Too Small or Too Big to Reach Out?

The mission church barely had 100 people in worship. Attendance was declining. The pastor had accepted a call and moved on. The community seemed unaware of the church's existence. Now what? How in the world could this dwindling group of people do anything?

That's when Marty, Al, and Richard--leaders in this mission congregation--decided to do something. "We've got to reach out," they said. "We'll die if we don't get outside ourselves."

So they reached out. The congregation decided to help launch a church. They dedicated 2% of their annual income, over and above their tithe to District and Synod missions, to help start Iglesia Luterana La Santisima Trinidad. It was located on the southwest side of Chicago in the "Little Village" neighborhood. Along with their offerings, they began a weekly food collection for a food pantry at the fledgling church. They organized workdays with the core group at La Santisima. They threw themselves into reaching out with time, talent, and treasure.

The result? Two churches started to grow. The focus on missions expanded in both congregations. These days Marty, Al, and Richard help lead a church that is still a mission congregation--even though worship has swelled to nearly 1000 people. The congregation is working to reach 200 nations around the world by 2020 AND is helping to launch two more new church plants. La Santisima Trinidad has sent five young men into pastoral ministry and has transformed countless lives in the city of Chicago. One of those pastors is raising up a new generation of leaders who start new churches and ministries.

Conventional wisdom would have told both of these churches that they were much too small to do anything. Conventional wisdom didn't listen to Jesus talking about mustard seeds.

I was visiting with a pastor who just returned from a meeting with church planters in Argentina. The pastor told me that when a congregation in Argentina reaches 100 in worship, they send a worker to start another church. That worker is supported for about three months until he can find a job. The worker immediately reaches into the community and starts gathering with people in Bible study. He raises up leaders. He seeks the lost. When his groups reaches 100 people in worship, guess what happens? The church has grown up! It's time to send more workers to start more churches--to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified. These pastors are bi-vocational and tri-vocational. Many are strategic about their jobs so they can connect with people in the community. One delivers bread to homes so he can ask the people who live there about the bread of life. Another repairs bicycles and speaks with his customers about The Way.

If in our culture we think that small churches are too small to plant churches and big churches have too many internal ministry commitments to plant churches, how will new churches and ministries ever begin? How will the lost hear about Jesus? Who is telling us that we're too small or too big? It doesn't sound like Jesus.

Ask Marty, Al, and Richard. They'll tell you how faithful God is when you get outside yourself.