Date & Time
About This Event
The Gift of Small: Embracing Your Church's Vocation
A Retreat and Workshop for Pastors Leading Smaller Congregations
"If you pastor a small church, you have no doubt felt the guilt inducing demands to get bigger to be considered successful. But striving for bigger is not the best way for small churches to serve the body of Christ. It's much better to understand what they offer at the size they are right now. That's how to leverage the gifts of the small church for the glory of God."- From the Forward to The Gift of the Small. Embracing Your Church's Vocation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2024).
Helping Pastors Thrive, a ministry of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, is inviting pastors leading smaller congregations to gather on August 30 - September 1, 2026 at St. Francis Springs Prayer Center in Stoneville, NC for a workshop and retreat on The Gift of Small: Embracing Your Church's Vocation.
Led by Allen T. Stanton, a United Methodist pastor who has served small congregations. Allen has published two books. His first book, Reclaiming Rural: Building Thriving Rural Congregations, was recognized as a Top 10 Book of the Year by the Academy for Parish Clergy. The Gift of Small: Embracing Your Church’s Vocation was released in 2024. He holds degrees from Wake Forest University and Duke Divinity School.
Check-in will be from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 30th. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. The retreat will end following lunch at noon on Tuesday, September 1st.
Additional information on schedule, directions to St. Francis Springs, and opportunities during the retreat will be sent following registration.
About This Event
The Gift of Small: Embracing Your Church's Vocation
A Retreat and Workshop for Pastors Leading Smaller Congregations
"If you pastor a small church, you have no doubt felt the guilt inducing demands to get bigger to be considered successful. But striving for bigger is not the best way for small churches to serve the body of Christ. It's much better to understand what they offer at the size they are right now. That's how to leverage the gifts of the small church for the glory of God."- From the Forward to The Gift of the Small. Embracing Your Church's Vocation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2024).
Helping Pastors Thrive, a ministry of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, is inviting pastors leading smaller congregations to gather on August 30 - September 1, 2026 at St. Francis Springs Prayer Center in Stoneville, NC for a workshop and retreat on The Gift of Small: Embracing Your Church's Vocation.
Led by Allen T. Stanton, a United Methodist pastor who has served small congregations. Allen has published two books. His first book, Reclaiming Rural: Building Thriving Rural Congregations, was recognized as a Top 10 Book of the Year by the Academy for Parish Clergy. The Gift of Small: Embracing Your Church’s Vocation was released in 2024. He holds degrees from Wake Forest University and Duke Divinity School.
Check-in will be from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 30th. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. The retreat will end following lunch at noon on Tuesday, September 1st.
Additional information on schedule, directions to St. Francis Springs, and opportunities during the retreat will be sent following registration.