{"id":356,"date":"2024-07-08T14:33:26","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T14:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/?p=356"},"modified":"2024-09-02T11:52:25","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T11:52:25","slug":"are-you-struggling-to-lead-a-small-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/2024\/07\/08\/are-you-struggling-to-lead-a-small-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Struggling to Lead a Small Church?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If leading your small church seems more difficult each week, you may need to consider some new options.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve watched too many people leave pastoral ministry because a church seemed unable to grow. Some faced obstructive leaders in their congregations, and some fell from favor with denominational officials.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason, when a leader abandons their calling, their action wounds the body of Christ and often leads to a life lived under a shadow of perceived personal failure. So, let’s look at some options to bring hope instead of failure.<\/p>\n

Option One: Close a Small Church<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There is a lot of handwringing in denominational offices about smaller churches. One (often too tempting) option is to close the church, grab the money and re-invest in a church plant.<\/p>\n

That seems wrong for one huge reason\u2014those remaining saints will lose contact with each other. Sure, they may attend other churches, but without the support and love of lifelong friends, they will not be able to stay in touch.<\/p>\n

So, to me, that option is off the table.<\/p>\n

Option Two: Grow the Church Without Major Change<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Option two would be to develop a plan to grow the church into greater significance. However, one of the aforementioned \u201csaints\u201d may oppose any and all plans that could work. Often, you may find a small but well-organized cadre standing in your way.<\/p>\n

Option Three: Plant a Separate Church In Your Building<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Option three might be to plant a separate church in your existing building. We did this several times by adding another service with an entirely different flavor. The goal was to reach single adults above college age\u2014the most neglected segment of Christ-followers by churches. This was not a \u201ccontemporary\u201d service where you cop a few songs from more prominent churches but an all-out new thing beginning with less than a dozen people and growing into whatever shape it took. Some would call it contemporary, and others would call it crazy, but our \u201cFriday night, Sunday morning\u201d services produced a lot of marriages and young families.<\/p>\n

Option Four: Go Bivocational<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Option four is to go bivocational. This adds hours to an already overburdened leader, but it can also relieve some of the burden. For starters, you can recruit more easily\u2026\u201dI know you\u2019re busy, but so am I. I put in 40 hours and do this, so I\u2019m asking you to do the same.\u201d Another sense of relief comes from less dependence on a church salary, which removes a burden from church finances. It frees you from those who obstruct new ideas by using lack of funds as a tool or, worse, holding you hostage to your salary. One pastor I know told me that any month his congregation didn\u2019t make budget they took the shortfall from his salary. He went bivo and stripped them of a measure of power.<\/p>\n

Option Five: A Combination of the Above<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Option five is to help your church grow healthier so it can grow in numbers. Adding a service, going bivo, and anything else that brings hope to a leader’s heart will filter through sermons, leadership at board meetings, etc.<\/p>\n

Remember that the failing of most very large churches is a lack of intimacy. Big churches that succeed are usually those that generate intimate circles within massive crowds\u2014cell groups, etc. My point is that smaller churches reek of intimacy. It can even be a tool for resisting change. However, a smart leader will build spiritual health into those relationships, leading to greater significance.<\/p>\n

Trailheads Toward Significance<\/strong><\/h3>\n

So, let\u2019s summarize. All but option one are trailheads toward the kind of health that can allow a smaller congregation to grow and begin influencing its surrounding community. They will also help take option one off the table.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ralph Moore is the Founding Pastor of three churches which grew into the Hope Chapel ‘movement’ now numbering more than 2,300 churches, worldwide. These are the offspring of the 70+ congregations launched from Ralph’s hands-on disciplemaking efforts.<\/p>\n

He travels the globe, teaching church multiplication to pastors in startup movements. He’s authored several books, including\u00a0Let Go Of the Ring: The Hope Chapel Story<\/em>,\u00a0Making Disciples<\/em>,\u00a0How to Multiply Your Church<\/em>,\u00a0Starting a New Church<\/em>, and\u00a0Defeating Anxiety<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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NewBreed’s resources are provided at no cost to church planters around the world because of the generous partnership of our donors. If you would like to give to support the mission, click the link below.<\/p>\n

Give Now<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The post Are You Struggling to Lead a Small Church?<\/a> appeared first on Newbreed Training<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If leading your small church seems more difficult each week, you may need to consider some new options. I\u2019ve watched too many people leave pastoral ministry because a church seemed unable to grow. Some faced obstructive leaders in their congregations, and some fell from favor with denominational officials. Whatever the reason, when a leader abandons Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jokercontacts.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}