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A PARISH IS A PARISH NO MATTER HOW SMALL
Mark Menacher
To paraphrase the recurrent theme in that great theological tome, Horton Hears a Who: “A parish is a parish no matter how small.”1 How true might that be? The following impressionistic portrayal of small parishes begins with the author’s impressions of having served in a variety of numerically challenged churches. This analytic (or perhaps anecdotal discussion) does not claim to be “scientific” or statistically argued from available research on this topic.2 Nonetheless, in some small way hopefully some aspects of this essay will prove useful to those serving small churches.
Raised in the Rural Church
The author’s family started attending church regularly at Christ Lutheran Church in Wyoming, Michigan when he was in fifth grade. Christ Lutheran was a cinder block box mission start of the American Lutheran Church (ALC) located in a supposedly expanding area of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which did not expand as anticipated. Despite the disappointing demographics, the parish grew until its pastor left under a cloud. The church then called an extremely well-educated pastor who nearly killed the congregation. Fearing for its existence, the congregation fired him, called another pastor returning to the ministry, and started to recover and continued to do so while the author went to university and later to seminary.
Seminary
During his first year at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, the author’s Ministry in Context (MIC) placement was at the Martin Luther Evangelical Lutheran Church in Columbus. This German-English bilingual congregation was composed mainly of Siebenbürger Sachsen (Transylvanian Saxons), who had fled Romanian communism after the Second World War. Although Columbus had considerable German heritage, this congregation largely attracted only Transylvanian Saxons, which meant that the congregation would have a limited future if the English-speaking portion of the congregation did not grow, and it did not.
During seminary, the author was one of two recipients of a Lutheran World Federation scholarship to study at the Theological Seminary in Leipzig in former East Germany a few years before the Berlin Wall came down. While there, the author undertook a student placement at the Evangelisch-Lutherische Pfarramt & Kirche Marienbrunn in South Leipzig. The oppressive communist state proved effective in helping East German churches become and remain small.
Internship
Being a bit remedial, the author completed seminary with a fifth-year internship which was served at Holy Family Lutheran Church (another cinder block box) in Cabrini-Green Homes, the “notorious” projects on Chicago’s Near North Side. Apart from the pastor’s family, the intern, and one lady with a black husband, the parish membership was all black. The church and developing school boasted offerings of $16,000 per annum which fell considerably short of its then $250,000 annual budget. The senior pastor networked extensively and very creatively to rustle up the remaining $234,000 needed to keep the church and school operating.
First Call in the United Kingdom
After graduating from seminary, the author and his new Welsh wife moved to North Wales in the United Kingdom (UK) ostensibly for one year which turned into ten. Although the author was invited to be rostered with the United Reformed Church (URC) in the UK, for theological reasons he declined. He would, however, regularly provide pulpit supply for the URC and for the Presbyterian Church of Wales during that decade. A couple of years into their stay, the author accepted a call from the Lutheran Church in Great Britain (LCiGB) to start an English-speaking congregation in Manchester, England in the church building (yet another cinder block box) of an overseas congregation of the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland - EKD). Ordained to “non-stipendiary” ministry, the author would travel twice monthly 50 miles each way to Manchester from North Wales to hold services for second generation Lutheran Poles, Latvians, Hungarians, etc., who were supposedly “dying for English language services.” Unfortunately, all those second-generation ethnic Lutherans must have died. After five years of effort, the congregation, composed mainly of Americans in the UK on business, decided to terminate the experiment.
Back in the USA
Upon returning to the US in 1999 to a troubled ELCA, the author accepted a call and became the longest serving pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Au Gres, Michigan, an historically “problem church” whose members had broken off from the town’s LCMS congregation in the wake of the Seminex controversies. When founded, St. Paul Lutheran Church took up residence in the office and laundry facility of an RV trailer park which never developed (another, though only partial, cinder block box). With a population of 840, Au Gres sported six churches which were surprisingly collaborative if not quite ecumenical.
Ministry in San Diego
Currently, the author serves St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in La Mesa, California, a suburb of San Diego. Founded in 1945, St. Luke’s church and later school grew rapidly and in its heyday had 1,100 members and three services on a Sunday. Unfortunately, shortly after the ELCA merger it called a pastor who did just about everything which a pastor should not do. Consequently, members became St. Luke’s chief export. When the subsequent pastor and the author’s predecessor
When the subsequent pastor and the author’s predecessor could not hold the rump of the scandal-ridden congregation together, the author was called to “turn the ship around.”
When the subsequent pastor and the author’s predecessor could not hold the rump of the scandal ridden congregation together, the author was called to “turn the ship around.” could not hold the rump of the scandal-ridden congregation together, the author was called to “turn the ship around.” When the author first read this congregation’s disastrous profile, he thought, “They will be lucky to get a pastor.” Eighteen years on, St. Luke’s is still looking for a pastor, and the author hopes that they will find one soon.
In recent years, the author was additionally called to serve the Deutsche Evangelische Kirche in San Diego (German Evangelical Church in San Diego) holding its once per month German service in an ELCA church facility. For a variety of reasons, after existing for 66 years this parish gathered for its final Gottesdienst on Christmas Eve 2024. Given his previous experience straddling the linguistic and cultural divides of aging ethnic entities, this congregation’s demise came as no surprise.
The Plight of Small Parishes
Though in no way comprehensive, nor perhaps even representative, the preceding, cursory autobiographical details provide the perspective for the following descriptive discussions pertaining to the plight of small parishes in some of their urban, ethnic, and rural manifestations. After a brief “analysis” of small church dynamics, some theological reflections for such churches conclude this essay. Regardless of the perspective and approach taken, few would disagree that small churches have a difficult row to hoe.
Apart from their contextual, socio-economic, and ethnic diversity, in many ways small urban, ethnic, and rural parishes seem surprisingly alike. Viewed positively, because they are small, they are by nature very interpersonal, often familial. Built into these churches is the dynamic which larger congregations seek to emulate with “small group” ministries. Such familiarity is often expressed through operational and administrative informality and simplicity. Small church members are also more likely to be quite knowledgeable, if not conversant with most or all aspects of parish life because delegating or relegating such to paid staff is not feasible. Small churches can also be well connected with their communities. In rural settings, that might mean a whole town. In a city or in the inner city, it could be a strong neighborhood identity. For ethnic parishes, strong overlap of members may exist with their respective ethnic cultural clubs or societies.
Despite their numerical paucity, small churches can become very good at pooling their resources and energy to carry out their various ministries. In turn, this can create a healthy sense of ownership for the church’s existence and mission. Rural and inner-city parishes often build collaborative intra- or interdenominational relationships, or both, to realize their wider sense of service. Due to linguistic or cultural barriers, ethnic churches are frequently inhibited or disinclined to engage more broadly.
Unfortunately, such positive aspects of small parishes are often overshadowed by discouraging, dysfunctional, and destructive dynamics which threaten congregational viability. Surprisingly, these deleterious dynamics are uncannily uniform across urban, ethnic, and rural churches despite their differing contexts and compositions. All three types of churches are oftentimes short on financial and thus personnel resources. They frequently need to use borrowed or rented spaces for church activities, and if they have their own properties, building and property maintenance becomes difficult, if not impossible. Consequently, small parishes as “church” can become and feel overlooked, isolated, and inferior which can be quite discouraging to both membership and pastoral leadership alike.
Small church membership often entails having congregational leadership of limited abilities and skills who struggle to run even a small organization. If small churches can afford a pastor, not to mention one with a family, such parishes seem obliged to install a revolving door for the not so steady stream of first call seminary graduates looking for greener pastures and bigger flocks on the Monday following their installation. The resultant lack of continuity and consistency in the pastoral office can disrupt just about every aspect of congregational life. Additionally, finding suitable church musicians, especially organists, is probably more precarious than procuring a pastor. A minimally able musician does, however, eliminate the pastor’s propensity to preach to the choir (mainly because there is no choir). If unable to call a Lutheran pastor, small congregations become tempted to hire a pastor of questionable theological provenance who sadly may also be of questionable personal or professional character, a particular danger for ethnic parishes.
Such dynamics, even in once healthy congregations, can lead to a downward spiral of decline during which the parish at some point moves into survival mode accompanied by ever more desperate attempts to stave off death. Those with vested interests in the congregation are then tempted to tighten their grip on power to the point of strangulation. In a bid to “turn the ship around,” the ever-fewer congregants become enticed by trendy, if not gimmicky “church growth” techniques applied in recipe fashion in the hope of recovering or resurrecting a glorious past, which effectively means walking backwards into the future. After all, “It’s right there in the Bible. After Jesus fed the 5,000, he took up baskets of bread. So, if we take loaves of bread and leave them at Sunday visitors’ houses, our membership will surely rise.” More effective, if pitched right, is combining Jesus being a carpenter with the Field of Dreams prosperity promise. Often badgered into sacrificing their personal and collective resources, congregants are told that a parish construction project will certainly save the day: “If you build it, they will come.”
When “they” do not come for predictable reasons, not infrequently the pastor becomes the scapegoat (see Leviticus 16:9-10) for most, if not all the congregation’s woes. As the parish-pastor relationship deteriorates, sooner or later, usually sooner, the pastor seeks opportunities or is goaded to escape. Conversely, though more occasionally, a dysfunctional pastor will project his/her pathological personality onto parishioners and then blame them for the church’s ills. This can propel the spiral of decline even faster. In aviation, at least, what might appear to be a downward spiral may actually be a spin. Recovery from a spin requires several counterintuitive control inputs to recover from a fast-approaching fatality.
A dysfunctional pastor will project his/her pathological personality onto parishioners and then blame them for the church’s ills.
Small Church Through Luther’s Eyes
Whatever analytical or anecdotal value the preceding paragraphs may have, they are by and large irrelevant. From biblical and from Lutheran theological-confessional perspectives, a congregation’s size and its individual or corporate quirks and characteristics frequently and unfortunately distract both parishioners and pastors from the nature, mission, and life of the church. In cursory manner, the following paragraphs seek to support this assertion.
As Martin Luther states in his exposition of Psalm 51, “The proper subject of theology is the sinful human being, guilty and lost, and the justifying God and saviour of the sinful human being. Whatever is sought or discussed in theology outside this subject is error and poison.”3 In the Smalcald Articles, Luther defines the nature of human sin as “unbelief, false belief, idolatry, mistrust of God, being without fear of God, presumptuousness, despair, blindness,”4 all abundantly present in small desperate churches. In his Large Catechism, Luther explicates how sin as unbelief or false belief functions, “Thus to have a god is nothing other than to trust and believe in him from one’s heart. As I have often said, the trust and the faith of the heart alone make both God and idol (Gott und Abgott). If the faith and trust are right, so is your God right. Conversely, where the trust is false and not right, then that is not the right God. For both belong together, faith and God. That upon which you hang your heart, I say, and entrust it is actually your god.”5 By trusting the serpent’s words rather than God’s word, humanity’s first parents lost both the image and likeness of God, became like the devil himself, and left the rest of humanity to be born in Adam’s image; that is in sin.6 According to Luther, the reality of such depravity cannot be truly conceived or comprehended but is itself a matter of belief.7 In short, a sinner is a sinner in any and every parish no matter how small.
The Augsburg Confession8 is particularly helpful for assessing and understanding the discouraging circumstances of small churches. Consequent to human sin (Article II), the Son of God entered sinful human reality so “that he would be a sacrifice not only for original sin but also for all other sins and to propitiate God’s wrath” (Article III). Faith in Christ grants forgiveness of sin, righteousness before God, and eternal life “not through our merits, work, or satisfaction” but “out of grace” (Article IV). To obtain such faith, God instituted the office of preaching (Predigtamt), which is giving the gospel and the sacraments, through which the Holy Spirit effects such faith as he wills (Article V). Notably, Luther did not understand this office as the domain of “clergy.”9 Perhaps most importantly, the church as a gathering of believers and its unity are created where the gospel is purely preached and the sacraments are administered according to the gospel (Article VII). Lutherans define that gathering theologically and not numerically. As Christ himself promises, where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there with them (Matthew 18:20). All statistical margins of error aside, two or three believers gathered together unquestionably constitutes an exceedingly small parish.
In Luther’s understanding of the priesthood of all believers, “whoever has crawled out of the water of baptism can boast that he (she) has been consecrated a priest, bishop, and pope, although not everyone is suited to exercise such an office.”10 Thus, in a pinch those so suited, even if not formally or extensively trained, may be called by their fellow priests to exercise the office of proclamation.11 As Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me” (John 13:20- ESV). Thus, the true church hears and heeds the voice and the call of God (John 10:27-28).12 “The call [vocatio] ... is the word by which our nature, corrupted by the devil and sin, is regenerated.”13 “Therefore, the word is not God’s word because the church says it. Instead, because the word of God is spoken, the church thus comes into being. The church does not make the word, but it is made by the word.”14 “Now, where you hear or see such a word preached, believed, confessed and accordingly lived [done = thun], have no doubt that a true ecclesia sancta catholica, a ‘Christian, holy people’ must certainly be there, even when they are very few; for God’s word does not return empty.”15
Whatever being suited to exercise the office of proclamation in a Lutheran context may fully entail; minimally, yet essentially, such officeholder(s) must capably and confidently wield the word of God properly and proficiently differentiated to address the whole human being theologically before God. The failure to do so is the devil’s work.16
The fundamental, but frequently misunderstood or disregarded theological anthropology of the New Testament understands each believer as composed of both spirit and flesh (see Romans 6:19, John 3:6, and Galatians 5:17). Lutherans frequently refer to this as simul peccator et iustus (simultaneously sinner and justified). According to Luther, “Thus ... the Christian is divided into two times. Insofar as he is flesh, he is under the law; insofar as he is spirit, he is under the gospel.”17 Furthermore, by failing to distinguish the flesh from the spirit and further by having brewed and stewed (gebrewet und gekocht) the two together in the saints, as Luther says, the pope, councils, and bishops have given rise to all manner of factions, idolatry, and fanaticism in the church.18 Unfortunately, many so-called Lutherans are not immune from making this same fatal mistake. “Therefore, whoever knows well how to discern the gospel from the law should give thanks to God and know himself to be a theologian.”19 As Luther in the Small Catechism reminds, only the gospel calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies both each guilty and lost sinner and the whole of Christianity, and keeps them all in the one, true, justifying faith in their one Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.20 “Therefore, where you hear the gospel being rightly taught or see a person (einen Menschen) being baptized, or the sacrament being administered and received or absolution being spoken, there you can boldly say, ‘Today I have heard and seen God’s word and work; yes, heard and seen God himself preaching and baptizing, etc.’”21 By virtue of his promise granted in his word and in his sacraments, Christ makes himself present to sinful human beings, even where formally there is no parish at all.
Tentmaking Ministry
So, what is a small church to do when it has neither suitable parishioners nor adequate resources to pay a pastor to fulfill the office of proclamation?
So, what is a small church to do when it has neither suitable parishioners nor adequate resources to pay a pastor to fulfill the office of proclamation? The luxury of dedicated church buildings and fully paid pastors and staff is unknown in the New Testament. According to Acts 18:3, St. Paul was a tentmaker by trade. Subsequently, “tentmaking ministry” refers to a pastor working a secular job full- or part-time in order to serve struggling congregations. For example, while in the United Kingdom the author worked full-time for Britain’s National Health Service as a clinical specialist health advisor and counsellor. While called to Au Gres, Michigan, he taught German I, II, and III in the local high school for a school district whose total student population Kindergarten through twelfth grade was 425 pupils. Perhaps teaching a subject necessary for college admission in a rural school system struggling to attract qualified teachers was a form of tentmaking ministry in reverse. Since serving in the San Diego area, the author has taught aviation weather and aviation law in the missionary aviation department of a small Baptist college.
Tentmaking ministry is both challenging and rewarding. Not everyone is suited for it, and not every tentmaker is suited for every tentmaking situation. With respect to the “proper subject of theology,” however, tentmaking ministry attends to the crux of the Lutheran ecclesial enterprise. Besides serving as a way to keep small churches operating, by design tentmaking ministry keeps a pastor focused intently on the fundamentally verbal and relational nature of biblical and Lutheran confessional theology. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 - ESV). The divine word incarnate in a single person manifestly attests to how God himself seeks to speak to all his people in all his parishes no matter how large or how small.
Rev. Dr. Mark D. Menacher is Pastor of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in La Mesa, California
Endnotes:
1Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who (New York: Random House Inc., 1954, renewed 1982).
2For readers interested in a more researched approach, the author highly recommends Gary Gilley’s This Little Church Went to Market (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press USA, 2005) and its subsequent book This Little Church Stayed Home (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press USA, 2006). Though theologically and denominationally different, Gilley’s analyses are not without merit in relation to the author’s perspective on small churches.
3“Nam Theologiae proprium subiectum est homo peccati reus ac perditus et Deus iustificans ac salvator hominis peccatoris. Quicquid extra hoc subiectum in Theologia quaeritur aut disputatur, est error et venenum.” See D. Martin Luthers Werke - Kritische Gesammtausgabe (Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1883-), 40, 2: 327, 11-329, 2, especially 328, 17-19 [hereafter WA]. Unless otherwise stated, translations are the author's. Corresponding references to the same where existent are cited from Luther's Works, American Edition, 55 vols., J. Pelikan and H. Lehmann, eds. (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House and Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1955), 12: 311 [hereafter LW].
4Die Bekenntnisschriften der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche, 12th edition (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998), 434 (hereafter BSLK). Unless otherwise stated, translations are the author's. Corresponding references to the same are from Theodore G. Tappert, ed. and trans., The Book of Concord - The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 302 (hereafter Tappert, BoC).
5BSLK, 560 = Tappert, BoC, 365.
6WA 42: 166,28-30; 208,5-8; 248,9-250,7 = LW 1: 223, 281, 338-340.
7BSLK, 434 = Tappert, BoC, 302.
8BSLK, 53-61 = Tappert, BoC, 29-32.
9In relation to Article V, both the BSLK (58 note 1) and Tappert’s BoC (31 note 4) cite that Luther understood this office “nicht klerical” or “in other than clerical terms,” respectively. The Kolb Wengert version of the Book of Concord omits this note to Article V by design.
10WA 6: 408,11-13 = LW 44: 129.
11WA 11: 411,22-412,4 = LW 39:309.
12“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28 - ESV).
13WA 43: 387,42–388,9; especially 388,8-9 = LW 4: 349. See also WA 50: 644,12–29 = LW 41: 167–68.
14WA 8: 491,33–35 = LW 36: 144-145.
15WA 50: 629,28–31 = LW 41: 150.
16Luther writes, “I must continually pound in and wedge in, drive in and bring in such difference between these two kingdoms even though it is written and said so often as to be vexing. The annoying devil never ceases to stew and brew [kochen und brewen] the two kingdoms in one another. In the devil's name, the secular leaders always want to teach and master Christ, how he should lead his church and spiritual government. Likewise, though not in God's name, the false parsons and sectarian mobs always want to teach and master how one shall organize secular government. The devil is thus very busy on both sides and has much to do” (WA 51: 239,22–30; LW 13: 194–95).
17WA 40,1: 526,21-22 = LW 26: 342.
18WA 46: 789,16–27 = LW 22: 274.
19WA 40,1: 207,17–18 = LW 26: 115.
20BSLK, 511-512 = Tappert, BoC, 345.
21WA 45: 521,34-37 = LW 24: 67.
