In this episode, I talk with Allen T. Stanton about about the importance of embracing small churches, not in spite of being small, but because they’re small. It’s a conversation based on the content of Allen’s book, The Gift of Small: Embracing Your Church’s Vocation.
Some of the subjects we cover include:
- A new take on the “all growth is good growth” assumption, based on the fact that we live in a culture that is so economically driven
- Why small churches should be more nimble, but often are not
- The differences between a hierarchical leadership model and the Solar System Model
- The importance of the “Parking Lot meeting”
- The differences between regular and episodic volunteers
Links from this Episode
- The Gift of Small: Embracing Your Church’s Vocation
- Reclaiming Rural: Building Thriving Rural Congregations
- 211Counts.org
- University of the Ozarks
Bonus Content
Four Practices to Help Your Small Church Stay Nimble, with Allen T. Stanton
A bonus conversation with Allen T. Stanton about the importance of:
- Understanding and appropriately managing the roles of individuals in the organization
- Acknowledging the places where small-membership churches are already good at change and where they already practice being adaptive and flexible
- Remembering that not everything needs to change all the time
- The looseness of small-church relational networks, rather than strict hierarchies and complicated bureaucracies
All weekly Bonus Content is available on our YouTube channel for financial partners and newsletter subscribers. Click either button to get started.
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Credits
Producer: Veronica Beaver
Editor: Phil Vaters
Music: Composed and performed by Jack Wilkins
Logo: by Solomon Joy
