When Ken and Shelley Greene came to minister at the Marion Church of Christ in Rochester, Minn., they increased the Sunday school program by 25 percent—just by enrolling their four children.
To say that Marion is a small congregation would be obvious. "Sixty and dwindling" is how Ken humorously characterized the church when he and his wife arrived to do family and children's ministry three years ago.
Despite their misgivings, what convinced them to stay was the potential of ministry in a place small enough to foster a different kind of fellowship. Now running 100 on Sunday, the children's program is Marion Church's most successful element, according to Shelley.
"There are things that small church can offer in children's ministry that larger churches can't," Shelley told a group at a 2006 North American Christian Convention workshop.
Small church advantages
She listed three big pluses of a small children's ministry:
1. Personal relationship: In a small congregation, children know their teachers and their teachers know them.
"Some weeks it's actually one-on-one attention," Shelley said. In addition, the relationships continue outside the Sunday school hour: "People in the congregation know those kids."
2. Ownership: In a small church there is room to allow kids to be an active part of congregational and worship life.
"The church shows their desire to have them involved," she said.
3. Opportunity for evangelism: The need for outreach is more obvious in a church that has empty seats to fill, according to Shelley.
"Our kids are asking who can we invite to church this week," Shelley said, noting that the family's van is running out of room for guests. "That doesn't make us a puny church, it makes us an exciting church."
The Greenes were part of a panel of ministers who have written chapters in a new book about less-than-mega ministries: "Unleashing the Potential of the Smaller Church" (Standard Publishing, Apr. 30, 2006.)
The book was edited by Shawn McMullen, who ministers at a small Church of Christ in Milan, Ind. Its theme reflects the ideology that once made Milan's 1954 "Hoosiers" basketball team great: You don't have to be big to be good.
The book contends that instead of trying to imitate megachurches, congregations such as McMullen's, which are limited by the size of the population they serve, should simply become more effective.
"Smaller churches are in the majority in our country, and they are crucial to the advancement of God's kingdom on earth," McMullen writes, citing a Barna Research report that the typical American church averages just 89 adults in worship attendance.
Curtis Shelburne, who wrote the chapter on outreach, serves in a church in Muleshoe, Texas. "If you're in a town of 4,500, you're probably not going to be a megachurch," he said. "Great churches come in all sizes; so do sick churches."
Many panelists pointed out what they wrote about: that using smallness as a strength can improve church health.
David Langford, who wrote the chapter on family ministry, said small churches should identify their unique talents.
"In America, one of the questions we ask to measure success is size, which makes small churches wrestle with esteem problems," Langford said. "A better question is: ‘What are you uniquely good for?'"
A minister in Lubbock, Tex., he believes that intimacy is the greatest strength of small churches. In general, Langford says they are good at facilitating community, something that is especially important for young people.
Small worship
In his chapter on worship, Dan Hargrave, a minister from Malden, Mo., echoes the theme of using small size as a strength. He faults small congregations for often overlooking the importance of doing worship well. He said worship should be intentional, planned, and not stalled for lack of resources.
"God has a remarkable capability of using what we already have if we let him have it," Hargrave said. That includes involving congregation members, a majority of whom can contribute directly to worship in some way in a small setting.
Hargrave said it is also important to involve them beyond Sunday morning by teaching that worship can be a lifestyle: "Worship is way more than what happens on Sunday morning."
Staying small
A calling to minister to a small congregation should not necessarily be seen as a steppingstone to a larger ministry, according to Tom Claibourne, who wrote the chapter on long-term leadership. Instead, Claibourne stresses faithfulness for small church pastors.
"The key is not to compare ourselves to another situation or another person," he said. "If we're just faithful to where we are, God's going to bless that."
God's blessings on the smaller church may not make headlines, but they make a huge difference in the bottom lines for communities in which they serve.
Bob Russell, recently-retired minister of the megachurch Southeast Christian in Louisville, Ky., wrote a foreword to McMullen's book touting the impact of small churches.
"While the growth of megachurches has received a lot of attention, there are hundreds of smaller congregations that are not as well publicized but are coming alive and making a huge difference in their communities," Russell said.
