IF GOD IS SOVEREIGN, WHY DO ANYTHING?

You might be tempted to say "it's meant for us to have the size church we have, " "We have the size church we do, because it’s the outworking of God's plan which He decreed in eternity." So you might then say, "Why should I do anything that might accomplish something different, God has already decided what will happen."

Of course you would be wrong! That is a little strong statement. We just sit back and do nothing!

Do you mean to say, you know what God has done in eternity? Do you mean to say, "God has meant for us to have our size church ." Therefore, you just rest in what you are doing and let God do the rest, by His sovereign will!! Is it a right view of God's sovereignty? Or is it "fatalism?"

I don't believe in "fatalism?" Which is? Fatalism teaches, I am told, "that no matter what you choose or do, things will turn out the same." The belief that your choices does not really affect what will happen, that is fatalism. (The doctrine that all events are predetermined by fate and are therefore unalterable.)

"So I choose to just let God in His sovereignty do as He will do anyway," you say. That is pure fatalism.

I have the size church I have because that is the size God chooses us to have.

Have you known preachers who say, "It’s the sovereign will of God what has happened in our church." I mean, they have twelve people in Sunday School and twenty five in Worship, and four on Sunday Night, and Wednesday night is shut down. And the pastor said, "It’s in the hand of a sovereign God." Could this be pure fatalism, and a misunderstanding of the sovereignty of God?

Indifference. If God decides everything that will happen, I will stop making choices that might not be God's choice, I will leave that in the hand of God. Haven't you just made a choice? You made a choice not to make a choice.

To use God's sovereignty as an excuse or reason, for the size church you have, (or really anything else) is a wrong view of God's sovereignty. You have the size church you have because of choices you make.

Drafted as a e mail but thought I would put use it as a thread today.

Charity checked this one out. Thank goodness.

The reason we have the size church we have are often for the reasons whe have chosen.

The Dynamics of Small Church Ministry
Part FIVE of Five

I have pastored four small size churches (under 200) I have worked in churches from 500-1200. There is a difference. Knowing the difference dynamics helps to develop your in your ministry. And all four at the beginning wanted to say small in size. And there was a reason for their belief.

In smaller churches you could have a few Sunday School classes, they could all be in one class as far as they are concern. Children and Adults.. Thank goodness at FBC Altoona we had a graded Sunday School. The reason for few classes is few workers want to be committed to teaching. Which was not the case at FBC. We had teachers who taught almost the entire time I was pastor of the church. Once a teacher they wanted to stay a teacher. Once a piano player, always a piano player in our church. (right Beverly) same for teachers: (right Charity, Mabel and Michael)

Some smaller churches are small because they can not afford to pay for a professional or skilled minister. They may have a pastor who has little or no leadership skills. They may have a pastor who has no desire to see growth in the church membership. Sometimes the pastor is in total control of the ministry and the people just leave without saying anything. One preacher I know stayed twenty five years, and over 200 people left the church in that time. That church stayed small, really small.

Some members of a smaller church feel threatened when they see the church grow in size. They see the new members and are suspicious of their motives. When new people come in to the church and join and they are placed in to leadership, they are upset.

Too often when a new pastor comes into the church and mentions growth, the members attempt to maintain the status quo or even decrease the size of their congregation. Often when the new staff worker or new pastor hints that the church is not spiritually healthy, he suggests that the church is in a recession. If the church is not fulfilling its biblical commission, and he suggests that their behavior and thinking is hindering the spread of the gospel, their reaction is one of disbelief. They are shocked and offended at such a thought.

For the pastor to suggest that they need to move away from the past if they are going to grow, is an issue that will create friction. He needs to acknowledge that the work done in the past, for sure, has made the present possible, but they need to move ahead to see growth.

In this paper I was trying to give the dynamics of a smaller church.

A FOOTNOTE:
There is always the exception to all these principles, conscious and unconscious, that determine human behavior and attitudes. The size of the church has a great significance on the minister and the ministries of the church. Size has an enormous impact on how a church functions. I have heard this for years.

Moving a smaller church to the next size church will take change. It will take the leadership’s ability to teach biblical truth in such a way that the membership will desire to see change. It will take the leadership to see some of these dynamics and adjust their effort.

Maybe if the pastor/teacher can teach biblical principles to the membership and be patient, the Lord might see fit to change the attitudes of the congregation about growing into a healthy church. Maybe two in four churches he can.

Our spiritual condition requires nourishment. Though the avenues through which we are fed are many, we can pretty much sum our diet up with the following five activities: PRAYER, BIBLE STUDY, WORSHIP, FELLOWSHIP and SERVICE.

That a church is smaller doesn’t mean it’s more or less holy or worldly. It doesn’t mean they are more biblical in how they do ministry. It doesn’t mean that they are small because they do things right. But you can have a smaller size church and be all the right things. But if you have any of the dynamics I have mentioned in this paper, you do not have a healthy church.

(You know you are a red neck small church if.....)
If your church is controlled by: (or)
powerful people
poor leadership
programs that are outdated
pleasing people
presumption of the probability of correct belief
pastor controlled
personality led
personal opinions
philosophy of worldliness
presuming you are spiritual with less people
petrified of conflict
plagued by fear at the idea of change
proverbial traditions
presumed theological knowledge
polarization groups (breaking up into opposing factions)
policy shoddiness
popular trends
porcupine mentality (sticky situations are avoided)
prehistorical educational materials
prescribed non-biblical legalistic rules
you have two outhouses in back of the church
persist in placing the nursery in the back of the church
pianos in your church hasn’t worked for years
pivoting (relying) on own your own internal leadership
parochialism Limited thinking
past history driven
patriarchal families controlled
pragmatic thinking rather than on theological principles
posters of missionaries letters dated 1989 so what if it is 2006
pulpit still has bulletins from three years ago.
preacher tells red neck jokes from the pulpit (Dr. David Bryant)
professional pastors are viewed as less spiritual


Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant on December 08 2006 Proof check by Charity Whisnant 12-10-06

The Dynamics of Small Church Ministry
Part Four Two of Five

In smaller churches the whole membership is asked to voice their opinion and vote on every issue, have you noticed? In the larger churches, there is no way that can happen on every issue that comes up. One church I pastored they voted to see how far they wanted the Church Van to be driven on any youth activity. The first of each month was a church business meeting and each member could voice his request and it could be voted on. ."I think church should start at 10:45 a.m. And since it was a "member in good standing" it was voted to start at 10:45 a.m. or was it 6:00 p.m..? That would never happen in a larger church. At FBC in Hammond there was a business meeting, but any decision was quickly passed by the deacons.

Why all the complexity in the different size churches:

The larger the church, the less members have in common. The larger the church the greater number of families, different backgrounds, and ideas. In a smaller church you have small groups and they seem to all know each other. They all know each other when they come into Union Mills to buy a wonderful tasting apple pie made by my wife Charity. She also knows those members who come into the bakery. In a larger church you really don’t stop to think if one family or two families will disagree with the mission of the church, in a smaller church you always ask that question.

Thus, in smaller churches policy is decided by many, and ministry is done by a few. In larger churches ministry is done by many, and policy is decided by a few.

In a smaller church, everybody thinks they have a say in what the policy is going to be. In a larger church they know they have little voice in the policy of the church.

In smaller churches communicating could usually be done by word of mouth and it would be okay, not in a larger church. Smaller churches like it that way. The friendly church, you know. In a larger church you could go for a year and never know who is sitting beside you in worship. Of course that could happen in a smaller church too, but not often. It did happen at Bigelow. Charity and I did not realize who this couple was, but they knew us.

If some outsider comes to a small church, and the musicians are mediocre in quality, it will generally distract from the worship. But also in a smaller church, since you know the musician and you love that person, you just overlook the lack of giftedness. We were blessed at FBC in Altoona to have two very gifted pianists.. The problem was not the musicians, it was the preacher in our church!.

Here is a new thought: Smaller churches do not change speedily. They experience less turnover. Same old members in the church since 1939, you know. And they feel powerful and essential and important, so they don’t leave the church. And the leadership will say, what does old member 1939 think about us having an AWANA Club? That would never happen in a larger church.

Also in a smaller church the leadership (one) and maybe several deacons, don’t want to lose members. And they will allow these individual to control the majority. One person can control what the rest of the church would like to do, but he is a good giver, so they will not do what is best for the many. Once at FBC, the deacon said, "Mrs. Dennison will not want to give up her old pew, she has been in that bench since 1959." In view of getting new pews, they didn’t want to hurt her feelings. They would not have voted to get new pews if Mrs. Dennison didn’t want them. That would never have happen at Mansfield or Calvary Baptist. Thank goodness. And it didn’t happen at FBC either, because Mrs. Dennison purchased the first new pew!.

Have you noticed too, that in larger churches, a few make the decisions and there are more in ministry; and in a smaller church, the many are making the decisions and few are working.

The smaller the church the more the members want to control the church. To be a member of a small church is to be a voting member. To be in a larger church, membership doesn’t mean your single vote is all that important.

Everybody wants to have a word about every decision. The leadership is concerned that every member won’t like the decision made, but they don’t want conflict by the powerful few.
I missed this principle altogether. I often offended everybody. In that way, I wouldn’t just try to please the few. But I don’t recommend this in most churches. Because it only worked in one of four churches.

In smaller churches the members think the pastor should open the church door for services and stay until the service is over and lock the door on his way out. Or the pastor thinks he needs to turn the lights on and check the air conditioning. In a larger church that would never happen. Praise the Lord.


Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant December 09 2006 Proofread by Charity Whisnant

The Dynamics of Small Church Ministry
Part Three of Five

I had my theories about why churches like Lusby Mills didn’t really desire to grow, but the principle seemed a little far out at the time.

Now I understand that the operating principles that had enabled Ashland Avenue to grow might not have been possible for the smaller church in Lusby Mills, but the biblical principles were the same. People, Money, Time, Staff, Population, etc.

The Importance of the Ideology

SOME COMMENTS ON WHY SMALL CHURCHES IN GENERAL LIKE TO STAY SMALL,

And why otherwise successful Pastors more often than not cannot break the cycle of the small church mentality.

What happens in these churches that creates the atmosphere of a No Growth Church Mentality. A no growth church mentality

Until you understand that there is a reason why churches are the size they have become you will set yourself up for leadership blunders and missteps. Shall I stop and mention a few that I made in a few churches because I was blinded to the implication of church size.

A Neutralized View of a Church’s Size
In the larger church, as in Ashland Avenue Baptist, they had the people, the time, the leadership, and numerous programs to help them accomplish their objective goals. Whereas Lusby Mills didn’t have the resources.

Most people have their own idea of the size church that they would like to attend on Sunday. It’s a size-culture preference. They have the idea that the size church they prefer will meet their spiritual need better than another size church in the area. So you have people looking for churches that meet their idea of what a spiritual, biblical church looks like. You also have pastors who have the same mind set, they see the church as being spiritual if it’s a certain size.

For example, some people believe that the Senior Pastor needs to visit and care for all the older members of the church. Well, that is great in a small church setting of 150 or less, but not very probable if the church is over 200 or say 800 people. One pastor could not do that.

Another example would be at Mansfield Baptist or Calvary Baptist, we had at least four full time Pastors on staff. Also there were another six or seven support staff to take care of the many facets of ministry. We were able to increase the quality of ministry. As a Youth Pastor I had a full time salary (well in some churches the salary would be viewed as 1/4 times) but I could spend my entire time with the youth. In a small church as pastor, I had myself or volunteers.

THE VERY NATURE OF THE SMALLER CHURCH SETTING

Small churches like to keep their money in the bank and not spend it. Larger churches seem never to have enough money to operate on.

The larger church will use organizational techniques from the business world, and often times might become too results-oriented and focused on quantity outcomes (attendance, membership, stewardship)

The small church by its very personality will give inexperienced, domineering, opinionated, members far more power over the whole body. In Lusby Mills one 80 year old man who had been a deacon since 1939 controlled the church. In a larger church, such as FBC in Hammond, there is no way one or a dozen people could affect the outcome of a church. But a half dozen women at a small church could affect the outcome of any decision.

In a smaller church everyone knows every one, you know. When a family member of this small group expresses strong opposition to the direction set by the leaders or pastor , that small group’s misery can hold the whole congregation hostage. If they threaten to leave, or withhold their money, the majority of the people will urge the leaders to discontinue their project. One church that I pastored, the average offering was over two thousand dollars a week. And in a Sunday’s time, the offering was down to less than seven hundred dollars. And the leaders said, "Charles, I think you should put the attendance board back up."

In a small church setting you can’t get a complete consensus from a group of 50 to 150, about which kind of Sunday School material to use, or what direction the church should go with the music. And it seems in a smaller church, it’s a rule that everyone in the congregation must be kept happy. You know old brother Smith and his wife must be kept happy. You can’t take a new initiative without hurting someone’s feelings so you just give in and do nothing. Unless you are brave enough to lead and to confront childish members in spite of its disagreeableness There has to be another way to accomplish the.objectives!

Every church thinks they know the right size church. They have their idea what size church will be spiritual and biblical in nature. "Well Christ had his church in Jerusalem at 120, that is the right size." Right, of course, the disproportionate concept of what Christ desires from the church. I don’t think Christ is against numbers or growth in any church, no matter how large a church becomes. First Baptist, Hammond, was no less spiritual than Bigelow Church of less than 150 people.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant 12 09 06 Checked by Charity Whisnant

A sign that your church is biblical and spiritual is not by the size of your church. Its a sign of your theology.

The Dynamics of Small Church Ministry
Part Two of Five

Why couldn’t I have made FBC of Altoona, Kansas go from 17 average into FBC of Hammond, Indiana to 20,000? Why couldn’t I see Lusby Mills in Kentucky go from 12 into an Ashland Avenue Baptist Church, of Lexington, Kentucky of 1000? I had ideas that I might be able to! There were reasons for sure, and we will address these in this paper.

Every church body has a level that they will reach in attendance and there is a dynamic. There is a determined factor built into the church body that causes the result in attendance and growth.

The larger church setting has an entirely different set of compelling attitudes than a small church congregation.

When I went to Ashland Avenue Baptist, they didn’t want to settle for 500, or 700 or even 1000 people, they never did. When I was Youth Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Connersville, they would not have settled for 400 people nor even 600 people. When I worked at Southern Acres Christian, their whole idea was growth. It was the same way at Mansfield Baptist in Ohio , and Haltom City in Fort Worth The mind set of the leadership and membership was growth.

What is not different? I have discovered that all churches have people. Some are young, some are old, and some are really, really old! Some are men and some are women. Some are bankers, farmers, salesmen, secretaries, landfill managers, doctors, nurses, housekeepers, housewives, postal workers, school teachers and telephone repair men, brick layers, workers at K Mart and waiters. Think of that. Some folks make $100,000 and others $15,000. There are all kinds of people in all churches. Single, married, wishing they were married, divorced, widows, single mothers, retired folks. There are many different backgrounds as to family heritages. You get the idea.

I would say, "You know the people in FBC of Altoona, are as righteousness as any persons I have ever met in any church I have worked. They are as gracious, wonderful, intelligent, as in any church where I have been on staff. " As a matter of fact, they are some of the best people in the world.

So why are we talking about growth or numbers if we have all these great people in our churches?

Aren’t Christian people the purpose of our churches, no matter the number that comes?

I read this statement: ‘CHANGE IS INEVITABLE; MISERY IS OPTIONAL."

I would say "CHANGE" would be the number one reason for growth or lack of growth.

If all congregations kept the same members, stayed the same size, retained the same minister for 50 years, same staff and elders, and always had the same well-known set of issues, the church life would be easy. But it would be also fabulously boring.

Change in a sense is going to happen anyway. It is not an alternative. So many people want to live without any change. We can no more live and not have change than we can jump without feeling the impact of gravity. TO LIVE IS TO GROW AND TO GROW IS TO CHANGE. Therefore to live is to change, and any thought that we can avoid change in life is pure illusion.
I have learned that people actually study church as an academic subject. Students have their college thesis on this subject. One student title was : "Congregational Size Dynamics and How One Congregations’s Transition Was Made Easy" He was a student and not a pastor/teacher or even a deacon, or elder. He will learn, huh!

In Seminary I took a course in "ECCLESIOLOGY" the study of the local church. Dr. Earl K. Oldham was the teacher. We were learning what the church is and then how a church is supposed to look. We studied methods of church and Sunday School growth. Of course we didn’t learn the challenges we would face as we tried to bring health and growth to our churches.

What I should have done, but didn’t, was to establish my own ministry and start with a new group of believers. That would have helped 100%.

There are "consultants" who actually study church growth. They study these churches, large and small, to see what makes up the influential dynamics in the church body. The size of the church will give us a clue as to the attitudes of the membership and its leadership. Understanding the makeup of the leadership and membership gives us a better idea of how to do ministry in that church.

While the purpose is to see growth in our church, meaning a greater awareness in evangelism, we need to learn why some church ministries do not succeed throughout our churches. And why it is that some experienced preacher can be very effective in one congregation and ineffective in another.

Why do one quarter of Protestant congregations have fewer than thirty-five in attendance at their worship services. Our culture today seems to like the small, family, friendly church.

The nice little country church in Lusby Mills had invited me to come and pastor this 100 year old church. This church had over a hundred members, but most of them never came to the church. They had called the office at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church to request someone to come and preach. Ashland Avenue was a church of about 1500 members. Charity was a receptionist/secretary at the church. The Pastor and Leadership had a desire to see the church continued to grow. So it was normal for me to think, this church in Lusby Mills also had a desire grow. But I was totally wrong.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant Proof Read By Charity

CONGREGATIONAL CAPACITY AND LEADERSHIP AND CHURCH SIZE DYNAMICS
The Dynamics of Small Church Ministry

The Driving Forces Behind the Attitude Toward Church GrowthBiblical Pattern for the Church and Its Congregates

‘DOING CHURCH ON PURPOSE"

Part One of Five

Why some churches grow and others stay the sme.
I will focus first on the small church dynamics:]

• the motivating or driving forces,
• the pattern or history of growth, change, and development in any field.
  the aggregate of motivational forces, both conscious and unconscious, that determine human behavior and attitudes.

INTRODUCTION REMARKS
I have pastored four churches with attendance less than 200. So this would qualify me as a small church pastor. I have been on church staff of churches with attendance between 500 and 1000. And I was a member of FBC in Hammond Indiana for a short while. Many know they had the largest Sunday School in America. So I know the mega church as well.

Too often I have looked at the small church through the observations of a large church. The dynamics of a small setting in a small town are different than a large church in a large city.

In almost every church the members will say, "Charles, we are a small church, and we don’t do things like a big church does." And I would say, "Why not?" Of course they didn’t really know why, and at the time I didn’t know why either.

I always thought a small church, in a big town or city could always grow. I thought a small church in a small community also could grow. I am talking about an established small church from 10 to 100 years old.

The first church I pastored was over 120 years old and never had more than fifty prior to my becoming pastor. The church in Altoona Kansas, was 25 years old and topped out at 25 people. The church in Lusby Mills, Kentucky, was a SBC and 100 years old, and topped out at 40 people. The church in Princeton was the second oldest church, but every time the church approached 200 the church split. There are four churches in the city that have attendance over 200 that were a split off this church.

So what are the dynamics of these churches and like churches that causes them to enjoy the status of being small?

I didn’t realize there was a good answer. I have learned that there is some sameness in all these churches. They all have some of the same dynamics, conscious and unconscious, that determine human behavior and attitudes in all these small churches. Think of that!

This week I was given information of a church that the pastor left after about six months. A church that I was asked to try out for. This has happened too often in the last four years since I have been in Portsmouth Ohio. Small churches like to stay small. And that is either a conscious or an unconscious dynamic of the small church setting.

A minister who has an idea of a large church mentality generally cannot stay long in a church that has developed the small church attitude. Sometimes a small church is small because of its dynamics, and normally they will not come out of that mind set though sometimes they will. This can happen only after learning why they are of that small church mind set.

You would have thought as much as I read books, and articles, and go to conferences that I would have learned sooner these determined factors.

Let me just mention something before I get into the dynamics of the small church. There are times when you change the dynamics and due to the low population of the town, or community the attendance will vary in size. There are reasons why they don’t grow even when they desire to grow. We will mention some in this article as well as we go along..

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant, Proof Read and Lived Through by Charity Whisnant