Kristin Hill Taylor

Seeking God as the Author of Every Story

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • Peace in the Process
    • Bringing Home More Than Groceries
  • Contact

Small Church Essentials

March 15, 2018 by Kristin 1 Comment

I’ve been restless in my small church, but I still believe it’s where my family and I belong.

Yes, that creates tension in my heart and head sometimes. But it also positioned my husband and me to lead a new small group that’s been what our lives needed this past year. God has shown me (again) how He doesn’t waste anything. He uses our perspectives, restlessness, and ideas to grow our faith and bring Himself glory. (Read more about that.)

Being active in a small church with about 100 people on a Sunday morning has taught me much, blessed me greatly, and prompted many questions. I’ve learned more about myself and my preferences. I’ve discovered how my gifts fit into God’s kingdom. I’ve pursued ideas because if I wanted a study or project to happen I had to lead it. People have shown up with meals after we adopted babies or as my son recovered from second-degree burns. A couple our parents’ age has poured into our family. We’ve befriended college students and other families.

But I’ve been feeling stuck in my small church.

So when I saw a post about the launch team for “Small Church Essentials: Field-Tested Principles for Leading a Healthy Congregation of under 250” on Facebook, I was intrigued. I’m not a pastor. I don’t work for my church. But I do care about the future of our small church (and churches in general) and wanted a fresh perspective as the wife of an elder and a small group leader.

“A healthy small church on mission with God can and should be hearing from God through various voices in the congregation. If we truly believe in the priesthood of believers, what better place to practice it than in a healthy small church?”

– Karl Vaters in “Small Church Essentials”

I’m not the only one in this size of church. Vaters quotes information that says half of North America’s 320,000 churches are Protestant churches that have about 80 in their weekly attendance. One a church reaches 100 people, it’s larger than 60 percent of its peer churches; at 140 people, it’s 75 percent larger; and at 200, 85 percent. The numbers don’t matter but the sentiment does: Leading and being active in small churches is important because that’s the majority of what The Church is in America.

“Equip the saints, reach the lost, and glorify God. If you and your church are doing that, it doesn’t matter what size it is. It’s not about big or small; it’s about big and small. While I believe small churches will play a more visible role in the future growth of the church, I don’t believe we will replace big churches or megachurches, nor should we. The body of Christ is better with all of us than without any of us.”

– Karl Vaters in “Small Church Essentials”

This book is definitely written directly to pastors, but I still benefited as someone invested and interested in seeing improvements in our church. It’s divided into four sections that are then broken down into smaller chapters that address everything from church philosophy, purpose, starting and stopping ministries, vision-casting, service, discipleship, leadership models, and planning. Personally, it helped me gain perspective on both the role of a small church and where I fit into that. 

About the book

Big churches get all the love. Articles, books, and conferences often feature leaders of large congregations. Yet big churches are a small part of the ecclesial landscape. In fact, more than 90 percent of churches have fewer than 200 people. That means small churches play a big part in what God is doing.

“Small Church Essentials” is for leaders of these smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunks myths about small churches, and offers principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church. It affirms small church leaders and shows them how to identify what they do well and how to do it even better.

This 256-page paperback book is published by Moody Publishers (March 6, 2018).

About the author

Karl Vaters has been a small church pastor for 30 years, also authored “The Grasshopper Myth: Big Churches, Small Churches, and the Small Thinking that Divides Us,” and travels extensively to churches and conferences to speak about leading a small church well. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

*****

I received an advanced complimentary copy of this book as part of the launch team, but these thoughts on the book and small churches are my own.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

When the past & the present collide

August 17, 2017 by Kristin 3 Comments

Nineteen years ago as a college sophomore, I walked into the Murray Christian Fellowship house on the edge of campus. I had learned about MCF while compiling a list of campus ministries for the student newspaper. What the campus minister had said during a brief phone call intrigued me. I didn’t know anyone, so I dragged some friends with me because I wanted to go.

Three years later, I graduated with a bachelor’s of science and walked away from that MCF house with a deeper understanding of my faith and some the dearest friends a girl could have.

On a recent Sunday in August, the current student leaders from MCF fill a row of seats near us in church. I held the college memories in my heart as my 7-year-old boy still let me hold his hand in church that same morning. My almost-2-year-old girl was eager to go the nursery and my oldest, who is somehow already 10, sat on my other side. Even so, I remember so much of college like it was yesterday.

God collided what He did long ago
with what He’s doing now.

{Tweet that.}

We’ve introduced our kids to the MCF house recently because our small group painted the front porch and started to haul out trash from the leaking basement. We’ve gotten to know a couple of the current students and hope to spend more time with them. Meanwhile, we are still missing the former student who was my kids’ babysitter but understandably graduated, moved away, and got married in recent years.

I’m grateful our church – which was started out of that same campus ministry more than three decades ago – is still in a relationship with the organization God used to teach me and love me when I was finding my way as a new believer. I sat there in the row of chairs Sunday morning with my kids while others prayed over MCF’s student leaders.

I prayed silently in my head:

Thank you, God, for prompting me through a newspaper assignment to walk the couple blocks from my dorm to the MCF house. Thank you for meeting me there that day, many days in the following three years, and even times since. I love how that ministry and our current church are intertwined and how nobody hesitated to join those students with prayer. Thank you for giving my family the opportunity to serve these kids as they serve you and their peers. Be with the students as they begin a new school year. Let them shine lights and love others for you, God. Let them hold onto the truth of what you’re doing now so they can remember your faithfulness later. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

*****

I love living in a college town! I shared yesterday about welcoming college students to my hometown (and wanting to mother some boys I crossed paths with in Kroger). You can also read the letter I wrote last year to Murray State freshmen.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Let’s Connect

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

About Me

Telling stories is my therapy and I love sharing them with friends on my porch.

The main characters in my stories are my entrepreneur husband, our ninth-grade girl who never forgets, our have-no-fear sixth-grade boy, and our joy-filled kindergarten girl. As we live out our stories, we seek God as the author of them all.

Learn more about my story here.

Subscribe for Updates

Recent Posts

  • Nine Ways to Go for God
  • 20 years of marriage!
  • God always finds them
  • 5 skills to raise kids well
  • Cheesy, breezy Wisconsin Dells

#PorchStories button

Join the Conversation

Join the Conversation

On Instagram

Before I settle into a school time routine, I want Before I settle into a school time routine, I want to recap summer — my favorite season of the year that, honestly, just didn’t look like I expected & hoped in many ways. Even so, goodness was all around us. 

This was the summer of …
 
Crunch-dipped ice cream Drumsticks 🌼 4/5 of us having strep throat at different times, and Ben having it 3 times 🌼 Six Flags and Kentucky Kingdom 🌼 Venture River season passes 🌼 Plans changing and changing again 🌼 Plan B vacation because Covid is still interrupting plans 🌼 Friends sharing big news — someone’s son was injured, friends moving toward divorce after two decades of marriage, a friend being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, and a friend’s house flooding in a negligent way. 🌼 Holding onto the good news 🌼 Counting gratefulness 🌼 Celebrating 20 years of marriage 🌼 Reading mostly romance novels because that’s what sounded good 🌼 Traditional summer weekends with some out-of-town friends 🌼 Quiddler, although I can’t seem to win this word game. 🌼 Conversations in our bedroom with our oldest who likes to stay up later than us 🌼 Binge-watching “Yellowstone” 🌼 The easiest, clearest water we’ve had in six summers with a pool despite the leaking liner 🌼 Feelings that reminded me of Social Distancing 2020 🌼 Noticeable growth in my kids, the weeds around my house, and within my own heart.

Most years, I mourn the end of Summer Break, but this year routine & rhythms are returning at the right time. I spent some time this summer grieving some changes in friendships and disappointments with details that were far out of my control. But I also enjoyed life, sunshine, and right where God has me. That reality is helping me be ready for whatever comes next. 

📷: Cate, 15

#livingfaithfully #88daysofsummer #backtoschool #choosingJOY #PorchStories #reallife #momlife #faithlife #summerisbest
At Back to School Night yesterday, I had been work At Back to School Night yesterday, I had been working as the school finance person when I decided to get Rachel from the gym to go meet her teacher. Turns out she had already gone with me to meet her teacher, the only teacher in the whole school I don’t know! I went to her classroom and there she was chatting with Mrs. Mason and playing with some friends. That girl radiates confidence. 

So, with or without me, they’re ready! Bring on first grade, seventh grade, and sophomore year! @ncca.lions 

#backtoschool #momlife #reallife #siblinglove #thirdchild #choosingJOY #livingfaithfully
Strep throat bookended his summer. Literally. He t Strep throat bookended his summer. Literally. He tested positive for strep the first Saturday of Summer Break and the last day of Summer Break. He also had it in June and COVID-19 in July. 

Here’s to being grateful he’s quick to recover, antibiotics work, our pediatrician is our friend, and he won’t miss the first day of school. 

#88daysofsummer #boymom #reallife #summerbreak #backtoschool #choosingJOY
What a perfect day for a back-to-school party for What a perfect day for a back-to-school party for some @ncca.lions 7th grade boys and their siblings! A new student wanted to meet some classmates, so we hosted some friends & made new friends. 

#backtoschool #momlife #middleschoolers #boymom #poolpeople #morethangroceries #bettertogether #siblinglove #88daysofsummer #countryliving
Introducing Backroads and Blooms Photography by Ca Introducing Backroads and Blooms Photography by Cate Taylor 🎉 

Cate has five different prints available as 5x7s or 8x10s and then matted and framed. She has in stock two of each print in each size, but she will order more. 

🖼 5x7s matted in 8x10 frame = $12
🖼 8x10s matted in 11x14 frame = $20

🌵 Cactus
🌸 Pink flower
💦 Daisy with water drops
🌼 Yellow & orange flower
✨ Starburst flower 

Let Cate know in the comments what you’d like to order or message me. Local pickup/dropoff only right now. 

You can send PayPal friends & family to kristinhilltaylor@gmail.com, send Venmo to @KristinHillTaylor, or pay cash at pickup.

#buddingphotographer #momlife #firstborn #entrepreneur #photography #outdoorphotography #naturephotography
I took a break from my work & chores to read yeste I took a break from my work & chores to read yesterday and I’m so glad I did. I had to stay up late to finish it last night. 

First of all, don’t judge this book by its cover, which I don’t like. (I’ve seen another cover for this same book, so I really don’t understand!) 

Anyway, I loved the story of first love and loss and reconnection told in the dual now-and-then timeline. I thought the end was a little abrupt, but maybe that’s just because I wanted a little more about Macy and Elliot. 

#KHTreads #bookstagram #booklover #librarybooks #88daysofsummer
Today I’m thankful for a productive stretch of t Today I’m thankful for a productive stretch of time making my way through a to-do list, this view from my kitchen window, a little more Summer Break with my kids, a book that has me distracted from other things I “should” be doing, and lots of wide-open space in our day. 

#mondaymotivation #choosingJOY #livingfaithfully #countryliving #momlife #reallife #88daysofsummer
We’ve taken our older kids on short-term mission We’ve taken our older kids on short-term mission trips and hope to go on more. They’ve served locally. We support missionaries. We want our kids to be open to wherever God calls them and incorporating missions into our small-town life is one way we, as parents, have hoped to teach that. 

I’m incredibly thankful @hardinbaptistchurch comes alongside us with the same message. The middle and high school @hardinstudents spent the summer looking at different aspects of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Youth minister @cbright2 spent the last Sunday of the series looking at nine practical ways that students – yes, even middle and high schoolers – could participate in and pray about going for God. 

Chase shared these 9 Ways to Go with students' parents, and I asked him for permission to share them with you because even as an adult I want to remember to live on mission – even right where I am. 

9 WAYS TO GO FOR GOD: https://bit.ly/9WaysToGo

#linkinbio #ontheblog #bloggerlife #momlife #churchlife #faithlife #livingfaithfully #missions #missionminded #youth #teenagers #parenting #parenthood
“Writing is what makes me happy. Writing, even, “Writing is what makes me happy. Writing, even, is how I feel I contribute to the world. Reminding people of what’s important. Letting them escape the harsh parts of life, even if it’s just for a few hours. Helping them feel happiness through watching happily-ever-afters unfold. Remembering truths. Recalling their self-worth. Loving others. Living well. Learning. I want to do that.” 

And, let’s be honest, love stories about writers make me happy too. “Meet Me in the Margins” was cute, predictable, and a good way to escape for a little while. 

#KHTreads #bookstagram #booklover #authorlife #librarybooks #poolpeople #weekending
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Favorites

Categories

Archives

Copyright © 2022 Kristin Hill Taylor | Design by Traci Michele | Development by MRM