Streams of Mercy

There’s a wonderful article in this week’s Presbyterian Outlook – “Big Lessons from Little Churches,” by Katy Shevel. She reminds us that small worshiping communities have been the primary means for the body of Christ to gather and worship throughout history. “Members of small churches are imaginative, scrappy survivors … not a problem to be solved, but instead a part of God’s solution.”

Shevel celebrates small churches as resourceful and creative problem solvers, knowing how to adjust and think quickly and prioritize the needs of the community. Small churches empower strong lay leaders. In churches with few members, essentially everyone has an opportunity to assume a leading role in the daily operations of congregational life. Small churches prioritize relationships. Shevel observes that a small congregation is like an “extended family.“

“Small-church saints make it their personal responsibility to celebrate milestones with you, and they show up for you in your darkest moments with a casserole. Prayer requests and community announcements in small churches go on and on and on. The church family as a whole takes time to listen to what each person is saying, often asking each announcement to be repeated at least once because everyone knows that Gladys sits in the back, and can’t hear well.”

At their best, small churches are models of Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians 4:2 to bear “with one another in love.”

Shevel celebrates the fact that small churches live into the reality of loss.

“Small-church wisdom teaches us to find hope even in our losses, to see that God’s grace prevails in and through all the empty spaces in our pews. After all, each space in every pew reminds us that we are a part of something so much larger than ourselves, that we are all members of the eternal family of God that stretches far beyond the limits of this lifetime.”

Giving thanks for Jackson Springs Presbyterian Church and for those streams of mercy never ceasing, carrying us through this life to the life to come.

Elizabeth