SMALL CHURCHES CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
STATEMENT
Churches, regardless of the size of membership or budget, are commanded by Christ to joyfully participate in the Great Commission. Smaller churches have a unique opportunity to prioritize partnerships with other like-minded churches in the work of assessing, sending, and supporting missionaries. The strength of such partnerships is that they commend the gospel and are also a source of deep joy for those sending and being sent.
Article Written by Noah SamuelsI find it both encouraging and convicting that Matthew 28:18–20 doesn't come with any qualifications based on a church's size or budget. The Great Commission is the joyful privilege of all churches. This is true whether two or three are gathered together in Jesus’ name (Matthew 18:20) or thousands are "devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42).
As a missionary, I have enjoyed partnerships with various churches for years. I get a front-row seat to the theater of faithfulness in many ways. I get to watch brothers and sisters all over the world seek to be faithful to King Jesus and His mission with the resources He has given them.
And yet, as a pastor currently planting a church with about twelve prospective members, I am tempted to think, “It sure would be nice if we could graduate from the planting phase before we need to think about work beyond our gathering.” Perhaps someday, we can support a missionary, but we are just trying to get people right now. Maybe someday we will send out a pastor or church plant, but right now, I would do anything just for another elder. Perhaps we'll be able to work the Great Commission into our budget someday, but we are just trying to make a budget right now.
Smaller churches like mine face limited financial and human resources. We won’t be able to obey the Great Commission in the same way as larger churches. But that doesn't mean smaller churches play a less significant role. They have a unique opportunity to take on the strategic role of assessing, sending, and supporting missionaries.
Here are three ways that smaller churches can joyfully obey Christ and strategically participate in the Great Commission.
I. Pray Corporately
John Stott once wrote,
"I remember some years ago visiting a church incognito. I sat in the back row. . . . When we came to the pastoral prayer, it was led by a lay brother because the pastor was on holiday. So he prayed that the pastor might have a good holiday. Well, that’s fine. Pastors should have good holidays. Second, he prayed for a lady member of the church who was about to give birth to a child that she might have a safe delivery, which is fine. Third, he prayed for another lady who was sick, and then it was over. That’s all there was. It took 20 seconds. I said to myself, it’s a village church with a village God. They have no interest in the world outside. There was no thinking about the poor, the oppressed, the refugees, the places of violence, world evangelization."[1]
Sadly, I have visited more "village churches" who pray to a "village God" than I care to remember. Wonderful people fill these churches. There’s a sweetness to their tight familial fellowship as many have walked together in the faith for years. And yet, as Stott notices, the fellowship of these churches seems ingrown, stagnant, or stunted. Surely Jesus has something more in mind for a local assembly of His Kingdom.
Involvement in the Great Commission does not begin with a particular program or budget initiative. Participation in the Great Commission starts with prayer. The most strategic thing your church can do in obedience to the Great Commission is pray (Matthew 9:37–38). Pray together for the advance of the gospel in North Korea, pray together for the strengthening of churches in Nigeria, and pray together for the unreached of Nepal. The best, God-designed missions program we have is corporate prayer. The size of our church’s membership or budget doesn’t dictate the size of our church’s corporate prayers.
A few years ago, I met a local pastor in the United States who was pastoring a church with fewer than twenty members. I don't know if his church gave anything financially to missions, and I am confident that they hadn't sent anyone overseas in decades (if ever). But what struck me as I met with this pastor was how he prayed for churches in Ukraine. This brother had met with and kept in touch with Ukrainian pastors through their small denomination, and he labored for these brothers in prayer. He led his church in praying for them on Sunday mornings. He shared stories and updates with me and asked me to pray for them when we met. This church may never give a significant amount of money to Great Commission work, and they may never send one of their own. But they played an active role in the Great Commission as they prayed together. I can't wait to hear in heaven how God answered the global prayers of this village church.
II. Partner Carefully
Throughout church history, churches of all sizes have understood the joy and necessity of partnering together to obey the Great Commission. Small churches uniquely feel the need to prioritize partnership. After all, their limited budgets and resources can achieve great things when pooled together with other churches. Partnerships open up opportunities to participate in the Great Commission that wouldn't exist otherwise. However, these partnerships should be pursued carefully.
In Acts 16:1–5, Paul is back in Lystra, and here we get a glimpse of what careful partnership for the sake of missions can look like.
"Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
Admittedly, we don't know how big the churches of Lystra and Iconium were. But given the context of Paul's most recent trip, his unsuccessful pleading to stop sacrifices in Acts 14:18, and his stoning in Acts 14:19, it would make sense that these churches probably didn't yet have a missions-sending pipeline. And yet, there is a faithful disciple there, Timothy, who is sent to go with Paul to strengthen churches beyond their borders. At least two observations about partnerships can be made from this passage.
1. Churches should partner carefully with other churches that they know and trust.
Separated by only about 20 miles, the churches in Lystra and Iconium seem to have some level of familiarity. So much so that members in both churches could "speak well" of Timothy. They knew one another, and they knew Timothy. They could present Timothy's unified recommendation and support. As a result, churches were strengthened throughout the Mediterranean!
I’ve had the privilege of seeing a similar thing happen among house churches in East Asia. Churches in the same city know one another's doctrine and ministry. Small churches that trust one another can joyfully send money and members to support a church plant in a different part of town. Careful partnership begins with familiarity and trust.
2. Churches should partner carefully with individuals.
I wonder how both churches in Lystra and Iconium knew about this faithful disciple Timothy. How could they "speak well" of him to Paul? He may have had a chance to preach in both places. Perhaps he visited and prayed with sick people in both places. Perhaps he even evangelized people from both areas. Whatever the specifics, the brothers and sisters in Lystra and Iconium had observed young Timothy and assessed his fitness for ministry.
I want to encourage small churches that their size is not an obstacle but an opportunity. Smaller churches have the same amount of Sundays as big churches, but often with fewer brothers who desire or are able to preach. Why not invite a visiting prospective missionary to preach a few times a year? Don’t just invite missionaries to share their desire for overseas ministry. Ask them to minister the word to your people. If he demonstrates faithfulness, how much more delighted will you be to "speak well" of him and send him around the world? Charles Spurgeon was known for encouraging young aspiring missionaries to exercise their gifts before they go.[2]
We visited five churches during our family’s last trip back to the United States, and I preached at four of them. The church with the largest budget and deepest bench of preachers didn’t ask me to preach, and that’s okay. I don’t mean to imply that this larger church's partnership is less strategic. But it did strike me that smaller churches tend to have a far better grasp on our ministry at least in part because they have seen my strengths and weaknesses as a preacher, and they know my family in a way that a bigger church likely never will.[3]
III. Provide Creatively
In 2 Corinthians 8:1–5, Paul describes churches in Macedonia that are giving to work beyond their borders. What a remarkable display of generosity and creativity. Clearly, their limited resources did not stifle their joy in giving to God and to Paul in creative ways:
"We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us."
Our family was stuck in the United States as the Covid-19 pandemic set in. We had returned to the US for what we thought would be about a two-month trip to finalize some paperwork and passports. But as the pandemic spread and borders remained closed, our unexpected stay became indefinite. Eventually, we faced difficult decisions: How long do we wait this thing out? Do we keep paying rent on our apartment halfway around the world? What do we do with all our stuff? Where are we going to live? Do we rent a place or buy a house? If we do, how easily can we get out of a lease or mortgage when the borders open up?
We had no good answers to these questions. But God's provision for our family came from the unexpected creativity of a small church that I only knew through seemingly random connections. This church had about 18 members. After meeting with the pastor, he joyfully said, "We don't haveany money, but we do have an empty parsonage. And we have been praying about how to use it." Well, for the next two years, that parsonage was our home. While we never intended to stay in the US that long, this empty parsonage allowed our family to remain in a holding pattern until we could return to the field. God loves advancing His Kingdom through the creative provision of His faithful people for the sake of God's glory in the world.
Small churches like this will likely never be able to give a "substantial" amount of money toward the Great Commission. They may never have the joy of sending one of their own for the sake of the gospel. But that doesn’t mean that small churches can’t participate in God's work around the world. It just means their obedience to the Great Commission will look more creative.
Conclusion
The first Protestant missionary to China, Robert Morrison, was once asked by a skeptic, "Mr. Morrison, do you really expect to make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese Empire?” After all, though he was well-educated and well-supported, he was only one man. From a worldly perspective, this was a fool's errand. Morrison humbly replied, “No sir. . . . But I expect God will.”
His response had more wisdom than he probably understood at the time. In Morrison's nearly three decades of ministry in China, he only baptized ten converts as far as we know. But God used his small, seemingly insignificant efforts to make an enormous eternal impression on souls within the Chinese Empire.
From a human perspective, small churches seem insignificant. And yet, for 2000 years, God has chosen to use their partnership for the sake of His glory among the nations. In His perfect wisdom, such partnerships display the gospel in ways that any individual church can't do, no matter how big. I pray that small churches around the world would know the strength of such partnerships as they commend the gospel and experience deep joy in obeying the Great Commission together.
footnotes:
[1] John Stott (Bill Turpie, ed., Ten Great Preachers, p. 117)
[2] https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/blog-entries/spurgeon-the-sending-pastor/
[3] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/small-church-sending/
