| Small churches thrive
amidst challenges
By Michael Wacht
ORLANDO — One of the challenges small
membership churches face is finding pastoral leadership. For many, it
is difficult or impossible to pay the conference’s minimum salary
for an ordained elder or full-time local pastor. But that doesn’t
stop those churches from being in vital ministry, according to
conference leaders who work closely with small-membership churches.
“If not for part-time local pastors and supply
pastors who are incredibly motivated, I would probably have to close
churches in my district that couldn’t afford the minimum salary for
a local pastor,” the Rev. Chuck Weaver, superintendent of the
Tallahassee District, said.
Small membership churches, those with 100 or
fewer members, make up nearly one quarter of the churches in the
Florida Conference. Approximately 140 churches are being served by
either part-time local or supply pastors. A local pastor is someone
who has received his or her license for pastoral ministry, but is not
ordained. Supply pastors are retirees or lay people appointed to serve
a church. The minimum salary for a full-time local pastor is $27,300
in 2002. Full-connection elders with a master of divinity degree will
earn at least $29,500 in 2002.
Weaver said approximately half the pastors in
his district are not ordained. “I wish all my pastors had seminary
training,” he said. “I would not call those who have not had
seminary training less capable. If spiritual vitality and numeric
growth are signs of vitality in ministry, I have some vital churches
served by supply…and part-time local pastors.”
Dennis Wagner, president of the Florida
Conference’s Fellowship of Small Membership Churches and a member of
First United Methodist Church, Canal Point, said many of the smaller
churches he heard from in a recent survey said they did not feel
handicapped by their pastor’s level of quality or experience.
“Consistency is the big thing,” he said. “Those
churches that have had their pastor for a while were generally happier
and more confident of themselves and their ministry in the community.
Those that experience more difficulty in ministry, especially in
getting anything new started…don’t have consistent leadership
there to help get it established.”
The survey also showed that not all
small-membership churches are struggling financially because “a
number of small-membership churches are located in good-sized cities”
and often have wealthier congregations than rural churches, Wagner
said. They did mention feeling disconnected from their districts and
the conference and having “a list of things they’re not getting
answers to.”
The Rev. Geraldine McClellan, superintendent of
the Gainesville District, says she has seen that disconnect. She said
many members of small-membership churches have told her they didn’t
know they could ask for resources from the conference. Because their
churches pay less in apportionments, they believed conference
resources were not available to them.
Churches also feel disconnected because their
pastors “have not had the opportunity to participate in workshops
and other resources provided by the conference because of their jobs,”
McClellan said.
Part of her ministry in the district, which has
the largest number of small-membership churches in the conference, has
been to “open their eyes” and teach church members to ask for what
they want.
The Rev. Linda Mobley, a deacon working with
several small-membership churches in the Orlando District through the
Orlando Outreach and Revitalization ministry, said the two resources
those churches need most are money and time.
“Small-membership churches spend an inordinate
amount of time raising funds to meet the budget, and that doesn’t
leave time for ministry,” she said. “…No one is able to give
full-time to the development of the congregation, and that’s one of
the things that keeps them small.”
Mobley said there needs to be an intentional
effort to find alternative funding for ministry. “The [America: A
Tribute to Heroes] telethon…raised more than $100 million for the
people in New York and D.C. The money’s out there; tapping into that
would be helpful,” she said. |
