On average, churches like ours consider themselves “healthy” or “normal” if one-third of the congregation is in worship on a given Sunday. It’s like baseball: if you get a hit one of every three times you’re up to bat, that’s considered a good average. I am happy and thankful to say that here at Joy Evangelical Lutheran church, we are “batting over .500!!” In other words, we have 374 members at Joy. We average 242 in worship per week, including Wednesday evening!! I think that is fantastic. We may be a “small” congregation, not a “mega-church”, but I will take our setting every day of the week, and twice on Sunday (literally true)!

Most pastors come from large congregations, yet are mostly called to small churches. The days of two-pastor Lutheran churches are almost over. It was the case for me. My home church, Prince of Peace in Largo, FL, was at the time the third-largest church in the synod. Two pastors, huge staff, big choir, lots of families. Both this and my first call, on the other hand, are much smaller congregations. Yeah, we know the sad narrative – young people and families go to the bigger churches with lots of programs, events, and entertainment. That is, if they even make time for church. What are we to do? What’s more important, the size of the church, or the average attendee? How can the denominational organization make policy decisions? Write its constitution? Allocate sufficient resources? We should pray for synodical bishops, our ELCA Churchwide office, secretaries and treasurers.

At last year’s Conference on Ministry, I took the opportunity to sign up for one-on-one time with the Bishop. I was in the call process to leave DeLand and come to Ocala. Little did anyone know at the time, but the Bishop was also discerning and soul searching about his own call as the “pastor to the pastors”. What we both knew was the changing climate in the American church, and how Lutherans were struggling to adapt to dwindling numbers and aging congregations. I asked how HE was doing, as our leader. His response was quite unexpected, yet refreshing. He said, “you know, Art, I sleep just fine at night. I do not worry about what God is already up to, and I trust that the Holy Spirit will renew the church.” We are called in our baptism to do His work with our hands and hearts, yet it is all up to God and His promises. Our Savior Jesus promised that His church would stand. Anything that comes along, any change in society, the church will adjust to.

I rejoice that Joy is “better than a third.” I want to proclaim to you, shouting from the bottom of my soul, that GOD LOVES YOU UNCONDITIONALLY!!

Pastor Art