Leadership and the Small Membership Church
Understanding the unique leadership context of smaller congregations is vital to the future of the church, says Lovett H. Weems, Jr. Leaders of small churches…
Browsing: Small Membership Churches
Articles
The Case of a Small Church in an Oversized Building
Lewis A. Parks, author of Small on Purpose, describes how smaller congregations can easily squander their last resources for ministry attempting to keep up with…
Small Church as Surrogate Family
Lewis A. Parks, author of Small on Purpose, says the small church offers a surrogate family for those whose basic family unit is dispersed or…
Eleven Characteristics of Effective Smaller Churches
Some years ago, I traveled across the United States, west to east and north to south, and back north, visiting twenty-one smaller faith communities that…
A New Way to View Vitality in Smaller Congregations
I spend my working days as a pastor trying to name reality for my congregation as we wind a precarious way between the heights of…
Intergenerational Ministry and the Small Church
Church leaders typically consider it a liability when they are unable to provide focused age-specific ministry to every demographic in the congregation. But in large…
Doing Community Ministry in the Small Church
Sometimes I interact with small congregations that assume that any significant community ministry effort is beyond their reach. They often keenly feel their limitations as…
Small Churches, Belonging, and the Harley-Davidson Funeral
There is much confusion among churches today resulting from the painful reality that much of our sense of belonging was dependent upon the status and…
Review of Imagining the Small Church: Celebrating a Simpler Path
A previous generation of students such as Carl Dudley, David Ray, and Anthony Pappas have catalogued the unique culture of the small church, here defined…
The One Room (Church) Schoolhouse
My mother attended a one room schoolhouse for all but the last two years of her public education. As a Baby Boomer, I grew up…