A CNN article was recently sent to me regarding the success of a mega church in Atlanta that I will not name. The premise of the article was that this pastor has figured out how to reach young people in the thousands, while highlighting the continued failure of the mainline church in America. The article actually names the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as one of those failing denominations.

Now, before I write the rest of this devotion, let me say that we, disciples of Jesus Christ, celebrate wherever God is at work and persons are being reached with the glorious gospel of Jesus regardless of size and denomination. However, I refute any notion that says God is only at work in these mega places. Furthermore, I refute any teaching that says unless we employ a particular strategy, we are doomed for failure.

So today, I write to encourage and warn us one-talent pastors, that is, pastors who serve in communities like mine, Battle Creek, MI. Pastors who serve in places where the membership of these mega churches exceeds the population of your entire city. I am writing to us lest we become discouraged and, like the unprofitable servant in Matthew 25:14–30, fail to take seriously the call God/Jesus has given to us to be just as productive in our small places as our brothers and sisters in these big places.

The danger we face in the culture’s persistence in only lifting up what they perceive to be markers of success in Christ’s church—the big places—is that we can easily begin to believe that the small places, the one-talent places we serve, are of no real value to God or to Jesus. Not only that, but we can fall victim to the idea that the strategies these articles often reference, used by these mega churches producing mega results, far exceed the power of God’s Holy Spirit at work in and through us.

That is not to say that we cannot learn something from our peers who serve in mega places, but we must never start to believe that human strategies trump reliance on God’s Holy Spirit. Furthermore, success in Christ’s church isn’t always reflected by big numbers. The measurement of success in Christ’s church is faithfulness, whether you have one or five talents.

“And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” —Matthew 25:14–30 ESV

If you spend time with this parable, you will soon notice that the reward rendered was the same for the servant with two talents as the servant with five talents. Why? I believe it is because the thing being measured was not outcomes but the servants’ faithfulness with what their master had given them. Are we taking seriously what our Master has given us, though it be only one talent, metaphorically speaking? If not, we become like the unprofitable servant.

I pastor a predominantly older white congregation. When my family and I arrived, our diversity went from one to five, and our youth ministry went from zero to two. Now, on any given Sunday we boast about 10 to 15 teens in worship. The majority are Black, Latino and Mexican. During a recent worship, I surveyed the congregation, and we had six of them present. My boys were out of town, so we did not quite hit our normal quota, but that’s not the point.

Of the six who were present, four were Black teenagers between the ages of 15–18. They did not come because their parents made them. None of our teens’ parents attend the church, except my sons, of course. They did not come because when they looked around most of the people looked like them. Nope. Of the 100-plus persons in attendance, 94-plus were white and over the age of 65.

So why were they there? I surmise it is because we have taken seriously what Jesus has given us. By no stretch of the imagination do these figures qualify as mega results—or maybe they do, taking into consideration Luke 15:10 ESV: “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Nonetheless, I am certain they constitute the truth that God/Jesus/Holy Spirit is as much at work in small places as in big places. Never despise your small place, never measure your success in ministry simply by the numbers, and never forget the call is to faithfulness whether you be a one talent or five talent pastor.