A church in Tempe, AZ

That, in my opinion, does not show anything wrong with that church, by itself.
They have only been meeting one year.
The name escapes me of the early missionary who preached for 7 years before there was a convert.

In the church you reference, I would be surprised if there have not been other people in attendance.

We helped in a church plant years ago. Sometimes we did not have more than 3-4 people in attendance. But sometimes people were home ill, out of town, had moved out of town. If everyone had come at once, it would have been a much larger attendance.

Many churches start with home Bible studies and then start Sunday morning meetings. It takes time.

If a church is a nasty split from something else, you might have room for concern. But just because something is new, small, and struggling, does not mean anything by itself about needing to quit.
I believe that there will be many pastors rewarded in Heaven for their faithful, difficult struggles here on earth, often looked down on here.
Nothing wrong with wondering, I suppose. I just don't think you can really know all that is involved from afar.

 

Heya SALTY Know the difference between a cemetery with 100 bodies buried there and one with 1000 buried mate? Just the extra room the second one takes up. I've been to Churches running 10-20 average on Sunday morning that would top any 20 trillion member "mega Church", I pray the little Church in AZ is one of those quality over quantity ones.

For minimum number to disband, I read something somewhere once along the lines of "Where two or three are gathered......."


oops, coulda told me I landed in Pastoral Ministries forum. Sorry 'bout that all

 

The Lords builds His Church and the Lord will add to His Church. Numbers are not a sign of success. I have been laboring in Sri Lanka for a year and a half and am discipling one lady who I have been working on for a year and a half. Do I close shop and go home? No, I dig deeper and work harder, praying God wil bring the increase in his time.

 

Both Adoniram Judson and William Carey waited a long time for their first convert.

 

Home churches are the very foundational idea of churches.

It's not the church's job to "grow"; it's God's job to decide.

It's certainly not the church's job to get "converts". (I'm assuming you mean "get people saved; although only saved people can truly convert, many people use "convert" as being synonymous with "saved".)

It's the missionary's (evangelist's) job to preach the gospel of salvation; then, when people start gathering, you have a church and need a pastor, not an evangelist.

More power to this church, as long as they are digging in the Bible and seeking Truth.

 

Let us hope that at least they do not engage in some of the rituals of larger churches -- such as multiple committees and boards! I am reminded of the days when I was preaching here and there in small eastern Kentucky churches, and when the evening service had about 8-10 people present, the presiding deacon would inevitably say, "Do we have any visitors present?" :tongue3:

 

That is too funny!

I would be incredibly frustrated with not seeing growth. I would be incredibly frustrated in any small church however. Some could never go to the big churches I've attended. I have to leave when to start and stop a church in the hands of the one being led by God. I'm just not capable of making that call.

 

The guy who went seven years without a conversion in his church was Jonathan Edwards. The Great Awakening came after that dry spell.

 

William Carey also served in India for 7 years before his first convert.

 

How many 'convertts' did Jeremiah have? And how long did he preach?