Amish Country

Rethinking Mission

I recently had a conversation with a younger pastor of a church. Their church was small when he got there – no more than 20 people attending each week. They said that they wanted to grow. So the pastor did as the church asked. He invited the neighbors nearby. And many new people started coming! But they didn’t look like the 20 members already there. Some of the new people came from broken and dysfunctional families. Others didn’t ever have a church background. Still others had financial troubles. After about nine months, church attendance tripled – from 20 to 60.