The Future of a Small Church

“Dozens of times I get asked, “How big is your church?” My response is: “Under 50.” And each time I’m left standing immediately alone, not given the opportunity to rejoice over the incredible effectiveness of a small church in a rural community, turned inside out for Jesus.” ~ MIKE BRUBAKER, PASTOR

Myrtle Point’s Closing
Twila Veysey’s complete statement given at the 2007 Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference.

“Bishop Hoshibata and members of the annual conference:

Hard-working settlers started the Myrtle Point United Methodist Church in 1891 in much the same way most early country churches began in the Northwest. I could spend my allotted three minutes telling you about the church’s history, but what I really want to share with you is about the future.

As the demographics of our small community have changed, our members have become elderly. This year average attendance has been about 14. We have had no secretary or custodian, no nursery or choir for many years. We have no Sunday-school teachers. No children under the age of 15. No UMW. No youth group. No missions. In places the plaster is falling off the walls. Half of the lights in the sanctuary haven’t been on since November, but we couldn’t afford an electrician.

Last year a pastor in Alabama was called by God to retire early, pack up his family, and move to the Oregon Coast. I think his retirement lasted about three months. Through connection with the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference, the Rev. Ken Autry found himself appointed to Myrtle Point in September. The last thing our struggling church thought it needed was a conservative Southern preacher, and I’m ashamed to say that Rev. Autry and his family received a cool welcome. But God doesn’t make mistakes, and in time we realized what a blessing Rev. Autry was.

We began to have what he called “Futuring Meetings,” and we came to the conclusion that we really had only two choices–either the conference would close the church or we could close it ourselves. We chose the latter.

Together, we worked through our grief and then decided our final worship service in our beautiful sanctuary would be on Easter Sunday–a day of joy and resurrection. Joy for what had been and resurrection for a new ministry. Because now, our plan is to fully embrace the Bishop’s Initiative to Eliminate Hunger.

Since Easter we have been meeting weekly for dinner, fellowship, Bible study, and worship in the basement of the church. We are moving our church membership to Pioneer UMC in Coquille, and a Myrtle Point Hunger Ministry has been formed. Unencumbered by a church building and operating expenses, we are embarking on a new ministry to address poverty in our community. Myrtle Point has high unemployment and a high poverty rate, with many school children enrolled in the free lunch program. We will provide a free hot meal one evening a week, open to all. We envision an outreach center, which could provide referrals or assistance in locating housing, clothing, job training, medical care, and/or transportation.

As the details are worked out, we of the Myrtle Point United Methodist Church have closed its doors. but the church is not a building and the legacy that we leave for our community is one of hope for the future.”

More here: gbgm-umc

80-yr old Church leader murdered in sanctuary

Few places were as meaningful to Lillian Wilson as Central United Methodist Church just outside Wynne.

She was baptized and married there. She started teaching Sunday school recently to help out while the church’s longtime teacher recovered from a stroke.

And on Sunday morning, June 6, the 80-year-old retired nurse was in the church to finish assembling disaster relief buckets and health kits for collection at the denomination’s Arkansas Annual (regional) Conference meeting, which started Sunday night.

It was her last act of servanthood. She was found beaten to death in the church sanctuary that afternoon.

Investigators with the sheriff’s office in Cross County, Ark., were still searching June 8 for two suspects in Wilson’s death. Her pastor, the Rev. Dixon Platt, said authorities believe the murder weapon was the cross the church kept on its communion table.

Platt went to check on Wilson when she didn’t show up for worship Sunday at nearby Ellis Chapel United Methodist Church. The congregation of about 20 alternates worship each Sunday between Ellis Chapel and Central Church.

The pastor discovered Wilson’s body about 12:30 p.m. Sunday beneath an overturned pew. Her purse and car were missing.

Wilson died doing what she loved to do, Platt said, and that was serving God.

Oh please don’t tell me he said that! So many folks are going to be upset that this woman died, (btw – she didn’t simply die – she was MURDERED!) and the fact that she died in this way in this place is going to complicate grief for the people within the church she attended, people in our churches, and the people who don’t attend church. It is a delicate and difficult time for this church, but maybe some of us can learn from Ms. Wilson’s death as well as her life.

As pastor’s we tend to want to take the high road and say things like, “She is at rest now” or “She “died doing what she loved to do”". Those comments are not enough for our congregants who are asking the bigger question, “WHY?” I think we need to say things like, we don’t know why people do horrible things to each other, I don’t know why someone did this to Ms. Wilson, I don’t know why – I don’t have the answers. Too often pastors think they must lead people into healing or beyond this tragedy or even past this experience. To each of us, pastors and everyday folks that think the same way, I ask – WHY? Why are we in a hurry to brush aside the tragedy and want to look at only the comfortable aspects of life?

My thinking jumps to the next question, how does a response such as the one stated by Rev. Platt witness to the greater community the love of God for all people in the community? From my slightly slanted perspective I see a closed door attitude, a piousness, an attitude to the unchurched that says, “Well, AT LEAST she lived a life worthy so she will be … (fill in the blank – honored, redeemed, given vengeance … whatever the other feels is needed in their life and hoped for in their death). Possibly a better statement would be, we join the community in grieving her death and the violent manner in which she died and we are available to talk or listen to anyone who has questions. Maybe, possibly.

But I like what Bishop Crutchfield said:

Arkansas Area Bishop Charles Crutchfield asked those gathered for annual conference on June 7 to pray for Wilson and the many in her community who loved her.

“This is a tragic moment for a wonderful woman devoted to the life of the church and building God’s kingdom, a woman who had been the heart and soul of her church,” Crutchfield said in an interview.

“At moments like this, we ask ‘Why? Why?’ And there is no real answer to that question,” he said. “But I do know the question we need to ask is who do we trust in a moment of tragedy, in a moment so inexplicable. I think our answer would be her answer: Trust the Lord through high points and low points, through good times and through the valley of the shadow of death. In the wake of this tragic death, that’s who we all have to trust.” (Italics added)

That’s all we’ve got to offer anyone in a moment of grief, a season of grief. If we believe in God through the good times, if we trust God in the good times, if we have faith in God in the good times, then the way to find ourselves able to survive and live though the tough times is to continue to trust him in those times also.

Keep the faith my friends.

Not on Sunday? How about Saturday school!

What do you think? Would this idea work in your community? If not, why?

Sarah Falter knew she had to make a change when her pastor mentioned Moses, and her young son had no idea who he was.

“I was feeling really disappointed in myself because my children didn’t know all the Bible stories I was brought up with and I knew at their age,” she said.

What her children needed, Falter decided, was Sunday school. However, her tiny country church in central Missouri did not have space for a children’s class on Sunday mornings.

Her pastor, the Rev. Karen Alden, offered a solution: Move it up a day.

Now, under Falter’s leadership, Rader United Methodist Church holds “Saturday School” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. once a month, usually in the sanctuary. The school attracts eight or nine youngsters, ranging in age from 4 to the young teens.

Saturday School is the kind of innovation more United Methodist congregations should consider, said retired Bishop Richard B. Wilke, the creator of the Disciple Bible Study program.

“The way you reach people today — children, youth and adults — is in intimate relationships studying the Scriptures,” Wilke said. “Sunday is no longer a holy day. Study life has to take place where people are.”

And that can be any place on any day of the week.
Declining biblical literacy

One thing is certain: Biblical instruction needs to be more widespread, Wilke said.

In recent years, talk show host Jay Leno has made sport of Americans who can name the four Beatles but not the four Gospels, and comic Stephen Colbert has teased members of Congress who want publicly to display the Ten Commandments but cannot name them.

Wilke started the Disciple Bible Study more than 20 years ago because he saw a thirst for more Christian education, especially among adults. The program now has more than 2 million graduates in 10,000 congregations in 30 denominations.

He said most successful groups usually consist of eight to 10 people, and like the early Christians, the groups often meet in people’s homes.

“People thought it would be a fad,” said Wilke, now the bishop-in-residence at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan. “What people are finding is that the Bible doesn’t have a fade-out time and the small-group format doesn’t have a fade-out time.”
Multi-generational learning

Alden, pastor of Rader United Methodist Church, said Saturday School has been a hit with all ages in her congregation.

The church, with a weekly attendance of about 35, has started attracting young families in recent years. One reason Alden wanted to move religious instruction to Saturday was so she would not disturb the fellowship of older members who gather in the church an hour before worship at 9 a.m. each Sunday morning.

“I think it’s a really important part of their week to have that social time because many live alone,” Alden said.

Now many of those older members volunteer each month to provide lunch after the Bible lessons. The church does not have a kitchen so members bring meals in slow cookers from home.

Ordith Skouby, a retired teacher and one of the volunteers, said she was eager to help.

“The kids seem to enjoy it, and they’re the lifeblood of the church — the church’s future,” she said.

The church held its first Saturday class in December with lessons and activities based around Jesus’ nativity. In March, Falter taught the youngsters how to tell the story of Easter with “resurrection eggs” — plastic eggs containing symbols of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection such as toothpicks for the crown of thorns and a pebble for the rock that was rolled away from the tomb.

Since April, Falter has decided to cover the Bible from the beginning, starting with the story of creation, and moving on to Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel.

Falter said her 6-year-old son, Isaac, and her 8-year-old daughter, Faith, now tell their grandmas about the Bible lessons they have learned. Faith also has been inviting her friends to join the class.

“They haven’t been able to make it yet, but she’s gung ho that her cousin needs to come and her friend down the street needs to come because it’s a lot of fun,” Falter said. “She’s pretty pumped.”

And so is the church.

The most important part about studying Scripture is that it leads people to Christ, Wilke said.

“We study the whole Bible to find the Savior,” he said.

Email from God

I had a moment today - a God moment.

How often have you gone about your day doing what you felt was what you had to do because it is what you are designed to do, only to feel at the end of your day an emptiness in the meaning of your work? I have felt that way more often than I care to admit. In the world of pastoral vocation we have the blessing and the joy to serve God. Hallelujah! Yet ... there are days when clergy of the small church are so emptied out with caring for others, doing the bulletins, tidying the office and sanctuary, and working on the million other mundane tasks of the office, that we lose the joy of prayer and preparation. We lose focus on the knowledge and hope that Sunday is coming!

Well, today was one of those days. I have had so many ministry tasks to juggle and the stress of several significant changes to process that my joy was simply running-on-empty. After driving an hour to a meeting that ran for almost three hours and then driving home for another hour, I had to work on some paperwork and get ready for another meeting. My mind was overtired and my heart was heavy and I just wanted to walk away for awhile. Instead, I dutifully sat down to work on the next task of the day and began sorting through my email. That's when my God moment happened!

In my email was a message from someone who had heard me speak recently. This individual was so touched by God's spirit that they "had to" share what was on their heart with me. That simple gesture by this person affirmed and lifted me in a way that doesn't happen often. I knew that God was speaking to me and telling me, "Well done good and faithful one" through the words and testimony of another. This message has filled my heart with joyful anticipation to embrace the next step God is calling me to. Please continue in prayer that I may be worthy of the task set before me and that God may be glorified through the process!

Thank you my friend for your obedience to our Lord in sharing your message with me. I have been touched and have felt the fingerprint of God on my heart today.

"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' ~ Matthew 25:22-23