Comments on Joining God in His Work: THE BEAUTY OF THE SMALL CHURCH - INTRODUCTION

great post, very encouraging, esp. your word to yo...

2008-09-06T15:55:00.000-04:00

great post, very encouraging, esp. your word to young pastors fresh outta seminary.
Perhaps a bit more could even be said about the endeavor of church planting?
Peace.

Bernard, Point taken. :) Les

2007-11-23T10:57:00.000-05:00

Bernard,

Point taken. :)

Les

Les - No problem; I'm regularly confused. Happy T...

2007-11-22T22:50:00.000-05:00

Les - No problem; I'm regularly confused. Happy Thanksgiving back to you!

I do think that your particular response is a bit unfair to my question, though :) If youth leaders are supposed to rely on nothing but Scripture and prayer, why the devil do you pastors get to have "Small Church Conferences" and "Seminars" and "Seminaries" and "Theology Blogs"? I think you guys might oughta throw away the idea of finding ways to help each other and writing books to help pastors and get your heads back in Scripture and spend all your time praying, based on your response to "where do small church youth leaders find help?" It seems that you're really big on doing things to help small church pastors, and that the Convention needs to do more to utilize and help the small church and those pastors, but the youth leaders at those churches just need to pray and read the Bible, since that's what somebody did 50 years ago.

:)

Dontcha think that attitude is a LITTLE unfair? :)

Bernard, Sorry for the confusion of my remarks. I ...

2007-11-22T10:48:00.000-05:00

Bernard,

Sorry for the confusion of my remarks. I was responding to your statement "Without blogs and the web, there would be little to no information available for those poor volunteer youth leaders."

The Internet is a wonderful tool, but youth and children's workers got it done somehow prior to the Internet. My guess is they relied on the scriptures and prayer for their inspiration.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Les

Les - I guess I'm just clueless, but I can't quite...

2007-11-21T22:56:00.000-05:00

Les - I guess I'm just clueless, but I can't quite understand what you're getting at in your response to me :) Sorry.

Bernard, Hmmm...somehow when I was a boy in a smal...

2007-11-21T22:39:00.000-05:00

Bernard,

Hmmm...somehow when I was a boy in a small church back in the 1950s, childrens and youth ministry got done pretty well.

Mike,

Good to hear an encouraging word. May God continue to reveal Himself to you in whatever church environment you are in.

Steve,

I'm concerned as well with the lack of small church principles in our seminaries. Hopefully, things will begin to change as we continue to promote the beauty of small churches.

Keith,

It is truly my hope that pastors of small churches will realize the value of the work they do everyday. Small church pastors are the true heroes of the SBC.

David,

Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

Les

les, i also say, preach on, bro.! this is so true...

2007-11-21T15:57:00.000-05:00

les,

i also say, preach on, bro.! this is so true. it's something that i've been saying for years. i'm glad that you've taken this issue on. may the sbc see that it's the small churches that have been it's backbone for years and years. and, most of us sbc pastors are out here in churches that will never run 1,000 people on sunday morning.

gobble gobble,
david

Les:You are preaching to the choir. A a fairly big...

2007-11-21T15:24:00.000-05:00

Les:

You are preaching to the choir. A a fairly big one according to the stats.

I look forward to reading your stuff.

Steve:

I'm a NW guy also...and I enjoy the small town/small church. Leave the big politics and big messes to the big churches. We have better work to do :)

Keith Price

Thanks for the encouragement. Even in the Northwes...

2007-11-20T16:56:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the encouragement. Even in the Northwest we are afflicted with the large church disease. It seems that the only pastors who can be nominated for the office of President are from larger churches. But, frankly, they might be better suited to handle the hassles!
Part of the issue is that in spite of the numbers our seminaries seem to teach that by faithfully applying the right set of principles you too can pastor a large church. Hmm. I've either failed for 30 years as a pastor- because the principles have never worked quite as advertised, or (grin) I simply enjoy the challenges and rewards of serving in a small church- in a small community!
Steve

Brother Les,I can't tell you how much I enjoy your...

2007-11-20T11:12:00.000-05:00

Brother Les,

I can't tell you how much I enjoy your ongoing theme of encouraging small church pastors. I'm a laymen who spent over a decade in a very comfortable megachurch before moving to a more local, smaller church in the last year.

I love all the folk I left, but God has been showing me how to love people and how to depend on the sufficiency of His word in the small church in ways I would never have seen in the megachurch.

I consumed the religious services and products of the megachurch.

I can't get away with that in the small church.

God bless you this week!

Mike Woodward

Preach on, brother. I'm behind you all the way, r...

2007-11-20T09:10:00.000-05:00

Preach on, brother. I'm behind you all the way, regardless of my "frustrations" with small churches that we've discussed before.

Another thing that's missing is the derivative - small youth programs in small churches. Without blogs and the web, there would be little to no information available for those poor volunteer youth leaders.