Blessings

September 17, 2017

When a pastor spends most of his lifetime in one congregation, it becomes hard to discern whether what he is leading is average, sub-standard, or unusual. The particular church he is leading becomes simply the way church is. Not having the option of “church shopping” or of having ministered in a variety of settings, perspective is a rare commodity. 

Last week at our second monthly Dunkirk pastor’s prayer gathering, I was talking with the others about what is happening at Park church in Sinclairville. When I mentioned that between the two services, nearly 300 people are present on a Sunday, they were dumbfounded. When I talked about the Wrap, our before and after school program, or about our School of the Arts, or our I Am Free event in the village park, they could hardly believe I was telling them the truth. 

They talked about the few dozen people attending their churches, the frustration and futility they often felt; I didn’t know what to say. And tonight when Linda and I talked with our granddaughter who is at college, the same conversation played out all over again. She is leading Sunday School at a small congregation near her college, and is having a hard time grasping the fact that the church she grew up in is far from normal. The couple dozen people in that church know it’s dying, but either don’t know how to fix it, or are unwilling to make the hard decisions necessary for it to live.

I used to think I knew how to grow a church. I did it for over twenty years. Then it all collapsed. I was given the opportunity to put it back together again, and spent nearly ten years doing so, finally being able to hand over a healthy church to Joe, my successor and pastor. Here’s the rub: I can’t say we are any more faithful now than we were back then, and the folks struggling to get by with only a handful of people are just as dedicated and true to Jesus as we’ve ever been. So why do some churches grow and others at best stagnate? 

Pastoral leadership I believe has something to do with it, but even more is the inscrutable mystery of the wisdom of God. Technique, program, and personality all play their part, but it is the mysterious blessing of God that makes all the difference. Some very large churches are full but empty at the same time; and some very small ones are empty, but full. Full and full is best, and I am grateful to be a part of a church growing spiritually and numerically, and is reaching out to do as they did today, planting a new campus in Cassadaga. We now have Park church Sinclairville, and Park church Cassadaga, and I am grateful for the people and the leadership that is taking us in new directions, leading us into a future blessed in ways we cannot imagine.