This is the third article in the series on the importance of small churches. The introduction article presented the reason for the series, and part 1 dealt with the foundational truth of the gospel and the Bible. To read these articles, click on the linked words.
When I first arrived at Parkway Baptist Church, I found myself in one of the most difficult situations ministry families face. I had to start at my new position, while my wife and children had to stay at our house three states away. The plan was simple: get to my new ministry, find an inexpensive month-to-month rental so my family could move up with me, and then buy our next house once our current one sold. The way the members of Parkway responded to my self-inflicted family crisis displayed the love that people experience over and over again at our church. A wonderful couple immediately provided me room and board as I began my ministry. Along with this Christian hospitality came several invites to meals from other church members. The church also allowed me to travel back to see my family as often as I could get away. Eventually, I found a pretty rustic 2 bedroom and a closet they called a third for a price my family could afford while still paying on our mortgage. When moving day came, twenty people showed up to help us move in half of our possessions (the rest remained in our staged house). Of course, the next Sunday, the church held a pounding for us that came with plenty of can goods, paper products, and gift cards to the local grocery store and Walmart.
Needless to say, our family felt very loved by their generosity. Then unexpectedly we received a gift from an anonymous family that covered our rent in the apartment for the first five months. Add to that, when we finally sold our house and bought one in our church field, the people who moved us into the apartment showed up again to move us into the house.
Some will chalk such actions up to the energy a church feels at the arrival of a new pastor, but this was more than that. As I began to acquaint myself with my new congregation, I kept hearing story after story of great displays of love and then received firsthand experience of love in action. When a tornado struck a family’s home, the first people there, even before the police, were church members who helped sift through the rubble for keepsakes and important papers. When a church member has surgery, a couple in our church sits with the family in the waiting room. When someone loses a family member, church member or not, our church provides a meal at our facility at no cost to the family and one of our members sits at their house during the funeral to prevent robberies. When a retired minister from another church in our community passed away from cancer, our church adopted his family and provided for their bills, meals, and necessities. Read more
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