This past weekend I had the privilege of preaching a revival meeting for a friend of mine who serves as a bivocational pastor in Kentucky. The services Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday night were all well attended by members and visitors. Their hospitality was great. They made me feel they had known me all their lives even though it was the first time I had ever been at their church.
I was very impressed by a number of things about this congregation. Although it is a small, rural church it is very involved in their community. Lay leaders in the church lead worship services at a nearby campground in the summer. The church supports an effort to reach out to the growing Hispanic population in the county. It is involved in numerous denominational and associational activities, and approximately 50% of its income goes to denominational and local mission efforts! Their worship was uplifting with a good mix of contemporary and traditional music. It was also very obvious to me that the people were evangelistic minded and want to reach their community with the gospel.
At a time when so many churches, both bivocational and fully-funded, are satisfied with the status quo, it was exciting to see this bivocational church attempting to do new ministries in its community. Just because a church is bivocational does not mean that it can not have effective ministries that touch more people than just those who gather within the four walls of the church building each week. This is a church that understands it can't do everything, but it can do more than many people believe a small church can do. It is willing to stretch itself for the cause of Christ, and people's live are being changed because of it.
Your church can't do everything, and it shouldn't try. But, it can do far more than many people, including some within your congregation, believes it can. I am convinced that God can use churches that are willing to stretch themselves and move outside their comfort zones. I encourage you to look around your community and see where your congregation could make a difference. Just identify one or two things that could have an impact on your community and begin to challenge persons within your church to identify creative ways your church could meet those needs. Begin to put that creativity into operation and see what God does with it! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
1 comment:
Hi Dennis!
I am way up here in New Brunswick Canada where spring comes just a tad later than it does where you all are planted. We know because my wife Barb and I just took a 3800 mile drive to South Carolina with a couple of overnights in Virginia with her aunt.
I attended your workshop on the Healthy Small Church in Nackawic a year ago next month. I am the big guy who talked a bit with you about your neighbours, the Gaithers. (:>
We have been working through your textbook (THSC) for a year and although at times it seems to be dragging we are getting there day by day. We are burdened for ongoing revival and for ministering to the lost and hard to reach in our rural community which comprises 3 small villages with the beautiful Nashwaak River flowing right through the middle of it. It is encouraging to read the reports on the churches that you mentioned. I still believe after 3 years (2 as a bivocational pastor and now after retiring from 34 yrs govt service)that we will live to see a great harvest on the Nashwaak. I guess I still consider myself as 'bivocational' in that our support is split 4 ways...Federal and Provincial pensions, the salary that the church can provide and my wife's earnings as a doctor's office nurse. The bonus now is that I don't have to show up at the govt office anymore! (:> With a small congregation consisting mainly of folks in their 70s and 80s, you would think that it is only chaplaincy/ maintenance work and sometimes in my weaker moments I do too. But God!!! He brought these three young sisters(now 9, 8 and 6) from a troubled home yet a loving Momma into our lives a couple of years ago in a marvellous way. A lady from our church picked their dad up hitchhiking to his drug rehab treatment clinic and she witnessed to him and then picked the girls up for Sunday School the next Lord's Day. The lady has been through a serious battle with cancer (for the 2nd time) so she couldn't be with us much for a solid year. But God!!! They kept looking forward to us picking them up each Sunday morning a many times it has been Our Deacon, My wife, the 'sisters' as we call them and me! God loves kids and he sure loves us big kids too! We are so thankful. We were fortunate this winter to receive a little association grant to bring on a part-time ministry support worker...a pilot project that my wife and I along with our friend (PhD in CE from SBTS) who is back n our area to care for her aging mother (our prayer warrior) put together a proposal on what God had been speaking to the three of us independently about the rural ministry needs. We are seeing early encouraging results and looking to more in the future. I am waiting for my copy of your 'Intentional Ministry in a not so Mega Church' from our local Christian bookstore. I couldn't find it in stock at Barnes and Noble in the states as planned...should have just ordered it from you. (:>
Well, how's that for a ramble! Thanks for all your help in ministry and I hope to connect up with you sometime.
God Bless You Brother
Pastor Hal Babcock
Nashwaak Village Baptist Church
Just outside Fredericton,
New Brunswick, Canada
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