2019 World Magazine Book of the Year Short List

2019 The Gospel Coalition Book Award

2019 Send Institute's Top Ten Church Planting Related Books of 2019

Kevin DeYoung's Top 10 Books of 2019

Jesus loves small, insignificant places.

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 fromhis 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.



Stephen Witmer is the pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship in Pepperell, Massachusetts, and is an adjunct professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is also cofounder of Small Town Summits, an organization that serves rural churches and pastors.







Ortlund (Ph.D., Unversity of Aberdeen) is senior minister at Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He has pastored churches in California, Oregon and Georgia and was formerly professor of Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School inDeerfield, Illinois. He is also the author of A Passion for God (Eerdmans).



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