Anthony Pappas and Scott Planting, Mission: The Small Church Reaches Out (Small Church in Action Series). Judson Press, 1993.
Referenced in: Small Church Leadership
LifeandLeadership Summary
This is a contribution to Judson’s Small Church in Action Series. Consult the resource guide on Small Churches for several other volumes in the series. The Resource Guide also includes other helpful volumes by Judson that are separate from the series:
- All Churches Great and Small: 60 Ideas for Improving Your Church’s Ministry, by Kirk and Rose Farnsworth
- Caring for the Small Church: Insights from Women in Ministry, by Nancy Foltz
If small church leaders will spend time wading through this insightful text, they will gain valuable perspective on how small churches can engage mission provided their leaders capitalize on the unique dynamics of their congregations.
In the first chapter, the writers describe six touchstones of small church ministry. The next four chapters examine each important dimension of small-church mission activity, along with implementation strategies. First, mission effectiveness begins by prayerful discernment of how a church is already a mission presence (symbolic, spiritual, or public) in its community, and considering how to broaden this mission based on the program, process, context, and identity of that congregation. Second, small-church mission is personal, based on the natural gifts and longings of its members, and emphasizes personal connections between church members and the needs of others. Third, small-church mission must accentuate the church as an alternative reality to the dominant culture, perhaps even turning its worldly liabilities (small size, weak programming) into kingdom assets (by biblical standards). Fourth, small-church mission seeks ways to organize the congregation around needs in the surrounding community. It looks for ways to intersect a congregation’s unique story with community needs, identifying the need that congregation can meet, aligning leaders and volunteers to make it go, developing a vision to inspire, and building cooperation that leads to lasting results. Each chapter explains the principles thoroughly, and then lays out several helpful exercises for activating mission more effectively in one’s local context.
Although this is an older volume, Pappas and Planting present an excellent conceptualization and strategy to help the small church achieve mission effectiveness. Their suggestions are both biblically congruent and practically executable, as demonstrated by the many stories and case studies interspersed throughout the volume.
From the Publisher
Are you guilty of assuming that small churches can’t successfully be engaged in missions? A valuable resource for laity and clergy, this book will convince you otherwise…that small churches can be strong and vital in their mission outreach. Focusing on local ministry as the starting point for you own church’s mission, the authors offer specific ideas to guide you through the process of revitalizing or building a mission outreach that makes a real difference in the lives of the people it touches.
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