De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What’s Next
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Leader’s Edge: Missions & Ministry
De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What’s Next
By Karl Vaters
Moody Publishers, 2024
230 pages
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Summary
As seen in the main title, this book addresses the concept of de-sizing the church (i.e., “choosing to evaluate the health and vitality of a congregation, denomination, or movement without using attendance figures, percentages, or numerical comparisons as the primary consideration” [page 9]). The book seeks to answer four questions that come out of the church’s “size obsession,” especially within evangelicalism: (1) why is bigness a problem?; (2) where did this obsession come from?; (3) what are the consequences of it?; and (4) what might be a better way forward? However, the author is quick to affirm this: “Church growth is not the problem. Big churches are not the problem. Bigness is the problem. Bigness is an obsessive mindset” (page 12).
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