Stone Soup & Small Church Worship

Thanks to Teresa Stewart for sharing this Great Idea in the Lewis Center for Church Leadership Leading Ideas – and in her recent book, The Small Church Advantage: Seven Powerful Worship Practices that Work Best in Small Settings (Market Square Books, 2023).

Stewart reminds readers of the Stone Soup folk tale in which a hungry stranger comes to town and leads the community in creating a delicious, nutritious soup out of nothing but water, fire, and a stone – and everything the community has to offer.

Using this approach to generate inclusive, participatory, richly texture, locally-grown worship means the pastor filling the role of the ‘stranger’, inviting the gifts of the community.

The article includes a template to share with community members, encouragement to discover gifts both within the worshiping community – and without – and an example of how the method worked in one small congregation.

Read the whole article here.

Find the whole book here.

Find additional resources for Reclaiming Rural/Small churches in our lib guide.