Note: I shared this thought at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada’s (Canadian Union) Executive Board Year-End Meeting in November 2022.
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The Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference has the largest territory of any conference in the world. The conference covers a total area of 3,392,023 square kilometres. This covers the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the territory of Nunavut.
To give you an idea of how big this conference is, all of the countries that Canadians love to visit in the winter can easily fit inside the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference:
Mexico
Guatemala
Honduras
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Panama
Columbia
The irony is that we have less than 4,200 members and are one of the smaller conferences in the North American Division.
On May 1, 2022, I started my job at the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference.
The first thing I did was get information about the conference. I studied the data and planned to meet with the leaders of half of the 41 congregations by October 2022. As of this writing, I have met with the leaders of 28 congregations.
When I looked at the church data for the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference on eAdventist, I saw that more than 73 percent of our congregations fall into the “small church” category, which means they have less than 100 members.
I asked Cathy from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada (SDACC) for information about the church in Canada. The information she gave me was fascinating.
63% of the congregations in Canada fall into the “small church” category.
But we can be sure that if we count how many people attend church, the number of small churches will be higher (versus membership in the books).
So, it’s safe to assume that 70–75 percent of Adventist churches in Canada are small churches with fewer than 100 attending members.
And yet, since 2010, I’ve noticed that the church in general, tend to celebrate large churches and great numbers.
I have read official Adventist publications that laud big numbers on baptisms. And I praise God for the job being accomplished in other regions of the world.
However, what does it say to conferences and regions that do not have 800 baptisms annually? When the church glorifies and celebrates high numbers in official publications, what message does it convey?
Another example: the North American Division (NAD) hosts a summit for only LARGE conference presidents. Yes, I confirmed with the NAD that there is no leadership summit for SMALL conference presidents.
At the last General Conference (GC) Session in St. Louis, the GC even had guests on stage who were among the 2,000 individuals baptized!
Over two thousand people!
Wow!
While seated at the GC session in St. Louis, I thought, “Two thousand people is equivalent to the population of Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, where our church has fewer than twenty people!”
So, I decided that in my first quarter as an administrator for the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference, I would prioritize listening and learning from local elders, leaders, and pastors.
Weyburn Seventh-day Adventist Church, Saskatchewan
After receiving excellent feedback from small-church leaders and district pastors, I’ve learned that most small-church members prefer a pastor who is loving over a visionary leader who seeks to transform the church.
If these small congregations had the option, they would prefer a compassionate shepherd to a visionary leader.
A NAD article I read struck me as patronizing and patriarchal. The author concludes (the NAD took the story down, so I can’t link to the source) that the lack of growth among small churches is because their members are unhealthy and constantly at odds with one another and that it would be better for the administration to close these churches and plant new ones.
I can’t picture myself telling Grandma Mazier that! She and the other twenty Adventists in Dauphin and Winnipegosis are faithful Adventists who love and support the church’s mission! They are overjoyed that the conference chose a caring pastor for them instead of a visionary one.
This is almost the opposite of several books on “church growth” written by NAD experts and “gurus” who stress vision, objectives, and goals!
Most books about “church growth” were written by pastors/administrators who led churches with more than 60 active members but not from churches with less than 20 active members in towns of less than 2,000 people.
This is a big challenge and paradigm shift for how to serve and minister to smaller congregations and communities effectively.
Let me share with you some of the things I’ve learned over the past eight months, and I pray that God will show us how to deal with this challenge.
First, I believe most pastors are called into ministry because they want to serve God and help people. But real challenges come with serving in small churches and districts.
Here are some of the challenges my pastors of small churches shared with me:
Low Tithes and Offerings
The most common challenge facing small churches is a lack of financial resources. With few members and often inadequate giving, it can be challenging to afford a full-time pastor, let alone balance local church budgets.
Not only do small church pastors have to deal with low tithes and offerings, but they also often don’t have access to the same resources as their counterparts in larger churches in the cities. This can make it challenging to lead and equip their congregations effectively.
One small-church pastor wanted to apply for ADRA funding to help Ukrainian refugees in his community. However, his small church couldn’t even come up with the local contributions required in the application template.
Lack of Leaders
In addition to financial struggles, small churches often lack the workforce to function fully. With only a handful of active members, finding enough people to fill the essential roles for a church to run smoothly can be challenging.
One church I visited had only ten active members.
Another church I engaged in didn’t even have a clerk and a treasurer. So, the pastor did it all.
Jadedness Amongst Membership
Small churches are not immune to the problem of cynicism and apathy that plagues many small congregations. Many members of small churches have become jaded and lost sight of what it means to be part of a community of faith. Why?
Pastors rarely serve in their district or church for three years.
One church showed me a wall of pastors with years of service under their portraits. They pointed out how long the pastors stayed in their community before transferring to a larger church or conference.
One church shared with me that when their new pastor arrived, he emphasized that the only way to grow the church was through small group ministry. “I guess that was his thesis for his MDiv or DMin….” And this local church leader told me… “Pastor Charles, we have been a small church for more than ten years… we are already doing small group meetings every Sabbath.”
Pastor Burnout
Small churches can be much work with a minimal payoff, and pastors are often burned out from all the demands placed on them.
I have met with one pastor who told me that the administration put so much pressure on him to increase the tithe and offerings and bring more baptisms. He also commented that the administration provides books, strategies, and resources (from the NAD) that don’t make sense to small churches and only add to the guilt he already is bearing for not providing tangible results in the monthly pastoral report.
Because of the pressure to perform and deliver results, small church pastors get discouraged.
I sat with one pastor who mentioned that it was too easy for him to get bogged down by all he felt he must do and all he thought he was lacking. He sees the potential for his church/district but can’t seem to get things moving in the right direction.
As a result, discouragement sets in, making it difficult to maintain motivation.
Limited Vision
Many small churches I have engaged in lack vision for the community—not just among their members but also among their leaders.
A pastor shared with me that he found it challenging to create momentum and keep everyone moving in the same direction without a clear sense of direction. He also pointed out that it was tough to lead a small church to think of a vision when the average age of the church members and leaders is 65+. One suggested solution was to hire a “Bible worker.”
Large Church over Small Church
This is related to point number 3. Some pastors enter into ministry with a heart for serving in small communities but long for the big city or a large congregation. The small-church members notice this.
Our universities (Burman, Andrews, Walla Walla, etc.) have not prepared our graduates to serve and love smaller churches and small communities. The grass always looks greener on the other side.
Another pastor shared with me (at his exit interview) the reason why he applied to a larger conference and a larger church is because he wants to experience tangible results on evangelism and church growth. He is tired of serving small church districts that don’t provide the results he wants to experience.
My pastors and local leaders have taught me these six challenges over the past eight months.
So, how do you solve these six challenges?
“I don’t know” is the honest answer.
Yes, I know how to deal with these problems. And I have the solutions.
But how can I say that my ideas and solutions are better than those of my pastors, who work with the people every day?
I haven’t been in pastoral ministry for more than ten years, and even though I was a very successful church-planter and pastor of small churches and helped them grow, I am no longer in touch with reality.
It would be arrogant of me to say and insist that just because my ideas and methods from ten years ago worked in Vancouver and Northern British Columbia, these ideas and approaches will work in St. Wahlberg, Saskatchewan or The Pas, Manitoba.
For now, I can only take refuge in Romans 8:26-27. God knows how hard it is for small churches and their pastors to do their jobs. God knows that even though our spirits are willing, our bodies are weak. But the Spirit intercedes for us, even for the unspoken needs of small churches and pastors of small churches.
I will continue to listen and seek the Holy Spirit.
