7 Ways Your Small Church Can Make A Big Impact

7 Ways Your Small Church Can Make A Big Impact
Here are 7 ways your small church can make a big impact.

God is in the Small Things

Don’t ever count yourself as insignificant if your church is small. God is in the small things (Zech 4:10).  Just ask Gideon’s army of 300.  In fact, God is often more glorified using smaller numbers and insignificant people (in the world’s eyes) so that He receives the glory.  From reading the Bible, we can see that the majority is wrong most of the time and it is the small, minority groups or insignificant people that God often uses most powerfully, so if you have a small church, let a Big God make a huge impact in your community.

It Only Takes Two

Even if your church is small like ours is, you can make a big impact for the kingdom of God by going out to share the gospel with your community.  Jesus sent out the 72 to preach the gospel and they returned filled with joy (Luke 10:1-24)!  “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name” (Luke 10:17) and what was Jesus’ reaction?  “At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do” (Luke 10:21).  If you want to be filled with joy and please the Father…a win-win for sure, then take the gospel out into the world.  It can impact your town in a big way.

Buy Some Bible Tracts

This is somewhat related to the previous paragraph but what I love to do is to buy biblically sound Bible tracts, like from Living Waters, and pass them out everywhere.  You can put them in the rest stop restrooms, you can leave them with your tip at restaurants, you can hand them to people on the street, you can mail them back with your bills, you can leave them on car windshields, and just about any other place you can creatively think of leaving them. We have God’s guarantee that His Word will not return to Him void or without impact and that His Word will accomplish what He sends it out do to (Isaiah 55:11) so why not unleash the lion of God’s Word and let it do its most powerful work.  All you have to do is walk up to someone and say “Did you get one of these” or “Have you seen these” and then walk away. It’s just that easy!

Partner With Other Churches

Our little church sent out letters to the other area churches in the hopes that we could bring prayer groups to each church on a Sunday night and pray for our community, pray for the lost, pray for one other, and to seek to find new ways to glorify God and preach the gospel.  We did this once and only two churches responded by coming to our church and praying for the things I just mentioned.  Prayer is never wasted.  It is so important to pray that nothing much can happen until we first pray.  There are other things the churches can join in to do that any single group may not be able to do individually.  We are all in the universal Body of Christ so why not start joining different members of the body and working together as the eyes, ears, hands, feet, and mind of Christ?

Visit the Nursing Home

We started a ministry in the local nursing home because we wanted to bring the church to them since they could not go to their own church, if they had one in the first place.  We found that they embraced us and welcomed us, from the administration all the way to the residents and staff.  We try to go and visit with those who usually don’t have any visitors at all.  We seek out those who often sit alone or are new to the home. We want them to know that someone cares about them.  We are not interested in filling our church parking lot or the pews of the church but being an extension of the Body of Christ to reach out to those who are separated from their homes, their family, and their friends.  We want to be a friend to the friendless.  We want to be an ear for their voice to speak to.  Sometimes they simply want someone to talk to and that is a need we believe we can fill, and I believe we do.

Write Letters to Prisoners

I started writing letters to prisoners some time ago and one of the ones I wrote to finally got released, and guess what, he joined our church.  He joined simply because no one in his family wanted anything to do with him anymore.   Not even his friends or his former church home kept in contact with him.  I didn’t write him so that he would join our church once he got out, that was just a result of my writing him.  Today, he is our associate pastor and was ordained not long ago.  He is now working with other prisoners and former prisoners, trying to piece their life back together again and start over.

Visit a Hospital Waiting Room

How many people who are waiting in hospital waiting rooms are hurting?  I venture to say, most of them are.  They might just need someone to talk to and unload their burdens on and you might be that person. It is as simple as walking in and sitting down and introducing yourself and getting to know them.  Bring a Bible tract with you that might give them some comfort during this difficult time in their lives.  When one of their loved ones is in serious trouble in the hospital, you might be able to give them the message of hope that is found only in Christ.

Volunteer at a Soup Kitchen

When people get into deep depression or have overwhelming problems, there is nothing that takes their eyes off of themselves like helping and serving others.  I have volunteered at a local homeless shelter and they offer clothing and food for those who have lost about everything in their lives.  These broken, hurting people are open to the gospel of Christ because people are sometimes more open to hear about the Savior when all hope has been lost in their life.  When people are broken and crushed in spirit, they are usually more receptive to the things of God.  This is a great window of opportunity for you and your church to make a big impact by serving and helping the hurting.  I believe you and your church members will actually get more out of this than those who you help.

Conclusion

There is much you and your small church can do to make a big impact in the community in which you live.  We can’t just sit and watch the world go to hell on its own; we must get out and go into all the world (Matt 28:19-20) and bring the only solution to the problems that this world faces and that is Jesus Christ and Him crucified for sinners.  If you won’t go, who will?

Pastor Jack Wellman