If you would glance through the Associational minutes of Primitive Baptist Churches, you would see very quickly that a large percentage of our Churches are very small Churches. Keep in mind that a Church of two-dozen reasonably active members would in most parts of the country be considered medium-sized. A good many of our Churches’ membership rolls number in single digits.

If you will glance through the minutes of a hundred years ago, you will find the same situation. A great many Primitive Baptist Churches were very small bodies in that era, also. As an example, the average membership reported in our Association (Salem) in 2008 was 16.

In 1907 the average was 28 – a little larger, but neither of those are the sort of numbers that would impress the world; and if those were averages, roughly half the Churches were smaller than those numbers.

I would ask all of you to consider soberly what I am about to say. It is hard gospel labor, both for ministers and members, to serve in very small situations. Those who are blessed to attend even moderately sized Churches often forget what it is like to serve where the flocks are very small.

It is often discouraging – Sunday after Sunday only a handful there, and no visible prospect of any improvement in the situation. Sometimes it is a major problem just to take care of the little things that need to be done, like keeping the Churchyard mowed. The singing may have a lonely sound as it echoes in a largely empty building.

There may not even be anyone who can lead the singing. Members feel hesitant to be absent in order to visit other Churches since their absence is felt so acutely. The older members see few (if any) young people and wonder what the future holds. Sometimes funds are not available for the upkeep of the building, and the members may be painfully aware that the financial care they are able to provide for their pastor is far less than they would like it to be. Ministers who labor in those areas may have to do so without their material needs being relieved to any great extent.

Are small Churches worth any less than large Churches? Are their members any less holy in their conduct or any less faithful? Do they love the Lord and the doctrines of grace any less just because they are only a few? Do they need pastoral care any less than larger Churches? I think the answers to these questions are obvious.

Some would answer, “But there is no future there!” Of course there is no future if everyone else goes elsewhere! There will never be a future for those Churches if that is everyone’s attitude. Can you possibly imagine the discouragement of the Elders and members who serve in small, out-of-the-way places and have only a handful, month after month?

Some may question my bringing up this subject, but it was impressed upon me to plead for the poor, the weak and the small. There is a vast field of labor before us Ministers that perhaps we are overlooking. It is not a glamorous field of labor, but it is one that is necessary. It will not make a man famous or rich, but it will make him beloved to little handfuls of the Lord’s dear people.

During his ministry, Elder Phillip McInturff crossed the vast Allegheny range 139 times preaching to little bands of mountain people. After he was confined to bed late in life, he became much depressed because he feared these little Churches and groups of believers would not be cared for. As Elder Pittman records, “this depression became so great that he sent for Brother T. N. Alderton, who was quite young in the ministry, and asked him to see to it that the destitute and waste places not be forsaken, and the Baptists who knew Brother Alderton know that this trust was faithfully carried out.”

May God give our ministers a double helping of that spirit of unselfish and untiring zeal to care for and nourish the small and the weak, and not to think only of the larger and more prosperous situations!

I appreciate all of God’s saints who serve Him in sincerity and in truth, no matter where they are. I dearly love the sound and faithful ministers who serve His Churches, large and small, who are content to be plain Primitive Baptists.

However, at this moment I “tip my hat” in an especial way to the faithful saints who have served God in small outpost of Zion. He knows your worth.

I hope all of our Churches, large and small, will be careful to walk hand in hand in gospel truth and order, encouraging one another and holding up another in prayer. We certainly need each other.