There are a number of websites that I have subscribed to that send out “morning updates.” While most them are politically based, about a quarter of them are faith-based. There are some faith-based subscriptions that focus on issues such as abortion, developing church leadership, and even the struggles of Christians facing persecution around the world. One subscription I receive is for encouraging pastors and leaders of other ministries both inside and outside the local congregation. This morning, that particular subscription focusing on pastors and ministerial leadership had an article that focused on what the writer called the “unwise stewardship of the small congregation.” I have decided to keep the author’s name and the affiliated website to myself for various reasons including that normally I find most of the stuff posted on this particular site useful, encouraging, and enlightening.
Being a member of several small churches over the last thirty years, I have witnessed what I considered to be poor stewardship of church resources. Now to be fair, I will share with you that I see anything that does not increase the visibility of the church in the community, that does not further the reach of the church, or does not give support for the ministries of the church as being a waste of church resources. I once went to a church that hired a professional decorator to come in every two weeks to come in and decorate the sanctuary so that it would be aesthetically appealing and fresh. Yes, while I do believe that having a nice looking church building is important, spending close to $300 a month to keep the place “fresh” is not wise stewardship. Many churches have women and men who love to do the exact same thing and if asked, would probably be willing to do the same thing for just the cost of the materials or even for free. I am sure that many of you could also share stories of things that churches have spent money on that have not always shown the best judgment when it came to stewardship of the church’s resources.
So, with all that said, I fully expected the article to discuss similar issues with some suggestions on how the church leadership could guide the church body into making more sound decisions. I was surprised as I read past the first paragraph to discover that the author was not focused on poor spending habits of the church but on the wastefulness of small church congregations. The author, an associate pastor of a large church in the Boston, Massachusetts area was lamenting that smaller congregations, by their very nature, are a waste of God’s resources. His entire article was that by remaining open and unmerged with larger churches so that their financial resources can better serve the Lord, these churches were wasting those resources. Smaller congregations were identified as any local church having fewer than 300 regularly attending Sunday morning services. The ideal church, according to the article, were those that regularly had a “participating” membership of 300 or more. Again, the author identified those as “participating” as simply showing up for Sunday morning worship. As a part of the benefits of smaller congregations merging to form larger congregations, the author counts the benefits of such actions as the ability to better support paid positions within the church, the ability to have better worship facilities, and the ability to adequately fund various activities within the local church. The very basis for the article was fundamentally flawed on several levels.
The first thing that came to my mind was the apostle Paul’s description of the local New Testament church: For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him (I Corinthians 12:13-18). I, as well as other preachers and teachers, have used this passage to discuss the importance of each believer in the local body of Christ but there is a larger application that can be made. Each local New Testament church has a specific role within the larger body of Christ. Within any denomination, each congregation has its own unique and distinguishable character. Just as each member of a congregation has a specific function within that congregation that only they can fill, so each local congregation has a specific role and function that it fills within the larger body of Christ.
Where the author of the article focuses solely on the financial aspects of stewardship, there are other areas that must be considered beyond church finances. As someone who has served as both pastor and interim pastor, I do know the pressures of serving in a smaller congregation that could not financially support a full-time pastor. My heart’s burden is for the smaller congregation and I admit I am somewhat biased. In all the churches I served in within those two roles never did I ever consider the money offered by the congregation as a part of my reason to serve. In every case, I was approached and I saw an opportunity to serve the Lord. I prayed about the decision and allowed the Lord to lead me without any regard to the amount of money offered. When I did accept the position offered, I was ready to do what was necessary, both in the role I was serving in and as provider of the family. If I had to have a part-time job to support the ministry I was in, I was ready to do it wholeheartedly and without complaint. With this particular author, he was lamenting that as a seminary graduate, it took him serving as an associate pastor nearly ten years before he could find a church that could financially support him. While I understand the hardships that can be caused by insufficient income, any man who approaches a church with an attitude of “if I cannot get paid $xx, then I will not serve as your pastor” is actually hindering the work of the Holy Spirit and is not living by the faith he exhorts others to live by.
