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Tag Archives: Karl Vaters


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Love God, Love People, Preach The Word And Make Disciples (via Karl Vaters)

Karl Vaters observes that there are plenty of extras that commend themselves as necessary for congregations to grow in the ministry and mission.
Rather than focus on these, he commends local churches focus instead on the basics – without which no amount of extras will help.

Don’t spend your time on cool new ideas until you’ve got the essentials locked down.

  • Preach the Word with passion and truth
  • Love each other
  • Welcome guests with genuine friendliness
  • Forgive when you’re slighted
  • Support the weak and vulnerable
  • Make disciples

Don’t spend your time on cool new ideas until you’ve got the essentials locked down.
A cool new church logo is nice. But it’s not nearly as impressive or important as a church that’s doing the essentials well.
After all, we don’t go to a restaurant to be impressed by a server’s memory skills. We go for good food and good service.
People who come to our churches are the same. They’re not looking for fancy graphics or oratorical flair.

  • They want to know God loves them
  • They want a chance to make a difference
  • They want someone who will be there when they’re hurting
  • They want to know the scriptures better
  • They want to experience forgiveness and hope

And they want the same for their friends and family.

Source


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The Challenge Of Sundays In A Smaller Church (via Karl Vaters)

Having come from a meeting today where church attendance figures were submitted, this article by Karl Vaters makes some helpful points.
While there is an average number of people attending a church, in reality attendances can fluctuate between, say, thirty-five an sixty people.
That difference makes a significant change in tone, and, realistically, most weeks those planning worship don’t know which ‘group’ they’re structuring for.

Vaters suggests:

Think relationally not programmatically
Highly programmed people have a hard time in small church leadership. Highly relational people do much better.
When numbers are small, and week-to-week percentage swings are highly variable, you can’t lead with a fill-in-the-boxes mentality.
In small churches, everything is done relationally. Our planning needs to be, too.
*and*
Leave a lot of wiggle room in your plans
Most planning principles are based on exact numbers. But when you don’t have exact numbers, you can’t plan that way.
Instead of saying “we need X number of ushers, greeters or nursery attendants”, talk with the members of your church about the importance of being ready for anything at a moment’s notice.

Read the whole post here.


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Don’t Fix Normal

A lot of articles that I read by Karl Vaters make a lot of sense.
I’m looking forward to having a read of this book.


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Who Owns The Culture? (via Karl Vaters)

I’ll be getting a copy of Karl Vater’s book Small Church Essentials.
While the main cross-cultural issue is that characterising a congregation of under 250 people as a small church in Australia is an over-reach, the observations about group dynamics in groups of varying sizes should hold true.

This excerpt about who shapes culture in a local church strikes me as true:

In bigger or newer churches, the culture is more likely to be determined by the pastoral staff, with the congregation more willing to follow. In smaller and older churches, the culture is more the property of the congregation and its history than the pastor. The smaller or older the church, the greater impact the culture will have on any new ideas, projects, or changes a pastor wants to implement, especially if the congregation has had a high pastoral turnover.

If this point isn’t taken into calculations cultural change in smaller groups will be a struggle.


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A Very Confronting Diagnostic Question (via Karl Vaters)

Karl Vaters’ articles usually have some sharp takeaways.
In writing about ten steps churches should take in order to remain vital he writes we should:

Figure Out Why Your Congregation Should Survive
If your church disappeared tomorrow, what would really be lost?
Yes, that’s hard question. It might even feel cruel and uncaring. But it’s not. It’s essential.
Any congregation that can’t readily answer why they should survive, won’t.

Read the whole post here.