It Doesn't Take A Village to Help A Village

By Caleb Hennington, Digital Content Editor @arumceditor

This past month, I’ve had the privilege of hearing the stories of small churches doing big things.

In Emmet, Arkansas -- a tiny community between Hope and Prescott -- a small congregation at the Emmet United Methodist Church seeks to save their historic church building from collapsing under the weight of severe structural damage.

The congregation -- made up of no more than 10 people on any given Sunday -- needs hundreds of thousands of dollars to save their church, but they’ve already raised a quarter of what’s needed in less than a year. They are a dedicated group of faithful Methodists who are seeking to save a church that means so much to so many people.

East of Fayetteville, in rural Goshen, Arkansas, the Goshen United Methodist Church is serving their community in ways that even our largest Methodist churches have struggled to do. With fewer than 50 regular attendees, the church has managed to open a 24/7 food pantry, a blessing box, a community garden, and a free health clinic. And they are still searching for more ways to give their time, energy and commodities to their community.

In the Bible, we see countless examples of God using individuals or a small group of people to carry out monumental, sometimes impossible, tasks.

Think about Joseph, David, Esther, and Jesus; what do these people have in common? They were seemingly ordinary people who God used in order to accomplish huge, life-changing, history-altering things.

In the Arkansas Conference, we have a lot of small, rural churches. These churches should not be forgotten in favor of churches with more people, more money, popular clergy, or more youth.

Our churches with 50 people can accomplish just as many amazing, outstanding things for the Lord as our churches with 500 people.

So when you’re reading the stories this month from Goshen and Emmet, and stories from our larger churches like Central Rogers and First Bentonville, remember that every one of them, no matter the size, can do big things.

It doesn’t take a village to help a village.