I recently attended a worship and music convocation attended by more than one thousand people from congregations of numerous denominations and all sizes. One of the classes in the program booklet that caught my attention was titled “The Gifts that Small Churches Bring to the Body.” The booklet described the workshop by saying, “Practical, accessible ideas for worship planning in small churches, along with reasons why small churches are so important for all of us.” There were no class handouts, and the format was a lively group discussion rather than lecture. It was moderated by a well-known music and worship person who is prominent in academic circles, assisted by a pastor and a layperson, both from churches with fewer than thirty in attendance on Sunday mornings. I took notes on the sixty-minute discussion and managed to get in a few music-related questions. I was impressed with the thoughtfulness of those in the group and with the depth and sincerity with which they shared their own strengths and weaknesses. As I looked over my notes, it occurred to me that there was much there to commend to musicians and worship planners in churches of all sizes.
Although this article largely deals with some of the problems and struggles of small churches, not all small churches, of course, are struggling. Not all the problems discussed affect all small churches. Some are places of dynamic and effective ministry, nurture, outreach, and disciple making. The intent of this article is to examine some of the problems encountered by small churches as discussed by small-church leaders and members in the class I attended.
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4 comments:
Robin:
28 Dec, the date of Master Wycliffe's fatal seizure while conducting services at Lutterworth's Chapel. His parshioners and wardens carried the godly Rector from the Table through the vestry door to his quarters.
He died a few days later.
Dr. Wycliffe was stripped of place, rank, position and voice (Oxford Professorship). He was shamed, humiliated, and silenced by the Devils in the Church with the steely determination to silence our Sovereign Redeemer's Word, the true and real apostolic see, the Word of God. Dr. Wycliffe had a "small church ministry."
Stripped of everything, Dr. Wycliffe continued in a "small church" ministry in exile, a forlorn parish, a wayout-of-the way parish.
Dr. Wycliffe's confidence never waned in His Majesty's apostolic see, to wit, the apostolic record...God's Word.
Reduced to ashes by the Papist voice in Canterbury, London and Lambeth by acclaim, this servant of God's Word did not yield.
May we learn from the "small church" ministry of Dr. Wycliffe in this advent season. He took his seizure while serving the Table at Lutterworth Protestant Anglican parish. He died three days later.
Anti-Christ ordered his remains be exhumed decades later and scattered to the Severn River.
Lest we forget Dr. Wycliffe in Advent.
Stripped to "nothing," Dr. Wycliffe, an international scholar, never lost confidence in the Apostolic See, God's Word.
While he lost great and justifiable clerics in the allegedly apostolic succession, he never lost confidence in the apostolic record...the true and only basis of apostolic succession.
I forget now, the exact number. But there remains quite a number of Lollard manuscripts from Dr. Wycliffe's times.
We also know that the Lollards gave substantial support to the Lutheran and Calvinistic Reforms under the Tudors.
The West was never the same. Thank God for the Tudor-reforms. Especially, 1588, when Bess 1 repulsed the Spanish Papists at the Channel.
Thank God for Dr. Wycliffe's "small church" ministry at Lutterworth parish, an out-of-the-way parish. Billy Hybels and Ricky Warren, by the numbers, would adjudge this old saint to be a "numeric failure."
Thank you, Dr. Wycliffe.
Robin:
Have been pondering Dr. Wycliffe in light of your own self-doubts, ordination and seminary expressed in an earlier post.
"Before" and "after" for Dr. Wycliffe. Great losses for Dr. Wycliffe.
Another musing?
He had no prospects for a future. The "numbers" were against him. What could Dr. Wycliffe foresee as a basis for future success? By "sight," he had nothing.
What did he have? The support of the "Apostolic See," God's Word...far above the repressors at Cambridge, Oxford, Lambeth, and Canterbury.
We have the same support, even if the fog of infidelity is thicker than the fog in the English Channel.
Best regards.
And what do we have we the ACNA confusions of the apostolically-ordained clerics?
Was pondering Bob of Pittsburgh (Duncan) and his 3 years at General Seminary. 1970-73 was it? I near wanted to laugh...and with good cause. Yet, no media on it, like VOL. A great investigative report might be had on it, but nothing from the Virtual winds. Not much good was going on at General in those years, but liberalism. Another version of anti
Christ.
I will stick with Dr. Wycliffe's confidence in the Apostolic See of God's Word. That is the true, Catholic faith.
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