Karl Vaters

A Small Church Moment: Keeping Little Changes From Becoming a Big Deal

/ 6 minutes of reading

Way too many Small Churches think that, because they’re small, they can fly by the seat of their pants all the time. But when we do that, people learn that they can’t rely on anything that’s announced, so our church volunteers become as unreliable as the church calendar.

Constantly changing announced plans is one of the quickest ways to erode trust, get half-hearted commitment from volunteers or lose them entirely.

Do you want reliable church volunteers? Be a reliable leader. Keep a reliable calendar.

People can handle change if we do it right. Here are 9 principles you can use to assure that a last-minute change in your church plans goes smoothly.

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Why Don’t Small Churches Grow? They Do. Then We Call Them Big Churches

/ 6 minutes of reading

“Why don’t small churches grow?” That’s one of the most common search terms that leads people to NewSmallChurch.com.

So today I ‘m going to take a stab at answering it. But before I offer my answer, I’m going to do something that may surprise you. I’m going to challenge the premise of the question.

The presumption that Small Churches don’t grow is false. Small Churches do grow. Some grow numerically. Most grow spiritually. Many grow in both ways.

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Stop Thinking Like a Big Church

/ 7 minutes of reading

In a big church, the ranching/spiritual triage model makes sense. There’s no way one person can care for thousands of people individually. A well-trained team of staff and volunteers is essential to every aspect of ministry.

In a Small Church, when the pastor stops doing hospital visits, ceases having an open door policy and starts delegating those responsibilities to others, the congregation members feel neglected and unimportant.

Then they start looking for another church. I know. I’ve experienced it first-hand.

I’m not the only one with this experience. I’ve talked to many discouraged pastors with stories just like mine, who tried the rancher model only to find their congregation members feeling neglected.

That neglected feeling is understandable. After all, when Jesus commissioned Peter, he told him, “feed my sheep” not “tend my ranch”. The ranching model tells us that our primary focus needs to move from “doing the caring” to “develop and manage a system of care” for the body we serve. There’s just one problem with that. As a pastor friend of mine says, “People want to be pastored, not spiritually managed.”

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The 10% Grace Rule: Judging Without Being Judgmental

/ 8 minutes of reading

The more you speak or write, the more mistakes you’ll make. It’s unavoidable. Those who put their opinions out for public consumption in blogs, books, sermons, etc., take on a huge risk, because their mistakes will be amplified by the amount of information they’re putting out and by the size of the audience.

Unfortunately, there are many of us – and way too many in the Christian community – looking for people to trip up. Instead of giving people the benefit of the doubt, they’re very quick to pounce on any misstatement (real or perceived) as the judge, jury and executioner.

But we can’t just nod and smile at untrue, unkind or unChristian statements, either. We need to practice reasonable judgment about what people say and write. Sometimes those statements need to be challenged, lovingly, but firmly.

As always, Jesus said it best. We need to, “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.” But how do we do that? As Christians and as consumers of content, how do we balance wise discernment with forgiveness and grace?

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I Am a Small Church Pastor and I’m Calling Out the Church Leadership Bullies

/ 7 minutes of reading

There are some bullies in the church growth movement. No, not most of them. And even those who are bullies probably don’t realize it. But they’re bullies, just the same.

It’s because I don’t think they intend to be bullies that I’m using such a strong term – to help them see the hurt they’ve been causing to their fellow Christians and church leaders.

Small Churches and their leaders have suffered under this problem for years. But no one has dared say it out loud. So I’m saying it today, because we can’t fix a problem until we acknowledge it.

Small Church pastors often feel bullied and insulted by the very church leaders we go to for help.

This problem is real. It’s hurtful. And it needs to stop.

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Loosen the Lid: Let Your Small Church Thrive, Using Bubble-Up Leadership

/ 4 minutes of reading

What’s your leadership style? Top-down? Or bottom-up?

I’ve always believed bottom-up should be the go-to for pastoral leadership, but a good leader needs to be ready to use both, depending on the circumstance.

The problem is, I’m becoming uncomfortable with each of those terms. The congregation is not the bottom of the church and the pastor is not the top. The only top-down leadership I’m interested in is from Jesus (the only head of the church) to all of us.

So I propose a new idea. Let’s start using Bubble-Up Leadership. (That’ll catch on …riiight?)

Just as bubbles rush to break the surface of a carbonated drink, great ideas are trying to break the surface of our churches. We need more pastors who have the courage to loosen the lid and let them breathe.

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12 Ways to Disagree Online Without Being a Jerk

/ 9 minutes of reading

The internet is a great place for debate. I love throwing ideas out there, stirring up interest and hearing other passionate opinions.

But the anonymity of the internet also has a way of turning mean people loose. And that stifles, sometimes kills, the opportunity for healthy, inspiring conversation. A lot of good people have stopped writing online altogether because they don’t want the nastiness any more. I don’t blame them.

The worst place for this is usually in the comments section of blogs. Unfortunately, Christian sites – even church leadership sites – are no exception to this.

I refuse to be influenced by the nastiness. It won’t sucker me in or bully me away. I will continue to engage in the debate, stir up alternative views and dialog honestly and openly.

I’ve learned that it is possible to disagree with someone online and not be a jerk about it. So if you, like me, want to engage in lively discussion, even disagreements online, while keeping the tone civil, try these twelve steps as a guide.

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Metrics That Matter: The Missing Element In Assessing Small Church Health

/ 5 minutes of reading

Small Church pastors are often told that if our church isn’t growing it’s because we’re not paying enough attention to the numbers.

That’s not true. Small Church pastors are very aware of the numbers – sometimes painfully so.

I’ll admit that Small Churches don’t use metrics the way bigger churches do. But it‘s not because the numbers don’t matter to us. And it certainly isn’t because we don’t want our churches to grow. It’s because of something no one ever talks about.

Metrics designed by and for megachurches don’t work in Small Churches. We need metrics to measure health that don’t presuppose numerical increase.

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Growing a Bigger Congregation Is Hard, Rare and [Gasp!] NOT a Biblical Mandate

/ 8 minutes of reading

For four decades, we’ve been told that if your church is not growing numerically, you’re failing. But that denies so much evidence. Evidence that very clearly indicates that growing a big congregation is not inevitable. It’s not common. And it’s not required by God to be a faithful pastor.

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In Celebration of Quirky Churches

/ 5 minutes of reading

I like quirky churches. And I’m pretty sure God does, too. Just take a look at the astonishing variety of churches in the New Testament.

Quirky churches don’t mess with the fundamentals. And they don’t worry about passing fads. Quirky churches are the ones that dare to do the bible stuff in a way that works for them and the people God is calling them to reach. No matter how strange it looks to everyone else.

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