Brandon O'Brien, associate editor for Leadership Journal, has written a new book, The Strategically Small Church. In this work, he seeks to demonstrate how small churches are uniquely equipped for success in today's culture. In an interview with Ed Setzer, he says:
A "strategically small" church is one that has learned to recognize and leverage the inherent strengths of being small. Being strategically small means that instead of trying to overcome your congregation's size, you have learned to use it to strategic ministry advantage.
In other words, I'm not advocating a new model of doing church. Instead I'm hoping that by telling the stories of some truly innovative and effective small churches, other small congregations will stop viewing their size and limited resources as liabilities and begin thinking about them as advantages.
....your church--whatever size--has everything it needs to be used in extraordinary ways for the Kingdom of God. You don't need more resources or more volunteers; you just need the imagination to see how God has equipped you uniquely to carry the gospel to your neighbours.
Published by Bethany House 2010
This is an exciting interview, and if the book is anything like what O'Brien says in it, it will be well worth reading. Not only will it encourage those who are in small rural or suburban churches, ones that those with 'big [church] vision' regard as too small to be of any use, but it will show that small isn't necessarily nonviable.
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