You give away a lot more than you realize when you’re on the internet.
Now that I operate a website, I get to see some of those secrets.
For instance, my website software shows me every search term that people use to find my blog.
It’s fun and encouraging to discover that people have found this website because they’ve entered the following terms:
- innovative pastor
- coming to pastor an existing church
- encouraging churches
- be on offense
- small church growth ideas
- evidence of a healthy church
- best small church
- new updated ideas for church
On the other hand, given the title of my book, I’m sure I’ve been a massive disappointment to insect enthusiasts. I doubt the person who entered the search term “grasshopper behavior” was happy to be led to a site about Small Churches.
And I’ve probably confused fans of the old Kung Fu TV series who entered terms like “well done grasshopper” and “thats a good question grasshopper”.
Mondays Are Different
Mondays are, by far, the most interesting day of the week for search terms on this site. Interesting, but not easy.
I’ve always known that Mondays are hard for pastors. I now have direct evidence that they can be especially hard for Small Church pastors.
One recent Monday was particularly challenging. Here are some of the search terms people entered to find this site on that one Monday morning:
- i miss my small church community
- what a congregation wants from their pastor
- signs of a failing ministry
- small church pastors should quit
Other search terms that have landed people here, mostly on Mondays, include:
- pastors of small churches that are going through rough times
- words of encouragement to a small church
- i am a pastor and my church wont growth
- Small church problems
- what to do when a pastor and church are at odds
- various ways in which small church can survive in current church competition
- bigger churches take from smaller churches
- I am a failure
Even today, while writing this piece, people found this site by entering these terms:
- small churches requires big commitment
- small pastors should quit
I don’t know the people typed those phrases into their search engine – thankfully, we have at least that much privacy left. But I feel like I know the people who wrote them, because I recognize the pain they express.
We Need Each Other
More than almost anything I’ve done in the short few months NewSmallChurch.com has been up, those search terms tell me that what we’re doing here matters.
If you’re one of the people who entered one of those terms, I’m glad you found NewSmallChurch.com. Keep coming back. Even if you didn’t find what you were looking for yet, there’s hope. More people are coming every day. More ideas are being shared, and especially after I get the discussion forum running (harder to set up than they say it is), we can start conversations, ask questions and have a community of like-minded Small Church leaders supporting each other.
For the rest of us who are doing well in our churches, or who at least aren’t feeling the need to enter a search term like “I am a failure”, I ask you to join me in prayer for the unknown people behind those searches.
We need each other. Especially on Mondays.
So what do you think? Do you have any ideas how we can help each other more?
We want to hear from you. Yes, you!
Enter your comment right below this post and get in on the conversation.
(Sad Clown photo from Audrey Watters • Flickr • Creative Commons license)
