With people attending church less frequently now, your average Sunday attendance represents a smaller percent of your “regulars” than ever before. This affects how we pastor them, and what they expect of the church, in ways we may not realize.
I talked about this with Chad Brooks, a co-vocational pastor, blogger at RevChadBrooks.com, and the host of the Productive Pastor podcast. The subjects we cover include:
- Why church size matters — but not in the way you think it does
- How to determine how many people you’re actually pastoring, since it’s changed a lot in the last couple years
- Why the main weekend service may no longer be the wide end of your church funnel anymore
Bonus Chat
The Moving Target of Small, Medium, and Large Churches — And Why It Matters
In this bonus content, I talk with Chad Brooks about three different ways of deciding whether your church is small, medium, or big, including some helpful information that Chad found from actually interviewing church members about it.
This is important to know because if one person thinks 100 is small, another thinks 100 is medium, and a third person thinks 100 is big, it will change what they do, how they learn, and what leadership principles they follow.
To get the link for the bonus chat, subscribe to the free weekly newsletter at KarlVaters.com/Subscribe or become a monthly supporter at KarlVaters.com/Support.
Links from this Episode
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- Karl’s Twitter feed, with Chad’s comments
- RevChadBrooks.com
- What The Drop In Attendance Frequency Means For Pastors
- Declaring Church Size (and why it matters)
- No Silver Bullets (book)
- https://www.ihelppastorsgetjobs.com/
- Ryan Burge
- The Great DeChurching (book)
- https://substack.com/
- Ian Harber on Substack
- @revchadbrooks on Instagram
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 | [email protected]
Editor
Phil Vaters | [email protected]
Music
Composed and performed by Jack Wilkins | JackWilkinsMusic.com
Logo
by Solomon Joy
Correspondence
Shelley Vaters | Shelley@KarlVaters.com
Authors
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Chad has been involved in ministry for nearly 20 years. He loves to write, share and encourage innovation in ministry, the role of productivity inside of ministry, and all things involving biblical theology.
He blogs at RevChadBrooks.com, which is also the home of the Productive Pastor podcast.
Follow Chad on • Facebook • Instagram • YouTube • Twitter (X)
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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 Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and LinkedIn, or Contact Karl to inquire about speaking, writing, and consultation.
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