It was a busy week so we took our time coming back this weekend and made it a mini-vacation which was a good decision. Having some time to reflect on the conversations, meetings, and sessions I thought I'd share some of the key quotes I am taking away from this year's gathering.
It turns out all of these are from our main speaker, Karl Vaters, who is an author, pastor, and expert on small churches. He proved to be a perfect fit for who we are and where we are at as a denomination.
A little background, The Brethren Church traces its roots back to 1700's Germany when a movement was birthed out Anabaptism and Radical Pietism. Fleeing hardship and persecution, these original Brethren moved to the American colonies and continued many aspects of their spiritual and social lifestyle including being agrarian (farming) people and remaining German-speaking for many years. These preferences led them to starting churches in rural areas to begin with. And while various groups have splintered off and no longer maintain this path, it still provided the foundation for where we began and where our churches were planted. Because our specific denomination did not dramatically change course we remain in mostly rural areas with mostly smaller churches (50-150).
And here is where the Conference's themes and Vater's expertise comes in to play:
"Small is not a problem, virtue, or an excuse."
IKEA and Starbucks are both wildly successful businesses with vastly different business models (h/t to Vaters for this genius analogy). We don't have to compare ourselves with bigger ministries and we don't have to arrogantly believe we're better because we "provide a better personal touch."
"A healthy church will not necessarily experience numerical growth."
Numbers may accompany healthy ministry, but not always. We need to divorce ourselves from the assumption that numbers equal health and health equals numbers. More quotes to come, after the break...
"Pastoring a small church is not a penalty for doing something wrong."
"It's a specialty and it is worth doing well." In his latest article for Christianity Today, Vaters calls us out for our self-loathing. We need to recognize that God uses smaller churches to further his mission.
"1 billion people worship God in small churches."
Why is the previous quote important? Because of this fact. If that many people worship God in small churches, then small churches have a critical role to play in our world. 80-90% of churches will never be bigger than 250. And that's ok, we can still do God's work well in these smaller contexts.
"Smaller churches are uniquely set up to meet this generation's number 1 need."
Vaters made this point while comparing the post-WWII world to our current one.
Smaller churches are built on relationships. In a way bigger churches cannot, they provide the opportunity for meaningful discipling relationships to naturally form. It is those kinds of relationships that these younger generations are thirsty for.
"We need to think how our founders thought but not do what our founders did."
Along with relationships, smaller churches are founded on culture and history. That history can be a burden if we are stuck in our old, irrelevant methods. Our unique Brethren history offers us a rich resource for embracing a Kingdom perspective as we look ahead towards the future. We need to think how they thought, but we're not going to do things exactly like they did.
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
There are a thousand different church ministry systems and philosophies to literally invest in these days. But if our people haven't formed a healthy culture driven by seeing people come alive in Christ, then the best strategies in the world will fall flat. On the other hand, if our culture is biblically healthy, the strategies will be interchangeable if not irrelevant.
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