July 2019
Some pastors are called to do ministry in a big church. But most are called to small church ministry.
So how do you know which one you’re called to? Is there a way to figure this out without trying and failing at one or the other?
In my decades of personal ministry experience ...
If we want to be heard by a lot of people, we can make our opinion known on social media. The angrier and more controversial, the more responses we’ll get. But we won’t really be changing anyone’s mind, just reaffirming what they already (think they) know.
If ...
Can a church be too big?
Yes.
Can a church be too small?
Also, yes.
Does that mean there’s an ideal size for a church?
No.
No Ideal Size
While there may be an ideal size for a specific type of ministry, a certain location, or a particular leadership style, there’s no overall ...
Small churches and their pastors seldom get the credit they deserve.
Including from small church pastors ourselves.
Yes, it’s true. Often the biggest critics of small churches and the people who pastor them are staring at us in our mirror.
What Am I Doing Wrong?
Too many small ...
Henry Ford famously said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Today, if you were to ask the average pastor what they want, most would probably say “a bigger church.”
And if you asked the average Christian what they ...
They say it’s easier to have a baby than to raise the dead.
That’s one reason many pastors choose to plant a church rather than turn an existing one around. (Other reasons include the importance of fresh, new churches and a little thing known as God’s call, ...
There are two approaches when we talk about church size.
The first one is to use church size and, more specifically, church growth as the main way to tell if a church is healthy, strong and effective. Big and getting bigger? Great! Small and staying small? Not so good.
The second ...
Small church pastors labor under a great deal of discouragement.
They work unbelievably long hours (often full-time at a paying job in addition to pastoral ministry) with very little money (many supplement the church from their bivocational pay) and very little encouragement.
Just a few years ago, I was happily pastoring a small church, expecting to spend the rest of my ministry that way.
Then I wrote a book about it, and everything changed.
Now I have two books out, a third on the way, and I’m asked to speak at dozens of conferences every year. ...
It’s getting harder to be nice anymore.
I have friends on all sides of virtually every political, theological and philosophical issue. People with whom I have significant disagreements on some subjects, yet find common ground on others.
But it’s becoming difficult ...
For generations, churches were the center of community life in many towns.
Want to know what time it is? Listen for the chimes from the Lutheran church steeple.
Going to the store? Turn left at the Baptist church.
Bored on a Sunday night? Check out the revival at the Pentecostal ...
You can’t pastor a church of 500 the way you pastored it at 100. Or a church of 100 the way you did at 25.
But how do we know if we should break through from one size to another?
For at least a generation there’s been an underlying assumption that every church should ...
In December of 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld got into hot water when he responded to reporters’ questions about whether-or-not US troops were ready for war by saying “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at ...
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