‘Where two or three are gathered’: February ‘Witness’

Messiah Lutheran Church, La Crescent, Minn. (LCMS/Sarah Hjulberg)

Did you know? On an average Sunday, nearly 75% of LCMS congregations have 100 or fewer worshipers. Almost half of LCMS congregations have 50 or fewer attending. Already, around 20% of congregations in the Synod are part of multi-congregation parishes, and many more such partnerships are on the horizon.

Those are the statistics. So, if you are a part of a congregation with attendance numbers like this, you are not alone — indeed, these numbers are reflected across American Christian denominations today. Nor is your congregation out of the ordinary historically: As the Rev. Dr. Lawrence R. Rast Jr. explains in this issue, smaller congregations are the norm in the Synod’s history.

The February issue of The Lutheran Witness (LW) is all about smaller congregations. In addition to reflecting on statistics and history, our authors take up the theology of the church, discussing what makes a church a church (spoiler: size is not one of the qualifiers). The issue also gets into some of the practical elements of life in a smaller congregation: involvement from laypeople, bivocational ministry, youth ministry and more. Lastly, the issue features interviews with district leaders and pastors who explain some of the blessings that God is working in smaller congregations as they face the challenges before them.

“We’re tempted to treat growing congregations as those that are ‘doing something right’ and small or declining congregations as ‘missing something’ or ‘on the ropes,’ ” the Rev. Roy S. Askins, LW executive editor, writes in his letter to open the issue. “But in truth, the size of the congregation is no indication of God’s favor or disfavor.”

Smaller congregations are not failing. God is giving faithful congregations what they need to carry out faithful ministry in their location — even where that sometimes involves creative solutions. Pick up this issue to read about how God is working through smaller congregations, just as He always has — even “where two or three are gathered” — to proclaim His Word faithfully across our country and around the world.

To subscribe to the print LW, and to read select print content and additional web-exclusive articles, visit witness.lcms.org .

Posted Feb. 19, 2025