Karl Vaters

The Myth of Inevitable Church Growth

/ 5 minutes of reading

A healthy church does not inevitably mean a growing church. I used to believe that it did. After all, I’ve read about the “truth” of inevitable church growth in every church leadership book written in the last 30 years. I even taught it myself.

I don’t believe it any more. It’s a myth. The reason I no longer believe that numerical growth is inevitable for a healthy church has to do with one problem that kept presenting itself…

The evidence stubbornly refuses to back it up.

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Pastoring Shouldn’t Be This Hard (And 4 Ways to Make It Easier)

/ 5 minutes of reading

Being a pastor is the fourth hardest job in America. That’s been the common wisdom floating around the internet for a couple years now. It may be true. But it shouldn’t be true. It certainly doesn’t need to be true. I think it’s time to stop making it true. There are two reasons people believe that statement to be

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They Just Don’t Get It: When Big Church Solutions Meet Small Church Realities

/ 4 minutes of reading

“They just don’t get it.” How many times have I said that while shaking my head after reading articles, blogposts and books about church leadership? I could write a book. Oh, right… I know I’m not alone in this. If you’re a Small Church pastor, you’ve had the same experience on many occasions. The articles

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If Numbers Are Not Important, Then Why Are They So Important? (A Poignant Guest Post)

/ 4 minutes of reading

The evidence keeps piling up. Mondays can be very hard on Small Church pastors. This past Monday, I received one of the most truthful, passionately written expressions of pastoral pain that I’ve ever read. It was written by the wife of a Small Church pastor in the comment section following one of my most widely

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