The essays of this book were compiled between 1994 and 1997. They began as a series of articles which appeared in The Good News Etc., a Christian periodical published in Vista, CA. Without the wonderful acceptance of Rick Monroe, these lessons might not have been placed in black and white.

Without the people of Church on the Coast - The Carlsbad, CA Foursquare Church, these lessons definitely would never have been inked out. It is the practical experience of pastoring this small congregation, from which these essays have been birthed.

With the exception of the introductions, these lessons and stories appear mostly in the order in which they were written, and appeared in The Good News Etc . For this reason, the chapters may seem disconnected at times. They were birthed out of the various seasons in which they were written, and together form a radical, primitive, local ecclesiology.

The very thesis of these articles is that the small church, in its simplest, and most healthy example, is a fairly pure model of early Christianity. The dynamics which make it work, are dynamics which, if expanded or adapted will enhance the life of any size congregation. Hopefully, I have not presented this theory like the proverbial harpist, with one lone string upon his instrument.

Due to the reactionary nature of this thesis, it may appear at times that I am advocating, that the only good church is a small church, but, "it just ain't so." That is neither my insinuation, nor my belief. But, what I do say, I say straight forward. For those who know me, my one similarity to the apostle Paul might be obvious, "For his letters, say they, are weighty, and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak." I tend to write tougher than I talk, but not tougher than I think. I suppose this is the nature of a dreamer.

Some of these essays may make you mad. I offer no apologies. Some of them may seem idealistic, but that's what God's view of our potential is - idealistic. For those of you, who have felt like you were swimming upstream all these years, I believe that you will find a new perspective, which will make the rising tide appear as cool streams of refreshment.

In the early years of listening for a voice, which was speaking for the pastors of small churches, I discovered quickly, that there were no significant voices out there. Was that because there is no significant money to be made from those small congregations? Was it because the recognized leaders were all very successful, and forgot what it was like in the seasons of their own smallness? Or was it because there is so little glory in ministering to little things? Perhaps there are so few voices speaking to the small churches, because we are simply overlooked. Five to ten years ago, everyone wanted me to learn how to break the 200 barrier. I wanted to learn how to break the 40 barrier then, and so did most of my friends.

Now, there are a few more voices crying in this wilderness, but they are still too few, and paradoxically the small churches are so many. In my own denomination, we are pushing for 2,000 churches in the United States by the year 2000.* I believe that we will make it. I hope that we will keep them. We can keep them, if we can learn to communicate to the unique dynamics of small church life, and if we can learn to defend their work as being the very heart and soul of the Christian effort.

Certainly, with this push, to pioneer new churches, we will have more small churches than ever before. With every denomination muscling forward to preach the gospel, and plant new churches, we may well be on the edge of a new day - the day of the small church.

The struggles of the small church pastor are significantly different, than those of the staff of larger congregations. The financial struggles are regularly more personal. The need to be a jack of all trades, and a sense that we are the masters of none, is a prevailing attitude. The invasion of the church into the home (in a home office, in calls from the congregation...) is often more acute. An aching feeling that says our labors are fruitless, is thrown before our faces consistently.

These struggles rear their hideous faces in every poorly attended service, in each offering which refuses to cover the bills, in every visitor who never returns. There are too few faces , and too many personal interactions for us to forget.

We are the tentmakers, the pioneers, the friends to the friendless, and the ones who are forced to believe in people others have chosen to forget.

The words in these pages were born out of struggles: The struggle for significance, the struggle for survival, the struggle for vision at a time when the horizon was hidden behind the fog of personal difficulty and human expectation.

I offer no placebo solutions. Rather, these are fighting words - which burst forth from my heart during the heat of the fight. I promise no "how to" approach. These are words of passion, which sprang forth in the moments of victory, and in the dark of night.

Just in case you get the opinion, that I am writing these words out of deep sorrow, some sick need for justification, or as a catharsis to my personal crises, it is quite contrarily the situation. I would have had these years in no other place, under no other circumstances. It has been the adventure of a lifetime, and I have truly felt like a pioneer mapping out a forgotten land.

In the eleven years of pastoring real people in a very personal way, I offer you these pages, which represent a larger part of my heart than you can realize. My hope is that they can be as helpful to you, as they have been to me.

* The Foursquare Church of which I was a minister at that time did not acomplish the goal of 2000 churches by 2000, and has not even now in 2006. Some of my original concerns are more valid today than they were at the time I wrote this material.