We watch remotely the slow withering of human being caught in the death grip of famine. Women beat a rock-hard piece of fruit just to soften its rotted inside to get something to eat. Children waste away long before their time.

In the West, we have the luxury of going to a supermarket, making selections of products that leave the mind numb with indecision, and eating without thinking about the source. Our culture has removed us from the source of our food–the farm.

As long as the farm produces food, we can eat. But what happens if the farm disappears? What will you eat then?

But well-fed people can experience a famine worse than the Sudan. Amid great wealth Israel found another form of emptiness. Hosea the prophet saw the spiritual clouds dry up. In Hosea 4 he warned the people:

Concerns turn into emergencies which plunge into crises. The problem hides in the shadows before the crisis emerges. Gaze at the horizon and you can see the specter of spiritual famine take shape.

For decades, the church enjoyed the luxury of having a seemingly plentiful supply of preachers. Churches with open pulpits could count on a long waiting line of candidates. Even the smallest pulpits had competition for the space.

Now we have large churches with pulpits that stand vacant for a year or more while they “beat the bushes” looking for a qualified replacement. Currently, churches who have “gone fishing” for a new preacher have discovered there is an ever smaller pool of preachers from which to choose.

So the winds have shifted. The pressures of ministry drive hundreds from pulpits each year. For some they feel the drain of burnout. Others, untrained and unprepared, get caught in conflict with church members or elders. Many just had their unrealistic expectations dashed on the rocks of reality. The exit from the pulpit is packed with a throng of those fleeing preaching.

The problem is that no one is coming to replace them. Preaching has fallen out of the “respectable” profession list for many of our young people. Each year, less than 100 young men wanting to preach come out of all of our schools combined . Those who do have the desire are ill-prepared for the daily grind of church work. They are the “dropouts in waiting.”

Unless something happens, the day is coming when no one will step to the pulpit. Then, the prophecy will come to fruition, “People will stagger from sea to sea, And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it.

Locked doors. Grim faces. Frayed emotions.

Sadly, this is the picture of many small churches of Christ. Begun with dreams, they died for lack of resources. They needed to reach out, but didn’t know how. They had people, but they did not know where to go or what to do. It was hard to keep the wolf from the door.

Somewhere in the journey, frustration overcame the dream.

It was out of that picture, the Waterview church in Richardson, Texas gave birth to Strengthening Mission Churches. Armed with the passion that small churches can survive, thrive, and grow, the Waterview elders put into play a video library stocked with titles by experienced and talented church leaders. They could teach leadership, church growth, Bible class teaching, preaching, and involvement.

At SMC, we want to be your partner in ministry. We want to help you. Look through our site and you will find a video library with dozens of title to help you. You can learn leadership, how to survive in ministry, and get some inspiration at the same time.

Thanks for coming. Let’s get to work in a small church!