As I was preparing for ministry, my pastor told me not to worry about the size of the church because I was God’s man. God would place the one in the church He decided was the qualified candidate and it was my job to follow God’s leading. He also taught me that it takes time to grow a church and if the church did not embark upon a fast growth that I just needed to stay faithful to preaching the Word. I have practiced this and followed what I believed was the hand of God leading me. I first started as a single pastor in a rural church that had an average attendance of thirty-five from birth to adult. That was a sweet ministry and I was able, by God’s grace, to see God use me in that ministry. Did we go from 35 to 350? No. But we did see God grow people in beautiful ways and saw people give their hearts to Jesus. Thus that church was very instrumental in my life and as God opened doors for me to move to other churches it has been a wonderful time. However, I have never been pastor of a church that has run over 250 in Worship services.
It is from that background that I, along with 80% of SBC pastors, understand that we are just as important to the SBC as a pastor that serves in a church that averages 500, 750, 1000, 1500, or 2000 and above. Do not get me wrong, I do understand that the pastors serving in those churches have different skills and gifts but as for filling the role of pastor church size does not diminish or establish their importance. If we ever begin distinguishing pastors based on the size of churches they serve we have violated James 2:9. It is this type of violation that I want to point out in a recent article.
In his recent blog article, which was picked up by Baptist Press, Dr. Al Mohler took on Pastor Terry Jones for burning the Qur’an. Read more
