We lived in the big city of Greenville, South Carolina before moving to the rural region of Arkansas back in 1997. Greenville and all the friends we have there still has a huge piece of my heart.

Last night, on a whim, I thought that I would check out the website of the church we went to while we lived there. My how things do change. When we went there it was called Southside Baptist; now it is Southside Fellowship and they have a new building so that the church school could have the room it needed to grow. The school is now an independent entity. I have to admit to browsing over every page of the church and school websites hungry to see familiar names and faces. There were a few and it made me smile to see them.

Here in a rural area, a church with a congregation seating 500 present at any one time is a huge church. The student population alone at the Southside School in Greenville is 1100. That is about three times the population of our town and a tenth the entire population in the nearest 'big' town. Even in neighboring bigger towns, you just do not see big church facilities very often. They are all modest-sized frame or brick buildings. Most not much larger than a family dwelling.

Looking at the size of the building in the pictures of the school, which used to be our church building in Greenville, really reminded me of the differences between a huge city congregation and a small rural congregation. There are pros and cons to each.

The talent and resources at a large congregation is incredible. I miss the singing talent both inside the congregation and what they could bring in from outside. Southside hosted many a concert. John and I took a date night and went to a Ray Boltz concert at the church. That was wonderful.

The variety of Christian classes that you could take at any one time meant that no matter where you were in your walk of faith, there was help and training readily available. We were saved in that church, and even as new Christians, we grew very fast with all the 'feeding' and 'watering' we recieved.

But you can easily get lost in a really big church. I remember that last year before we moved. John's mom was dieing of cancer, so we drove up to stay with her nearly every weekend for 9 months. We were never missed at church. I remember feeling odd to discover that the new church directories had been distributed that we stayed in town one weekend to posed for and was in - they had all been given out months before. We were not there to get one, and there were no more left. No one thought to save us one. I still look through the old one we have, fondly remembering friends and all that we did there.

In a small congregation, everyone knows when you are not there. You can expect a call, e-mail, letter, or visit from at least one if not a dozen members unless everyone knew not to expect you there for that day. The empty place in the pew seems like a huge chasm when our family is out - afterall there are 6 of us and we take up a whole pew with just us when we are all there. LOL.

In a small congregation, you might not have two dozen classes going on all on different topics through the week and weekend, but my those annual overnight ladies retreats sure are special. All the ladies from the congregation plus visitors from other churches can fit into the lodge. :0)

Here are the websites of the Greenville congregation and Christian school. Our congregation here, of course, doesn't have one. But we have a spot on God's web and that is all that matters.

church - http://www.southsidefellowship.org/ssf.aspx

school - http://www.southsidechristian.org/default.asp