Karl Vaters

Karl Vaters produces resources for Helping Small Churches Thrive at KarlVaters.com.

He's the author of five books on church leadership, including his newest, De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What's Next. His other books include The Grasshopper Myth and Small Church Essentials.

Karl also hosts a bi-weekly podcast, The Church Lobby: Conversations on Faith & Ministry, featuring in-depth interviews about topics that concern pastors, especially those who minister in a small church context. He has served in small-church ministry for over 40 years, so he speaks and writes from decades of hands-on pastoral experience.

You can follow Karl on FacebookInstagramXYouTube, and LinkedIn, or Contact Karl to inquire about speaking, writing, and consultation.

Small Church Problems? The Answer May Be Closer Than You Think

“Show me a spiritually healthy church and I’ll show you a spiritually healthy pastor. Show me a spiritually unhealthy church and I’ll show you a spiritually unhealthy pastor. “If you’ve been the pastor of your church for five years or longer, it’s time to stop blaming your predecessors, your circumstances and your congregation. Like it

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The Gatekeepers are Gone: Unlikely Wisdom for Pastors from a Stand-Up Comic

“The gatekeepers are gone”, said stand-up comic Patton Oswalt in a talk that has huge implications for pastors and other communicators. Oswalt continued as he held up his iPhone to a crowd of comedy bigwigs. “In my hand right now I’m holding more filmmaking technology than Orson Welles had when he filmed Citizen Kane. I’m

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Is the Era of the Megachurch Over?

All my life I’ve heard preachers talk about a coming worldwide revival. But it’s never happened. There have been pockets of excitement, from the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, to the church growth movement of the 1980s. The 1990s brought local spiritual outbreaks in places like Toronto and Florida, along with controversy over their genuineness

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