Good Question

One of the questions I constantly struggled with as a young pastor was “Why can’t I be content to be a small church pastor?” Except for the year and one half I spent as an assistant pastor in a five hundred member congregation in Lexington, Kentucky I never served a congregation of more than a couple hundred souls. As a General Presbyter, most of the congregations in the presbytery I served had fewr than one hundred and fifty members. Now serving as a synod stated clerk and as a presbytery transitional stated clerk the predominant size congregation in both places is only slightly larger than one hundred members.

I just read an interesting article on LinkedIn, Reality Check: We're All Going to Pastor a Small Church, by Karl Vaters. (http://www.christianitytoday.com/karl-vaters/2016/february/reality-check-were-all-going-to-pastor-small-church.html?paging=off&utm_content=buffer2cfe3&utm medium=social&utm_source =linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer) When I graduated from seminary most of us expected to either begin as a “junior” member of a pastoral staff, or to begin in a congregation of two hundred members and move to a larger congregation in a few years. Little did any of us know the nature of the church in the United States had already begun to turn in a new direction.

Very few classes were offered on serving a smaller membership congregation. One of the few exceptions of faculty members even talking or writing about the small church was Carl Dudley at McCormick Seminary. (http://www.amazon.com/Making-Small-Church-Effective-Dudley/dp/0687230446)

Not much has changed. Vaters states, Seriously, take a look at the class schedules for any ministry training school or seminary. How many of them are telling their ministerial students any of these realities, let alone teaching them the skills needed to pastor a small church? My observation is most of those teaching church administration courses in seminaries are still doing so from the perspective of larger sized congregations. Believe me there is a significant difference in how one deals with administration in a one fifty member congregation and one with five hundred members.

 

There is also a big difference in the kind of ministry and mission opportunities which are expected or which can be offered. It is not that ministry and mission activities cannot be offered with a small number of folks. One has to realize there is a limited number of people to participate. Therefore, a limited number of activities can reasonably be offered. The idea of a 24/7 programming, and multiple paid and volunteer staff is not a small church reality.

Smaller membership congregations tend to prefer pastors who will love and care for them, rather than program them into exhaustion. Smaller membership congrega-tions respond more to the shepherd than a blazing social prophet. In smaller congregations there is more opportunity to directly be involved with members in individual spiritual development. As Vaters asks about seminaries, How many of them are telling their ministerial students any of these realities, let alone teaching them the skills needed to pastor a small church?

Where do we prepare pastors to enter the tightly knit community of the smaller congregation? Where do we help those preparing to serve a smaller congregation accept that the relationships among the members are far more important than the finer points of theology or polity? What are presbyteries doing to help pastors, especially first call pastors, to deal with the disappointments and frustrations experienced when serving smaller membership congregations due to the pastors’ unrealistic expectations?  What is being done to help pastors develop the skills to serve multiple congregations without neglecting their own family, their own spiritual, emotional and physical well being? Where are those considering entering the pastorate told they will probably need to have gainful employment in addition to serving a congregation or congregations?

A reality check is not only necessary for pastors. A reality check is necessary for those overseeing the preparation, education, and supervision of pastors. We no longer are called to serve the congregations we fantasized about in the 1960s, 1970s, or early 1980s. Smaller congregations are the norm, not the exception.