A Small Church can be a great church.
If The Grasshopper Myth were to be summed up in one sentence, that would be it. That is also the topic of some of my most widely read blog posts.
But how?
How do we help a struggling Small Church become a great one?
In October of 2013, NewSmallChurch.com held a Small Church Pastors’ Workshop to start addressing that issue. Today, the first teaching video from that Workshop is finally here!
This 32-minute video is my opening talk at the workshop. In it, I walk through a handful of starter ideas that virtually any church can implement to start thinking like a great Small Church.
Principles that are covered include
- A Small Church can be a great church without settling for less
- The three undeniable realities of pastoral ministry
- How to discover and implement your church’s unique mission
- The Closet Rule for keeping churches fresh and vibrant
Click here for other videos from NewSmallChurch.com.
Download the Notes
Here are the notes from the talk for you to download and print, along with worksheets that your leadership team can use to make this teaching specific to your situation. These can be especially valuable if you want to use this video as a teaching tool.
Thinking Like a Great Small Church notes – Word
Thinking Like a Great Small Church notes – PDF
Your Church Can Do This, Too
One of the principles of the workshop was that we wanted everything we did to be repeatable by almost any other church. So we didn’t spend a ton of money to hire a professional videographer. In fact, we spent no money on it – since that’s the usual video budget of most Small Churches.
Instead, we used someone’s iPad, strapped it to a music stand, plugged a mic into it and had a volunteer sit in the front row to oversee it. Thus, the sitting-in-the-front-row, looking-up-my nose feeling.
The entire workshop was livestreamed that day for people who couldn’t get to Southern California to participate in person. These videos are the result of that experiment – an experiment that, thankfully, worked.
So the audio and video aren’t slick and professional. But you can see and hear what’s going on perfectly fine. Not bad for zero money. And yes, you can do this in your church, too.
I want to thank three of my church volunteers who put all this together for me. Christian Pedersen and Vic Brad oversaw the setup that day. Ben Wilson edited the videos into the pieces we’ll be rolling out in the next few weeks.
So what do you think? Is there anything from this video that you can implement in your great Small Church?
We want to hear from you. Yes, you!
Enter your comment right below this post and get in on the conversation.
(Arrows on Target photo from Nina Matthews Photography • Flickr • Creative Commons)
