It
was fairly early in my ministry - my second full-time assignment.
The church building had been built from lumber from several old 'company houses', but it was nice and suited our needs well. The parsonage was attached. Deb could come to church by going through a cave-like corridor between the two. 😊 It was in a small village with no stores; just the school buildings, a volunteer fire department and a funeral home.
The congregation generally ran around 70 in attendance and was a mix of coal-miners, teachers, retired couples and a few small business owners.
The church had purchased some property on a main road to a much larger city, that had been deemed by denominational consultants as an EXCELLENT location for future growth and development! The property was already paid for!
But the congregation had fallen into complacency - the dreaded plight of many a church!
Just
the newness of a newly appointed pastor generates some interest, so attendance
picked up slightly upon our arrival. Since Debbie and I were younger,
there was an influx of younger couples, people and families that began to
attend. Within a year, the church was running over 100 in attendance!
A DISAPPOINTING SIGN:
The leadership of the church remained in the hands of an older group. Unfortunately, it takes years for a congregation to incorporate new people into leadership positions that can make a difference. This is a sad reality that inhibits growth, creativity and risk-taking in churches!
I had been told that a local radio station was interested in broadcasting our Sunday worship service live. I inquired and acquired the details to share with our ‘Official Board’. They would simply place a transmitting device in our sanctuary and would charge us $20/week for this exposure. I was over-the-top excited that for such a minimal amount, we would have this opportunity to be heard in our larger community.
But the board found the expense and inconvenience to be too high and rejected my appeal to ‘go live’. We’ll never know what could have happened if we had stretched a bit to gain considerably more listeners. Sad!
I had made friends with a man a bit younger than me. He was single. We often got together to throw the frisbee and work on odd jobs. We became great friends and I hoped to one day be a spiritual influence in his life. Deb informed me that he was a very good-looking young man! 😉 After a couple of years, he began bringing a beautiful, young girlfriend with him to church. Within a short time, she made a commitment to follow Christ and even began attending our Wednesday night ‘Prayer Meeting’.
I must confess that this was not an exciting meeting. I would present a brief Bible study. Then, considerable time was spent sharing long lists of prayer requests; followed by a time of prayer where most knelt at their pew.
I was shocked when she showed up one Wednesday evening! She was a remarkably forward young woman and during my study, began peppering me with questions. Her presence and participation transformed the course of the evening! She was SO EXCITED about her new faith! She had hoards of questions! She was hungry to know how to read the Bible! She wanted to know how to please God. She quickly outgrew the limited faith of her boyfriend – who never attended prayer meeting!
As weeks turned into months, her presence totally changed the atmosphere of our Wednesday night meeting! Her vivacious engagement ignited a fresh awareness of genuine faith in the older attenders who had drifted into complacency!
Unfortunately, when they ceased to be a couple, she didn’t feel comfortable continuing to attend.
Complacency quickly returned - it usually does.
I pressed the congregation, reminding them of this valuable piece of property that they owned. I tried to cast a vision for a new building less than two miles away towards the nearby larger city! An Assembly of God Church had built a new facility just two miles in the other direction and was already prospering due to the high visibility!
After four years of investment and persuasion, we set a night for a congregational vote. Essentially, it turned out to be favorable with the equivalent of a 51-49 outcome.
You don’t enter into a fund-raising, hope-building major campaign based on a 51-49 vote. I set things in motion to negotiate a move at the end of that year.
_________________________
I was young and inexperienced!
Looking back, I can now observe that I left several of my appointments prematurely. But being a pastor is a lonely job! You don’t have a lot of built-in accountability. You rarely meet with a conference superintendent; s/he actually knows little to nothing about your specific congregation! Your own initiative is about all that drives you to seek out an accountability partner. You face discouragements and opposition regularly. ‘Church-bosses’ have a deeply entrenched power base that is formidable and rarely - if ever - based on a deep spiritual reputation! The result of this – for a pastor - can be overwhelming!
I knew – even in my youth and inexperience – that this could have exploded with impact for God! But I didn’t have the patience, experience and support to see it through! Regrettably, I moved on and the church still meets in that same old building today.
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