The Grasshopper Myth

90% of the churches in the world have less than 200 people. What if that's not a bad thing?

What if smallness is an advantage God wants us to use, not a problem to fix?

In The Grasshopper Myth, Karl Vaters takes on some of the unbiblical beliefs we've held about church growth, church size and God's will for the last several decades. Then he offers a game plan for a New Small Church.

The title comes from the story in Numbers 13. When the Hebrews were at the edge of the Promised Land, ten of the twelve spies come back with this report: "All the people we saw there are of great size. ...We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." - Numbers 13:32-33

The grasshopper myth is the false impression that our Small Church ministry is less than what God says it is because we compare ourselves with others. The solution is for Small Churches to see themselves the way God sees them. A church of innovation, not stagnation. A church that leads instead of following. A church that thinks small, but never engages in small thinking.

If big churches are the cruise ships on the church ocean, small churches can be the speedboats. They can move faster, maneuver more deftly, squeeze into tighter spaces and have a ton of fun doing it. They just have to see themselves that way. If you read this book (make that when you read it, cuz if you've come this far you're hooked, right?) you'll find your presuppositions challenged, your heart encouraged and your life and ministry transformed. Let's rediscover a New Small Church.