Small church conference

 



This past Saturday I had the privilege of speaking at a Small Church Conference in Massachusetts.  The Old Colony Baptist association had been planning this event for several months and did a great job of promoting it, bringing in workshop leaders, and arranging for an excellent event for small church leaders in that association and throughout Massachusetts.  Diane Badger and her team deserve a great round of applause as does the host church who was so hospitable and made the event even more enjoyable.  About 100 people participated in the conference, and the response I've seen on social media and from comments by the participants the day of the event have been very positive.

I frequently hear from bivocational and small church leaders that they want these kinds of events in their judicatories and often voice a great deal of frustration to me that they aren't scheduled more often.  Here was an example of an association that decided to not wait for someone else to schedule something they wanted.  They did it on their own, and the interesting thing is that when they did they found others who would come alongside and help with the funding and promotion.  They also opened it up to churches throughout their judicatory which allowed many more people to attend than would have if they had limited it to just their association.

These types of events could also be offered in conjunction with other events such as denominational annual and biennial meetings and the various national gatherings denominations hold.  One track at such events could be focused on bivocational and small church ministry with one or more speakers who would speak specifically to the leaders of those churches.  I've been fortunate in the past few years to lead workshops at a number of these types of events for several different denominations.  Most of them drew leaders from smaller churches who said they probably would not have attended the larger gathering if nothing had been offered specifically for them.

One of the things that is important for these types of events is to make sure that they are open to the lay leadership and not just pastoral leadership.  Several pastors who attended this recent Saturday event said that one of the things they appreciated was that their lay leaders who attended got to hear someone else say some things they had been trying to explain to their churches.  These pastors felt that this would make a difference in their churches as they went forward.

Many in denominational leadership recognize that the numbers of bivocational ministers are growing in their denominations.  They are very aware of the large numbers of smaller churches in their denominations that are led by both bivocational and fully-funded pastors, and they are also not blind to the fact that many of these smaller churches are doing good ministry.  But, too often we are still not providing these leaders and churches with the training opportunities focused on their needs that they need.  It's time we in judicatory and denominational leadership become much more intentional about providing those types of events.  I believe that if we do so we will find that it is an investment that will pay great returns.