For those of you that know me, know that small congregations of the Lord's church are near and dear to my heart. In my opinion those churches are the backbone of the church as we know it. Sadly we are losing them. I challenge you to drive through the countryside in the Upper Cumberland sometime and notice all the vacant church buildings. When I travel to my grandparents house in Jackson County I pass two such examples. One of which has since been converted into a residence. Other examples of small churches that have closed include the congregation in Granville, since converted into a museum, and a small congregation in Sparta that I visited with a historic preservation client of mine this summer. As we peered through the windows of that building, I couldn't help but notice that there were still Bible school decorations on the classroom doors, and toys, blankets, Bibles, and songbooks left in the pews. To say this spooked me, was an understatement. Being the curious type that I am, I reached out to a college buddy of mine from Sparta, and asked him what happened to that congregation. He said that there was only one or two men there to lead the services and from what he understood, the people there decided one Sunday to simply lock the building up and not come back. Sadly this is all too common among churches of Christ today. I offer you the following to consider:
1. I don't believe we realize how good we really have it. Before I begin, you must understand that our buildings are just that, a building, the people inside those walls make up the church. The actions of the members and leaders of a specific congregation is what makes the church strong or weak. Large congregations have a plethora of resources available to them. How often do we take these resources for granted. For example, how often do you visit the library at your congregation? How often do you use the kitchen at your home congregation? How often do you complain about the temperature of the building? How often do you thank the elders, the deacons, and the ministers? I could go on, but I won't, but my point is that in a large congregation we tend to expect things to be there. What would you do if the preacher, or the elders decided not to show up? Would they be missed, of course. Now what if Mr. John Smith or Ms. Jane Doe was missing, would we notice? In a large church, I highly doubt it. Sadly when I'm at Willow Avenue, I can go weeks at a time and not see someone when they've been right there under the same roof as I have all along. Who's fault is that? It's mine. I'm too lazy to walk from one end of the building to the other, unless I have reason to and that's something I could improve upon. In a small church, this is not an issue, we see everyone, every week, and if someone is missing their void is felt. As the preacher I can make a mental note of that absence and make a phone call or send a message. Small churches can do more with less. The outdated Bible class curriculum from a large church is like gold to the small ones. If there's a light that needs to be replaced in a small church, we just power through, but in a large church it sometimes turns into a larger issue. We all like to have amenities in our buildings, but aren't we all working to get to the same place? Next time you see the preacher or one of the elders, thank them for what they do. Next time a light goes out in the building, don't make a big deal about it. Next time you notice someone missing from services, reach out to them. I also challenge you to venture over to the other side of the building and get to know the folks over there. We are all working to get to the same place, let's do it together. This leads into my next point.
2. Cliques are a crick in the neck to the church. Think back to your days in school. There were the jocks, the musically and artistically inclined, the loners, and I could probably keep going. How many churches have you attended where the members are all huddled in groups before and after worship? I'd say we all have. Everyone has people that they are closer to than others, but this can and will cause problems. Oftentimes we come in to the building and head straight to our seat and talk to "our people." By doing this we often miss opportunities to talk to visitors, and talk to other folks in the congregation that we don't know as well. I know in the years that I've been hanging out in the foyer I've met and gotten closer to people that sit on the far side of the building. It all comes down to getting out of your comfort zone and approaching people. You never know what you might have in common with people you don't know very well or at all. Along this same line is the rush to the exits as soon as the "last amen" is said. A few weeks ago I was coming back to the church building with the bus on a Wednesday night after dropping off my only rider. This lady lives just down the road from the building. As I came back up the road, there was this parade of headlights and taillights leaving the parking lot. I couldn't help but think, "what's the rush?" Isn't the relationships we have among our church family some of the greatest relationships of all? Now I know that we sometimes have places to be after worship, but that line of traffic that I saw was like traffic after an Atlanta Braves baseball game. Yesterday at Chestnut Mound, we all stood around and talked for a good thirty minutes after service was over. Yes we are smaller in number, but I could tell that we all were enjoying each other's company. There's no cliques. I challenge you this week to tear down the cliques and if you don't have anywhere pressing to go after services, stick around and get to know your fellow brothers and sisters, 1 John 1:5 tells us that this is a necessity as Christians.
As a member of a large church, and a preacher at a small church, I see the pros and cons of both. But why can't the two varieties of churches coexist? If not for the small churches, we wouldn't have the larger ones, and many of the smaller churches depend on the larger ones for support. Sadly I've heard it said that small churches should be closed because they add nothing to our brotherhood. Friends this is wrong, if there are still people to hear the message, and people around the building to evangelize, then you must keep pressing on. Every time a congregation (large or small) closes down, the devil wins. This can't happen, and as Christians we can prevent this from happening by following the points that I stated above. I often think about what could have been done to have prevented that church in Sparta from closing and use that as motivation in my ministry at Chestnut Mound. When searching for a photo to go at the top of this article, I chose one of the Old Philadelphia church of Christ in rural Warren County, Tennessee. The members of this church back in the 19th century were responsible for reestablishing New Testament Christianity, and without them and so many others there would be no Chestnut Mound or Willow Avenue church of Christ.
In Him,
Carver Moore
We would be honored for you to join us for worship at the Chestnut Mound church of Christ.
Our service times are as follows:
Sunday Morning Bible study: 10 am
Sunday morning worship: 11 am
Sunday evening worship: 5 pm
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