Continuing to look at the unique challenges of ministry in a small town:

#5 — It can be very lonely trying to have BIG IMPACT in a SMALL TOWN.

If you are in a small town and you are trying to initiate change, if you are trying to do new things, be cutting-edge, you will be met with huge resistance. And then as I said earlier, these people who resist you also are a huge part of your life because small towns are one big, inter-connected family. That can make it really, really lonely. Even when things are going great.

We planted New Hope, so it was totally a cake walk compared to those of you called to TRANSITION a church. Wow…there is an extra special place in heaven for you guys. Two of the best people I have seen do this in a small town are DWIGHT MASON and SHANNON O’DELL. They will both be featured speakers at THE STICKS. Blessings to those saints and to those of you called to do that.

But even in a church plant, things like the decision to go multi-site or start a new service is twice as hard because you are the only one for MILES AND MILES talking such non-sense. As far as I know, we might have more multi-sites than any other church in OHIO. Not trying to impress, just saying…I don’t know anyone else who is operating as many sites…so the talk of this stuff was major radical here. Some people still think that “Shout to the Lord” is a little too modern.

So when we bust out Coldplay, Seether, etc. that really causes some hearing aides to feed back. Which is one cool thing…and I mean that. When I see a ton of silver hair, I know we are onto something! More to come on that next week when I talk about the amazing things that being in a small town can bring to ministry.

Until then…be encouraged in your calling. It is tough all the way around when you are out on the leading edge for the cause of Christ. I just found out that 7 of the churches in the city where our multi-site in China is located were shut down and the leaders arrested. Sounds like the New Testament. And those of us sitting on our fat American a@%#$ will never understand that completely. I know I don’t. It’s so easy when compared to that story. Crap.

But that still doesn’t always battle the loneliness bug and the feeling that we want to give up. There must be more…right? Yes. Let’s connect. Let’s form a community. Let’s be there for one another. Let’s make a statement. Let’s love one another and press on even when we feel we don’t have another ounce to give.

Live out your calling. Fight the good fight. Stop dreaming about bigger and better, and live out a life of obedience right where HE has you! You might never write a book or speak at a conference or have followers on a blog…but the LIVES CHANGED FOR ETERNITY IS ALL THAT MATTERS! Really…it is.

Blessings and peace!
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Doing ministry in a small town? Check out the sticks conference coming in just 2 weeks!

Continuing to look at the unique challenges of ministry in a small town:

#4 — The Economy Stinks Here

So…if you thought that the economy was bad in your bigger town. Ouch. The small town economy suffers even worse. Take for instance that we had one factory leave town and it impacted our towns budget base by 40-60% was the word. Double ouch.

When you lose your job around here, it is much harder to fall into anything else, and if you do, it is much less on the pay scale.

When you run a larger church in a small town, you have to be extra wise, crafty and creative when it comes to all things budget. I remember in the early days that people had a really hard time grasping the total budget with plenty of zeroes on the end. It is not the norm for our smaller communities. We have scaled back the budget several times and are in need of much more staff and funds to operate in a large church way, not retreat. This is where extreme creativity comes in.

For instance…we employ plenty of people who are 1/4 time and most of them do work way beyond their pay grade. Not that I want 1/4 people working full-time hours, but when you find someone who is outstanding in an area, let them run wild within healthy boundaries. I used to assume everyone needed to be full time to be effective.

We have become the masters of making things look really expensive and classy when they really are not. Take for instance the set design that is in this set of head shots they were doing with me. You will see this set at the sticks (it is much more ornate than this too, this is only a small part of it). It looks like it cost $2,000, but it was really $300. We also choose to keep our sets up much longer, as we used to change every series, now we just make some tweaks to it, and let it roll longer. I could go on…

This fall we are doing a joint mailer with another great church in the area to save capital. It’s all about being obedient and creative. I have staff who would like to see us withdraw and huddle up in this horrible economy. I choose to be creative, to continue building HIS KINGDOM, which ultimately is OBEDIENCE. There are still people who don’t know Christ who are counting on us to reach out to them despite the messy economy. I will continue to be crafty and wise at the same time.

No excuses. Let’s get it done!

Blessings and peace!
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Doing ministry in a small town? Check out the sticks conference coming in just 2 weeks!

Continuing to look at the unique challenges of ministry in a small town:

#3 — Most people do not desire to come to Mayberry.

Crap…it doesn’t matter that you are a large church doing cutting-edge things. When they see where you are, it might as well be Siberia.

Seriously, unless there is a connection here or in one of our multi-site towns, people just don’t want to come to smallsville. Come on, we have stoplights (4 to be exact).

The feeling that bigger is better is rampant. And while there are benefits to being in a metro area…I bet you can’t leave your car running and unlocked to go into the store, and if you have a heart attack while inside, the car will still be there, just out of gas when you go back to pick it up.

What have we done to combat this? We are working really hard to raise up and train leaders from the inside. It is working so far…we are having many people commit and step up, and some of these people I would put up next to anyone in America! It takes time and patience to develop from within. Be prepared!

Some of our staff struggle at times due to lack of experience and leadership skills in a larger organization(as do I:), but we are making progress every year…slowly but surely. All farm team here…very few free agents! Since we are growing and doing some cool stuff, I have had a few friends come or desire to come join our team, but again, there was a connection.

As a matter of fact…I am heading to a mentoring session right now with a guy who was far from Christ a year and a half ago, whose talents are off the charts and will be on our team one day…stay tuned, more to come tomorrow.

Blessings and peace!
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Doing ministry in a small town? Check out the sticks conference coming in just 2 weeks!

Continuing to look at the unique challenges of ministry in a small town:

#2–Everyone Knows Your Crap.

They really do. When you do actually crap, the neighborhood knows it as all our sewers are connected.

When you and your wife are having a higher volume conversation, a crowd gathers and it goes on You Tube. Make sure your windows are down, cause church people don’t know that pastor’s and wives are normal people who use normal language at times.

When someone leaves your church. You see them everywhere…and they just give you that scowl. Not that you haven’t given your all to lay it on the alter…they don’t like that high impact ministry takes vision, heart, finances and excellence, and some will never get that…so they just gossip and scowl at you and their kids punch your kids at recess.

And when you have to make a tough call and let someone go from the staff…wow, front page news complete with severance package details, and the pastor is now contributing to the demise of yet another family. As if we cut all our high performing staff for the fun of it.

Small town loyalty you say…not all the time. Maybe it is a bit better, but people are just as stubborn and prideful here. Not that I am perfect by any means…but that’s why we have a great team to help when decisions get tough.

And lastly…you can’t go ANYWHERE! The store, a ball game, school…it is a 3 hour tour! Not that I always mind it as I love our people and am a people person, but at times it gets tiring. And I am not joking…my wife doesn’t let me go out to the store or places like that often as it will really take forever to get out of there. More tomorrow!

Blessings and peace!
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Doing ministry in a small town? Check out the sticks conference coming in just 2 weeks!

I will be writing this week about the greatest challenges doing ministry in small towns. My first attempt at the multiple day format thing. So all you small town crazy pastors who follow this thing…share this with your fellow crazies! Come on…link to this thing or e-mail it on. Let the conversation begin!

#1–Very few people talk about small town ministry.

When is the last time that a major conference, article, story, or list included those in small towns? Not that I am bitter…not at all. Just stating the facts.

Big church, big town ministry while providing many principals that have driven our thinking and models, there are huge obstacles to many of the methods they use in small towns.

I did have the opportunity to share at the Leadership Network Multi-Site conference this year @ Seacoast church. I think they were shocked and pleased that as many people came to the “doing multi-site in the sticks” break-out.

The sad thing is that most people just find that small towns are irrelevant. (And sadly, we don’t present the best images in many of our small town churches.)

That is why we started THE STICKS gathering. To learn, grow and network with each other. Stop making excuses, change your schedule, ask daddy big bucks for a few hundred bucks and come on out. Let’s do this thing together.

Why am I passionate about this: I believe it takes twice the leadership to have an impacting ministry in a small town as it does in a bigger town. We’ll keep talking about why the rest of this week!

Blessings and peace!
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Doing ministry in a small town? Check out the sticks conference coming in just 2 weeks!