walk with God.
For some readers, Clinton’s use of specialized terms (middle ministry processing, certainty continuum, double confrontation process item) will make his insights more elusive than elucidating. In most places, however, I found his insights worth the effort to expand my vocabulary.
Clinton’s case to attend to the inner life, to mature from within, and to use circumstances as opportunities to grow is compelling and practical. Each chapter ends with a set of helpful “How About You?” questions and exercises.
When I asked Clinton how to strive toward the next phase in my own development, he said, “You don’t seek certain processes. You recognize their potential as they come your way.” In other words, “You obey God. God will do the expanding.”
The Unraveling of a Pastor
No Foothold in the Swamp by Charles Hollingsworth, Zondervan, $10.95
Reviewed by Eddy Hall, editor, World Neighbors, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
“See if you notice anything unusual about these quotes,” I said to my wife the other day. Then I read:
“People sat in my office and explained to me that ‘the Lord had called them’ to join another congregation.”
“My wife was becoming more of a stranger to me.”
“Here I was . . . seeking the support and help of a psychologist. Somehow it seemed wrong, an admission of failure on my part.”
“Then God intervened.”
“In the healing process, I had not sacrificed my identity; I had found it. … A more mature and less fraught individual had risen from the ashes.”
When I’d read a dozen such quotes my wife responded, “Am I supposed to say, ‘I think I know this man?’ “
Indeed, that was the point. With the change of a word or two, every one of those statements might have come from my journal. But they came instead from No Footholds in the Swamp, an Episcopal priest’s account of his mid-life crisis involving a disintegrating marriage, spiritual doubts, and a vocational crisis that threatened his professional future.
The book’s strength is that it doesn’t just talk about burnout, it shows it. Time and again, I caught glimpses of myself from episodes not many years past. It also shows a way through.
This is not the first book on ministerial burnout. “Why another one?” I asked the author, who wrote under the pseudonym Charles Hollingsworth. He answered by comparing No Footholds to John Sandford’s Ministry Burnout, a book he highly recommends. “Sandford approaches the subject as a therapist. I approach as someone who has gone through this hell.”
While No Footholds is autobiographical, it is also fictional. The main character, Jeremy Wilkinson, “is partly me,” Hollingsworth writes, “but he also bears a striking resemblance to half a dozen colleagues” who burned out.
“Why the pseudonym?” I asked.
“This experience belongs to my past,” the author said. “I want others to benefit from it, but my present ministry doesn’t involve ministry to burnout victims. It might be counterproductive in this ministry to be known as ‘the burnout man.’ And, of course, the pseudonym provides privacy to my former parish and to my family.”
Besides encouragement, the author offers practical direction in two appendixes. What may be most helpful is a list of suggestions for controlling the damage from such a crisis. Here are the highlights.
1. Know yourself. “As I get older,” he writes, “I become ever more convinced that every pastor needs a spiritual director. … Only by letting an outsider into your life will you learn to see yourself as others and God might see you.”
2. Don’t try to by-pass doubts. Hollingsworth confesses to having shelved faith-related problems to give priority to ministry. Then, when his vocational crisis hit, “my doubts came back and chewed out my spiritual and intellectual innards like a pack of hungry rats.”
3. Take care of your marriage. Neither Hollingsworth nor his wife had made their marriage a top priority. It took many hours of counseling to deal with the accumulated backlog of bitterness.
4. Find a support group. In a time of crisis, such a group can serve as a strong safety net.
5. Take vacations and sabbaticals. Hollingsworth believes pastors need sabbaticals as much as, if not more than, college professors.
Hollingsworth never romanticizes; he’s honest about the numerous lives, marriages, and careers he’s seen wrecked in burnout. But his message is ultimately one of hope: “I thought God was through with me. But he wasn’t. Instead, he used this experience to open up an even deeper and richer chapter in my life and ministry.”
Copyright © 1989 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
