Maximize!: Leveraging the Strengths of Your Small Church Author: Ron Klassen

Blending rich small-church theology with corresponding practical outcomes, Maximize! convinces small-church pastors, elders, deacons, children's and youth workers, worship leaders, and members that small size is not a liability but a trait begging to be utilized for maximum benefit to all. Readers will see that their-size church is well-suited for fulfilling God's mission and in fact has advantages. Maximize! does not pit small against big; it is not about what size is best but about how to be the best at any given size.

Thirty years in the making, the lessons in Maximize! have been continually refined as author Ron Klassen has taught them in classes and dozens of seminars, counseled, encouraged, overseen, and mentored hundreds of pastors, and interacted with small-church attendees from every state in the US and most provinces of Canada. Too often, those in small churches are apologetic about their church's size, too quick to see weaknesses and limitations, too prone to compare their church with bigger churches and come away feeling inferior. Too often, those in small churches try to emulate big churches but come up short.

Rather than trying to imitate large churches, small churches do well to study themselves and their communities, and then prayerfully design ministries uniquely suited for their size, place, and time.

About the Author
Ron Klassen is a big-city and big-church boy who somehow landed in the country and in small-church ministry. Needless to say, Ron has had a lot of learning and adjusting to do! This book is the culmination of his lifetime of observing and studying hundreds of small churches, including the focus of his doctoral work. Following two rural pastorates, Ron has served for more than three decades as Executive Director of the Rural Home Missionary Association and is an adjunct faculty member at his alma mater, Dallas Seminary. He is the co-author of two other books and has authored many articles. Ron and his wife, Roxy, have three children. They live in a country home close to Morton, Illinois. Ron and his family have come to love the country so much that they would now choose to live there even if ministry was not a consideration.