December 10, 2007

“Big Churches in Small Places”

I preached yesterday morning at McGrawsville United Methodist Church, and then I drove to New Albany for the 5:00 PM Installation of new DS Charlie Wilfong. When folks in New Albany asked where I had been in the morning, and I replied “McGrawsville” not many folks in New Albany had ever heard of McGrawsville. That is not a surprise, because there are probably lots of folks in the North Conference who could not tell you the location of McGrawsville. As I explained to blank faces in New Albany, McGrawsville is just east of Bunker Hill and west of Amboy.

My point? McGrawsville is a very small place, but it has a very large and vital congregation averaging over 500 in worship. We have several such churches here in Indiana – they are big churches in small towns and sometimes, like McGrawsville, in very small places. One of the great myths about churches is that their destiny is controlled by the size, shape, and make-up of the communities in which they are located. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have some churches which have managed to remain quite small in spite of being located in large, fast-growing communities. We have other churches, like McGrawsville, which are what some call “regional rural churches” and have grown large in spite of being “in the middle of nowhere” (as the people of McGrawsville noted on the map they sent to me). We have some churches which adapt well to changing urban communities, and some which do not adapt at all. We have some churches which reach out in ministry to new immigrant populations, and others which use those community changes as an excuse to remain small or even to die as a church.

The community demographics do not determine the destiny of a church. More typically it is the internal, spiritual attitude which determines the destiny of a church. Often it only takes a pastor and a few key leaders to affect this destiny. Typically in churches like McGrawsville, I hear stories about the importance of long-term pastors, the role of vision, the involvement of men in leadership (alongside the women who are most typically present in every church), a solid foundation in prayer, and a passion for reaching people in ministry. Those are some of the things which determine the destiny of a church.

The really good news about that list is that those are things within our control as a church. We usually cannot control the changes happening in the community and in the world around us, but we can control our own attitudes about such changes. Do we see such changing communities as opportunities for ministry? Or do we see them as excuses to give up?

Places like McGrawsville remind us that God can build a strong church anywhere there are people whose hearts are open to the possibilities for ministry. May it be so in all of our churches.

from Bishop Michael J. Coyner

Indiana Area of The United Methodist Church
"Making a Difference ... in Indiana
and around the world"

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