December 25, 2025
Americans in Germany Embrace a British Christmas Tradition
Randy and Katy Smelser describe the pleasure of Advent fellowship in Germany with a church of Anglican tradition.
Articles for tag: Small Church
January 4, 2024
THROWBACK THURSDAY: ‘Small Is Beautiful’ (1981)
"Someone ought to say a good word for the small church," Joseph H. Dampier wrote in 1981. "The reported observation of Abraham Lincoln that the Lord must love the common people because He made so many of them could be applied to small churches because there are so many of them." . . .
November 16, 2022
Remembering Ben Merold: ‘A Model Worth Emulating’
We remember Ben Merold, who died this morning (Nov. 16), by reposting this appreciation written by his longtime friend Bob Russell, with whom he led monthly retreats for ministers for many years.
September 19, 2022
Jack Cottrell and My ‘Macedonian Turning Point’
A Christian editor shares how his life changed forever when he attended a once-a-week class on the Holy Spirit that Jack Cottrell offered at his church during a six-week span in the early 1980s. (Dr. Cottrell died Sept. 16 after a long battle with cancer.)
December 11, 2019
Professor Walton Retiring from CCCB (Plus News Briefs)
Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon Central Christian College of the Bible will host a retirement reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday for William Walton, professor emeritus of Christian ministries. Walton began his service with CCCB in 1980 and has served the college in various roles, including as dean of students, vice president of student life, and athletic director. CCCB president David Fincher said he was a high schooler competing in a preaching contest when he first met Walton, and that Walton’s comments that day encouraged Fincher to pursue ministry. “A similar story can be told by thousands
November 2, 2019
Children’s Ministry Best Practices (Small Church): Versailles (Ind.) Church of Christ
‘A Love for Watching Young People Grow in Christ’ By Melissa Wuske JR and Debra Stephen have been volunteer leaders in the children’s ministry at Versailles (Indiana) Church of Christ since the mid-1980s. It’s a small congregation with “more older people than younger” right now, JR said. About 20 children regularly attend, and he described the church as “a close-knit family.” As a children’s leader, that closeness is an asset: “Everybody pretty much knows everybody, and you get to know the parents well.” The couple have been through many seasons of ministry with the church: Families have moved into town
September 20, 2019
Small Churches: Responding to Some Stereotypes
In this repost of a classic article that first appeared in Christian Standard on May 20, 2012, Tom Claibourne responds to some fairly typical stereotypes about small churches. Claibourne is in his 40th year serving with Bethlehem Church of Christ, Winchester, Ohio. He recently was inducted into the Christian Village Communities Hall of Faith; his induction video celebrating his life of ministry is available at the church’s Facebook page. (Read our October 2019 issue for articles about challenges facing rural and small churches . . . and possible solutions.) _ _ _ By Tom Claibourne Small church. What is the
August 22, 2019
The Inescapable Church
By Daniel Schantz A farmer came up to me after a church service and asked, “Which do you think is better, a big church or a small church?” I pondered a moment and then answered with a question of my own: “Well, which is better, a big truck or a small truck?” He grinned. “It depends. If you have a thousand acres of soybeans to harvest, you’ll need an 18-wheeler, but for most farm jobs a pickup truck is about right.” In other words, there is no one-size-fits-all truck. Likewise, there is no one-size-fits-all institution or church. Do all convenience
August 22, 2019
THE BIG CHALLENGE FACING SMALL CHURCHES (6): Elders Wanted
By Matt Johnson If many people with leadership gifts and experience attend your church, then your pool of potential leaders is deep. If your church is comprised of people who have little leadership experience or skill, you’re facing a completely different situation. You may have great workers with great hearts, but you may not have competent leaders. It is possible this dynamic contributes to the size of the church. How can the small church cope with a dearth of potential leaders? My response is mostly anecdotal. The church I served until recently, Levittown Christian Church, is in a lower-middle-class, blue-collar
August 22, 2019
THE BIG CHALLENGE FACING SMALL CHURCHES (5): Hope from History
By Jerran Jackson Down through the ages, Jesus has used crises and challenges to renew his church. When Christians by the thousands were leaving their churches to pray alone in the desert, Basil of Caesarea redefined devotion to God by gathering Christians in cities and organizing them both for prayer and for service to their neighbors. When the church became corrupt and Christianity became a superstition, Martin Luther reemphasized the guidance of God’s Word. When dry formalism replaced living faith, Philipp Jakob Spener introduced home Bible studies. Jesus can renew the American church today in similar ways. Before there were
January 3, 2019
Amazing Grace: How One Sunday in a Small, Dying Iowa Church Changed My Life
By Rick Chromey “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me.” I’ve been singing that hymn my whole life, yet never captured what it truly meant until one frigid Sunday morning. I was a student at Nebraska Christian College. For extra money, I’d occasionally preach for churches in need, and this particular weekend, I agreed to speak for a small church about two hours from school. It was a brutally cold Sunday. The tiny, white, clapboard and steepled church was miles from the nearest town, saddled by snowbanks, and guarded by Iowa cornfields. Only a
June 19, 2017
Large Church . . . Small Town?
By Jim Estep It”s easy to understand why small towns have small churches. We can visit a town of 3,500 and find several congregations with fewer than 100 people in each. In fact, some would say that small towns like small churches. Bristow, Iowa, for example (population 160), boasts of having “The Smallest Church in Iowa.” One can readily explain a large church being in a large city. Finding a church of 1,000 in a city of 200,000 people””that”s reasonable. Most megachurches are in “mega” cities. But, what happens when we encounter a church of 1,200 in a town with
January 30, 2017
Smaller Churches . . . Here to Stay & Making a Difference
By Shawn McMullen Encouraging stories about local congregations you may not know, but churches still having a huge impact for God. Thom Rainer, president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, notes that 90 percent of all churches in America average fewer than 350 in worship attendance and that 50 percent of all American churches average fewer than 100. Smaller churches have been a part of the American landscape since our country”s inception and they”re here to stay. Across the nation, smaller churches are making disciples and impacting their communities. Here are some examples. JERUSALEM CHRISTIAN CHURCH Greenville, Pennsylvania John Canon
January 29, 2017
Fostering the Good News
By Jon Hembree The county where I live has a serious problem. By all appearances, Barton County, a rural area that”s almost precisely the geographical center of Kansas, is a nice place to live. It”s population isn”t quite 30,000, and the people who live here are, in many ways, hardworking and kindhearted. This county, driven by agriculture and oil, offers quite a bit for the people who live here. The county enjoys a small zoo, a number of restaurants, a local water park, and, perhaps, the pièce de résistance: a 24-hour Walmart Supercenter! Woo-hoo! When digging beneath the surface of
April 19, 2016
All Growth Matters
By Mark A. Taylor Since 1997 CHRISTIAN STANDARD has been publishing annual lists of megachurches among the Christian churches and churches of Christ. In those 19 years, the megachurch phenomenon has exploded, not only in this fellowship but across the whole evangelical world. And with the growth has come criticism, cynicism, and complaint. Two years ago I interviewed Jud Wilhite, Dave Stone, and Don Wilson for our Beyond the Standard program. Each of them led one of the largest megachurches on that year”s list. I still remember what I wrote about that experience. These three “shared practical ideas and thoughtful
March 19, 2016
Redefining Success Without Lowering Your Standards
By Karl Vaters Pastors may be the hardest-working, most undervalued members of our society. And that goes double for the small church and bivocational pastors I spend a lot of time with. So why are we so dismissive of our own worth? I”m not talking about humility, which is always appropriate. I”m talking about a toxic mind-set that traps many of us. We tell people in our churches that God is interested in them for who they are, not for what they do. We tell them it doesn”t matter how much money they earn, how big their business is, what
March 13, 2016
The Peculiar Duty of Pastoring
By Patrick Mitchell When I entered a conversation with a dear friend that morning at Milligan College”s exercise facility, I never would have thought that within a few months I would be pastor of a 125-year-old church in a town that boasts a population of approximately 1,000. While still chugging along on the elliptical machine, Phyllis asked if I would consider helping fill the pulpit of a rural church in our area while it searched for a pastor. You should know that at that point in my life (I was then 30 years old), I was done with church ministry.
March 11, 2016
My Opus
By David Smith “Just stay around long enough to get a little experience and then move on to “˜greener pastures.”” That statement, among others, was what I heard when I moved to Moreland, Kentucky, in 1993 to start a ministry with Moreland Christian Church. What that actually means is, put in a little time, and then move to a more “reputable” church in our brotherhood with a higher salary. Well, 23 years later, God is still blessing our little church in the cornfield. In fact, after building a multipurpose building in 1999 and a new sanctuary in 2014, we bought
April 14, 2015
Finding Our Place, Claiming Our Heritage
By Mark A. Taylor Talk to Mike Baker and you”ll discover a guy who”s serious about his work while not taking himself too seriously at all. In fact, in our latest episode of Beyond the Standard, Baker used the word unfortunate to describe the “celebrity culture” in today”s church climate. “There are a lot of great preachers and leaders in churches of 150 and 200 who in their part of the world are really doing great things for God and for his kingdom,” he said. “But they”re just not ever going to get the accolades” that often come to leaders
January 16, 2015
A Healthy Church Nourishes Fellowship
By Barney Wells From the tiniest white-frame rural chapel to the largest of megachurch campuses, church buildings seem to have two rooms in common. One is called the auditorium, sanctuary, or worship center””it is where the gospel message is proclaimed weekly through sermon, song, the Lord”s Supper, and prayer. The other room is the fellowship hall. Whether found in a dank basement room with a low ceiling or a cavernous gymnasium-like structure, the ubiquitous presence of the fellowship hall testifies to the importance of a place for fellowship. Fellowship in the Bible refers to a common task and common concern
