Our Pastor was away recently so the congregation was invited to attend morning worship at the nearby Oakland United Methodist Church.  That is when I thought of the child’s story, The Little Engine That Could. There are similarities between the story and its lesson  and this church.

You may recall the story of the little engine that because of its heavy load and its inability to pull the rail cars up a steep hill did not give up.   Instead he went searching for help and found two larger engines that could have solved his problem but, alas, they had excuses and were not available.  Still determined, he finally found a small engine like himself, and the two were able to perform together the task successfully. One lesson from the story is never give up or when the going gets tough, the tough get going.  Like those members at OUMC.
Why should this church give up?  Well, the demographics and a time of perceived religious indifference are against its growth.  It is located in a rural area and I mean a real ‘country’ rural area.  There are no large pockets of population from which to draw new members.
The church building is nothing that would ordinarily attract people, it was formerly a school building (organized in the early 1900s in High School District Number 2 – Durward T. Stokes- History of Dillon County) whose time had passed, there was no longer any school use for it so the congregation bought it and converted it to a recognized church building with all the added ecclesiastical  trappings. There is no regular full time minister but apparently a lay leader has sparked its revival since the congregation has apparently grown since his arrival.  A note about the congregation:  it’s one thing for a church to have a supporting number of members, but it is an entirely different situation when the congregation has a supporting membership including children and young couples.  It is a sign of potential future growth as opposed to the holding- its-own status quo older congregations. And this church “acts” like a one with vigor. One is well
aware of the lively presence of children.
It has a lay leader, a choir, a choir director, a pianist, an acolyte, a recognized liturgy, a nursery for the very young  and it is fully staffed with  classrooms that show student activity, it has a comfortable setting with attractive furnishings, an  inclusive morning  worship program specifically designed in part toward  the youngest in the congregation with even a day trip to the beach, members who  uniformly exhibit friendliness, a standing invitation is stated and published welcoming new members, well maintained grounds  including  parking for hundreds of  vehicles and even its own cemetery. Too, Wednesday evenings find the church still going about His business along with sessions for the youth of the church.
The little engine succeeded by not giving up.  This church evidently has unknowingly taken a page from this little book.
It might have followed the path of many small struggling churches and surrendered but instead, the members worked together to make good things happen.
I know the main element of success has been left out, but most of you already know about the role played by Him.
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Bill Lee
PO Box 128
Hamer, SC 29547