Co-Laboring Churches

I am in my 25th year of ministry. The cultural and religious landscape has changed dramatically during my time. Numbers do not tell the whole story, but they do say something. After years of statistical decline in multiple areas, we welcome good news from recent denominational reports and evangelical surveys. We celebrate trends upward in membership, attendance, and spiritual hunger. At the same time, we continue to grapple with the strangeness of our current reality. One of the ways local churches are different is they are simply smaller. According to Lifeway Research polls, in 2000, the median size of a local church was 137. Today, the median size is 65. Churches are generally half the size they were a generation ago.

Other realities that accompany this size difference include growing numbers of bivocational and covocational ministers and the decline of regular attendance among churchgoers. Fewer people attend worship weekly. More people attend monthly. Therefore, it is possible for a church not to lose anyone and show statistical decline.

The typical local church is small. This is not necessarily worse or unhealthy or defeated—just different. With fewer resources, a smaller workforce, and momentum loss, it would be easy for local church people to feel frustration or even despair. But what if God has something new for these different days? The Spirit who hovered over the waters in creation, hovered over Mary’s womb, and hovered over Jesus’ tomb, is the same Spirit who hovers over local churches today, seeking to bring abundant life.

A new thing the Spirit is doing involves the collaboration of local churches for Kingdom work. One instance involves a couple of Nazarene churches in the same town. One has plenty of square footage, including a gymnasium, but they have fewer people. The other church has an ample workforce of servants, but they deal with space limitations. These two churches collaborated for an Upward Sports ministry. On their own, neither church was able to make it work. Together, the Spirit used them to significantly impact their community. Other instances involve local churches partnering for Vacation Bible School and special seasonal services. Some churches collaborate for mission trips, and more churches are working together to plant churches. By themselves, many churches lack. But churches working together offers a different story.

The Greek word is synergia, where we get our word synergy. Paul used a form of this word several times in his epistles, describing the collaborative effort of churches and people for the mission of God.

The better part of 2 Corinthians is an appeal for fundraising. More importantly, it is an appeal for synergy. Paul, through this fundraising effort, is drawing local churches together toward the common cause of assisting the church in Jerusalem. Together, empowered by the Spirit, these churches can produce a greater result than the sum of their separate efforts. One plus one does not always equal two. When the Spirit is involved, one plus one equals “immeasurably more.”

The Church of the Nazarene began with collaboration. We are organized (globally, in regions, by fields, by districts, even in district mission zones) for collaboration. Some leaders note that our denomination has a fourth unstated core value which is threaded through our three core values: connection. We are a connected people. Being connected helps us become more Christian, more holy, and more missional!

Local churches can lean into our DNA by seeking creative partnerships with other local churches for Kingdom work. Doing so requires us not to view other churches as competition. It requires us to care less about who receives credit, glory, or accolades. It requires a spirit of humility, a desire to collaborate, and the conviction that the mission of God takes precedence over our own plans or efforts.

When churches find themselves smaller than they once were, church leaders may spend energy trying to get bigger. Maybe we should focus less on getting bigger and focus more on getting together. We are co-laborers (collaborators!) for the mission of God in our communities and across our world. Churches working together may be the Spirit’s way of breathing new life and fresh energy into local churches for the days ahead.

Rev. Daron Brown lives and pastors in Waverly, Tennessee, with his wife, Katie, and children, Kendall, Parker, and Macy