I was reading a few days ago a couple of articles related to the importance of attending a small church, and I was struck by the way some writers and even pastors of large churches refer in a good way to this subject.
“A lot of people would like to worship in a small church if they could find a good one.
That’s what I keep hearing, anyway”. Karl Vaters.
According to the above quote, the author of this sentence says in his article “Signs of Life: 7 ways to find a great small church to attend and serve”, that it is important not to look for super detailed and even great looking buildings in these small churches, because due to not many members and little financial income they do what they can.
In many of these churches you will find quality experiences, and these are often very different from the big churches, for example you will be able to meet all the members and get closer to them.
In my own experience, I can say how blessed I have been to attend a church of no more than two hundred members. Together with my family, even when we were in Chile, we prayed to know which church we would attend, considering that I attended a large church for a year and a half near where we lived. This church helped us a significantly in the ministry of planting a bilingual church in Lancaster, we had many ties with the pastors and leaders, which could have made our choice simple, but rather, we decided to discern God’s will for our lives and so we did.
In deciding to join Ephrata UZ Church, we believed that God had sent us to fulfill His plan, to “be a blessing to the congregation and together grow in the gifts and ministries God has given us”. It is not that I was ungrateful to the previous church that gave us their support, on the contrary, I met with the pastors of that church and let them know my gratitude towards them, but I also let them know that our decision was based on the following; “We know that in a big church there can be fifty or more people that can do the same as me, but not in a smaller church”, they agreed with me and encouraged me to participate in where God had sent us.
“be a blessing to the congregation and together grow in the gifts and ministries God has given us.” Mick Gonzalez
Once we were installed in our new church, we could see several strengths of this church, one of them was the love for the unreached, not only praying for them but also sending missionaries to foreign places for years and supporting them financially. We have seen their joy in everything daily: the kindness, the gratitude in the simple and the well-being that they give to all the members and to those who are not.
Now I understand why this church is still standing, because it has embraced God’s call to the nations and has made it its own. Whenever I think of a church with great values, I can point to the one I attend, a small church with a big heart.
By MICK GONZALEZ, Equipping pastor of Ephrata UZ Church
