ON BEING SMALL

St. John Maximovitch, One of the Founders of the American Mission

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

Many people ask us why we are comfortable being smaller and less powerful than the many other Christian denominations that have professional pathways for religious career and retirement. Our answer is always the same, we aren’t focused primarily on size and power - we are concerned with faithfulness, practicality and humility. We must take hard stands and push against the spirit of our age, which is the pride and the power that currently makes Christian orthodoxy a thought crime, sees traditional gender roles hate speech, understands healthy family life to be extremism, and understands Christian childhood formation to be some form of abuse. We must resist this spirit, wrestle with it, and be willing to accept the consequences of such a rejections, which is being smaller and less popular than the groups that help to facilitate this spirit of our age. We have to be okay with this, and also thrive in being smaller and leaner. This means that we can get around roadblocks and go through barriers better than these bigger organizations can! Our strength is in our difference, our commitment and our quality. As long as we have our small band of 12 Apostles, we can quietly and powerfully work to change the world!