Thirty-six

Do Not Ask

“We have five hundred families in our church. How

about you Pastor Philpott?”

“Somewhat less than that, probably about 95% less.

And all our ‘families’ are not configured along the lines

of the traditional model. We are small and blessed.”

         

The chapter’s thesis: Do not ask other pastors about

the size of their congregations or budgets. Miller

Avenue is a small congregation. We vary in size from

30 to 60 people; there have been services when only

15 have attended. Pastors who preach conversionoriented

sermons may experience rather large

fluctuations in the numbers of people who attend the

public worship service. If someone began to preach

strong gospel sermons to a congregation that had not

heard such preaching, over time, a good percentage of

that congregation would leave. No church would ever

want to call me as a pastor when there was some

question as to whether or not most of the congregation

had actually experienced true conversion. If I were to

go to such a church, maybe as high as 50% of the

congregation would eventually leave. There would,

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hopefully, be people who would become converted,

but those who realized they were not converted, and

did not want to be, would leave.

Some would become angry with me for preaching

such sermons. Some would want to hear “how to”

sermons, sermons with folksy stories and humor,

messages that would encourage, uplift, and inspire

them. Some would find a more “user-friendly” church

that would help them feel spiritual. Perhaps this

evaluation is extreme, but such a scenario could well

develop.

I was shaken, frankly, some years ago when I came

to the realization that some people at Miller Avenue

might be unconverted. I had been reading about the

great awakenings in America, particularly the First

Great Awakening, and became aware of the danger of

false conversion. I often preach conversion-oriented

sermons so that unconverted people might come to

Jesus for salvation. Though I have always considered

myself to be an evangelistic preacher, the fact is I did

not preach much of the gospel to my own congregation;

I assumed these people were genuinely born again. At

first, I thought we might lose 20 percent. We lost at

least 50 percent over the course of about a year and a

half to two years. As church attendance began to decline

people would say, “What happened to so-and-so, and

how come we are not having a lot of people come?”

These questions can be troubling, painful questions,

and there can be a tendency to take it personally. Of

course, I had an idea of the general dynamics and I

would try to relate that, but many people found it hard

to understand. The Holy Spirit will convict people of

sin and they will become uncomfortable even angry.

The fact is they can simply avoid the uncomfortable

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feelings by going to another church or drop out

altogether.

It takes a certain amount of courage to withstand

the pressure. At one point I nearly backed down. Dear

members of the church would say, “Kent, we wish you

would preach something else for a change.” And so I

would preach something else for a change, but that

did not make much difference. Perhaps it was too late.

Other ministers heard about the shrinking Miller

Avenue. A former Miller Avenue member or two would

eventually tell the tale. In a week or two I would hear

the result. “You know minister so-and-so doesn’t agree

with you.” At the local ministerial meeting I would be

asked, “Well, Kent how is the church going? How

many people are attending now?”

I would think to myself, “Oh, I am failing. I am

not being successful; other churches are growing and

my church is getting smaller.” It is an unpleasant

feeling at minimum; however, it is something a pastor

must come to terms with. At this point I have come to

a place of acceptance, and it does not bother me as

much any more. But, at least, I learned the

inappropriateness of asking another pastor about

attendance and budget.

Pastors can get into a kind of gamesmanship—the

one who has the largest congregation and the biggest

budget is the one who is winning. Everyone wants to

know what the bottom line is. In the business world

one might hear: “How many vice presidents do you

have? What was your net last year?” “Which direction

are you sales headed in?” “What are your stock options

worth now?” These measurements are, of course,

deceiving. In addition, in my estimation, the

assumptions are false; the size of the congregation and

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budget are not indicators of how well a pastor is doing.

The very reverse may actually be the truth.

We are beginning to see the outcome of the “church

growth movement”. When advanced and sophisticated

tele-marketing techniques were applied to church

growth, churches grew like crazy, staff members were

added, budgets went through the roof, property was

purchased, buildings went up, and people were filling

up the pews. Phenomenal rates of growth were

reported and everyone wanted in on it. Absolutely

staggering!

The “unchurched” were attracted to the “user

friendly,” seeker churches, attracted more to the

church, often, than to Jesus and His cross. In addition,

the unconverted do not stay very long—they are soon

off looking for the next exciting thing. And

unconverted people do not give much money and will

renege on their capital funds campaign pledge. When

it gets down to it, they are not committed servants of

Jesus. They want to be fed. They want to be cared for.

They want to be inspired and excited. They want

attention given to them. After a while that must break

down and they will go away. Now the capital funds

campaign begins to falter, the construction on the new

building is going to have to be reexamined and maybe

even terminated. Staff is going to have to be let go.

The finance committee is thrown into one desperate

meeting right after another. It is no longer any fun to

go to the church board meetings because the focus is

now on downsizing. And this is happening all across

America—sadly so.

We want to get away from thinking that bigger is

better. My view is that bigger is not always better, and

I am going to discuss this a little more in the chapters

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“Pastoring the Small Church,” and “Pastoring the

Large Church.”

I avoid asking a pastor, “How large is the church?”

I am not going to ask another minister how large the

budget is. It is none of my business in the first place.

These have been some rather “off the cuff”

remarks. I hope I have not offended anybody unduly

by this, but I think there is something serious here—

we do not gauge our value or that of anyone else on

the basis of the size of a congregation or a budget. We are

called to be faithful servants of our Lord Jesus Christ,

and that alone matters. What I hope for more then

anything else is to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good

and faithful servant!” That must be enough for me.

         

  The best case of all: large numbers of people being

both converted and faithful in their giving. Still, is it

necessary to know the details?

  If the details are offered, or if we offer them, how

may this be done so as to honor and glorify God and

not the church and pastor?