Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY is a large multi-site church that provides exceptional ministry to that community. When I was pastor of Hebron Baptist Church I went to several area minister gatherings there. I always took one of our lay leaders with me so they could see what a mega-church was like. My wife and I attended their Easter pageant one year. It was a magnificent portrayal of the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. I have great appreciation for that church and the wonderful ways it ministers to the Louisville area.
At the same time, I have tremendous respect and love for the smaller churches. I have spent much of my life attending, pastoring and serving these churches. I have seen some struggle and close their doors, and I have seen others struggle and continue to serve their communities. Those who serve as pastors of these churches, many of them bivocational, are my heroes. Having been bivocational my entire ministry, I know the price these men and women have paid. Their faithfulness to the calling God has on their lives is an inspiration.
The theme song for the television show Cheers had a line that said it was a place where everyone knew your name. We all need places like that, and the smaller church often provides that. When I was pastor at Hebron I knew the people, many of their family members and much of their history, both good and bad. We knew one another, and we deeply cared for one another.
Many larger churches do that as well, but they have to form small groups for that to happen. Nothing is wrong with small groups, in fact, much is good about such groups. However, smaller churches do not necessarily have to form small groups because they are already a small group! In such churches, everybody knows your name.
I am currently serving as pastor of another smaller church. I can remember when this church was much larger, but after Covid and some issues that arose in the church, it is much smaller today. There is much work to do to bring this church back to where it needs to be, but I love this church. We laugh, we tease one another, but we also pray for one another when folks are going through rough times. Our worship service may not always go as smoothly as I would prefer, but the worship is genuine and, I believe, pleasing to God.
Smaller churches have fewer resources for ministry than larger churches, but it seems God always provides what is needed when it is needed. There is a certain beauty in that as these churches have learned to trust God as their provider and not some endowment that has been left them by previous generations.
Smaller churches rely on volunteers and not paid professionals to lead their ministries. None of the churches in which I was raised had paid staff except for the pastor. Everything else was led by volunteers, and these men and women richly blessed my life through their service.
I have nothing but respect for the mega-churches God has raised up, but I also continue to love the smaller church. Some predict the end of the smaller church. I do not believe that for a minute. There is a beauty found in smaller churches that cannot be duplicated in any other church. Those smaller churches that follow the will of God will continue to flourish, and I will always be in their corner cheering them on.
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