{"id":49404,"date":"2026-03-27T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=49404"},"modified":"2026-03-31T11:19:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:19:36","slug":"valorar-las-diferentes-formas-de-ser-iglesia-en-la-pcusa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/resources\/news\/appreciating-the-different-ways-of-being-church-in-the-pcusa\/","title":{"rendered":"Apreciar las diferentes formas de ser iglesia en la Iglesia Presbiteriana (EE. UU.)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The primary work the Rev. Catherine Neelly Burton puts in with the\u00a0Presbytery of Southern Kansas<\/a>\u00a0is with the 75% of churches in the presbytery with little or no paid leadership. Burton shared an update on how that work is progressing with the Rev. Bill Davis this week on the first episode of the eighth season of \u201cLeading Theologically,\u201d which is available\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Davis is senior director for\u00a0Theological Education Funds Development<\/a>\u00a0with the\u00a0Presbyterian Foundation<\/a>. During the current season of \u201cLeading Theologically,\u201d he\u2019s exploring the theme \u201cEverything Small Church.\u201d Burton is Mission and Ministry Connector for the Presbytery of Southern Kansas. Last year, she spoke with the Rev. Sara Hayden on the New Way podcast. Those two episodes can be heard\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On \u201cLeading Theologically,\u201d Burton invited listeners to do the math when it comes to PC(USA) churches being served by a pastor and those being served by someone else. Most Presbyterians go to a church served by a pastor, but most churches can\u2019t afford a full-time pastor, she noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately for a lot of Presbyterians who can\u2019t fathom being in a church without a pastor, a small church probably sounds like it\u2019s dying,\u201d she said. In the Presbytery of Southern Kansas, only two churches have 300 or more members.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Rev. Bill Davis<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Asked by Davis how she defines a healthy small church, Burton said she goes back to a PC(USA) publication, \u201c7 Marks of Vital Congregations<\/a>,\u201d which includes these marks of congregational health: Lifelong Discipleship Formation, Intentional Authentic Evangelism, Outward Incarnational Focus, Empowered Servant Leaders, Spirit-Inspired Worship, Caring Relationships and Ecclesial Health.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, those have nothing to do with staff and nothing to do with size,\u201d she said. \u201cIs the church focused more on what it\u2019s called to do than it is on itself? Does it see a possibility in the future more than it thinks about what it used to be? Size isn\u2019t an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congregational health will look different from place to place, even across one presbytery. One church in the Presbytery of Southern Kansas picks an online sermon to listen to when they gather for Sunday worship and sings along with recorded music. \u201cIt\u2019s Spirit-inspired worship, even though it\u2019s not what a lot of Presbyterians think of as real worship,\u201d Burton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s very little performative membership in rural small churches,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re apt to be engaged in the theological depth of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figuring out what those churches need \u201cgets distilled down pretty quickly,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the end of the day, there\u2019s not going to be a lot of fluff.\u201d Generally, \u201cthere are people who love their church and want to learn how to lead them.\u201d Many people in pastor-less congregations \u201care so receptive to being trained, to gaining more leadership and to understanding more about why we do things.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some of those leaders in training, \u201cit\u2019s, now we\u2019ve equipped you in one way,\u201d she said. \u201cFor others, it\u2019s, OK, now would you like to sign up for a course at [the\u00a0University of Dubuque Theological Seminary<\/a>]? It\u2019s very relational in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubuque Seminary created classes that commissioned ruling elders from the presbytery could take together, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot like building a scaffolding,\u201d Burton said. \u201cYou start where you are and you say, \u2018OK, how can we train these folks?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like rural churches \u201cdon\u2019t want pastors or don\u2019t like pastors,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s because pastors stopped coming. It\u2019s not the pastors\u2019 fault and it\u2019s not the town\u2019s fault or the church\u2019s fault. It\u2019s the reality of changes in demographics and socio-economics in our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burton says she thinks \u201ca lot\u201d about incarnation in her work. \u201cIf we say the church is the body of Christ, what does it mean for that church to be the body of Christ in their community?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be closing some of these churches in the coming years. We know this,\u201d she said. \u201cBut there is great value in that presence of the body of Christ in that community.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s \u201ca lot of good in rural America, and it\u2019s important the church shows up for them, too,\u201d she said. Sometimes, churches in the presbytery will call the\u00a0Rev. Dr. Beth McCaw<\/a>, the dean of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, and ask her, \u201cwhen are you going to send us a pastor?\u201d<\/p>\n

McCaw often replies, \u201cwhen are you going to send us a pastor to train and send back to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur smallest churches just aren\u2019t going to attract someone from the outside,\u201d Burton said.<\/p>\n

The work she\u2019s been doing within the presbytery has, she said, taught her a lot about what it means to be the church.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a really small church, you\u2019ve got to distill it down: OK, we want to worship, and so we\u2019ve got to figure out what that looks like. Maybe it\u2019s a recorded sermon and maybe we sing a cappella,\u201d she said. \u201cProbably we\u2019re going to do one more thing. That\u2019s church, as opposed to, \u2018what does church do for me?\u2019 That\u2019s a consumer model.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one leaves worship at these small churches and says, \u2018that was the best music I ever heard.\u2019 What they leave saying is, \u2018I got to sing my faith today,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cYou know what? That\u2019s the gospel right there. It\u2019s taught me so much about what actually matters about church.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cReclaiming Rural: Building Thriving Rural Congregations<\/a>,\u201d Allen Stanton points out that if you\u2019re a church of 15 in a town of 400, \u201cthat\u2019s a pretty big percent of the town,\u201d Burton said. \u201cEven though you\u2019re a church of only 15, your impact can be pretty great.\u201d Some of those churches \u201care feeding a huge percentage of their town with their food pantry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One rural church in the presbytery embraced a model of children\u2019s ministry for people who didn\u2019t necessarily attend the church, \u201cbecause there are kids in their community who need a Wednesday night program,\u201d Burton said. \u201cThe smaller the church, the smaller the community, the more you have to let go of old ideas in a way that larger churches don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some churches in the presbytery have benefitted from large bequests, and they\u2019ve put that generosity to good use. One small church \u201cis almost the community foundation of their town,\u201d Burton said. If a child needs a pair of shoes or won\u2019t be receiving a gift at Christmas, the social worker calls the church, which quietly meets the need.<\/p>\n

Another church regularly puts on a community dinner that\u2019s always well-attended and much appreciated. While some diners benefit because they\u2019re on a tight budget, the rest of the community celebrates the gatherings \u201cbecause it\u2019s really fun to have dinner with your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question for Burton has become, \u201cHow do we appreciate the different ways of being church?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s great value in all of it,\u201d she said. During online gatherings of those leading worship in the presbytery\u2019s smallest churches, \u201cthe good thing I\u2019m hearing is the way people are sharing about their communities and their churches with others in the presbytery, and we hadn\u2019t done that in a long time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Upcoming editions of \u201cLeading Theologically\u201d can be seen\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The primary work the Rev. Catherine Neelly Burton puts in with the\u00a0Presbytery of Southern Kansas\u00a0is with the 75% of churches in the presbytery with little or no paid leadership. Burton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":49405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49408,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49404\/revisions\/49408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}