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When Margie Briggs was asked to provide pastoral leadership for two tiny rural congregations, the men and women who continued to love those churches had hit rock bottom. Tragedy and controversy had claimed two previous pastors. Regional church leaders were so desperate that they begged Margie, a lay person, to work with the broken-hearted people in order to get them through the holidays.
Instead, Margie’s creativity and compassion inspired these men and women to reach out in new ways and sustainably grow their two churches into vibrant communities. As Maggie explains in her introduction: This is not a story of a suburban theologian converging on the scene and doing some sort of cutting-edge ministry that develops into a megachurch attracting thousands of people in a short period of time. No, this book describes a decade-long journey together. It involves a second-career lay minister–whose only degree was life–and her Midwestern parishioners, who decided to do ministry, mission and outreach together with the unchurched and de-churched people of their towns.
More than half of the churches in America are small with attendance of less than 100. In fact, the median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings, according to the National Congregations Study. Many other books, today, describe ministries at vast megachurches. This is a book for the vast majority of Americans who say they care about their far smaller congregations and pray, every week, that they might be able to grow. Margie and her parishioners did just that. Their story will make you laugh; a few of these honest scenes may make you cry; but, ultimately, you’ll be inspired by what is possible when men and women work together.
