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MELISSA LAUBER

My shampoo has rainforest flowers in it. On the label it says, 'Wildly exciting is our normal.' I know that?s marketing, but a part of me wants to believe it.

Every morning I lather, rinse and repeat, waiting, but a little cautious about the excitement that might show up.

Sometimes, I have to confess, I go to church with the same expectation. There?s something about the promise of 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' that makes me look forward to some dramatic frenzy.

So far that soul-stirring sizzle has eluded me. I?ve been having discipleship without the adventure. Then I went to a three-day conference at Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago.

There, in the words of the Rev. Kirbyjohn Caldwell, the pastor of one of United Methodism?s biggest and most interesting churches who was also visiting and knows about such things, I was met with 'excellence in motion.'

Christ?s story came to life in vibrant colors. The Holy Spirit performed pirouettes and cartwheels and engaged everyone present in a dance of faith that teased at the certainty that, with God, all things might, indeed, be possible.

Listening to the visions of what the church might be made me covetous. I wanted to bring all that potential and promise home to the 692

churches of the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

When one speaker explained that the church must be more than relevant, it must be irresistible, I answered with a heart-felt 'amen.' I want each of us to have such a church.

At times, it was tempting to resent Willow Creek. They are, after all, a mega-church. Who couldn?t be irresistible with 20,000 members and state-of-the-art equipment, facilities and programs?

But even before I hit the parking lot to go home, I knew it wasn?t the mega-part that makes that church magnetic. It had better not be.

Half the Protestant churches in the United States today average less than 75 people in worship each Sunday. Within The United Methodist Church, half of the churches average 57 people in worship; 21 percent have only 25 people in worship each Sunday.

For every large United Methodist church, there are 47 small ones.

In our conference, 63 percent of the churches have less than 100 people in worship each week.

The Rev. Lewis Parks of Wesley Theological Seminary provided these statistics in a workshop on Congregational Vitality this fall.

In any discussion of these small churches, it does not take long before someone suggests that one of the best strategies is 'to help these churches transition into other configurations for ministry.' That?s usually just a nice way to say 'let them die with dignity and grace' so that they don?t sap valuable and limited resources.

Parks grows concerned about such talk, not because it might not be Christian, but because small churches know how church-growth experts and others see them. As a result, they often believe and internalize the worst about themselves.

'But what does God see when God sees the small church?' asked Parks, who is not sure the image of stagnancy and decay is deserved.

In the Book of Discipline (? 201) it says, 'Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the church exists for the (1) maintenance of worship, (2) the edification of believers, and (3) the redemption of the world.'

In the Baltimore-Washington Conference, churches have signed onto the vision of creating disciples. Size is not a determining nor disqualifying factor. In fact, some small churches, not clouded by the demands of extensive programs, are better able to focus on discipleship as it is made manifest through worship, fellowship, learning, mission and faith-sharing.

In fact, small churches innately possess many of the traits that larger churches have to create small groups to provide.

In small churches, Parks pointed out:

? almost everyone knows everyone else;

? organizational functioning is simple rather than complex;

? communication is rapid and usually effective;

? laughter and tears are more likely;

? worship is the primary activity;

? the congregation is good at celebrating the various stages of life;

? they are tough and tenacious.

The essential ingredient of the Discipleship Adventure is not size. Rather, it is how well a church mirrors the kingdom of God. Do worshippers find a glimpse of heaven on Sunday mornings? Is the Holy Spirit present? Can the fullness of life be experienced and expected there?

People know what?s dead. Any visitor in their right mind will avoid it. But small and dying are not synonyms.

On one recent Sunday morning I ended up, almost by accident, at Idlewylde UMC in Baltimore. I was late, and although there were fewer than 50 people in the sanctuary, I heard them singing as I walked across the church lawn.

I slipped into a back pew, but before I left, people came and welcomed me with a gracious kindness one seldom feels in daily encounters, shared their faith stories and a little laughter and invited me to come back. God is present there.

God is palpably also present at Melville Chapel UMC in Elkridge, a similarly small church, where a handful of women are Jesus for me, whether I attend worship there or not. They pray for me, hold me up with their faith and teach me daily that Christianity is a life-giving, soul-shaking adventure.

According to conference statistical tables, these two churches are multiplied 430 times across our conference. The potential is staggering.

I?m not entirely sure of how to make sense of church growth projections, spiraling expenses and the need for some congregations to stop sacrificing the Gospel for the sake of tradition.

But I do know the time for business as usual is over. It?s no longer enough to 'lather, rinse and repeat.' Churches, mega and tiny, need to be asking themselves if they?re willing to say 'yes' to the adventure.

If these yeses multiply, normal in the church may never be normal again.