Last weeks editorial attempted to address the fact that most Southern
and Louisiana Baptist churches have smaller memberships while fewer pastors
desire to serve smaller congregations.
Last weeks editorial attempted to address the fact that most Southern
and Louisiana Baptist churches have smaller memberships while fewer pastors
desire to serve smaller congregations. This weeks looks at what the denomination
– local associations, state conventions and Southern Baptist Convention – can
do to affect the situation.
Last weeks editorial states that the Baptist world has the attitude,
“The better the pastor, the larger his congregation.” Such an attitude
may be true and in keeping with some New Testament teachings, such as the parable
of the talents, but not all the teachings.
Jesus spoke clearly to his disciples desires to be “above”
the other disciples. The earthly ambitions of James and John and their mother
were not pleasing to Jesus who, as the Lowly Galilean, established no institution
and served no synagogue as leader and established no religious order.
Jesus emphasis is upon what has been called “the level ground at
the foot of the cross.”
Obviously, there are pastors called and gifted to serve larger, even mega-congregations.
And, there are pastors who are gifted by personality, interests and background
to serve smaller congregations, however you want to define “smaller.”
Is one of more value in the Kingdom than the other? It does seem Jesus would
be appalled to think a pastors value is based upon the size of the congregation
he serves.
So, the attitude that one pastor is of greater value than others because of
the size of his congregation must be something humans dreamed up because it
reveals our finiteness. Not only do we conceive this misconception, we pass
it along and enforce it by continually acting as though one pastor is “greater”
than the other and, therefore, continually holding up only the “greater”
pastor as a role model for all pastors.
When is the last time a small-church pastor preached the annual message at
the Southern Baptist Convention? How often does the program committee of the
Louisiana Baptist Convention have a bi-vocational pastor bring the annual sermon?
Can you think of a time when the pastor of a smaller congregation was asked
to speak at Glorieta or Ridgecrest?
Obviously, some of the great preachers of our denomination are pastors of mega-churches,
but not all. Many excellent preachers serve smaller congregations. They are
there because of a sense of Gods leadership to a church and should not
they be recognized and affirmed and presented as role models of faithfulness
and skill?
Our denomination too often operates on a “star system.” We have certain
“star” preachers and we feature them again and again. They are all
pastors of mega-churches. They can be counted upon to deliver powerful messages,
but they are not the only ones who can do that.
Our denomination can put our opportunities where our rhetoric is – we
can put the spotlight on men who serve faithfully at the heart and soul of Southern
Baptist life as pastors of smaller congregations. By doing this, we can affirm
again and again with our actions and our spotlights that all people, all ministries,
are precious to our Lord and Savior. If we do this, pastors of smaller congregations
will feel more valuable in our denomination. These pastors see that others understand
that the size church is not as important as the faithfulness with which they
serve. We would all agree with this truth, but we need to demonstrate it.
No pastor should feel like a second-class citizen in the Kingdom of God or
his denomination. May we feature more and more of these wonderful, faithful,
effective servants of God who just happen to minister among smaller congregations.