This week I interviewed Rick Hiemstra, a former small church pastor, now serving as the Director of Research at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
Rick and I talk about a wide variety of subjects, including the Church Growth Movement, technology and how it has affected the way we approach pastoring.
Some helpful insights include:
- What has people’s attention is what shapes them, and technology has radically altered what has our attention
- How technology has shaped people’s expectations for their church and their pastor
- How technology subconsciously changed pastors from shepherds to content producers
- The important difference between “growth” and “scale”
- How small churches are especially suited to meet the changing needs of a world whose attention is so easily diverted
And much more.
Link from this Episode
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Credits
Producer
Veronica Beaver | [email protected]
Editor
Phil Vaters | [email protected]
Music composed and performed by
Jack Wilkins | JackWilkinsMusic.com
Correspondence
Shelley Vaters | Shelley@KarlVaters.com
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Author
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Karl 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.
Karl has served in small-church ministry for over 40 years, so he speaks and writes from decades of hands-on pastoral experience. He and his wife, Shelley have three children and two grandkids.
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