“Small Churches Are a Big Thing”

September 10, 2006

Scripture Reading:   1 Corinthians 12: 27- 13:13

Rev. Dr. Carol L. Kerr 

Blue Point Congregational Church

 

We are a small church.  The building is an ok size.  We can seat around 200 people in the pews.  But we are small.  We have about 20-30 people attend worship.  We get about 15 kids for Sunday school.  Our choir has about 6 people in it.  I am a part time minister.  We come to worship and a few people seemed at best sprinkled on these long stretches of pews.  Three is no way around it, we are a small church.  Is that sad?  Is that pathetic?  Is small weak?  Is small a sign of failure?  Is small minimal?  Is small dismal?  Actually no.  What is small?  What adverb would best describe the fact that we are small church?  Small is good,  it is very very good.    In fact, I would like to congratulate us all for being here.  WE here in this small place. 

What?  Did I hear that right?  You might be thinking right now.  Did she say small is good?  I thought she was going to say small is bad.  Isn’t small bad?  What did she say?  Small is good?    Is she crazy?  Small is not good.  Small is bad.  In fact, being “small” is something we often apologize for.  “We are small, but we are friendly.”  We are small but we have a great organ.  We are small, but we do a lot of fundraisers.   Don’t we have to apologize for it.  After all there are mega churches out there.  Churches who have 2000 – 3000 people attending on one Sunday.  They are big.  Big is good.  Big is good is a myth.

Most studies of congregational life take either a case study approach – viewing one or two congregations and drawing conclusions from those.  Or they simply rely on the view of one minister who happen to be leading a large church.   However there is one immense study of U.S. Congregational Life, that reached 300,000 worshipers in over 2,000 congregations.  It provides the most representative profile of worships and their congregations ever developed in the U.S.  They then looked for common factors in churches that were beyond the ordinary.  They did not define beyond the ordinary in terms of numbers but in terms of quality and not quantity.  This was if the church was growing spiritually, had meaningful worship, had a congregation where many participated, had a sense of belonging, focused on community, shared faith, welcomed people, empowered leadership and looked to the future.  Ten strengths.  In eight out of the ten strengths the size of the church mattered.  They measured small churches (100 or less members), mid size churches ( 100-300 in worship), and more than 350 in worship).  What size mattered?  It turned out, against all expectations, that the smallest churches rated the highest.  Not the mega churches with thousands of members with television casts, not the big churches with 350 on a Sunday,  Not the mid churches with 100- 300, but the smallest churches with a 100 or less.  That is us!   How can that be?  How can small be good?  Well, when Time Magazine rates the best deals in colleges.  What college is the best at teaching your child.  One of the most important factors is size.  But, big classes is not what they are looking for.  Small classes are better.  The teacher to student ratio is better.  The teaching is better.  The interactions are better.  The involvement is better.  The feedback is better.  Small classes are good in colleges.  So too, small churches are good in quality.  In quality of church, on the ten things the smaller the better.   Congratulations you have found a small quality church.

Let me remind you of one of my favorite stories about good things being small.  That is “Plainville International Airport.”  This airport was discovered by Rev. Mann, a Methodist minister, while driving along a country road in Southern Wisconsin one summer day.  He describes the airport as follows:

…WE came upon a small airplane parked in a farm filed just beyond the roadside fence.  There was the suggestion of a landing strip out across the field.  Nearby, a home-made windsock fluttered from a ten-foot pole, and there was a small backyard type of shed which probably could house a barrel of gasoline and a few other small items.  Nothing else was in view.

Nothing that is, except a small, bold sign which was wired to the fence.  When we read that sign we had a good laugh.  It read:  “Plainville International Airport.”  It is amusing, isn’t it?

As our laughter subsided, I realized that we felt a strong tide of joy arising within me:  I felt warm and pleased and thrilled somehow.  Why?  At first I scarcely knew.  But then I found myself wishing I could meet the fellow who owned that plane.  He must be a fascinating sort, I thought.  Certainly he must have a delightful sense of humor.  But there is more:  Optimism obviously, and a kind of buoyant scorn of circumstance.

I didn’t meet the fellow, but I like him:  I like the spirit of the man.  Plainville International Airport!...

Shall I every again despise the day of small thins?  I thin not.  I think I’ll just give them wings and fly them – out of the international airport of my own, right here in my own Plainville!  After all, it really doesn’t take much material to create one of these airports; and I think, if I heartily put myself at it, I can build on from the resources that are within me.  It will be a good place to tae off from and to come back to – in the ventures of living, a good base of operations, don’t you agree?

At first our church might seem laughable to people who have gone to the big ones.  The Crystal Cathedral, or Riverside Church in New York City, or the church of what's in Saco with its hundreds of members.  Likewise “Plainville International Airport” at first  sight seem pathetic  people who have traveled through New York’s LaGuardia International Airport, or Chicago’s O'Hare International Airport.  For people who have been to these huge thriving airports Plainville international airport seems laughable.  To them it is incredible that this little puny airport could possibly make it.  After all, it is so little and puny.    But flying is not about the size of the airplane.  Flying is about getting there.  And a small airport can get places as well as a big airport, as long as they have the instruments to guide them.  We have the same bible just like the big airports.  Moreover in small churches people spend a few times a week in private devotional activities, are growing in faith through participation on activities in the congregation, bible study and prayer groups valued aspeces, and ministry of prayer important.   Blue Point church, an international church, a Church of the trinity, the little church with the big God,    In fact small airplanes can fly into a lot of little short runways.  See views that are unique better than the big airplanes that can’t stop in a lot of little places, or touch down as much.   Who really sees the world?  The airplane that goes straight to Moscow with one stop over in Amsterdam.  Or the small play that hops its way through the great planes, heaves up over the rocks do spirals down to land in Salt Lake city. 

There is a myth that large congregations offer the “best” worship experiences.  This is not true.  People find them meaningful no matter what the size.  My sermons are the same if I preach them to a big crowd or a small.    The important thing in worship is the amount of joy and inspiration there is. Have you heard these solo’s?  Just melting on the floor.  I think our service is pretty good!

A congregations size has a major impact on the people’s participation.  Size makes a difference in terms of whether and how people participate.  The smallest congregations have the larges portion of people participating.  Large congregations have the lowest.  If you go to a small church it is not a drive up window and get your burger and take off kind of place.  The point of participation is that it draws people deeper into the congregation.  They attend worship once a week, are involved in small groups, give 5% of their net income to the church, have one or more leadership roles in congregation, participate in decision making.  The participation index is like a fishing bobber drifting on the water’s surface.  When the index stays the same or drifts not much is happening beneath the surface.  But when the congregation is strong, the bobber or the index says," you've got something on the line.”

John O’donohue once said, “when you are understood, you are at home.  Friendship is the nature of God.  Small congregations rate highest on a sense of belonging.  It is one thing to go somewhere and now you’re welcome.  Its another thing to arrive and feel like you are part of the family.  Life's joys and sorrows share the deepest values and beliefs.  The fact that people participate a lot in small congregations does this.  They make friends.  You are not only known by name, but you are known by what pie you make best.  Susan makes cream puffs, Shirley makes chocolate cream pie with whip cream, Lenny makes custard pie, and what pie do I make?  (blueberry)  Last week Julia sang a song with her best friend form Vermont. 

How did you chose to become a member of the Lutheran church a young couple was once asks.  “Well, we didn’t really ‘choose’ she said.  This pastor harassed us into the church.  He kept calling and calling, kept visiting and visiting.  We finally just gave in and, to our surprise, we loved it.  That’s why we’re Lutherans.”  Sounds like a small church at work to me. 

Small congregations are better at empowering leadership.  Lance Secretan says, “Leadership is not so much about technique an methods as it is about opening the heart.  Leadership is about inspiration – of oneself and of others… It is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others.”  This happens best, guest where?  In a small churches.  Small churches have a higher score than large and mid-size congregations on two specific factors.  Leaders are able to find and use people’s gifts.  And leaders take into account the ideas of others.  There is a small worship to leader ratio, like teacher to student, so there is more immediate interaction and sharing ideas. 

There is a cartoon by Christ Morgan who has a picture of a boy with “tweee” coming out of both of his ears when he shuts his eyes and grimaces.  The comment is “Jaspar had a unique talent of whistling through his ears.  Whether or not this was a spiritual gift and how it could be used for the advancement of God’s kingdom remains the subject of bitter debate at his local congregation.”  Well I think this had to be at least a mid-size to small congregation because everyone knows about Jaspers ability to whistle through his ears.  If it was our small congregation, I am sure Nancy would have decided it was in fact a spiritual gift used for the advancement of God’s kingdom and she would have signed him up for last’s night Cabaret acts.  Maybe a sing along with Jasper whistling through his ears while we join in on the chorus.  “Jesus loves me this I know.”  Small congregations tap into all kinds of gifts anytime, anywhere. 

Why am I preaching this sermon?  Well I want us to get rid of apologizing for our size.  Small is good, not bad.  It is like college apologizing that it has only ten kids for every professor in a class room.  Instead of having 300 hundred in a large lecture hall.  Small is something to value.  Small has a lot to offer. Small is good.  Another reason why I am preaching this sermon is that I think our complex, inferiority complex about being small is impacting on our ability to look to the future.  It turns out that congregations accomplish or fail to achieve is more often controlled by their vision of what they can do than by their internal circumstances or their community context. 

How important is a vision for the future?  A basketball team had no gym for home games.  A makeshift practice gym in a dingy building doubled as a bingo hall.  One basket ball hoop was bolted to an antiquated balcony.  The other hoop was mounted on wheels anchored by discarded radiators.  How did St. Anthony High School, Jersey City win eighty-three games and lose only five over three years and rise to the rank of number one in the country?  Obvious, the team’s success was not in it facilities and equipment, but in Coach Bob Harleys vision and the desire of his players to excel.  Hurley quipped, “you tell me I don’t have a gym.  I say we have a great record on the road.” 

You do not have to have 2000 members or 200 members to have a big vision.  You can vision for the future with 20 members just as well as with 2000.  That is if quit thinking small is bad an see you good, how very very good it can be.  We should check our health not our size.  ..page 115  “Check your health, not your attendance sheet.  Check your heart, not your numbers.  Nothing can grow indefinitely.  An elephant gets into a certain size and stops growing.  A mouse grows and stops.  They are not the same size, but they are healthy.”  Perhaps we should change our pew pads to check off, name, number, close to God this week?  Distant?  Need more time for prayer.  Almost in heaven.  Feel at home here. 

Now, I know what is probably on all of your minds right now.  But, we need to grow.  Some.  Some more people will help.  Now here is what you all who have been asking that question, If we are so good how come we don’t grow?  The answer is clear from their survey.  The answer is this.  The one factor they found that indicated a church was going to grow or not was, caring for children and youth.  A Chinese proverb, One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.  Even though it is the most important factor in church grown fewer than one in five worshipers in the typical congregation rate children and youth programs as what they value most about their congregation.  If a program, activity or objective is not atop priority, how much time and resources will a congregation invest in it? 

Congregations where adults bring their children to services and activities, value ministry with this age group, and believe the current programs are good are more likely to be growing in numbers.  First they grow internally, by increasing their chances of retaining some young attendees as they become adults.  Second, they grow externally, attracting parents in the community who are looking for high-quality religious education and other activities for their children.

This is the one area where small churches do not excel.  Mid size churches excelled at this.  The fact that we live in an area that is loaded with family and kids is another reason why our Sunday school should be growing, and we should as a church put great emphasis on it. 

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Some joke here. 

Susie Sunshine asked her Sunday School class to draw pictures of their favorite bible stories. She was puzzled by Jimmy's picture which showed four people on an airplane, so she asked him which story it was meant to represent.

"The flight to Egypt," said Jimmy.

"I see...And that must be Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus," Ms. Susie said. "But who's the fourth person?"

"Oh, that's Pontius -- the Pilot!" 

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During the minister's prayer one Sunday, there was a loud whistle from one of the back pews.

Gary's mother was horrified. She pinched him into silence, and after church, asked: "Gary, whatever made you do such a thing?"

Gary answered soberly: "I asked God to teach me to whistle... And just then, He did!" 

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During a children's sermon, the pastor asked the children what "Amen" means.

A little boy raised his hand and said: "It means --- tha-tha-tha-that's all, folks!" 

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The 5-year son of a Baptist minister was finally able to attend "Big" church with his whole family and saw for the first time baptism by immersion, and he was totally absorbed by the ceremony. On the way home he asked his preacher Dad what it all meant and why all the people that morning took a "fast bath."

His father, worn out from his long Sunday morning duties, tried his best to explain in a simple way what baptism meant and why someone took a "fast bath" and got completely dipped.

So, of course, that afternoon, the little 5-year old boy proceeded to baptize his three cats - in the bathtub!

The kitten bore it very well, and so did the young cat, but the old family she-cat rebelled. It struggled with him, clawed, and got away.

With considerable effort he caught it again and proceeded with the baptism, but the cat acted worse than ever and scratched the young lad.

Finally the boy threw the cat on the floor in disgust, and said: "Fine, be a Methodist if you want to!"