DALLAS (BP) – They don’t get the same hype or recognition as some of the larger congregations within the Southern Baptist Convention. Still, Mark Clifton says most churches within the SBC are small, with 200 or fewer members.
“Satan tends to make us think we cannot do anything or enough because we are a small church,” said Clifton, executive director of church replanting and rural ministry at the North American Mission Board.
“Satan’s tools are discouragement and depression,” something Clifton said he has encountered in his own ministry over the past 48 years.
He added, “Only eternity will show the results of your labor.”
The luncheon for small church pastors and their wives held on June 10 encouraged leaders to remember the significant kingdom impact they can make in their rural contexts and to press on in faithfulness to the work God has given them.
Clifton pointed to four relatable insights he has gained from John the Baptist’s experience in Luke 7:18.
Like John who had doubts about Jesus being the Messiah, Clifton acknowledged pastors have Monday mornings when they question if they are really supposed to be a pastor or if they are missing something more.
Like pastors today, John’s circumstances were closing in on him, Clifton said. He was listening to worldly, outside influences. He was fighting unrealized expectations, and he had an incomplete revelation.
“It is tempting to think you deserve better than what you are getting … more than what you have,” Clifton said. “But our job is to be faithful in whatever place He has put us in.”
He urged, “Love the church you have, not the one you wish you had. How? The more you love Jesus, the more you’ll love your church.”
Mark Hallock, pastor of Calvary Church Englewood in Englewood, Colo., and member of the NAMB replant team, stirred pastors to consider the vital role small churches play as they engage in radical collaboration to send out replanters from their churches.
Hallock led a panel discussion with pastors Spencer Parish of Calvary Church in Kearney, Neb., and Ryan Durham of Calvary Church in Loup City, Neb.
“We didn’t know what we were doing, but we knew God is not done with dying churches,” Hallock said. “We sought to be faithful, to love the people, to preach the Word, to help them fall in love with their community again, and by God’s grace over the next few years, the Lord began to bring these dying bones back to life, and the Spirit began to breathe new life into this congregation.”
As the church began to grow, Hallock said, they had a strong conviction that their goal or dream was not to become one large church but rather a kind of church that helped to plant new churches in hard places, forgotten areas — rural, urban, mountain, wherever it might be — and also come alongside other dying churches.
They did that by supporting and sending Parish to Calvary Church in Kearney, and it didn’t stop there. Parish told how Calvary Church followed God’s lead to send out Durham, “his right-hand man,” to replant Calvary Church in Loup City.
“We were not a big church when we did this,” Parish said. “We only had about 40 members at the time.”
Though ministry can be exhausting, Durham said, “There is nothing more incredible than watching people falling in love with Jesus and seeing their lives transformed by the Gospel.”
Clifton concluded the luncheon by reminding pastors that they are a part of a large network of small church pastors.
“Of all reporting Southern Baptist churches, 88 percent have fewer than 200 members on a given Sunday,” Clifton said. “You may feel small and insignificant, but remember you are not alone. Most of your fellow pastors serve churches with very similar attendance and contexts. Focus on faithfulness.”
Learn more about church planting and revitalization and the upcoming Replant Summit and Revive Gatherings at churchreplanters.com.