Small Church Essentials: Field-Tested Principles for Leading a Healthy Congregation of Under 250

Karl Vaters

Mar 2018 · Moody Publishers

About this ebook

Do you lead a small church? 

Big churches get all the love. Articles, books, conferences—they mostly feature leaders of large congregations. Yet big churches are a small part of the ecclesial landscape. In fact, more than 90 percent of churches have fewer than 200 people. That means small churches play a big part in what God is doing.

Small Church Essentials is for leaders of these smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunking myths about small churches while offering principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church.

Based on the popular six-hour lecture that Karl Vaters delivers to church leaders across the country, Small Church Essentials will affirm small church leaders and show them how to identify what they do well, and how to do it even better. Readers will:

• Be assured that leading a small congregation does not make them ministry failures
• Come away inspired to lead with passion, regardless the size of their church
• Have field-tested principles for leading a church in their context
• Possess new metrics for biblically measuring vitality in small churches
• Have a toolkit of resources to use in their everyday ministry

Karl Vaters has been a small church pastor for 30 years, is the author of The Grasshopper Myth: Big Churches, Small Churches, and the Small Thinking that Divides Us (2013), and travels extensively to churches and conferences to speak about leading a small church well.

If you are pastoring a small church, this book will be a breath of fresh air. It will affirm your calling while giving you fresh tools to help you lead. It will help you:

• Stop believing lies about small churches
• Lead your church to fulfill the role only small churches can
• Understand your congregation’s strengths and weaknesses
• Turn around a dying or unhealthy church
• Identify good trends and bad in church and culture

Ratings and reviews

I had never been a part of a small church until I became the pastor of one. I wish I would have had Karl’s book available to me back then. It reads like a series of coffee shop conversations with a wise colleague. Chapter 5, titled “Why Is My Church So Weird?” was particularly helpful for me. He explains some of the practical differences that make small churches so different from large churches and from each other. In fact, much of what he has to say about about leadership, outreach, and discipleship would have also been helpful at the large churches where I served on staff. I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

About the author

KARL VATERS has served in small-church ministry for over 40 years, so he speaks and writes from decades of hands-on pastoral experience. He is author of The Church Recovery Guide, 100 Days to a Healthier Church, Small Church Essentials, and The Grasshopper Myth. Karl also hosts a biweekly podcast, The Church Lobby: Conversations on Faith & Ministry. You can learn more about Karl at www.KarlVaters.com. He and his wife, Shelley, have three children and two grandkids.