• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Ruth Everhart

Author, Pastor, Speaker

  • Home
  • About
  • All Books
    • Ruined
    • The #MeToo Reckoning
      • Workshop
      • Table of Contents
      • Available in Korean
      • Source Documents
    • Chasing the Divine in the Holy Land
  • Blog
  • Articles
  • Audio/Podcasts
  • Videos
    • Book Trailers
    • Sermon Videos
  • Big Blue Adventures
  • Contact

A Peculiar Energy, Even as the Congregation Dies

October 18, 2015 By Ruth Everhart 5 Comments

For the last few Sundays I’ve filled the pulpit for a small church that has lost its critical mass. Attendance has dwindled to a faithful few, all of whom are running out of energy. Not a happy situation. Still, when I enter the church building, I feel a sense of welcome and warmth from the folks who are keeping the place afloat.

Faith Chapel, Lucketts VALast Sunday we had visitors, an older couple, tall and friendly-faced. They arrived early to get a seat (God bless them!). They were the first ones at church, other than myself, the organist, and the person tending the coffeepot. We chatted and I discovered that they were from out of town and just passing through. Eight more people showed up for worship, bringing us to a dozen.

Because the numbers are small, I’ve been informal. Before reading the scripture and sermon, I’ve tried a “Sharing Time” to help us engage a different part of our brain before hearing the Word. On this Sunday, our theme was Treasure. “What do you treasure?”

The visitors sat in the front row and contributed to the Sharing Time, which brought a different energy to the group. That energy persisted as I read and preached on the story of the Rich Young Ruler, whom Jesus told: Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.?

After the sermon we had a time of intercessory prayer and I asked for prayer requests. The visitors offered a request that was so heartfelt the tears flowed down their cheeks. It turns out they were not just “passing through” but traveling for very personal reasons, which they shared with us. Of course, I immediately prayed for them, and have continued to pray for them throughout the week.

This is not a proper miracle. This is not a tale of resurrection. This marginal church is still marginal. If it isn’t actually dying, it’s at least on life support.

But for an hour, that Body of Christ was able to receive and give the peculiar kind of energy that comes when believers pause to consider scripture, and let the Spirit move between them. It’s the peculiar energy that transforms strangers into friends in Christ. Such a moment is not everything. It is maybe not enough. But it is something. It is worth pausing to notice. It reminds us why the church began in the first place. We are not just individual Christians trying to make it on our own. We are knit together by a peculiar energy into a larger Body, which has a power that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Leading the Small Church,  Published in Christian Century closing a dying church,  Rich Young Ruler,  the peculiar energy of the small church

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Larry Patten says

    October 24, 2015 at 8:18 pm

    Ruth . . . this is a lovely, honest piece. Among the places I’ve served have been small “country” churches in Wisconsin’s dairyland. So few people, but congregations with grit and with histories extending to the middle of the 19th century. But the old building and health insurance for clergy and denominational demands and a static population took their toll. And yet, on many Sundays, what lovely energy. Even with only a few worshippers, people schemed to make sure casseroles would be delivered to the family with the mother with cancer. They fervently prayed about missionary work in Central America or with AIDS patients, places and people they’d never see but felt a Christ-like connection. The farmers’ open hands, with dirt encrusted on the skin they could never scrub off, reaching out for communion. In some places the institutional church teeters on the brink, but those ah-ha and holy moments unfold, gifts in the midst of shadows.

    Reply
    • Ruth Everhart says

      October 25, 2015 at 6:10 am

      I appreciated the pictures you paint here, Larry. Thanks for adding your voice.

      Reply
  2. Monica says

    October 18, 2015 at 4:43 pm

    Lovely, Ruth. I’ve had a somewhat similar experience in a small, though not so actively dying, congregation. It was me, the clerk of session, and the pianist. The three of us decided we would have a prayer and go home. In walked a person who attended only infrequently. She sat down, we visited a few moments, and then the clerk of session said, “how are you doing?” And then she started to cry. And the moments that followed were some of the most holy I’ve ever experienced in worship, worship that turned into a prayer meeting, for the one among us who needed prayer the most that day.

    Reply
    • Ruth Everhart says

      October 18, 2015 at 8:23 pm

      Thanks for adding your story, Monica.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Ruth Everhart Author

Let’s connect on social media!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Contact

Find a Blog Topic Here

  • Church & Sexuality (33)
    • A Christian Feminist on Abortion (2)
    • Articles about #MeToo Reckoning (1)
    • Egalitarianism (7)
    • Korean translation of #MeTooReckoning (1)
    • LGBT & Christianity (2)
    • Marriage & Vocation (3)
    • Pastoral Issues re Sexual Assault (4)
    • Podcasts #MeToo (1)
    • Reviews #MeToo (1)
    • Sexual Abuse & Church (9)
  • Exploring Washington DC (3)
    • Embassy Tour 2022 (2)
    • Library of Congress (1)
  • Ministry Leadership (60)
    • Advent/Christmas (3)
    • Ascension/Pentecost (3)
    • Church Clutter (1)
    • Church Hospitality (6)
    • Churches & Money (2)
    • Handcrafted Communion Boxes (1)
    • Leading the Small Church (10)
    • Learning as an Air Bnb Host (4)
    • Lectionary Study (6)
    • Lent/Easter (7)
    • Liturgical Leadership (2)
    • Ordained as a Clergywoman (8)
    • Presbyterian Church (USA) (5)
    • Transforming Congregations (5)
  • My Family (45)
    • My Dad, Nicholas J. Huizenga (13)
    • My Sister's Kidney Donation (3)
    • Raising Our Daughters (18)
    • Why I Still Love My Husband (9)
  • My Writing (34)
    • Awards (4)
    • My Writing Journey (13)
    • Published in Christian Century (12)
    • Reviews of My Books (3)
    • Writing A Rape Memoir (2)
  • People I Learn From (38)
    • Abraham Lincoln (7)
    • Conversations with Strangers (15)
    • Gordon Lightfoot (2)
    • Harriet Tubman (1)
    • Lectures by Smart People (8)
    • Nelson Mandela (1)
    • U2 (4)
  • Pilgrimage to the Holy Land (65)
    • Be a Virtual Pilgrim (3)
    • Interfaith Issues (1)
    • Israel & Palestine (13)
    • Lent Devotional about pilgrimage (47)
  • Spiritual Reflection (50)
    • 2022 (1)
    • Aging (8)
    • Birds (1)
    • Bread (1)
    • Ending Gun Violence (5)
    • Finding Happiness (3)
    • Grief & Grieving (8)
    • Prayer (2)
    • Sabbath & Snow (4)
    • Silence at a Monastery (2)
    • Uncluttering as a Spiritual Practice (14)
  • Travel (29)
    • Belize (1)
    • Big Blue Adventures (1)
    • Chesapeake Bay (4)
    • Dominican Republic (1)
    • Michigan (3)
    • New Mexico Pilgrimage as a Family (1)
    • Newfoundland (1)
    • Prince Edward Island PEI (8)
    • Shenandoah (2)
    • Washington DC (7)
  • Words & Writing (56)
    • Book Reviews (12)
    • Lyrics & Music (10)
    • Nourishing Creativity (4)
    • Writer with Kitty Cat (2)
    • Writers on Writing (6)
  • Working with Holidays in Church (11)
    • 9/11 September 11, 2001 (1)
    • All Saints Day (1)
    • Memorial Day (2)
    • Mothers Day (2)
    • New Years (4)
    • Valentines Day (1)

Footer

  • Home
  • About
  • All Books
    • Ruined
    • The #MeToo Reckoning
      • Workshop
      • Table of Contents
      • Available in Korean
      • Source Documents
    • Chasing the Divine in the Holy Land
  • Blog
  • Articles
  • Audio/Podcasts
  • Videos
    • Book Trailers
    • Sermon Videos
  • Big Blue Adventures
  • Contact
Log in
Recent Blogposts:
  • Embassy Tour 2022 — European Union
  • Embassy Tour in DC, May 2022
  • Skin in the Game
  • Choosing a Word for 2022, Happy New Year!
  • Happy New Year to You!