Small need not mean dying. . .

Surely you cannot help but be struck by the number of voices in alarm over the declining size of the average non-Roman Catholic congregation.  The reality is that these are small, some of them graying, but not all of them declining.  In fact, some of them remain vital and alive despite the obvious pressures placed upon them for their lack of size.  They can be found in the typical areas of the Midwest where LCMS Lutheranism has been historically strong, in the remains of a once vital Lutheran presence in the coast lands and inner cities of our nation, and in the places where you would be surprised to find them -- in the Bible belt of the South.  I tip my hat to them.   

The reality is that numbers are important and we should not say they are not simply because they are often headed in a direction that either embarrasses us or confound us.  At the same time, however, we should not equate small with dying or dead.  Small is often simply the surface judgment imposed by numbers that stand either below the average or median of a church body or a group of them.  It is not in and of itself a description of their life together or their ministry.  I am an example of one who was formed by a small congregation that was never big even though it was often bigger than it is today.  I am not alone.  There were many pastors and teachers raised up by that small congregation over the years.  They were the fruit of God's own work which is never small -- even though the font may be its power is not.  And these church workers stand tall together with the husbands, wives, parents, and children who in their own vocation seek to live out as fully as possible the promise of God's own divine life imparted by water and the Spirit in this new birth of water and the Word.

Small may be the condition of the place -- there are plenty of places across America which are not growing or even staying the same size but declining in the overall numbers of people who live there.  That often describes the rural areas in which the resource of manual labor has been replaced by expensive mechanized agriculture.  They probably will not grow back to their glory days but that does not mean that the people there and the communities of faith that serve them are without mission or purpose or glory.  Wherever God is at work, there is His glory -- calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying His Church.  There are often closer to the two or three gathered in His name but He is there among them true to His promise and with His boundless gifts.  Small may be an accurate descriptor of everything except God's work among them in Word and Sacrament.  That is never small.

So today I laud those places which are small by numbers but not declining or dead.  God bless them and those whom they serve.  God bless the pastors who serve them, the volunteer musicians who serve them, the people who do the labor that larger congregations hire out to do.  God is not done with you yet unless you are already done with Him.  Trust remains the most valuable commodity for small congregations when the signs of earthly success are few.  God remains true and His work is without limit in growing His Church in the most surprising places and where number crunchers might have given up.  Small need not mean dying and dying congregations are often filled with plenty of people who have lost the hope into which they were planted until they trust in things more than in God's Word and promises.  So lift high the cross where you are and the work will not be finished until God says it it.  God bless you.