MENU OF SPEAKING OPTIONS
I love talking with pastors and other church leaders! Whether online or in person (or a combination of the two) there’s always so much to gain when we get together.
Scroll down this page to find a quick overview of the kinds of talks that are available. Feel free to mix-and-match them to suit your needs. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Let us know and we’ll try to work something out that suits the needs of your group.
Wondering about my availability for specific dates? Click here for my Speaking Calendar to see what’s already filled up.
Interested? Just click here to fill out Contact Form and we’ll get back to you soon.
Karl Vaters
NEWEST TALK!
De-sizing The Church
We have an unhealthy relationship with bigness in the church. Especially in the American church. And it’s killing us. The rate of church closures, departing members, and pastoral burnout is growing exponentially.
In this session, I will talk about how we became so obsessed with bigness in the church, why it’s dangerous, and what we can do to change course, including addressing the following questions:
- What is de-sizing?
- Why do we need to de-size?
- Where did our obsession with bigness come from?
- What are the dangers of pursuing bigness?
- How do we fix this?
Based on my newest book, De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What’s Next.
MOST POPULAR: THE MULTI-SESSION CONFERENCE
Leading the Smaller Church Without Settling for Less
(This is a suggested title. Feel free to use any title that suits your group.)
In this session Karl walks through his story as a discouraged small church pastor who discovered the importance of defining success in ministry without numbers attached to it. This lays the groundwork for all the following sessions by encouraging small church leaders that they can lead a small church well without settling for less. (See a short segment from this talk in the Bigger Fixes Nothing video, below.)
Big churches and small churches are different. Not in their mission, but in how they’re led. In this session we talk about those differences so we can lead small churches better. We also have some fun answering the important question that all small church leaders have asked at some point: “Why Is My Church So Weird?”
Every church does something well. Or it can. In this session we see some examples of small churches who discovered and refined their calling, then we walk through the step-by-step biblical principles that can help any church discover their gifts and use them well.
This is a call for pastors to fulfill our prime mandate to “equip God’s people” (Eph 4:11-12). It includes proven methods to find and train volunteers and turn them into leaders, starting at the all-important baseline of biblical servanthood.
A fifth talk can be added, or the other talks (below) can subsituted for Sessions 3 or 4.
Bigger Fixes Nothing
A segment from Karl’s full-length talk, Redefining Success In Ministry.
Why Is My Church So Weird?
A segment from Karl’s full-length talk, Big Churches, Small Churches – What’s the Difference?
The Pastoral Prime Mandate
A segment from Karl’s full-length talk, How To Discover and Use What Your Church Does Well.
Three Undeniable Realities of Pastoral Ministry
A segment from Karl’s full-length talk, Redefining Success In Ministry.
Three Ways A Small Church Can Be An Effective Church
A segment from Karl’s full-length talk which is also called Three Ways A Small Church Can Be An Effective Church.
Overcoming The Tyranny of Results
A segment from Karl’s full-length talk called De-Sizing The Church.
Why You Don't Need A Mission Statement
A segment from Karl’s full-length talk, A New Way To Look At Vision Casting.
OTHER TALKS
Small and effective? Is it possible? According to the Bible, church history, and the latest research, the answer is a resounding yes!
Small churches not only can be effective, but when they see their size, not as a problem to fix, but as part of a strategy Jesus is using to build his church, they become some of the most effective congregations in the world.
In this session, Karl Vaters will walk through the three essential shifts pastors need to make to help the congregation you lead become heathier and more effective at the size it is right now.
(This session is best used as a one-session substitute that can be used instead of the longer two-session set of Redefining Success In Ministry and Big Churches, Small Churches – What’s the Difference?)
Small churches don’t cast vision from the top down. In this session, we’ll talk about how to cast vision differently in a smaller congregation, while still honoring the current leadership and utilizing your pastoral gifts.
There’s a lot of trauma in ministry. Now, with pastors burning out and churches closing, it’s hard to see our way forward. Thankfully, God gave us a way to recover and heal from it.
Yes, it’s possible to reach the next generation, and even to turn an aging church around. But it’s not easy. In this talk, I walk through the three-level strategy that helped our church go from an old church to a very young church using this three-level strategy:
Level 1: Commitment
Level 2: Recruitment
Level 3: Retention
(35-45 minutes)
This session outlines several principles that are based on hundreds of conversations with church leaders and small-church pastors that have been through sesons of difficuly, but have come out stronger.
In this session, we’ll see:
- Two keys to recovery
- Three ways small churches can respond to current situations
- Four differences between churches that survived and thrived through difficult seasons, and those that have struggled or collapsed
(30-45 minutes)
Making predictions is always dangerous. But there are trends that can help us anticipate and prepare for the coming years of challenge for the church.
This session outlines these challenges through four different lenses, as taken from conversations with over 100 small-church pastors:
- What is coming
- What’s probably coming
- What probably isn’t coming
- What we can do about it
(45-60 minutes)
Most of our churches and denominations were designed with the expectation of a full-time pastor as the norm. For many generations it was possible for a church with just a few dozen people to fully support a minister and their family.
Not anymore.
In this talk, Karl shares nine adjustments that congregations, pastors and other church leaders must seriously consider in the new reality of a side-hustle world.
(30-45 minutes)
A WEEKEND CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
We can work within your conference’s schedule, but if you want to set up a one-time event, this is what has worked best for most small-church pastors/leaders’ calendars:
FRIDAY
- 7pm: Session 1
SATURDAY
- 9am: Session 2
- 10:15am: Session 3
- 11:30am: Lunch
- 12:30pm: Session 4
- 1:15pm: Session 5
- 2pm: Close
(The Friday session is the longest one, with each session after it getting slightly shorter and more practical. There will be a 5-10 minute break between the two morning and afternoon sessions.)
Interested? Let's talk.
(Wall photo by George Sam Beaver. Stage photos by Shelley Vaters. Calendar photo by Mockaroon.)
