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No one is hiding anything from you.

There was a long season of ministry in which I had to tell myself that a lot. I had gone through a near breakdown after trying, but failing, to see the kind of growth in our church that I had been assured was inevitable if I only did the right things.

Then I began to explore the foreign, almost exotic idea that maybe, just maybe, there’s a way for a church to be healthy and small. But I had to dig for that truth myself.

At first, the search for a different model of church health was exhilarating. I discovered so many ways that small churches can be strong, missional, and vibrant! Then I got frustrated. As I scrambled for morsels of truth about healthy small churches, I felt like a pig digging for truffles. The treasure was great when I found it, but the search was often unpleasant, to say the least.

If so many churches are even smaller than the small church I was pastoring, why did I have to search so hard to find them? Why weren’t these principles front-and-center in every seminary, church leadership conference, and book?

No one is as committed to our local church as we are, pastor.

Well, almost no one. There’s Jesus, of course. And we might have some hard-core members who live, breathe and die by their congregational involvement.

But the average member – even the most consistent attender – won’t be as committed as we are.

So what do we do when someone wants to help out, maybe even lead in the church, but they’re not showing the level of commitment we’d like to see?

Help them find a ministry that matches their current level of commitment and stretches them just a little bit beyond.