Quit Blaming Small Churches For Struggling – Help Them Succeed

This is a challenging time for everyone. And churches are no exception.

More churches are struggling now than ever before, and more churches are likely to close in the next few years than we’ve prepared ourselves to handle.

Most of those failing churches are small and struggling to begin with. Because of that, I’ve actually heard some church leaders essentially say “good riddance” to them. If they can’t cut it in the real world, the feeling seems to be, it’s their fault and they need to close.

(This is the second in a three-part series that started with, Why Are We So Bad At Helping Struggling Small Churches? It will conclude on Friday with, How To Make More High-Quality, Low-Cost Resources Available To Small Churches, in which we’ll talk about some important, practical starter steps to help us get better at this.)

This Is On Us

Of course, there are some unhealthy small churches led by toxic leaders who have ignored all the caution signs, turned a deaf ear to wise advice and were finally forced to succumb to their inevitable closure.

But that’s not universal. It’s not even typical.

What is typical is that too many small churches are not getting the help they need to stay strong, vibrant and healthy. The fault for that is not on them (not entirely, anyway), it’s on us.

Us.

Church leadership writers, bloggers, podcasters and curriculum designers who barely acknowledge small churches unless it’s to tell them to get their numbers up.

Us.

Denominational officials who spend more time with large and fast-growing churches than the small, struggling ones.

Us.

Church members who leave a small church where they could serve, to go to a big church that serves them.

Us.

Why Aren’t We Doing More For Them?

Yes, this sounds harsh. And I acknowledge that the problem is not as universal as I’ve framed it. There are good, godly people in all those positions who are working hard to help struggling small churches. And there are wonderful, healthy large churches that offer an amazing array of opportunities for service and discipleship.

But we’re not doing enough.

Why?

Sometimes it’s a lack of attention. After leaders move into larger ministries and churches it’s easy to forget that big ministries – and the big budgets that go with them – are not the norm.

Sometimes it’s about money. Creating resources for large and growing churches pays more than creating resources for ones that are small and struggling. And I get it – you need to cover the costs of creating high-quality resources.

But most of the time it’s what I stated in my previous article, Why Are We So Bad At Helping Struggling Small Churches? We don’t value the role, the struggles or the blessings of the small church as much as we should.

Because smaller things are less obvious, our attention tends to stray. So we must be intentional about bringing our focus back.

(Photo by Mark McGregor | Unsplash)