The Small Church Challenge

Dave and I were members of a small church back in St. Louis, many years ago.  I was a social work student, we were committed to living in the city and we were excited to attend an urban church.  The face of most urban churches in St. Louis 15 years ago was the same - a small group of primarily older couples who have held membership in the church since its heyday.  The churches are beautiful old buildings, now crumbling alongside their membership.  And the members are beautifully dedicated to their church and their city, but also to the way they have worshiped for the past 50 years.

So, when we joined the church we were young and energetic and immediately asked to be integrally involved.  We each had our own keys to the building and were responsible for our own committees.  And by the time we left that church, we were both exhausted.  For a small church to run any programs, everyone needs to be integrally involved.

When we arrived in Caracas, we joined the United Christian Church.  And we were both struck by how much it reminded us of that little urban church in St. Louis.  The church building itself is beautiful, with a pitched roof and dark wood pews and colorful stained glass windows.  It is an old building, and the non-transient members are old as well.  Much the same as in St. Louis, things change slowly and everyone is needed for any programs to run.

Dave and I held back when we arrived last year.  We don't feel called into any of the volunteer opportunities available, and still felt the burn from having exhausted ourselves at our last small church.  We went home for the summer, and we attended our home church in St. Louis a few times.  This church is large and growing and excitingly active and beautifully organized.  My kids loved going to Sunday School and Dave and I loved the worship and the preaching.  We can back to Caracas intent on helping our current church home to draw a little closer to our old church home.

I admit - my vision was tall.  Our church currently sees maybe 50 people in the pews on Sunday morning, but frequently teaches 15-20 kids in the Sunday School program.  Sunday School excited my kids in St. Louis and so I set it as a goal to see Sunday School excite my kids here in Caracas.

I volunteered to organize Sunday School for the year and to run worship for the kids.  I uber-organized our volunteers into a system of teams with two different classes and one break-out session each week.  I dialogued with my stakeholders and felt very positive about implementing this fabulous new plan.  Except, I forgot to talk to one of my stakeholders - one who represents two of the 6 volunteers and 5 of the 15 children.  And as it turned out, she was not on board with most of my suggestions.  And as it turned out, maybe no one else really felt the need for change either.

And now I'm feeling kinda funny.  On one hand, I feel a bit silly for over-enthusiastically trying to make-over our Sunday School program single-handedly.  On the other hand, I feel relieved not to have much work left to do anymore. 

I am still running worship, which has me pretty excited.  I'm looking forward to getting to know the other kids, and to seeing each of the kids begin to learn some worship songs to carry in their hearts.  That should be enough church service for this year.