Podcast Episode 0, 4 min
Introducing "Can This Work In A Small Church?" (Podcast Transcript)
This space is now a companion to my new podcast, "Can This Work In A Small Church?" Here's what it's all about.

Today is a big day for the Pivot blog.

Until about a year ago this was my home for online blogging. Then a few things changed, not the least of which was a worldwide pandemic (you may have heard of it).

Mostly, though, there were adjustments in the way I’m doing ministry for small church leaders, and in how ChristianityToday.com is emphasizing those resources.

One of the results is a new blogging platform for me at KarlVaters.com. Another result is a brand-new podcast!

Introducing The “Can This Work In A Small Church?” Podcast

This space is now a companion to my new podcast, Can This Work In A Small Church?, available on all major podcast platforms, including:

APPLE | SPOTIFY | STITCHER | AMAZON MUSIC | iHEART RADIO

New episodes come out once a week. The transcript of every episode will be available right here.

Why A Small Church Podcast?

Small churches and big churches are friends, coworkers, and spiritual siblings. We have far more in common than our differences.

But, while some of those differences can be significant, they’re seldom recognized in a lot of the resources we receive from our friends in big churches and big ministries. Quite frankly, a lot of what works in a big church setting doesn’t work in a small church environment – at least not without a lot of adaptations.

In the Can This Work In A Small Church? podcast we’ll tackle these issues head-on, but always constructively.

Sometimes I’ll talk through an issue by myself. Sometimes I’ll chat with a guest. But every time we’ll always ask and answer the question, “Can This Work In A Small Church?

Here’s the transcript for our short introductory episode:

Ep 000 Podcast Transcript

Hi, I'm Karl and I'm a small church pastor. And welcome! This is the introductory episode of our new podcast Can This Work In A Small Church? We wanted to take just a couple of minutes to introduce you to what this podcast is about so you know what to expect. Or, if you've already been listening for a while, you can come back here to get an idea of what you've been listening to and why do we do it the way that we do it.

First of all, there's a lot of great church leadership resources out there, but most of them are written from, and for a big church context. Sometimes they don't even realize it, but they're produced by larger ministries and by larger churches. But in a smaller church context, sometimes those things work, sometimes they don't, most of the time we have to adapt those things to a small church context, which again is where the title of the podcast comes from, Can This Work In A Small Church?

So, we're not going to toss out big church ideas simply because they come from a big church or simply because there's portions of it that don't fit us. The Venn diagram does have some overlap between big church concepts and the small church context. So what we want to do is we want to take a look at where is that overlap?

So, at the end of every podcast, whether it's me doing it on my own or an interview with somebody else, at the end of it we will ask and answer the question, "can this work in a small church?" And the answer is always going to be some version of, "yes, it can work if you make these adaptations" or "no, it can't work, but here's an alternative for you."

We're never simply going to turn down an idea. We're always going to give you some alternative way of looking at it. That's just simply how we have to do it in a small church. We're always trying to figure out some way to do a work around with limited resources, with limited budget, with limited time that most of us have.

We've already done several interviews with some really great church leaders who really understand the small church context. So they'll be coming up. We'll be doing other interviews later as well. So we encourage you to be here for all of it.

So what do you do? First thing, subscribe to Can This Work In A Small Church? wherever you listen to podcasts.

Occasionally, like with this podcast, we will do a video version of it. We'll do that when the visuals are such that they can really help. Maybe there'll be a chart or a visual illustration or something like that, that we talk about that we want you to see. If that's the case, we'll add a video version. So in addition to subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts, we encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel, which is the Karl Vaters Ministry YouTube channel.

All of the links for those will be in the show notes of this podcast. So you can find them there and you can subscribe there. We're also interested in hearing ideas from you, especially if you come from a small church context. Are there subjects that you'd like to hear more about? Is there somebody you'd like me to interview—someone who has a great idea that you think other small church pastors and other small church leaders would be interested in as well? Let us know. Go to KarlVaters.com, hit the "contact me" button, let me know what it is you're interested in. And we'll see what we can do to either find that resource or find that person to interview. We want to be able to get anything in your hands that we can to help you.

And when we do, we will present it to you and we will ask and hopefully answer the question, "can this work in a small church?"

How To Listen

Available on all major podcast platforms, including:

APPLE | SPOTIFY | STITCHER | AMAZON MUSIC | iHEART RADIO

Just click on the link for your preferred podcast platform.

Episodes are available once a week. Hosted by Karl Vaters.

Credits

Producer
Veronica Beaver | KarlVaters.com

Music composed and performed by
Jack Wilkins | JackWilkinsMusic.com

Podcast logo created by
Solomon Joy | Joyetic.com

Correspondence
Shelley Vaters | KarlVaters.com

Want More?

If you click here to subscribe to our free KarlVaters.com weekly newsletter you’ll get all the breaking podcast news early!

Finally, if you become a Patreon Partner for as little as $3 a month, you can help KarlVaters.com continue to put these resources into the hands of the ministries that need them the most.

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The views of the blogger do not necessarily reflect those of Christianity Today.

June 15, 2021

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