In Praise of Small Churches

Recently, nearly half the congregation surged forward to lay hands on a fellow member as he was ordained campus pastor to nearby Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They were kids, senior citizens; professors, barely literate; poor, prosperous, in between; people with Asian, Caribbean, European, and North American accents.

The moment showed how much this small church has changed. Like many Christian Reformed Churches in Canada, the one in Halifax was founded by Dutch immigrants. They didn’t worship in English till the early 1960s.

In 1978 the congregation changed its name to All Nations Christian Reformed Church. And by 2000, All Nations CRC reported its membership as 28% Dutch Canadian, the rest from other nations.

“At Pentecost, we’ve asked people to say John 3:16 in their first language. One year we had more than a dozen languages,” says John Barnstead, who began attending back when the congregation met in a converted Victorian home.

This small strong congregation knows better than to try to be all things to all people. It does what smaller congregations are uniquely suited to do—worshiping and eating together, loving God and neighbor. And it’s working through growing pains with grace. Read more