Small Church is a Big Deal!

by Reba Collins and William Cowles

 

In church world, much is made – and some is made up – about the glory and grandeur of megachurches. You often wind up thinking that you’re missing out if you don’t sit with 2-3,000 of your closest friends in worship on Sunday. But, is big that much better? What about the little guys? Is there a place for them, too?

 

Not only is there a place – small church is the place for 80-90% of all Christian worshipers in the world! Even many young, contemporary, progressive pastors are realizing that they can’t be Rick Warren, Andy Stanley, or T.D. Jakes – and they’re focused on making small church, good church. And, that’s a big deal.

 

Recently, we discovered two very interesting Web-based resources being posted by small-church pastors. In each case, they are working hard to lead the rediscovery and encouragement of great small church by pastors and church leaders.

 

Here are their links and a brief description of their missions:

 

New Small Church – www.newsmallchurch.com

 

Pastor Karl Vaters, Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, California, founded New Small Church as a personal mission to “encourage, connect, and equip innovative small church leaders. His stated goal is to see “better, stronger, healthier Small Churches, led by passionate, prayerful, capable, innovative and loving pastors.” He adds, “We believe being small is not a problem to fix, but a strategy God wants to use.”

Vaters’ 2013 book on small church leadership is The Grasshopper Myth and you also can read and participate in discussions on his blog posts and Discussion Forums.

200Churches – www.200churches.com

Pastors Jeff Keady and Jonny Craig, Dover Church, Orange City, Iowa, are committed to providing regular blogs, podcasts, and a website that are all about ministry encouragement for pastors of small churches. They define a 200church as: “A church of around 200 people, give or take a hundred or two!”

Pastors and church leaders also can hear the 200churches Podcast on iTunes, where new episodes are posted each Wednesday. Blog posts arrive on M/W/F at 200churches.com.