ONE CHURCH, ONE MISSION

SUPPORTING FOCUSED MINISTRY

Something that many small churches are finding as a base for regeneration and continued relevance is recognizing that they will never be a church with all things for all people. Instead, they discern a focus that everyone shares, that everyone has enthusiasm for, and that folks are more than willing to support both financially and with direct involvement. 

My first parish was in Ludlow, KY—a working class community directly across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, OH. There were several churches within the community, none of them large—the town itself was home to only a couple thousand people. Most of the congregations struggled to maintain themselves. Then, the ministerial association made decision to really work together instead of in competition. Each church realized that they had one or two things that directly engaged the community of Appalachians that comprised the town. These were folk who fled the coal fields in Eastern Kentucky, coming to Cincinnati, hoping there would be work. But unless they were skilled labor in fields like aerospace or chemicals, there was nothing for them. So, each church figured out what they could do best for these folks, then focused on that thing, leaving the other engagement points to the other congregations. Thus, the Pentecostals became the worship center; the Baptists, the children and youth center; the Catholics, the soup kitchen; the Presbyterians, the walk-in center to get help negotiating the morass of social services, utility companies, and landlords; and so on. 

A small church need not worry about providing a ministry front a mile wide and an inch deep. Instead, it can assess the talent and gifts within a community, and then use those gifts effectively and efficiently, creating a ministry face for its host community. Worship, Bible study, and congregational care continue, but the main focus will be on a single mission outreach that attracts interested volunteers and gives each person in the congregation something to do. In Ludlow, prayer gatherings, worship services, and Bible studies all happened, but were seen as nourishment for the work of being a walk-in center for the needy. 

As more churches adopt this outlook and vision for their community life, presbyteries need to adapt, as well. The needs of a niche ministry are going to be specific. While there will probably always be a need for a general resource center at the presbytery level, there also needs to come access to very specific tools that arise within the congregations. In order to effectively develop such a model for a resource center, presbyteries will need close and direct engagement with member congregations, walking alongside them as they refine their visions and develop their ministries. This move means an overhaul to such universal presbytery programs as COM liaisons. Usually, these connections were basic, once every two year visits to get a quick overview of congregational life and the pastoral relationship. Now, though, they need to be continuous and go a lot deeper than before, giving a presbytery the chance to respond to needs within a church rather than reacting to crises. It will also shift the old pattern of the denomination producing resources to be distributed among the churches to a presbytery building its own resources locally for the work being done. That means there may well be a system of sharing within a presbytery—one church shares its pool of resources with another doing something similar work in its own community. Again, the dynamic will be ground-up instead of top-down. 

If more congregations adopt a niche ministry approach, there may come a need to build parishes—several congregations linked together to provide a range of ministries to an area, no one church doing everything, but each church offering one or two ministries relevant to the area that they are able to staff and finance. The presbytery’s task will be to organize the parishes, bringing people together who may not realize there are others with whom to join, or that such a wider community is even possible. There will be a need for access to deep demographic studies to help a congregation refine its choice for ministry based on who actually lives around the church. This organization includes education on niche ministry, help with pastor searches, and reworking how such searches are done—we are not looking for a generalist, but rather someone who can specifically guide, shepherd, and tend the the spirituality of our very focused ministry. We saw this work in Kentucky. While not officially a parish because of the multiplicity of denominations, we created the basic structure. As one generation of pastors moved on, some congregations became very intentional about whom they sought as a replacement, knowing they needed a specific skill set. Presbyteries will need to be ready to assist such a search. 

Immediately, we can see how such an approach ensures the continued relevance of a presbytery—engagement is everything! Congregations will need the presbytery; and the presbytery can meet those needs, becoming an essential player in the overall ministry throughout a region.