Yesterday I became acquainted with Jared Massey. He did something he totally didn’t have to and it blessed me so much. He simply wrote to tell me how much he’s been encouraged and equipped by this little blog. The part that warms my heart the most is that he told me that I’m (indirectly) impacting the kids at his church in Warsaw, IL. I’ve never been there, but I’m grateful that the time I’ve put into this site is making a difference. 🙂
But this isn’t about me. Jared told me about his situation. He’s at a small church in a rural area and he’s got a vision that gets me excited. He’s challenged by a very limited budget, sparse resources and not much opportunity to network with other children’s pastors. However, his vision is to “bring big city quality to the small church.” Isn’t that cool.
I’ve had so many conversations with Sam Luce (well, we spent just about every waking hour together last week) about equipping the church. Between our blogs, we have a lot of influence. However, when you add up all the churches here and there, we’ve not even touched the surface of the church in America. When the average church is less than 100 people, who’s looking out for the kids and who’s equipping them. I’m not sure how big Jared’s church is, but he’s taking initiative by getting out there and seeking resources to make the children’s ministry experience at his church the best possible. I’m so excited about that! It’s what I did when I was at my tiny little church in Jenks, OK and it’s what I wish every children’s pastor did.
I’m not done with Jared yet though. Not only is he a bi-vocational children’s pastor, but he’s a new blogger. Now that’s what I really love. Too many people never start blogging becasue they feel like they don’t have anything to say or since they’re in a small church, they feel that they don’t have an audience. I think that children’s pastors at small churches should blog to share their experiences as they have the potential to share and encourage others in their situation even better than I do. I read Jared’s first post, and it’s awesome. I told him that he give the blog posts of the mega churches a run for their money. He’s just gotten started, but check it out, it will challenge you right where you are.
Hey, thanks for the kind words!
Big city quality to the small church. Love it. Great thought, Jared.
And it got me to thinking…The flip side is true for those of us who find ourselves working in a larger church setting: We need to bring the small church quality to the big city (or church).
One of the biggest challenges for big churches, in my mind, is establishing authentic community. It is so easy for volunteers, kids, or anybody to “hide” in the big church setting. We all have a need to be known and to be in community with other believers.
Looking forward to learning more about the small church life in Jared’s blog!
Good thought Craig. It’s a catch 22. Small churches often dream of being bigger and big churches often dream of being smaller. I think that if we’re intentional, we can have our cake and eat it too… maybe.
I think what is happening through the use of the internet and social networking is putting us on the right track. When we take an interest in someone else’s ministry that may look completely different than our own, we learn from each other. I am learning what big churches are doing and trying to scale it down. Big churches can learn what us little guys are doing and scale it up.
I really think every small church should have a larger church they look up to, maybe a mother church or maybe just a big brother type. I’ve never really thought about it, but maybe big churches can benefit from taking a smaller church under their wing as much as the small church can.
Kenny, thanks for making us aware of Pastor Jared’s blog. Also, thank you for your blog postings. I am learning a lot from reading them.