The Little Things Mean a Lot (Part One)

There are many small items in church life,

some of which go unnoticed but matter –

let’s smile at some and take some seriously!

I often smile as I say that there is a healthy kind of obsessive-compulsive manner that a pastor should have, caring for details as well as the big picture.  Defensively I quickly add that I don’t mean he takes care of all these himself or herself, but that the pastor makes sure that someone is caring for even the little things.  They all add up.

And the reason I know this is true is that you mention the little things when you go to church on vacation, and try to decide if you worshiped or got distracted, thought it effective or daydreamed, or believed the leadership of that church was on top of things or missing it.

Whatever, may I list some of them that I think are easily neglected and ask what you think? We’ll sart today with two:

I. Pastoral care for people.

1. Be sure the shut-ins are cared for regularly.  Visit them yourself once in a while if possible.  Visit them regularly if you are in a church of 200 or less.  You will be amazed how word for your love gets around.

2. Have a very clear system for hospital visitation.  Many pastors hope someone is visiting besides themselves, and can’t be sure. Most churches could have a number of “parish visitors,” both singles and couples, who would give a morning or afternoon a week at least to go to the hospitals and care for people that way. In addition most churches have a group like deacons assigned to such needs. Any church that uses the Adult Bible Fellowship system knows that there are people responsible for care in those ABFs or Sunday school classes.

3. Have training for people who do this kind of visitation at least once a year.  It can be an hour or two and succinct, but can also remind them about the little things:

• that you don’t neglect people because you don’t like them
• that you don’t stay more than 10-15 minutes in a hospital call
• that you always check whether it is convenient to stop at a home if there is an active family there
• that you read the Bible and pray and encourage the person.

4. Consider the more generic kind of pastoral care:  town meetings once in a while, where five to ten families join at a house for time to give you input and for you to get to know them better.  This is especially important as a church heads for a special project like a change in constitution or a building program or a name change.  Others on staff or prominent church leaders can also help with such things of course.

5. Master schedule yourself into times to visit in the hospitals or shut-ins or other needs.  If you don’t put it in your primary schedule for the week, it probably won’t get done.  The urgent always crowds out the important.

6. Love the people in the halls.  It’s amazing how much pastoral care is done in just the brief touches that happen before and after a worship service, or midweek.

II. The worship services themselves.

1. Never treat these as small.  They are, in any size church, the main billboard and “deal breakers” for people deciding whether to keep coming to the church.

2. Don’t be afraid to plan services very carefully, and to tighten up the loose ends.  There is no need for any audience – 50 or 5,000 – to watch one person walk up onto the stage to play an instrument or go to the podium after watching someone else leave that podium and walk down to a pew.  Why present distractions in the service when all the “electricity” leaves the room for a moment?  No question that you might feel like you’re micromanaging to suggest that the scripture reader be there at the pulpit by the end of the hymn or be seated up more closely.  This is not just anything slick or for big churches, but a small reminder of how everything affects the mood of the service.

3. Treat the service as something for guests.  If the person up front is always mentioning names or talking about last year’s sports banquet, a guest feels like a real stranger.  There are times when people are mentioned in prayers or with special appreciation, but many churches unconsciously do things that make guests feel as nonmembers in what may seem like a club they are not part of.

4. Understand and teach the mission and main purpose of a worship service – to look up and honor our Lord and hear His Word.  It is not to celebrate the church or point to your own accomplishments or allow someone who never gets up in front to tell a little story about himself in between the hymns!

I remember “laying off” three volunteer worship leaders in a row within a year or two in my first pastorate, and in each case it was because they would not stop the monologues in between songs.  My judgment was that they simply wanted to be heard, not to lead in worship.

5. One of the major points about guests would be how they are received as they walk into the church building or even get out of their cars.  Train and expect the best from greeters and hosts and hostesses who mingle in the halls and look for guests.

6. Educate the main leaders of the church to also greet guests and see how they feel or what they need.  An interesting part of this is to do this after the service also.  Some who study it say that the first three minutes at the conclusion of the service are very important.  On the way in, guests might be worried about where they go or where they’re going to sit, but on the way out they have a little bit of time to converse or to be welcomed.

7. Plan pastoral prayers very carefully.  While various leaders of the church might do this once in a while, there is something very important about the pastor’s praying for the people as well as leading in worship in this way. Consider that this prayer is not just a list of the sick! Many have found help with the following guidelines for a pastoral prayer (or personal ones):

• Praise – moments and sentences or pure worship and adoration of our Lord.
• Repent – a time for looking at your own heart or even a quiet time for asking for forgiveness and mercy.
• Ask – this is where we ask the Lord for help, not just for physical surgeries and sickness but also for the church and our witness and light.
• Yield – a submission or statement of wanting to honor Him and obey Him, or to do what the Scripture that was just read tells us to do.

Many people think that a flippant prayer or one made up on the spot is more spiritual or in character with the Scriptures than a prayer that is carefully planned and written out.  Wouldn’t that simply be someone’s personal opinion, and maybe even a bit of nonsense?

8. Is there any chance the leaders of the church who meet to pray while the people are coming in can do it on Friday or Saturday or earlier so they can be greeting people also?  I know that sounds sarcastic, but I always think that we should be out there touching lives a little on the one day they come to the place called the church building.

9. Sunday is no time for practice sessions.  Meaning, even though you want to give certain people a chance to learn how to preach, there must be other venues.  No matter what the size of the church, the sermon should be one that is prepared by somebody with some experience and careful planning and love for Scripture and communicating it.