A Big Gospel in Small Places - by Stephen Witmer (Paperback)

About the Book

Christian ministries increasingly prioritize urban areas--big cities and suburbs are considered more strategic, more influential, and more desirable places to live and work. As a ministry strategy, focusing on big places makes sense. But the gospel of Jesus is often unstrategic. Pastor Stephen Witmer, using helpful stories and practical advice, lays out an integrated theological vision for small-place ministry today.

Book Synopsis

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 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.

Review Quotes

"A Big Gospel in Small Places is an incredible book that really answers core questions of why ministering in forgotten communities matters. In this book, Stephen Witmer offers very practical advice and compelling theological vision that should make us all consider preaching the gospel both in big and small places. This book should be read by all pastors."

--Robert Manda, codirector of Rural Collective Acts 29, pastor of New Life Church, Malawi, Africa

"A Big Gospel in Small Places provides an important contribution to the recent literature on small-town and rural ministry. Stephen Witmer reminds us that the recent interest in rural communities must not be a passing fad driven by popular culture but integrated into and driven by the fabric of our understanding of the gospel itself. The gospel is not just about reaching the masses, it is about lost people wherever they may live. It is about God's value of the unimportant and insignificant. Stephen reminds us that if we abandon the rural places in our mission, then we do more than neglect the spiritual plight of rural people, we neglect the gospel itself. For this reason alone, this book is a must-read for all denominational leaders, seminary professors and students, and those who desire to serve in small towns and rural communities."

--Glenn Daman, senior pastor, River Christian Church, Stevenson Washington, author of The Forgotten Church

"Francis Schaeffer observed that there are no little people in God's sight and no little places: 'To be wholly committed to God in the place where God wants him--this is the creature glorified.' There is a tendency these days to quantify the value of ministry. This thinking assumes that bigger is better. The larger the population is, the greater the need. Such a view tends to rule out small places. Stephen Witmer helps us to correct this by showing us that small places are much like everywhere else. They are also different. Witmer makes an informed and winsome case for the importance of doing ministry in the places that many of us are inclined to overlook. A Big Gospel in Small Places will help you to understand not only the need but the unique nature of today's forgotten communities."

--John Koessler, professor of applied theology and church ministry, Moody Bible Institute

"In an age when we tend to lionize big strategies, big churches, and big cities, Stephen Witmer movingly calls us back to faithfulness, not least when the sphere to which we have been called is small and unknown. Of course, it is not a question of either-or: either big cities or small towns and rural villages. Dr. Witmer does not try to force us into mutually exclusive worlds, but at a time when agendas favor the big and the urban, he patiently summarizes the biblical and theological evidence for underscoring the small and the overlooked. Read Witmer and (ironically) expand your vision."

--Don Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, president and founder of The Gospel Coalition

"What a breath of fresh air to understand the gospel as motivator and as the approach to ministry! That's exactly what Stephen Witmer helps us understand in A Big Gospel in Small Places. Clear, passionate, and biblical, Witmer's book lays a foundation for ministry that is rooted in the nature and content of the gospel. He pleads, 'Please think very big about things that are truly big: God's character, God's gospel, God's mercy, God's glory. Know, and firmly believe, and often remind yourself that these truly big things do not depend on the size of your place, your church, your ministry, or your reputation.' Stephen's call is to flesh out the gospel in whatever location or ministry God has called us to. This book will be extremely valuable for anyone in or considering ministry, and it is not just for those in small, forgotten places. But what an encouragement it will be for them! As director of Village Missions, a ministry that serves the forgotten places of rural America, I can't wait to start using and promoting this book!"

--Brian S. Wechsler, executive director of Village Missions

About the Author

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.