The Strategically Small Church: Intimate, Nimble, Authentic, and Effective (Revised and Expanded Edition)
By Brandon J. O’Brien
Baker Publishing Group, 160 Pages
Published July 22, 2025
The Strategically Small Church: Intimate, Nimble, Authentic, and Effective is the short, accessible text the next generation of church leaders needs. In this revised and expanded edition, author Brandon J. O’Brien emphasizes the gifts and celebrates the delights of the strategically small church, certain that leaders can discern new models and measures of growth, rather than focus solely on historically recognized models of success.
The expectation that small churches must constantly increase Sunday attendance and involvement in ministry programs has led to a surplus of burned-out volunteers and disappointed small church leaders. Numeric data can’t be the only measure of success; O’Brien invites his readers to stop applying large church milestones to small churches.
Instead, The Strategically Small Church focuses on rebranding the small church itself, strategically redefining the measures of success. Rather than insist upon large-scale programs requiring numerous volunteers, O’Brien invites readers to imagine ministries in which projects and programs are created to address community-based needs. This reframing of community needs allows churches to elevate the congregation’s gifts and support its current demographic and location. Drawing on Acts 6, O’Brien presents a set of questions for leadership teams: Does each program meet a community need? Do we have people to oversee the program, both spiritually and technically? And, of course, will the program’s results spread the gospel?
By asking these kinds of questions, church leaders begin to better understand small-church ministry as a gift, rather than an encumbrance. Small church pastors have an advantage that many large church leadership teams do not: they know their congregation and community intimately. Small church ministry, according to O’Brien, is something to be embraced and utilized for the greater good of surrounding communities.
This book intentionally avoids outlining a multi-step process for increasing membership or tithing. By choosing not to prescribe a step-by-step process, O’Brien allows each congregation that reads this book to be agile in supporting their community within their unique context.
As a small church pastor, I am incredibly grateful for this book. Its bite-sized chapters make each point easy to understand and the clear questions encourage discussion among church leaders. The revisions and expansions feel relevant in the post-COVID landscape, where questions of live-streaming, children’s ministries, and music choices are constantly discussed. The Strategically Small Church both challenged and encouraged me to view my own congregation in a new light—to shift from numerical success to congregant and community flourishing.
This book doesn’t allow for apathy in the strategically small church landscape. O’Brien says, “(l)eading a strategically small church requires renovation of the heart and a renewing of the mind even more than new strategies and methods.” By circumventing traditional expectations of growth as a measure of success, O’Brien allows small church leaders to reclaim and redefine success in their own contexts. Even the tiniest church is encouraged to be strategic simply by letting go of preconceived notions and remaining open to new ideas.
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