Is Bigger Better When it Comes to a Church?
I am writing this Family Newsletter article from Pendleton, Oregon. I am the main speaker at a Missions Conference at Grace Baptist Church in Pendleton. This church is the home church of Village Missionary Greg McCallum. It is a small church (not necessarily by our standards) of only about 80-90 in attendance.
It is interesting to me that many people have expressed surprise about me being here. They are surprised that a director of a fairly large mission organization would speak at such a small church.
Such reactions have again reminded me how pervasive is the thinking that bigger is better and that small churches should only expect the leftovers. The idea of hierarchy and status appear to be firmly entrenched in our church thinking. It reminds me of the attitude James deals with when he writes about giving special attention to the rich person and showing disregard and even disrespect to the poor person (James 2:1-6).
Now, I understand that my being here may not be the best use of my time. However, the pastor invited me to be the speaker several months ago and at that time, I was available. I wanted to be open to any opportunity to speak about Village Missions and to proclaim the Word of God, so I agreed.
I have no idea what God will bring out of this conference. I doubt that there will be much in the way of increased giving to our Mission. Perhaps God will be pleased to call someone from this church into our ministry, as He called Greg. The point is that God doesn’t need small or big to accomplish His purpose. He may intend to do big things in this little place. Certainly, we who are in Village Missions should embrace that and reflect that in the choices we make. Undue reverence for the “big” and important or even undue reverence for the “small” and unimportant should be replaced by “faith in our glorious Jesus Christ.” He alone is glorious.
While here in Pendleton, I visited some communities that might need our ministry. We had conducted a pilot survey in Oregon in an effort to find potential fields. We found the names of 132 churches that might need leadership and mailed them a brief survey. Unfortunately, address lists for churches, especially small churches, are unreliable. Several cards came back because of a bad address. I believe we received about ten requests for more information.
Doing my own internet search, I located the Helix Community Baptist Church in Helix, OR. I traveled to the town and discovered a beautiful church building and parsonage. The parsonage was being repaired and was for rent—a sure sign! It took some asking to find someone connected with the church but finally I located Phyllis, the church treasurer. She was excited about our ministry but wasn’t sure if the church would be willing to sever ties with the American Baptist denomination. They had recently hired a part-time pastor who preaches Sunday but does not live in town. Helix is a community of close to 200 people that needs the Gospel. Please pray for Helix and other towns like it.
I also visited Ukiah, OR and met with the pastor of a small Baptist church, loosely affiliated with Conservative Baptists. Pastor Ray was a missionary in Ireland who had to come home after his wife became ill. His supporters have maintained their support and he is ministering full time in that church. He is 67 years old and wants to retire by 70. Ukiah is a great missionary opportunity. As he explained to me, the town is fifty miles away from any law enforcement and attracts quite a group of characters. The local school has several foreign exchange students in an effort to remain open, but because the Christian presence is limited and no one is working with them, they take over things at the school. Ray was aware of Village Missions but felt that their church would not be able to afford us. I explained our new Sliding Scale to him and he seemed interested. Please pray for Ukiah, OR!
I also called a pastor in Warm Springs, OR. His church is a Southern Baptist church located on an Indian reservation. He and his wife are close to leaving because of the finances. He told me that they would like to be able to see a dentist, but cannot afford to do so. The church was doing well numerically, especially for being on a reservation, but not doing well financially because of the local economy. I admired this pastor’s willingness to go there without any outside financial support.
We will need to develop our survey methodology before we can use it in other places. But in short order, three potential places were identified that need a full-time, resident missionary pastor. The need is so great! Please pray that churches would become aware of us, that we would have the workers to send, and that we would have the finances to send them.
