Finding Excellence in a Small Church
Steve R. Bierly
July 1, 1998
Our vacation Bible school was going on, and I was discouraged. We couldn't afford the full curriculum package. We made do with a few posters tacked up here and there. The entire thing was basically thrown together at the last minute by the same woman who had always done it. To top it off, VBS was being held in our musty church basement that always made my sinuses ache.
It was truly a wonder that anybody sent their children at all. After all, I had read that baby boomers demanded excellence in church programs—everything slick and professional. Our VBS was anything but. And yet we had a full enrollment.
Spotting excellence in the wild
As I passed the door to the third-grade classroom, a boy in the class seemed angry that, in the Bible story, God was going to destroy the world and kill everybody in the Flood. Listening to him confront the teacher, I suddenly knew that Cobblestone Church had an excellent VBS. It was helping boys and girls encounter, and at times wrestle with, God.
That, I believe, is what defines "excellence" in a small church—or any church, if you look beyond the numbers. Are people growing, and are we, pastor and leaders, helping them in that growth? Are more people active in our ministries? Are we reaching beyond our doors with the gospel?
If we judge ourselves solely by statistics, we're going to be discouraged. One year our church lost some members—several through job transfers, a few because of theological disagreements. When I met with the board for a year-end evaluation, I asked that we assess ourselves in light of how Scripture and our denomination's confessional standards define "church." By those standards, we were doing quite well.
Here are other ways we strive for excellence in God's ...
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