For the past several days I've posted six common complaints we often hear from smaller churches. As I look at the number of people who read each of these complaints I find something very interesting. The one on "Our people are all on fixed incomes." had more readers than the other five combined. Obviously, that one caught people's attention.
Many smaller churches are very concerned about finances. I addressed this in that post so I won't repeat myself now. If you are interested in my thoughts on the matter you can go back and read that particular post. The question I do have for those churches who are concerned about finances is what are they doing about it? Are they providing stewardship education for their members? Are they promoting a vision that is so powerful it will unite the congregation and attract the funding it will need to be fulfilled? Or, are they just sitting around wringing their hands worrying if they will have enough income to be able to pay their utility bills this month.
Our region recently had a workshop for smaller churches that addressed stewardship. The workshop was held at three sites. At two of the sites only half of the churches that were registered for the event attended although they had prepaid to attend. This event had been on their calendars since January. Obviously, things occur that prevent people from attending things they want to attend, but it seems odd that no one from those churches were able to attend that session especially since they had already paid to be there. We had some excellent resources to provide those churches to help them promote stewardship in their churches, but they were not there to receive them.
This has to be my greatest frustration in trying to work with smaller churches. I have spent 30 years of ministry either serving as a bivocational pastor in a small church or working primarily with smaller churches as a denominational leader. I love the small church and those who lead them. I believe they have the potential to do wonderful things for the Kingdom of God. But, some of them are much better at complaining about what they don't have than they are in doing something about it. Those churches will not take advantage of the resources that are made available to them while at the same time complaining about all the things we addressed in these recent posts.
A couple of years ago I was scheduled to lead a series of workshops for one state convention. I was to be at five different sites that week leading the workshop. We spent hours on the road every day so the pastors of their smaller churches could attend an event convenient to them. One site was well attended, but the other sites had very poor attendance. At one site no one showed up for the workshop. My hosts were obviously disappointed. They had spent money on a speaker, resources, refreshments, and their own time and expenses to serve a large portion of their churches, and very few took advantage of it.
If a church is struggling financially it needs to take the steps to address the problem. Every denomination has stewardship material that their churches can use, and many of those resources are geared for specific size churches. Maybe you're in a church that doesn't want stewardship discussed. Well, that's too bad because you can't preach the whole counsel of God without talking about money. A lot of times the reason churches don't want their pastor talking about money is because of the way it had been addressed in the past. Don't teach stewardship as a way to keep the church from going broke. Teach stewardship as it connects to ministry. Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University is a great tool to teach biblical stewardship and personal financial principles. Use FPU as a way to teach stewardship in a positive manner. Maybe there are grants available in your area for certain ministries. If your church doesn't have someone who knows how to write grants get someone educated in grant writing and find money that way to launch new ministries.
I once had a wise deacon who often said, "God promised to feed the birds in the air, but he never said he would throw the worms into their nest." If your church has an issue that is holding it back from a more effective ministry then take action to do something about it. Sitting around complaining about it won't resolve anything. Praying about a problem is always good, but there comes a point when it's time to stop praying and start doing something. Many smaller churches need to learn to become proactive in resolving their problems. Only then will they begin to turn the corner and once again enjoy a more productive ministry.
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