The Small Church Advantage: Seven Powerful Worship Practices that Work Best in Small Settings

by Teresa J. Stewart

There are painful flaws in our conversations about small church worship. Dressed up, they sound like What if author Teresa Stewart told you that small congregations have powerful advantages in offering worship-deeply forming strengths that are not generally available in big settings? She will. And what if our current approach to small congregations largely strips these powerful strengths and replaces them with putty and paint to better imitate worship in large congregations? Stewart will remind you that it does. The author writes that it is worth the messy exploration to find another way...a conversation. In The Small Church Advantage, author Teresa Stewart offers lessons that remind small congregations they are not “less than” anything. She reminds readers of the strengths of the small church and leads them through a process of using those strengths as an advantage. What readers are saying About The Small Church Teresa Stewart has faith in the future of small congregations because she has faith in a God who shows up even in small and forgotten places. She believes that small churches are neither deficient nor immature but rather critical learning laboratories as the church navigates a future far too complex for one-size-fits-all patterns of ministry. The Small Church Advantage is a poignant reminder that the future God beckons us toward is more like a handful of tiny mustard seeds than a grove of stately sequoia trees. F. Douglas Powe, Jr.
Wesley Theological Seminary Stewart demonstrates that smaller churches aren’t inferior; they have an advantage. Plant these ideas in the soil of your congregation and see what happens! Mike Graves
Saint Paul School of Theology Teresa Stewart’s passion for and commitment to small congregations is evident on every page of this book. More importantly, she turns the conversation about small congregations away from a focus on their perceived deficiencies and disadvantages and toward their giftedness and advantages. E. Byron (Ron) Anderson
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary ike the Early Church and our 16th-century reformers, Teresa J. Stewart builds on the idea of worshipers as active worship is the work of ALL the people, not just a small group of expert leaders. The examples, explanations (and humor!) will fill you with hope and a spirit of adventure. Imagine—2,000 years later, and we’re just getting started! Susan Marie Smith
Episcopal Priest The Small Church Advantage is the best book on the small church I have ever read. It is not only the subtlety of Stewart’s mind or the clarity of her writing; it is the relentless creativity concretely applied to worship in the small church. Working with the difference between the performance aesthetic of the large church and the participation aesthetic of the small church, she has wonderful ideas and quite practical examples that can revolutionize worship in the small congregation. Tex Sample
Saint Paul School of Theology Finally, a book for small churches from someone who understands and appreciates small churches! Allen Stanton
Former Director of the Turner Center for Rural Vitality

Genres: Christianity

194 pages, Paperback

Published April 19, 2023

Reviews

[Richard Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teresa’s book on worship in the small church is more than that. It is a comprehensive leadership book with a vision of what a church can be. The picture of the church that she paints makes a compelling case that small, in most cases, may be more theologically sound than bigger. Indeed, there are tools that small churches can use in worship and life together that are transformative in ways that are impossible in a larger church. The book invites leaders to explore possibilities in seven (really more) descriptive and evocative ways instead of prescriptive. This method of writing allows Teresa’s insights to be contextualized in any smaller church. I will make this required reading the next time I teach a worship or church leadership course.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this little, punchy book! It's straightforward, deeply refreshing, and super practical. In some ways it's structured like a workbook, with open-ended questions that are clearly designed for group study and discussion, so that may irritate some readers, but for the right group of people, this is an outstanding little book.

I highly, highly recommend it for those leading small ministries, especially if you have ever felt sheepish or embarrassed about the "quality" of your worship gatherings, and if you have felt "stuck" in the loop of burning out volunteers, or simply felt like what you are trying to do every week simply isn't "working." This may break you out of some limited imagination.

[David Alonzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is thought-provoking. It suggests a paradigm-shift.

Rather than comparing small churches to large churches and not measuring, find the advantages, indeed the superpower of a small congregation.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be an exceptional book on church leadership...not only for the small church. Highly recommended.

[Colemanserious · Rating 4 out of 5]

thinking about buying several copies and leaving them around my church... so many great ideas and perspectives that I'd love to see folks "find on their own" and then come to church excited about.

[Robert Lee Bennight · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author highlights assumptions (false assumptions) about small congregations, which is basically that they are just failed versions of large congregations. She turns the narrative around and reveals how smaller congregations have advantages that larger congregations just do not have in terms of the ability to be more nimble and collaborative in worship and ministry in general. Smaller congregations know how to make do with what is in front of them and how that is a Biblical trait! She makes a great argument about how smaller congregations are better equipped to take on the work of resistance and social justice. And the analogy near the beginning of the book nails it: comparing small congregations to large congregations is like comparing apples and cats. This book is great for ordained and lay leaders in small church settings who are tired of always being told, as sometimes reflected by what they tell themselves, that their small ministry settings do not measure up or are less important than big ones. This book reminds them and us that small ministry is vitally important to God's kingdom now and to come.