Many smaller churches need a new roof, computer, projector, carpet, curriculum, sound system, & building repairs all at the same time. The problem is that so much of the church’s income goes to trying to afford the pastors salary. Many rural churches cannot afford to give their pastor a raise. Many rural churches don’t even want to talk about it because of how overwhelming and divisive it is. Many small or rural church pastors and churches are constantly thinking about how to keep the spouse of the pastor from having two jobs. For example it’s through my wife’s hard work and dedication that we keep many of our monthly costs very low as a family. Our church knows that it’s because of her fulltime job of being mom, pastors wife, cooking, preserving, sewing, hemming, coupon collecting, saving and thrift store prowess we can actually pull this whole small church gig off.
From a pastor’s perspective there are some well-known options here:
- Become bi-vocational (or tri-vocational if you’re like me and count being a father/husband as a job)
- Use a credit card.
- To help cope some have created or promoted a theological worldview in which being without money is what Jesus wants from all truly spiritual people.
- Have the spouse get a job.
- Quit your job as a pastor.
Many rural pastors have stayed up late asking God where funds will come from for school clothes, piano, girl guides, haircuts, car repairs, car repairs, car repairs, and more car repairs. “Will I ever own a home or property?” they ask? Pastors pretend like they don’t want or need golf, gym memberships, ski hills, books, new clothes, vacations, sabbaticals, safe cars or hotels because they are pastors and they love and know their congregations budget and would never ask. Just as small church pastors can become consumed by thoughts of material things like a mechanic dreams of tools their churches dream of chairs, carpet, roofs, projectors, sound equipment, dvd players, flat screens, curriculum, etc.
My thoughts? I think we need to reexamine the way we are approaching our rural and small churches in North America. They have some big obstacles to overcome in order to effectively function. Here are six simple ways we can change the plight of many small or rural churches everywhere in North America. What would you add?
- Affluent churches can help smaller or rural churches with facility needs like church roofs, sound systems etc.
- Affluent churches can help smaller or rural churches by offering to provide ministry relief, pulpit filling.
- Affluent churches can help smaller or rural churches by personally inviting or offering to involve them in the planning of men’s & women’s retreats, youth groups etc.
- Affluent churches can help smaller or rural churches by cutting several of their over sea missions to help boost a small local churches budget.
- Affluent churches can help smaller or rural churches by helping the pastor with book / library needs, computer & technology costs etc.
- Pastors could gain missionary support as if they are missionaries through sites like gofundme.com and the accountability of a church board there are some huge possibilities here.
Great thoughts, Able.
How do you see relationships developing between small rural churches and those that are more “affluent”? Is that on a denominational level or more organic?
Should larger churches put that into one of their goals?
I can see it working well with some denominations for sure. Some I cannot see that. I think that if a church with more means has a smaller church within reach that shares much of its ethos they should consider entering into conversation and seeing what they can do to help.
In my opinion.larger churches should.
One of the greatest challenges presented by this piece is that there are very few churches that feel affluent. It’s a subjective marker. For example, I know of a larger church that had a $100+K surplus sitting in the bank one year. For most rural churches, that’s probably an unimaginable amount — it might even seen as morally wrong for a church to be “hoarding” money like that. And yet when the building needed emergency repairs, and an update to comply with new building codes, that $100,000 was wiped out in a second, and replaced with a debt that was several times larger. It might have looked rich from an external perspective, but from an internal one that was hardly any cushion at all.
And on the other side of the coin, international giving is driving a lot of local church budgets and internal generosity. (I know this firsthand.) How would churches determine which ministries to cut, and replace with national ones? It also potentially sends a message that churches don’t want to be sending, about reduced importance of international ministry. That’s a tough sell, all around, which at least reduces the simplicity. 🙂
One thing that I would recommend is for a rural church to develop a dream. Dreaming about a new facility on its own probably isn’t going to cut it. An “if you build it, they will come” approach isn’t going to attract this kind of partnership, either. There needs to be a legitimate dream for local or regional ministry, building on results that can already be pointed to, and then perhaps including facilities and salary as part of the bigger pie.
There are also resources for a local church to develop on its own as well, things like developing a visionary (yet realistic) budget, and possibly raising money from a broader pool. Also, there may be something going on in the local community that the church could partner with, like a community centre or a restaurant that the church could use to reduce its operating expenses. Or it could share its building with other community groups to offset costs.
With the average rural church, this is not an easy problem to solve. But I believe that there are solutions to these hard problems — they’re just going to require creativity! 🙂
Hey thanks for the comments Brad.
A couple of thoughts…
regarding… “It also potentially sends a message that churches don’t want to be sending, about reduced importance of international ministry.”
Many churches are neglecting local and regional missions for international missions. I personally think that is backwards. So though it would not be easy to cut SOME missions internationally it is important to make sure a church is not thinking international for the sake of ease as well. Building, maintaining and providing for the needs of local churches is just as much a mission regionally as it is internationally.
regarding… “One of the greatest challenges presented by this piece is that there are
very few churches that feel affluent. It’s a subjective marker.”
Feeling affluent and being affluent are two different things. If a church has and can raise, keep or maintain $100,000 thousand dollars for repairs, maintenance etc. They might not feel affluent but they are. A church with the God given finances to maintain and build a facility of the size and scope we are talking about could easily throw a bone to another church and help them with a roof, computer, sound system, or just general building needs. etc. (unless they are in horrible debt) For example… our church is giving an 8 year old computer to a smaller church in Hudson’s Hope we cannot afford to buy them a new one I feel horrible about it. (Truth is many people in our church think an 8 year old computer is new haha) It’s like the stories I hear about giving used tea bags to missionaries. But I am sure there are plenty of churches in our district that could afford the cost of a new PC for this church. It’s just not on their radar.
Regarding…”There are also resources for a local church to develop on its own as
well, things like developing a visionary (yet realistic) budget, and
possibly raising money from a broader pool. Also, there may be something
going on in the local community that the church could partner with,
like a community centre or a restaurant that the church could use to
reduce its operating expenses. Or it could share its building with other
community groups to offset costs.”
These are great ideas. Totally agree! We are currently trying some of these things.
As a bi-vocational pastor of 25 years, I have experienced these issues in every church I have been in. The one I currently serve wanted me to come to serve full time, because they traditionally have had a full time pastor. However, in recent years, numbers have declined, they experienced a tragedy (fire) and frankly, the vast majority of funds were drained to keep the last pastor’s salary paid.
So I simply told them and showed them by doing the numbers “You can’t afford me and I can’t afford you.” But in the end, they understood the value of working bi-vocational.
I personally like bi-vocational ministry. While it is challenging, it gives me the ability to provide the living and healthcare for my family that they need, plus it gives me the liberty to minister boldly in exactly the way I believe God leads. I never have to worry about losing my family’s home or sustenance because I make a stand for strong convictions. And in the end, I believe it makes me a better leader and pastor.
It would be nice for this to happen. But here are some issues I have run across with this idea. Big churches see the little churches as useless or wonder why the smaller ones do not close. They would be wasting their time to help the small church. On the other hand, the smaller churches want the help but would feel the bigger churches are helping only to steal members away by showing off what they have. Churches have helped each other when it comes to a roof or putting in a ramp or something to fix the actual building. But to use the small church as their mission project by supplying funding or whatever the church would need would be out of the question.
I have been a bi-vocational pastor for the past 25 years also and have been in churches that have closed after I left and were under the leadership of other men. It is a heart breaking feeling when one has closed so I feel that we should all work together in helping the smaller churches, we are not in competition with other churches we are supposed to be working together.
One of my great concerns is, in our area there are small rural churches just a mile or two apart that are of the same belief and denomination but refuse to work together on any project, their buildings are 80 to 100 years old and their attendance is about 20 people each. I would think that some of these churches could combine all resources and be a stronger viable force in that community if their pride would allow it. The two churches that I am thinking about could be a church of 40 or 50 and could save money on a pastor and have the resources to do things that the church needs and have some left over to witness in the community. We need to let our pride go and work for the betterment of the gospel of Christ.
It can be extremely difficult to have a small rural church, they will require everything you have and then they may still not succeed they way the world defines success, but we still need to reach the people. I was tri-vocational, bus driver, ranch hand and pastor, never took a penny in salary but we reached the lives of many people for Jesus. We had to close the church because of my personal financial difficulties, but I would do it all over again for the Gospel.
Phil, excellent points here!
This one resonates…
“I never have to worry about losing my family’s home or sustenance
because I make a stand for strong convictions. And in the end, I believe
it makes me a better leader and pastor.”
Gary I hear you but think about the churches 20 miles away in a rural town were they are not “competition”. I understand these dynamics but I think many of them could be overcome with some kind of mediator like relationship between the churches. And I don’t think every church would be a good match.
Ray I think you have grabbed onto the spirit of what I am trying to say. Thanks for commenting!
I am sorry to hear about the church needing to close the doors Greg. Thank you for commenting!
What an excellent post. And yes! Why don’t more affluent churches adopt the smaller rural churches anyway? You never know what missionary is waiting to be raised up in one of these small churches but won’t be only because of money. I have so much enthusiasm for this idea because I’ve been a rural pastor’s wife for more than 32 years. The pastor’s family sacrifices so much to minister in rural areas. I can’t think of one time in 32 years that a larger, more affluent church ever offered to help. Such an excellent idea. I hope it catches on. We are struggling now as I type this but my husband is older now and don’t know if he can possibly physically handle pastoring and working another job. So this is so very important and timely. Thank you.
In metropolitan areas we have smaller churches in many suburbs. How wonderful it would be if large churches shared with us one of their many pianists. Potentially, that gift alone could make our church so much more impactful.
“You never know what missionary is waiting to be raised up in one of these small churches but won’t be only because of money.” Fantastic points Karla!
Thank you for all of your hard work over the last 32 years! I read this article and thought of my wife and some of the things you said here.
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/170133-joe-mckeever-pastors-wife-is-the-most-vulnerable-person-in-your-church.html
I was a worship pastor for 5 years and I understand what you mean by church pianists! 😉
Having pastored small rural churches most of my adult life, I like what you say, but I don’t see it happening. Helping small rural churches is not nearly as exciting a thought as starting a new ministry in your affluent church or helping a missionary in a far away land. That is brutal but true…people like to give to these kinds of ministries and figure if the small churches would just adopt the “big” way of doing things, then they would grow and be affluent too.
Terry Reed
Small Church Tools