In recent years, Christian ministries have increasingly prioritized urban areas. Big cities and suburbs are considered more strategic, more influential, and more desirable places to live and work. After all, they're the centers for culture, arts, and education. More and more people are leaving small places and moving to big ones. As a ministry strategy, focusing on big places makes sense.
But the gospel of Jesus is often unstrategic. In this book, pastor Stephen Witmer lays out an integrated theological vision for small-place ministry. Filled with helpful information about small places and with stories and practical advice from his own ministry, Witmer's book offers a compelling, comprehensive vision for small-place ministry today.
Jesus loves small places, and when we care deeply about them and invest in them over time, our ministry becomes a unique picture of the gospel—one that the world badly needs to see.
216 pages.
Foreword: Ray Ortlund
Introduction: My Small-Place Story
Part I: What Are the Small Places Like?
Small Places Are Better and Worse Than We Think
1. Taking a Fresh Look at Small Places
2. Why Small Places Are Better Than We Think
3. Why Small Places Are Worse Than We Think
Part II: How Can We Minister Fruitfully in Small Places?
Developing a Theological Vision for Small-Place Ministry
4. The Source and Goal of Small-Place Ministry: A Shaping Gospel and a See-Through Church
5. Strategic Isn't Always What We Think
6. Small Is Usually Better Than We Think
7. Slow Is Often Wiser Than We Think
8. Fruitful Small-Place Ministry: The Circle and the Arrow
9. Battling Joy Killers in Small-Place Ministry
Part III: Should I Be Ministering in a Small Place?
Reasons Not to Do Small-Place Ministry, Reasons You Should, and Reasons to Consider
10. Good and Bad Reasons Not to Do Small-Place Ministry
11. Good and Bad Reasons to Do Small-Place Ministry
12. Common Reasons to Prioritize Big-Place Ministry
Conclusion: Pray Big, Trust God, Work Hard
Acknowledgments
Notes
