It's small but it's home |
“As there are no little people in
God’s sight, so there are no little places. To be wholly committed
to God in the place where God wants him-this is the creature
glorified.”
Francis
Schaeffer, from “No Little People, No Little Places”
I live
and work in a small town. I pastor a small fellowship in a community
that boasts several equally small congregations. But in our little
place God is doing wonderfully large things.
Every
Tuesday morning for many years running a small group of pastors and
ministry leaders has gathered at Bob's Grill to have breakfast and
pray together. There's usually a lot of laughter and lighthearted
banter followed by an earnest time of intercession for our community
and the surrounding area. While announcements are allowed it is not a
meeting. It's brothers and sisters (one of our membership is a female
pastor and frequently wives show up as well) getting together to
encourage and pray for one another. When Norm lost his wife of 52
years last year, we were his grief support group. When Kirk had some
health issues that required hospitalization, we were his chaplains.
With tongue-in-cheek homage to the movie of the same name, “The
Breakfast Club” is how I refer to it. We minister in different
settings and different theological traditions but that's beside the
point. It is a brotherhood and our habit of eating and praying
together on a regular basis has led to swapping pulpits from time to
time, prayer gatherings together for our community and joint worship
gatherings. After Norm lost his wife, with my leadership's okay we
shut down our place one Sunday and went to join his simply as a sign
that we loved him. This is no small thing.
It's easy to miss this small building |
A
couple of years ago, in response to the growing Somali refugee
population in nearby Barron, a handful of Christian fellowships –
three from Chetek among them – were instrumental in launching The
Well International. Our mission is to affect our Somali neighbors
with the love of Jesus Christ through tutoring, English language
lessons and other such services. We rent a small facility in Barron,
have hired both a Director and an English teacher and through the
director's efforts have attracted a handful of volunteers to serve.
Who among the town fathers of Barron back in the 19th
Century would have thought that a mosque would number among the
religious gathering places in that city of 3,000 all these years
later? I'm sure none of them. But 600 members of the Somali diaspora
reside in the county seat now but the good news is a group of
disciples of Jesus work alongside them in hopes of seeing God do the
impossible in our small county: establish a Somali fellowship. That's
not a big goal. That's setting your sights on the moon. In the four
or five years that there has been intentional Christian witness to
this small slice of Africa, many significant relationships have been
formed and, especially recently, important dialogues of faith have
occurred. Think of them like Mount Carmel-show-downs only with far
less drama. Each group is seeking to convert the other but the
important thing is that we are having this conversation! This, in
terms of benchmarks, is huge.
The House of Prayer on its inaugural day |
This
past spring, a group of a dozen people from a few of the fellowships
in our community began a House of Prayer right downtown. They are
open every Thursday night from 6:30-9:30 and during a usual set there
are a handful of individuals with a heart to pray for our city who
gather together to worship and intercede. Like last night. I didn't
get there until over an hour into the set. Rick and Sandy, the
ex-officio leaders of HOP, were present along with one of their
daughters and little Elijah, the 1 year-old son of a young woman from
our fellowship who has been living with them since he was born. My
daughter had led the first worship set. My son was leading the next.
Another couple from the Alliance fellowship in town were also on
hand. For three hours this small group sat in the gathering room and
invoked his presence in our community in greater measure. This, too,
is no small thing.
A matter of perspective |
As you
would expect in a small community among small fellowships there are
small endeavors going on regularly whether it's the men's and women's
groups that gather at United Methodist on Tuesdays (guys meet early
morning, ladies meet for lunch) or Kirk's early morning Tuesday
prayer group that meets at the HOP. And these are just the ones that
I am aware of. Who knows how many others are gathering together in
homes, at eateries or in church basements to read the Word and pray
together. But the fact that our town is small, our fellowships are
small and our groups are small does not add up to “smallness” as
in inconsequential or insignificant. As Francis Schaeffer so aptly
pointed out in the same essay as his oft-quoted “no little people”
piece,
Nowhere more than in America are
Christians caught in the twentieth-century syndrome of size. Size
will show success. If I am consecrated, there will necessarily be
large quantities of people, dollars, etc. This is not so.
Not only does God not say that size and spiritual power go together,
but he even reverses this (especially in the teaching of Jesus) and
tells us to be deliberately careful not to choose a place too big for
us. We all tend to emphasize big works and big places, but
all such emphasis is of the flesh. To think in such terms
is simply to hearken back to the old, unconverted, egoist,
self-centered Me. This attitude, taken from
the world, is more dangerous to the Christian than fleshly amusement
or practice. It is the flesh.
Norm, the Caleb
among us in the shadow of his 80th year, makes a point of
reminding anyone who cares to listen to him that in all his years of
ministry spanning over 40 years he has never been a part of such a
fellowship as the one that exists here. “It's not just that we're
fellow pastors and so we get together to socialize with one another.
You all have my back and I have yours.” He rarely says that without
becoming a bit teary-eyed. Apparently to Norm this is no small thing
either.
Blurred to protect his identity |
We've had a recent
addition to the Breakfast Club. I wouldn't necessarily mention it
here if I thought my blog had a nation-wide following. But since
mostly my readers include my mom and few other mildly interested fans
I think I can share this without his secret getting too loose. Mick
is the pastor of Faith Baptist Church, the largest game in town in
terms of regular attendance (perhaps 200 on a Sunday morning). I
lovingly refer to Faith as “the Walled City”. It's roots deep in
separatistic Baptist tradition, by such tradition and habit
corporately they have a hard time mixing with others – even with
fellow Baptist fellowships of the same ilk in surrounding
communities. But Mick has begun to join us at the table. He enjoys
the fellowship – and we enjoy his. Admittedly he usually sits with
his back against the wall for fear that some of the old guard might
spy him eating with persons of such questionable theology as we but
he has been joining us all the same. Despite the fact that I am a
tongue-talker and Carrie is a female pastor, he's willing to be seen
with us at the same table his critics be danged. Something new is
afoot. And it is no small thing and it makes me thank God all over
again for being assigned to such a small post in this small town.
3 comments:
I, for one, am so thankful that pastors in our community are meeting together. You all have so many gifts to bring to the mix. There is no reason why you shouldn't continue to fellowship with, pray with, and encourage one another . I am equally thankful that congregations are finally intermingling. Why in the world was it "us" and "them" for so long?? It used to break my heart.
Hurray for the Breakfast Club!
a clarion essay that rings true over and over again. keep pulling the rope.
Finally, I'm getting caught up with reading the blogs I normally follow. Glad you're back on track.
Also, I'm sure they already considered calling it the Chetek House of Prayer, right? Who doesn't want to go to place called CHOP?
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