Review: "Small Church Essentials"

           What are the essentials of a small church?  Well, to become larger and to have more money, right?

            Not necessarily, Karl Vaters argues in his book, Small Church Essentials:  Field-Tested Principles for Leading a Healthy Congregation of Under 250.

            I can’t tell you how much I hate it when someone asks what our average attendance is and I say, “25,” and they respond, “Oh, I’m sorry” or “Have you thought about an open house?”  Or a revival?  Or a sermon series on giving?  Or focusing your ministry on doing whatever you have to do to change to get people in the doors?

            Vaters has been to all the church growth seminars – as he shows with quotations and endnotes.  Yet, he states the average Protestant church in the US has 80 congregants (18) and that is not necessarily wrong or indicative that a church is broken; it may be perfectly healthy and obedient – and there’s the rub – the Church is to “equip the saints, reach the lost, and glorify God” (41) and there is no numerical equivalent to that mandate.

            In Part Two of his book, Vaters presents the differences between big and small church and argues that the differences merely make them different, not wrong.

            In Part Three, he asks if your church is small because there is a problem or because it is strategically small by virtue of its context – in which case, there is nothing to be fixed.

            If there is a problem, the problem must be understood and addressed (though the problem’s resolution does not mean the church will grow financially or monetarily).

            Vaters begins by arguing that all churches should “fill up” and “empty out” in being who God calls them to be – there is a receiving part in the church and a giving out in the church (116).  The problem could be that the church focuses on one and not the other, rather than having a balance.

            Functional churches are not cluttered (120).  (And he helps the reader understand what clutter is and how best to remove it.)

            In chapter ten, he argues that each church has something(s) that it does well, and that is what it should focus on – that is what it’s purpose/way/method it brings the Gospel and grows as a church (135ff).

            In part four, he argues that being a “great” small church is found in recognizing that small churches are much more about relationships than large churches, so maximize relationship-building (191ff).

            Vaters book is very readable – great for church boards to read through and plan with, as well as for senior/solo ministers to read and bring forth to the church.  It is extremely important that we disabuse ourselves of the notion that all churches must be large or that small churches are being punished.  A faithful, Gospel-preaching, obedient church can be perfect with 25 people in it.

            [This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com.]