We need your help. I, like hundreds of other pastors, am the pastor of a small church that is struggling and quite possibly dying. I don't want it to die and I do all that I know to do to keep it going. I go to the seminars and conferences that give glory to the wonderful churches that are growing, are missional, are simple, transformational, focused, and relevant. I listened to speeches and sermons that instruct me on how my church needs to be like one of these churches. I read the material on your latest evangelistic strategy that is going to revolutionize my church. Guess what, it's all garbage.
It's not that I don't believe in the latest Stetzer or Rainer research. It's not that I don't see value in what you are espousing. It's not that I don't believe that you haven't spent hours and untold amounts of money coming up with the latest evangelism strategy. It's that for all the rhetoric, for all the discipleship seminars and training sessions I've been to no one from a leadership position has been able to answer my one question: If I do what you are suggesting I'll be out of a job, then what?
Honestly, I often leave your meetings feeling as though we struggling, small church pastors (who are the majority in your denomination) are the second class citizens who weren't smart enough or spiritual enough to be David Platt (no offense to David). I often leave such meetings thinking that I have one of two choices: implement what is being discussed and cause chaos at my church or simply leave my church and start a new one. Which by the way, there does seem to be a growing tendency toward, if you aren't planting a church then you aren't really doing anything.
I guess that is my biggest problem. This feeling that because we happen to be in a situation where there aren't hundreds of people being baptized then the only logical conclusion is that we, as the pastors, aren't doing something right. And perhaps we aren't. Perhaps all the small, struggling church pastors should just leave their churches to go start new churches. Perhaps we should be pushing our churches harder to change their centuries old ways and be "culturally relevant." Perhaps there is much to do and much that can be done. Perhaps. Perhaps we small, struggling church pastors would like to believe that are denominational leaders are as interested in helping these pastors fulfill their calling, to which they are faithfully serving, as they are in telling us everything that is wrong with our churches.
Consider these pastors as men on the frontline of a war and it's trench warfare. It's hard, it's cold, it's dirty and it's dangerous. What we would like to know is that the generals aren't going to send down a order that says, "Hey guys, here is a new program with flashy door hangers, power-point ready sermons, and even a meditative cd of worship music. Now let's go baptize some folks and be sure to record them in your annual church profile!" What we would like instead is for the generals to say, "We know what is wrong. We know that you know what is wrong. Let's work together to fix it and if it can't be fixed then know troops that you won't be left here in the trenches to die."
I don't think I need to give you the stats but I will:
Leaders, we are tired, burning out, and could use a helping hand from you. Stop telling us what is wrong all the time. We get it. We know the troubles our churches face. We are there. All we want to know is will you be there with us?
In His grace, for His glory,
Pastor John Raymer, small church pastor
4 comments:
John,
I am confused.
Have you seen our small church conference (thousands of small pastors did and were encouraged by it)? It is free online. Thom Rainer and I invested a lot of time and energy in it.
Have you read the small church series I do (annually) on my blog? Have you heard me speak and train small church pastors? I am training a group of small church pastors right now in El Segundo, CA. No one here has a church over 200.
Have you read Comeback Churches, which is based on small churches? Most of the churches studied in Transformational Church are small churches (as we say several times in the book).
I don't think that encouraging and providing resources to small churches to be on mission is "garbage."
Simply put, I work hard encourage small churches when I could spend all my time in megachurches-- so I am confused and disappointed at your open letter.
But, for now, I am going back to provide training to small church pastors for the rest of the day so I can't interact on all our issues, but since you sent me a direct message about this, I felt you at least deserved a response.
I am going back to encourage these small church pastors to make changes slowly and strategically and teach them how best to do that. Then, I will point to how research on churches like theirs can help them make wise strategic decisions.
And, I am believing God that we will all benefit from it.
God bless,
Ed Stetzer
Ed,
Give me a chance to clarify a few things. First, understand that as I wrote this I was in a frustrated place and feeling overwhelmed. Secondly, I do know of the many resources that you wrote about. I absolutely love Comeback Churches and Transformational Churches. Nevertheless, when I made the comment that all these resources are "garbage" that comes from the thought that they are wasted if the people of the church are not wanting to transform or comeback. The resources available are great but only if the people in the churches want to utilize them.
It is here that perhaps I need to most clarify my statements. What I'm saying is all from the point of view of not just a small, struggling church pastor but a small, struggling church pastor where talk of a comeback just is not relevant. Unfortunately far too many pastors are in this situation. The feeling that they have is that because they can't lead their church in a comeback that they are failures.
I believe there are many pastors out there who desire nothing more than for their churches to be growing, missional churches. Unfortunately, this just will not be happening or at the very least it just does not appear that it will be happening anytime soon.
Pastors in this situation often feel tired, frustrated and very much alone. I suppose what I'm ultimately seeking is not another resource on growing the church (and that isn't to say that that is not important for obviously it is) but something that helps change those statistics of the life of the pastor. Something that tells him that regardless of his "success" he is indeed a person valued and those in his extended church family are there to support him.
With a prayer for pastors,
John
Hey Friend.
A couple of comments that will not be as well worded or thought out as what you have written:
Those statistics are spot-on. I grew up with a Southern Baptist pastor daddy, and I can say that the hardships we went through were greatly exaggerated by his capitulations to the pressures put on him by his churches. I know you already know this... and I can tell by the great love for which you write of them that you already do this...but I want to encourage you anyway. Your greatest calling is as husband and father. No one else can do that but you. No one. The thing I remember most from my ordination service was said both from the pulpit and from the person who charged the congregation. "Remember -- Wendy is a mother first and your pastor second." I should really paint that on the walls so I don't forget.
Second, about small churches. I think of churches sort of like families. We need all sizes. And growth doesn't just happen if I have a new baby. It also happens as my oldest goes from child to adolescent and I move from student to professional (again.). And churches have life cycles just like we do...
Recently, in my denomination, a letter has been written by many large steeple churches, saying that our denomination is 'deathly ill' and inviting like-minded people to secede so we can grow [numerically, I'm assuming] again. This is my favorite response to that size-ist invitation:
"with God's help, I will remain ... with my denomination. I will follow the Christ whose followers dwindled from 5000 to zero over the course of three years, yet who calls us still to follow; who has been demonstrated a capable healer of the deathly ill and has revealed himself to be the resurrection and the life." - Margaret Aymer Oget
I know that theologically, you and I can be worlds apart. But we are close in that we both strive to follow the Way of that crazy homeless man from Nazareth.
Most importantly, even just by reading the things you write and our short conversations via Facebook, I feel your call and your passion for God.
So here's my charge to you, Goob.
Serve your congregation (as you already do) with energy, enthusiasm, imagination, and love. Know that cookie-cutter models work about as well as pretending that all people (or families) should look alike. Find your passion. Help your church find theirs.
And then, take Sabbath. Count your hours. Take comp time. Go hiking. Watch soccer with your kids (I know! I've been reading your blog!). And know that God ordains these activities just as much as the ones at the church.
And when they kick you out, come find me. We'll talk about how Jesus didn't have to figure out how to keep the heat on in his building, and then we'll go worship somewhere on the side of a mountain.
And we'll talk about the freedom in the privacy and the excitement to be able to say whatever the hell we want without any repercussions.
Grace and peace to you,
Wendy
I stumbled upon your post and was very intrigued by it. I found myself agreeing with the thrust of your post, but wanted to consider Ed's response as well.
I think there is great value to the research/conferences/books/resources/etc. that are made available. But, you have to take the initiative to put them to use.
What I would add to the conversation is in response to your closing question - "will you be there with us?" This to me is an important question/issue.
I do appreciate the resources and work done by Ed and Thom, and I have read/used some of them. But, if you were to ask me, I don't think that assisting the average/small sized church is a priority of any kind in the SBC as a whole today.
I think the issues and challenges of the smaller church are recognized for the most part, but I don't see any real effort by the SBC and its ministry partners to really invest themselves in the churches that are the foundation of their financial base.
When I read about the GCR and changes to NAMB to focus it so much on church planting, I'm left wondering if the SBC is willing to put in as much time and energy into my church as it is expecting from it.
Ed, your response centered a lot on what you are doing, and that is very valuable, but you are one person among many in the SBC structure. Add in Thom and it is still hard to expect the 2 of you to provide enough to feel that the average church is a priority. No, the SBC can't do everything for us that we need, but could they do more? Is that too much to ask?
John...good post...speaks for many I believe. May God bless you in your ministry in the days ahead.
There's a lot to this conversation, but that's what I wanted to share.
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