A Big Gospel in Small Places by Dr. Stephen Witmer
“If Christ has called you to serve him, then the location of your ministry is none of your business. You just follow his call.”
A Review of A Big Gospel in Small Places
Significance. We crave it. We want to matter. I want to matter.
Graduating from the Moody Bible Institute, I thought what every other student did experiencing their college years inside a Christian bubble. God is going to make me into the next Billy Graham. Amazing that after spending four years saturated into the study of God’s word that students can be so dreadfully off from the motivations for ministry represented in the scriptures.
Week 8 of 52 in the Tim Challies 2020 reading plan cornered me into a motivational and theological jiu-jitsu match with the idea of ministry in Small Places.
Dr. Stephen Witmer
Pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship
Dr. Stephen Witmer is a PhD Cambridge graduate, the pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship in Massachusetts, adjunct professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, multi-work author including of A Big Gospel in Small Places, co-founder of Small Town Summits, Gospel Coalition member and writer, all while ministering in a Small Place.
For a 44 year old with such a distinguished resume, you would think Stephen is pastoring a mega or multi-site church in or just outside a major metropolitan area. But God has placed on Dr. Witmer a unique calling, ministry to a Small Place.
I find it providential that while reading his book A Big Gospel in Small Places, that I am working and driving through rural North Carolina and southern Virginia this week. During my commute, I pass a church directly off a long wooded country road that is no bigger than 2,500sqft and couldn't have more than 50 members.
Would I pastor that church? Would I uproot my wife and three daughters to that small place?
That question, coupled with the motivations and reasons for my answer, has been haunting me every day this week.
So let’s get into it. In standard fashion, here is my review including the Good and the Bad of A Big Gospel in Small Places.
The Good
1. Clear Definitions and Articulated Arguments
Dr. Witmer is gifted with extraordinary intelligence but never speaks over the reader's head. He defines and explains his argument with common vernacular and diction. The result is a book any person considering lay, part-time, or vocational Christian ministry can pick up, understand, and be challenged by.
He opens his introduction with evidence supporting the sobriety and urgency of his argument.
He claims, “More than three billion people around the world today—nearly half the world’s population—live in rural areas. Many others live in small, forgotten towns. And many of these people do not know Jesus… In this book I’ll make the case that the gospel isn’t just the message we take to small places; it’s our motivation for going to them in the first place and our means of fruitful ministry once we get there” (p. 5).
His argument is straight forward from the first four sentences of the book.
The gospel motivates and empowers us to minister to small places.
And in case you are wondering what a small place is, you will have to read to the book to find out. Because he spends 1/3 of the book explaining and discussing the sociological, geographical, and cultural aspects of small places!
Overall, the book answers the following three questions:
“First, what are small places like? Second, how can we minister fruitfully in small places? Third, should I minister in a small place?” (p. 11).
As I mentioned, I have been driving through and working in a small place this week. I pass the same church twice a day. Every time I look at it, I wrestle with Dr. Witmer’s challenging reasoning for the need and perspective on gospel motivation and empowerment to reach these places.
2. Respectful Disagreement and Biblical Realignment
If you are a seminary student, pastor, lay leader, or simply just a Christian book nerd than you know that there has been a significant realignment to strategically target major metropolitan areas for the gospel among evangelicals in the last 25 years.
Of note, Dr. Tim Keller, a mentor of mine through his preaching, book writing, and podcasting, is leading this focal charge to reach cities for the gospel. He has an entire tomb titled Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in your City. And it is excellent.
Dr. Witmer engages with many various authors on this topic and among them is Dr. Keller and his position on the need for ministry in the cities.
At no point is Dr. Witmer spiteful, degrading, insulting, rude, or offensive toward any of these authors, their ministries, or their writings. He intentionally acknowledges their successes and praises God for how he has used them and their service for His glory.
When commenting on Dr. Keller's position on the city's strategic advantage for disseminating the gospel, Dr. Witmer states plainly, "There is much to commend in this view. Cities exert massive, outsized influence in education, government, fashion, medicine, technology, the arts, entertainment, and much else besides..." (p. 76).
Dr. Witmer demonstrates this same class and courtesy throughout the book, while actively seeking to balance the current trend with biblical alignment to our motivations for socio-geographic ministry.
3. Passion
Raw passion. I love it.
As I read Stephen Witmer, I can feel his passion for small places.
Not because he loves small places. Get this. I don’t think Dr. Witmer loves small places. Or at least not in the way we normally think about it.
He loves Jesus.
And because he loves Jesus, his affections have been so penetrated by the gospel that he has a passion to see the lost saved. And in small places there are people.
People who need to hear that Jesus loves them, died for them, rose for them, and is calling them to himself!
And in this sense, he loves small places.
Many ministers, including myself, crave revival and conversion. Unfortunately, at times we measure how successful we are based on it. And as a result, our joy is tied to it.
Dr. Witmer says this shouldn't be. He states passionately, "But we don't need God to do this, because our joy is not found in ministry success but in God's sure love" (p. 106).
Notice he doesn't even touch on the definitions for success. Because our joy isn't based at all upon our achievements, but rather on how God has loved us, continues to love us, and will one day refashion us!
I highly recommend this book to all bible college students, lay leaders, pastors, and those considering entering into the ministry in any capacity.
The only "bad" thing I will comment on since this is an honest review, is several instances of arguments from silence.
The Bad
1. Arguments from Silence
Dr. Witmer has critically studied this topic of small places. His handling of the material is simplistic and understandable, which only means that he possesses a formidable intellectual grasp of its concepts, history, and arguments.
The only area I found myself questioning his logic was in regards to his “Questions of application” (p.168-174). Dr. Witmer makes several claims of speculative nature regarding Paul’s purposeful preaching to small places that are simply indefensible.
Regarding Paul and his missionary example, Dr. Witmer states, “What we do know. In face, it seems nearly certain that Paul did preach in villages during his missionary travels" (p. 168). Dr. Witmer isn't arguing that we take Paul's example as legislation but is attempting to go along with the reasoning of others before him and produce a countering argument while agreeing with their initial premise.
The problem is, that his “What we do know” section is filled with words such as “nearly certain”, “must have”, “of course", "surely", and "he would have" which do not inspire confidence. In his attempt to argue his point according to his opponent's position, I believe he slightly cheapens the exceptional work already established throughout the book.
I think his argument for the importance of small places is excellent and does not need to counter the perspectives of others who take Paul's strictly stated missionary journey as a prescriptive process for church planting and growth.
This previous “Bad” note is merely that. A note.
A fleeting observation that does not shift my opinion in the slightest that this is an excellent book and one I highly recommend for those conducting or considering ministry!
John Owen came from Welsh descent, was educated at Queens College, and became a renowned Puritan theologian, Oxford professor, and passionate pastor who lived from 1616 to 1683. In 1647, he wrote the exhaustive treatise The Death of Death defending Limited or Definite Atonement against the Arminian view of Universal Atonement or Unlimited Atonement.