Image: Garry Knight | Flickr

There’s nothing wrong with traditional methods of doing church. As long as you want to minister to traditional church members.

Traditionalists (whatever your tradition may be) need places to worship, learn and be discipled. Too many of them have felt overlooked, even ridiculed, ...

Image: carl & tracy gossett | Flickr

If ninety percent of churches were big and ten percent were small, it would be reasonable to dismiss small churches as being broken.

Irrelevant.

Lazy.

But the opposite is the case. Ninety percent of churches are small, while only ten percent are medium-sized, large and mega combined. ...

Image: Jimmy and Sasha Reade | Flickr

Every week, pastors all over the world are asked to do something that is almost impossible. Preach a message to a group of people that includes

• Teenagers to seniors
• Men and women
• Mature disciples and not-yet-believers
• The faithful and the skeptical
• Regular attenders and first-time guests

Image: Zaid Al Balushi | Flickr

I’ve always tried to live my life and do ministry by this rule:

Don’t try to be successful. Try to do good work.

• Not people-pleasing work, God-honoring work
• Not self-promoting work, Christ-magnifying work
• Not numbers-driven work, Spirit-led work

The one time in my ministry ...

Image: Andrew Stawarz | Flickr

If the size of my church was up to me, it would have been a lot bigger a long time ago.

After all, like so many of my peers in ministry, I’ve followed all the rules. Preach the Word, train disciples, reach people, remove obstacles, lead and manage it well, and the church ...

Image: 100Words.ca

I want to be like David Mainse when I grow up.

Unless you've lived in Canada, or in certain pockets of the US, you may not be aware of David Mainse. So here's a short bio of a man who influenced so many in his 81 years.

David Mainse was the young pastor of a small church ...

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A healthy prayer life is hard work.

If you’re one of those Christians who finds your prayer life to be easy, joyous and endlessly fulfilling, we’re grateful for you and the role you play in the body of Christ. But that’s not the way it is for most of us.

Pastors ...

Image: Taryn Polishchuk | CornerstoneFV.com

No one will ever make a list of the best small churches in the world.

And they shouldn’t.

After all, a great urban small church looks very different from a great rural one. Same with a great Baptist and Methodist church. Or a great small church in Japan or Costa Rica.

Even ...

Image: Kate Haskell | Flickr

My pastor is so hard to please!

I’ve had a lot of conversations with church staff members and volunteers. Their most commonly repeated frustration usually goes like this:

“Nothing makes my pastor happy! Last week we had the best youth night ever. The kids worshiped ...

Image: Al King | Flickr

No one can truly pastor 1,000 people. Or 500.

Even 200 is stretching yourself too thin. That’s why the so-called 200 barrier is such a challenge.

So, if you want to lead a large church, at some point you’ll have to give up most of what it means to be a pastor. Maybe ...

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It's coming!

Yesterday, I sent the manuscript for my next book into the publisher.

After decades of living it, years of teaching it, and months of writing it, “Small Church Essentials” is in the capable hands of the great editors at Moody Press.

Here are some details.

Image: Jake Guild | Flickr

The church needs to be more digital. For small churches especially, the digital world can level the playing field, giving us a broader reach and wider ministry impact.

As I wrote in The Gatekeepers are Gone: What’s Holding Your Ministry Back?, we need more churches taking ...

Image: Jason Eppink | Flickr

Is the term “Successful Small Church” an oxymoron?

You know, like

• Jumbo shrimp
• Deafening silence
• Awfully good
• Genuine imitation
• Icy hot
• Open secret
• Living dead
• Clean dirt
• Alone together

Or, more sarcastically,

• Microsoft Works
• Smart bombs
• Educational television

When I first considered ...

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Small churches can’t do everything. But we can do a lot more than we may think.

The challenge is to use our limited resources in the best possible way, for maximum ministry impact.

Over the years, our small church has learned a few principles that help us do just that.

Image: urban_data | Flickr

Pastors face a lot of pressure to perform. Some of it, admittedly, is self-imposed.

One of the main places this pressure is felt is in the demand to research, write and deliver a great sermon every week.

In fact, several times in the last few months, I’ve read blog posts ...