Too Small to Fail

 Zechariah 4:10 "Small Beginnings"

R. James Breiding wrote a book published in 2019 entitled “Too Small to Fail.” The title is a play on the phrase, “Too Big to Fail” which became popular in the mid-80’s to describe the theory that some corporations are so big that the government must prevent their failure for the good of the national economy. Breiding proposes in his book that smallness can be a strength, too. In fact, he shows that many small nations are achieving success in education, health care and satisfaction among citizens that larger nations find difficult to achieve.

Breiding’s book is not written from any religious perspective that I can detect although he has an appreciation for the contribution religion makes in the creation of social cohesion, and that cohesion is an important quality for a successful democracy. So “Too Small to Fail” is not a religious book, but it has implications for the church. Zechariah 4:10 written in reference to the small beginnings of the exilic Temple project reads,  “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin. . .” (NLT).  For many people bigger churches are thought to be better than smaller churches, but that operating assumption is beginning to show weakness. Two pastors of very strong (meaning larger) churches have told me this week that they see a shift coming. Partly, the Covid-19 pandemic is responsible, or better said, the pandemic is accelerating a trend which had already begun toward the recognition that smaller can be and often is better. Some church growth strategists see the next expansion of the church happening through extension or creation of new churches rather than a large church just getting larger.

One church I know about has gotten ahead of the “curve” in this matter. The church grows to a certain size, and then it starts a new church in its own building. The pastor issues a call to members of the congregation to walk down the hallway to the chapel where a new mission church is starting. The mission holds worship at the same time as the “mother’ congregation. The mission incubates or grows inside the “mother” church until the new congregation has the numerical and financial strength to purchase property in another neighborhood, and the mission moves out to form a new independent church. The “mother” church then grows until it fills its building again and repeats the process. Several churches have been formed in this way.

Another model is for a stronger church in partnership with a smaller church develop a strategy in which the larger church issues a call to its membership for fifty people to go on mission. Their call is to join the smaller church partner that is struggling financially and struggling in finding leadership and struggling to connect with its community. The fifty missionaries stay with the smaller church until it gains viability. At that point some return to the “mother” church and some discover a new place of ministry in the smaller but now better functioning church. Instead of growing bigger and bigger the “mother church” re-seeds smaller congregations which enables those smaller churches to flourish.

It may be that the small to medium size neighborhood church is growing more attractive as a way to gather for worship, fellowship and service. The Covid-19 crisis has helped people see the benefits of smaller groups. Also, people are discovering that even though the phenomenon of video conferencing helps the church to stay connected, it is a poor substitute for in person community. The desire for community is leading to a new appreciation for the smaller church which offers a way to know and be known, a way to experience an extended faith family. Large congregations have an important place in church life, but today people are seeing that smaller congregations, also, have an important place in church life. They are not too big to fail; they are too small to fail.

John 6:35, 41-51 Church Growth

John 6:44  “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them . . .”

Many years ago when I was a young minister who had only recently arrived in San Francisco to take up my first pastoral assignment, I went to a state wide meeting of Baptists that was being held in Southern California. This meeting attracted me because I hoped to gain information and insight on pastoral ministry from the people I met in the workshops and conferences. In particular I felt the need to learn all I could about church leadership. 

I remember sitting in a diner in Oxnard where the meeting was being held. It was breakfast time, and many pastors were gathering at this diner. In walked one of the more prominent ministers. He sat down beside me at the counter. I took the opportunity to introduce myself and to ask him how he had been successful in leading his church to grow so large. He looked at me with what I took to be a measure of disdain, and he said, “I suppose we pray a lot.” 

His remark ended our conversation, and at the time I felt rebuked, but I wasn’t sure why. I had asked in all innocence and sincerity for his insight, but I felt I had said something wrong and that I had offended him. Looking back, now, after many years in the ministry I understand better his “disdain” if that’s what he meant to communicate; his abrupt answer made me think, and it helped me to reflect on what I was asking. It came to me that, perhaps, I was approaching the subject of leadership and church growth in the wrong way. I was asking the wrong question.

In the passage from John 6 the people who followed Jesus to the other side of the lake after the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 were, like me, asking the wrong question. In their case the wrong question led them to grumble among themselves and eventually to complain about Jesus and to depart the circle of discipleship. The miracle attracted them to Jesus. They liked the easy access to food and drink and the possibility that such a miracle worker could lead their nation as a king who would insure prosperity for the people. However, as Jesus pointed out to them, the most important attraction was not prosperity but the pull of God’s Spirit into relationship with the Father and Son. 

New pastors, or at least new pastors like me, are often caught up in the desire to see the institution of the church expand. That desire is understandable. Numerical growth for a church, like food and water for an individual, is necessary. If a church never replaces its membership then the institution of the church will die. However, putting emphasis on institutional survival is the same mistake that the people in John 6 made; it is the mistake that brought a rebuke from Jesus. It is the mistake that caused me to earn the pastor’s disdain in that Oxnard cafe. 

When we put our mission first then institutional growth will come as it should. Even if a church does not grow numerically it can still be used of God for purposes that we may not see. Prayer, faithful witness to the Gospel as revealed in Scripture, worship, giving and service will produce the food that lasts forever. The churches Paul served no longer exist institutionally, but their witness continues. God still draws people to himself through the witness of these churches. No church faithful to God ever dies. Individually and as churches we live in Christ, and our witness continues beyond our historical moment and brief life on earth because the work--the true work of the Gospel--belongs to God. He is the one who draws people to himself.

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Grandchildren. This week has been momentous--the birth of a third child to our son and daughter-in-law. Sweetie Pie and Mr. Happy have given the new addition his nickname (which he will no doubt insist on changing as he gets older.) The temporary nickname is “Squeaker.” He is a healthy boy of more than eight pounds, but he does squeak to signal his needs and wants. For the Fiona and Freddy stories the new addition will go by the name, Frazer; however, Fiona and Freddy have decided that Frazer does not get to go on any adventures until he is old enough to sit in Pal’s lap and listen to the stories. Until then he is “Squeaker.”

Mark 4:26-34 "The Kingdom of God Grows by Grace"

Mark 4:26  “. . . what the kingdom of God is like . . .”

The kingdom of God is a phrase that signifies the rule of God in one’s life and the rule of God in the world. For each believer the kingdom of God has come and is present as we yield our hearts to Jesus; clearly, the rule of God is yet to come to the world as a whole. Every day we see the evidence of the self-destructive refusal to accept God’s grace; though God holds out his arms to his children they continue to turn from the fullness of life that his love freely offers.

Jesus explained to his disciples how the kingdom grows in the life of those who want to live according to God’s rule. First, the kingdom grows by grace. The believer cannot make the kingdom grow. It happens in ways that we do not control or understand (v. 27). We pray; we study; we give; we serve; we worship. We live out the disciplines of the Christian life, but we cannot tie those disciplines to the wonders of God’s bounty in our lives. All our disciplines are ways of expressing gratitude to God. They are not ways of earning God’s blessings. As the harvest of God’s grace comes to fruition in our lives we are often surprised. We know that we do not deserve God’s goodness, and we do not understand the harvest of grace we have received.

Second, the kingdom of God cannot be measured. It begins in ways that we do not see or in ways that seem so small that we count it as nothing (v.31). What starts as the smallest seed becomes a great bush or tree. We can see in this parable of the mustard seed the growth of the church. From almost nothing it has spread round the world to every ethnic group on every continent. All have been invited to the shade and shelter of the tree of life. Just as Jesus envisioned, the kingdom of God has grown from the smallest seed to a great tree. Of course, we cannot fully equate the church and the kingdom of God. The church has much of the rebellious world still in it. But, as Jesus promised, we are learning and growing. We are like the first disciples of whom it was written, Jesus “spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand” (v. 33) Mysteriously, wondrously, secretly and powerfully the kingdom of God grows in and through the church by the grace of God in ways that surprise us still.

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Grandchildren. We were outside with Sweetie Pie and Mr. Happy at their house waiting for their father to come to the car. I slipped up behind Mr. Happy and put my hands over his ears and said, “Got ‘em; I got your ears.” He responded in his sternest three year old voice, “Give ‘em back!” Knowing that Mr. Happy is still in the “Magic Years,” and sometimes takes things literally, I pressed gently on his ears and said softly, “Ok, I put them back.” To which he exclaimed, “You put them on backwards!” I laughed out loud; I’d never heard that quip before. His mother had taught him this fun response. Our little exchange reminded me that youth--no matter how young--can delight us and teach us. It is not just the elders instructing the young. The learning goes two-ways, and it is wonderful.