The Church Lobby

Karl talks with Lori Andrews about trauma, its effect on the brain, and how to use this information as we lead through challenging times.

Topics include:

• How can we help people cope with the constant flow of low-to-moderate-level trauma?
• The value of consistency in worship services.
• How to help kids prepare for children’s services.
• The neurobiological benefits of corporate worship.

Lori has a doctorate in Education, specializing in chronic trauma and broken family systems, with training in neurobiology. She works with at-risk youth, and she has spent many years in small-church ministry.

Links from this episode:

Freshhope.us

mentalhealthgracealliance.org

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Karl interviews Drew Dyck about Writing for Ministry, including

• The differences between preaching and writing
• How to get started writing for ministry publications
• What book publishers are looking for (including from small church pastors)

Drew has spent decades as a writer and editor for major church publishers, and is the author of several books, most recently "Your Future Self Will Thank You: Secrets to Self-Control from the Bible and Brain Science (A Guide for Sinners, Quitters, and Procrastinators)."

Links from this episode:

“Your Future Self Will Thank You: Secrets to Self-Control From The Bible And Brain Science” https://www.drewdyck.com/your-future-self-will-thank-you

Twitter Handle @drewdyck

drewdyck.com

“Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott

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Greg Atkinson is one the world’s leading voices in First Impressions for churches. He also wrote "Secrets of a Secret Shopper: Reaching and Keeping Church Guests" as a guide for small churches.

In this conversation, Karl Vaters interviews Greg about

• Online presence
• How everyone in a small church is on the First Impressions "team”
• Why small churches may need to work harder on First Impressions than our big church friends
• A few tips for small churches to increase their first impression with little or no money

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There’s a lot of talk lately about what it will take to recover from what we've all been through over the past two years. And understandably so. It will take years for us to get a grip on what has happened, what’s still happening and how it’s still changing everything.

In this two-part series, Karl Vaters shares several lessons about responding, recovering and thriving through a challenging season. This information comes from hundreds of conversations he’s had with small church pastors, denominational leaders and others over the last 18+ months.

In this episode (Part 2), Karl covers the four essential principles that have made the differences between

1) churches that struggled the most during the pandemic, and will continue to struggle in the future, and

2) churches that have stayed healthy, become stronger and are likely to thrive into the future.

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There’s a lot of talk lately about what it will take to recover from what we've all been through over the past two years. And understandably so. It will take years for us to get a grip on what has happened, what’s still happening and how it’s still changing everything.

In this two-part series, Karl Vaters shares several lessons about responding, recovering and thriving through a challenging season. This information comes from hundreds of conversations he’s had with small church pastors, denominational leaders and others over the last 18+ months.

In this episode (Part 1), Karl covers:

• The two dangerous extremes people have found themselves in – and the way path to health again
• The two keys for churches to recover and thrive in the coming years
• The three most important principles for small churches moving forward

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An interview with Craig Forrest, who’s spent decades shooting and editing film and video for ministries and network TV.

Craig is passionate about helping people communicate the message of Jesus in a compelling way. In this interview, Karl Vaters talks with him about video ideas and tips that can be used in any size of church on a limited/nonexistent budget.

CraigForrest.com (https://www.craigforrest.com/)

MatchstickMedia.org (https://www.matchstickmedia.org/)

Six Ways to Sunday podcast (https://soundcloud.com/craig-d-forrest-813372280)

For a Transcript of this episode visit the Pivot Blog 

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Recorded in an RV at the Big Little Church conference in Camas WA, Karl talks with four people who host conferences for small church leaders. The conversation covers:

Why they started their small church conferences

What big church conferences can do to include the needs and voices of small church leaders

First steps if you want to host a small church conference

Guests:

Carl & Kalani Culley of BigLittleChurch.com

Dale Sellers of 95Network.org

Chris Vitarelli of SmallChurchBigDeal.com

Links from Episode:

Big Little Church Conference (http://www.biglittlechurch.com/)

Small Church, Big Deal (http://smallchurchbigdeal.com/)

95Network (https://www.95network.org/)

First 5 app - Devotional tool (https://first5.org/)

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In my conversation with Ira Antoine we talk about Decision Fatigue. You know, that exhaustion you feel when there are just ... too ... many ... decisions to be made and no one else to make them!

Ira has pastored of Minnehulla Baptist Church in Goliad, Texas for 14 years and he is also the Director of Texas Baptists Bivocational Pastors Ministry.

Ira offers a lot of practical help for an issue that every leader will face during seasons of challenge including “What is decision fatigue? Why are we facing it? And what can we do about it?”

Links From Episode:

Streamyard.com (https://streamyard.com)

Texas Baptists Convention (https://texasbaptists.org/) 

Personal e-mail: [email protected]

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A church’s culture is defined as “the unwritten set of rules that governs everything a church does.” In a big church, the pastor and staff set the culture, but in a small church the culture is set by the long-time regular members and attenders - even if they don't know they’re doing it.

In this episode, Karl Vaters walks through the three steps that a small church pastor must use to lead the culture. 

1. Show them you understand the culture
2. Show them what you appreciate about the culture
3. Then you will get limited permission to participate with them to lead and shape the culture

Karl also walks through the key types of church cultures and how to address each one.

Links from Episode:

Dirt Matters by Jim Powell

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Karl Vaters interviews Doug Bursch about his new book, Posting Peace. It's all about how social media is impacting us so much that it even changes how we see ourselves and relate to each other.

But Doug also offers hope for how we can be peacemakers and reconcilers in our online behavior.

As the first interview of this podcast, Karl introduces the Lightning Round questions, with questions and answers that are both profound and a little bit of fun.

Buy Posting Peace (https://www.ivpress.com/posting-peace)

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