Getting Unstuck: Innovative Small Churches Find Alternatives, Not Excuses

Problems don’t become excuses when we say “we can’t do it that way.” They become excuses when we say “we can’t do it any other way, either.”

Pastoring a small church is not for the faint of heart.

It involves ministering to and with people at every level of their lives. Spiritual, social, financial, emotional and more. All with extremely limited resources at every level, including time, staffing, facility, finances and more.

Then, even if we’re managing all of that complexity well, we often face criticism from people both inside and outside the church (not to mention inside our own hearts and heads) if that wonderful, complex, multi-faceted organism called the local church isn’t keeping pace with expected numerical growth rates.

This is when we get tempted to offer explanations (aka excuses) for our lack of growth, even though other churches have overcome harder challenges than our church. Read More