{"id":32552,"date":"2022-09-10T16:14:02","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/10-tips-for-leaders-of-small-churches\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:14:02","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:14:02","slug":"10-tips-for-leaders-of-small-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/10-tips-for-leaders-of-small-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Tips for Leaders of Small Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Lisa Cannon Green<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Love being small. Don\u2019t wish for your church to be something it\u2019s not, advises Elmer Towns, co-founder of Liberty University.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe happy for what it is and look at the strength of the small church. Look at the relationships! Look at the energy it has! Revel in those strengths and increase those strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Find partners. Churches near and far sent youth groups and missions teams to help revitalize First Wesleyan Church in Nashville, Tennessee, says its former pastor, David Gould.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a lot of relationship building, but we were an inner-city church, and for bigger churches who wanted an outreach in such a community, we were a great outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Get everyone involved. \u201cIn our little church, if we do anything, we\u2019ve got to have almost everybody in the church on board,\u201d says Doug Akers, manager of special operations for church partnerships at Lifeway Christian Resources.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt forces a deeper level of involvement. Count on that. Encourage people to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Meet your neighbors. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know your neighbor, you\u2019re less likely to go to a small church,\u201d says Karl Vaters, founder of NewSmallChurch.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvertising and visibility attract people to big churches. Relationships bring people to small churches.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Skip the shows. Vaters doesn\u2019t plan elaborate performances to attract visitors on special Sundays. He knows his small church can\u2019t match the extravaganzas of nearby megachurches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they come to our church on Easter Sunday, they get our church,\u201d he says. \u201cThey walk away knowing, \u2018If I go back next Sunday, I\u2019ll get that experience again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Start with service. \u201cWhen we do community service events, we invite our unchurched neighbors to do them with us,\u201d Vaters says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who won\u2019t show up at church will help clear out the neighbor\u2019s yard because that\u2019s their neighborhood. And if they come back, they understand church is about service, not about being an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

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7. Be slow to build. Buildings are expensive, and younger generations aren\u2019t interested in paying for them, Vaters says. \u201cA small church with a mortgage and a full-time pastor will have a much harder time surviving.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recommends building small if at all, paying off the mortgage, and doing ministry outside the building.<\/p>\n

8. Leverage your building. A small church that already owns a building can get help paying the bills by opening the doors to multiple ministries, Vaters says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFind a local Teen Challenge, a Celebrate Recovery, an abused women\u2019s shelter, or local soup kitchen, and turn your building into a community ministry center.\u201d<\/p>\n

9. Be generous. Even the smallest church can give to others, says Gould, who reminded his congregation: \u201cWe\u2019re not the worst-case scenario, even though we\u2019re in a desperate community.\u201d His inner-city church raised funds to help missionaries in Papua New Guinea and Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t just the recipients of grace\u2014it was important for us to be a blessing to others as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

10. Let God set your ceiling. \u201cDo not think you know all that God can accomplish in your situation,\u201d Gould says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe open to things that might make you uncomfortable. You may actually accomplish something greater than you think you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lisa Green<\/h2>\n

@lisacgreen<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Lisa is a former senior editor at Lifeway Research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n