One of the drawbacks to the modern American church is our propensity for closing churches down instead of retooling them to be life giving and hopefully giving them a fresh start to grow from. The short answer to the question of “can a small church be life giving” should be “yes”, but it can be a relatively arduous task with little fruit over long periods of time.

Perhaps we should re-evaluate what constitutes “life giving churches” in regards to smaller congregations, but at the same time, we need to be honest about how to know when you’re beating a dead horse.

It goes without saying that if you have a small church in a small community that by simple ratio of membership to population you should be able to have a life giving small church. But what about smaller churches in those larger communities that have not been able to overcome church growth constraints such as facilities and parking?

I ask this because having pastored both of these types of churches over the past ten years, and having spent time gleaning from some of the best pastors inside and outside the Church of God, I have come to the conclusion that being a life giving church has nothing to do with the size of your congregation but everything to do with the size of your vision.

I don’t want to be a small church pastor…my church does not want to be a small church. As long as I can continue to cast a realistic over arching vision with tangible marks to attain, then my church will continue to be life giving both when it is small and as it grows. For small churches to be life giving, there may be seasons when winning souls causes an increase in other churches before it brings an increase to your own. The point is that you keep the vision in front of you and your congregation while celebrating every achievement along the way.

Vision does not have to include only property, attendance and finance. While vision should always include conversions, discipleship and assimilation, we should not limit the scope of our vision to just the tangibles of church growth. Our vision should go beyond us, and constantly be enlarging as our sphere of stewardship grows within the community.

For me, the vision that I continue to cast is one in which our entire city is impacted with the Gospel and presence of Christ. On the grand scale this is something with tangibles and intangibles. For our local congregation the tangibles include increased property, new services, new worship experiences, greater community involvement, and increased attendance through soul winning and discipleship. The area I am lacking the most in this vision is assimilation…an area I will continue to work toward.

In the midst of all of this, there is a heartfelt cry for revival that continues to rise. The renewed focus on prayer has been great. The citywide prayer and fasting has been awesome. God is doing things all around us, and prayer has been the key. I believe that as the vision continues to be saturated with prayer the church will continue to grow. Until the growth is obvious, we will continue doing our best to give life to the community around us. 

With this in mind, let me ask you to pray with us:

• Our new focus will be “Pray 75″, a prayer campaign designed to pray for and bring in 75 pre-Christians over the next year.
• We will be launching “Victory Celebrations” in May, a Saturday evening outreach to the urban sector around our church.
• I will continue working with the City of Huntington to try and be a part of the solution to the problems of drugs and violence within our community.
• Finally, it is time to dream big…I am going to be looking into the possibility of utilizing an old boarded up bowling alley, trusting God to supply enough finances to purchase the entire city block that the bowling alley is on as well as retrofit it for a church that will seat 400-500 with ample parking.

So as I cast this refined vision to a small land locked church with grossly inadequate facilities, I pray they will not only be receptive, but will take the vision and run with it…because even small churches can be life giving churches.

Darrell Buttram, Jr.