I remember my first church which was on Route 3, Four Oaks, N.C. Having been a student at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. for only about four months, I was shocked when this little country church was willing to call me as their pastor. I had never preached a sermon in a church in my life when they asked me to come and fill in for them one Sunday. The seminary student ministry officer at the school had called me and said: “Bill, how would you like to preach at Burnell Baptist Church next Sunday?” “Their preacher is going to be gone and they need someone to preach for them.” My immediate answer was, “yes, I would love to do that.” I wanted to help that little church but I really didn’t know what in the world I was going to do. Well, it turned our just fine. My time in the broadcast field had helped teach me how to speak before people and how to write as well. As it turned out, the preacher for that church was about to go to another church and he was preaching a “trial sermon” for them the day I was filling their pulpit.
I was invited Sunday after Sunday for about four months when they asked me if I would like to be their permanent Pastor. My wife and I prayed about the matter and then agreed to move onto the church field and serve them permanently. Our tenure there lasted until I left seminary. When I tell young men entering the ministry that I used to pastor a small country church of about 60 members, they seem surprised. They knew me only as the Pastor of a larger church. Many have told me something like…”I never thought that you were the pastor of a smaller country church.” I assure them that I was and that those days were some of the best of my ministry. A lot of young men think that they should start out in a bigger church but if they do, they will be burned out before very long. I advised them to start out in a smaller church where they can learn things from the ground up and the Lord will put them in larger and larger ministries as they develop.
He will move them to places where they can touch the lives of more and more people when He sees that they are “real” and that they can handle a bigger ministry.
After I retired from the office of Pastor, some people thought that I retired from the ministry itself. That is totally wrong! I simply, after forty years, stopped being responsible for the everyday leadership of a large church. I wondered if the Lord would continue to use me and He certainly has surprised me in many ways. I have been privileged to be the Interim Pastor of a number of churches in our area. It has been fun for me to say the least. In addition to Interim Pastorates, the Lord has kept me occupied filling in for pastors who needed to be gone from their pulpit for one reason or another as well as weddings and funerals. He has kept me busy serving churches of all sizes.
I told the Lord that I would be willing to serve him in any size church. The size was of no concern to me. Preachers love to have a bigger crowd but I settled that issue long ago. In my prayer time with the Lord, I affirmed the idea that I would go anywhere He directed me to go be it large or small. Our convention, the SBC, is primarily made up of smaller churches. The big churches get the attention but 95 percent of our churches have fewer than 100 in church each Sunday. We are a convention of small churches. So, when a smaller church asks me to fill their pulpit, I am eager to go. Every pastor should be just as happy when he has ten people in church as he would be if there were three hundred sitting before him. It is an honor to have just a few hear one preach. They have taken their time to come and hear what you have to say and it is a privilege for the pastor to speak to them and share God’s Word. When a preacher deals with his ego and gets in the proper relationship to God about it, then he will be willing to go wherever God wants to send him large or small. Everyone needs to hear the Word and a preacher should be just as enthusiastic about preaching to a small church as he would be to a larger one.
Recently, I was in a church that had only about twenty-five in attendance. The spokesman for the people seemed ashamed of the number and basically apologized to me for it. I told him and the church not to worry about it because I had told the Lord that I would be happy to serve anywhere, larger or smaller if He sent me there. One never knows what God is up to and they should be just as committed in the small setting as they are in a larger one. Who are we to decide such things?
I have been asked numerous times about how I feel preaching in small country churches after preaching to hundred each Sunday for so many years. I tell them this: “Bigger is not always better.” I find that there is a sincerity in the country church that the bigger suburban and city churches don’t have. They love the old hymns and they sing them with the old-time fervor. Country churches know that if a blessing comes it will be through the preaching of the Word and not some high profile activity or person. They are more settled in their approach to worship and somehow there is a warmth and personal expectation of what the church service will provide them. The “hoopla” of many of our churches today is not present in these smaller country churches. For them, the preaching of the Word of God is still the main thing. They need and want God’s guidance from the exposition of His Word. There is a quietness and Godliness in these churches which bigger and more “progressive” churches have compromised in order to get the ”hype” and attendance they think they need. The smaller church is more dependent on God it seems primarily because they do not have the numbers, money and resources that so often get in the way of true worship. Pastors should always remember this: bigger is not always better. Give me simple worship over what churches are calling worship today.
I thank the Lord that He has kept me busy preaching as well as helping people with weddings and funeral services. I am called on often thank the Lord. I am available to any church who needs a Sunday “fill-in” or an interim Pastor who can give the church a number of months to find a new pastor. I will serve them, large or small, any time they call on me for help if I am not already committed. That’s what I promised the Lord and that’s what I will do. So, I have been very happy that the Lord continues to inspire people to call on me. Preaching is my lifetime work and I still praise Him for using me. I think He uses me because long ago I told Him that I would be available to Him anytime, anywhere. It is the greatest desire of my heart to be Available to the Lord.
3-7-2024…Wm F. Harrell
wfh@williamfharrell.com
