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The Small Church Ministry Podcast
The only podcast created for volunteers and everyday leaders in smaller congregations, this show embraces small church ministry as a place where God is already at work. Founder of Small Church Ministry and the Small Church Network, Laurie J. Graham shares why small churches matter—not as a scaled-down version of something bigger, but as powerful communities with their own unique strengths. Each episode offers creative solutions to real challenges with a mix of honest encouragement, leadership skills, and actionable next steps.
Laurie hosts the show with a perspective shaped by decades in ministry on every side of small church life—as a volunteer, staff leader, and pastor’s spouse. She knows both the pressure and the beauty of small churches firsthand, and brings steady encouragement, practical wisdom, and deep care for both volunteers and ministry leaders.
Episodes
225 episodes
225: 4 Simple Intergenerational Ideas to Stay Connected This Summer
When everything gets inconsistent, connection matters more - not more programming. Summer might actually be the easiest time to bring people together in simpler, more natural ways. Not perfect, not polished. Just real moments across...
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224: Maybe Sports Aren’t the Enemy (And Neither Are Vacations)
Every summer, we quietly start competing—with travel, sports, family time—and it gets exhausting. But what if the problem isn’t where people are going … It’s how we’re responding to it? People having full, busy lives isn’t a threat ...
223: What If Summer Is Exactly What Your Ministry Needs
What if the thing we keep trying to push through… is actually the thing we need? Summer changes the rhythm of everything - attendance, energy, schedules - and instead of fighting it, we might be invited to work with it. ...
222: Mistake #7: Not Giving Them an Easy Way to Quit | Church Volunteer Series
We close Stop Doing This to Volunteers: Top Mistakes Our Churches Are Making with one of the most uncomfortable conversations of all — quitting. When there’s no clear exit, service slowly turns into obligation. In this epis...
221: Mistake #6: Recruiting (Yep, Just Stop It) | Church Volunteer Series
In Mistake #6 of Stop Doing This to Volunteers: Top Mistakes Our Churches Are Making, we rethink recruitment altogether. Instead of building programs and then scrambling to fill roles, what if our people shaped our ministry? <...
220: Mistake #5: Planning First, Asking for Help Second | Church Volunteer Series
This episode in Stop Doing This to Volunteers: Top Mistakes Our Churches Are Making looks at how we unintentionally sideline volunteers before they even begin. We’ve been taught in leadership to make plans first and ask for...
219: Mistake #4: Requiring Them to Come to Meetings | Church Volunteer Series
In Stop Doing This to Volunteers: Top Mistakes Our Churches Are Making, we’re talking about meetings - and how they often do more harm than good. We say we value people’s time, but when we gather by default instead of by ne...
218: Mistake #3: Treating Volunteers Like They’re Volunteers | Church Volunteer Series
In this episode of Stop Doing This to Volunteers: Top Mistakes Our Churches Are Making, we talk about something subtle but powerful: the way our language and posture shape culture. When we treat people like “just volunteers...
217: Mistake #2: Making Their Jobs Easier For Them | Church Volunteer Series
In Stop Doing This to Volunteers: Top Mistakes Our Churches Are Making, this episode looks at a mistake that feels kind - but ends up weakening people and teams over time. When we over-simplify roles in the name of “helping...
216: Mistake #1: Not Asking Them What They’d Rather Be Doing | Church Volunteer Series
This episode kicks off our Stop Doing This to Volunteers series by naming a simple but overlooked leadership habit: never revisiting where someone serves once they’ve said yes. We talk about the fear that keeps churches fro...
215: The Digital Ministry Your Small Church Is Already Doing (And How to Do It Better) | with Leslie Kons
Your small church already has a digital ministry - whether you’ve planned for it or not. Through your website, social media, and emails, you’re constantly communicating who you are and what people can expect, sometimes clearly and sometimes uni...
214: Outside the Bubble: Why Our Outreach Isn’t Working & What We’ve Been Missing
We’re sharing something special this week. Right after our Women’s Ministry for Small Churches Conference, we’re bringing you the opening mainstage session - a conversation that pushes back on the pressure-filled, program-heavy version of outre...
213: The Church Women Who Shape Our Faith (Without Ever Holding a Title) | with Traci Mason
So much of what forms our faith doesn’t happen in programs, events, or official roles. It happens through real women who show up, listen, love, and stay. In this episode, Traci Mason and I share personal stories of women in our chur...
212: What Women Really Need (And Why Church Programs Keep Missing It) | with Jessica Francavilla
So much women’s ministry is built on calendars, themes, and events - and yet many women still feel unseen, overwhelmed, or disconnected. In this episode, Jessica Francavilla and I talk about what it looks like to actually discern wh...
211: What Actually Works in Ministry With Women | with Abigail Doust
After decades of ministry in small churches — including years as a pastor’s wife — Abigail Doust has learned what truly serves women and what quietly pushes them away. In this episode, we talk honestly about moving beyond stereotype...
210: Burnout Isn’t Anyone Else’s Fault (And That’s Actually Good News For the Church)
Burnout doesn’t happen because your pastor failed, your church is unhealthy, or no one stepped up to help. It happens when we believe we have no choice and keep serving under pressure instead of agency. In this episode, we talk hone...
209: Small Churches Got Honest: What 2025 Revealed About Pressure, Hope, & What’s Next
As we wrap up 2025, we’re looking at the conversations that truly landed with small churches - the episodes and quotes that sparked response, resonance, and even pushback. Topics like decline, pressure, money, conflict, and culture ...
208: Rest This Christmas: Jesus Holds Your Church Together (Not Your Year-End Numbers) | Church Finance Series (Part 6)
This final episode in the finance series is a gentle reminder that the weight of your church’s future was never meant to sit on your shoulders. We talk about the very real year-end stress small churches feel, how Jesus measures mini...
207: When Money Gets Messy: Fear, Power, and the Conversations Small Churches Avoid | Church Finance Series (Part 5)
Money conversations in small churches get tense for reasons that go way deeper than dollars - fear, pressure, old stories, and unspoken roles all show up at the table. In this episode, we talk honestly about why finances can feel so...
206: Rethinking Your Church Budget: From Scarcity to a Story of Possibility | Church Finance Series (Part 4)
Most small-church budgets weren’t really created; they just grew over time. Leftovers from last year, assumptions from a decade ago, and line items no one can quite explain anymore. And when a budget is shaped by nostalgia, fear, or...
205: Why People Aren’t Giving to Churches (And the Hopeful Shift That Brings Generosity Back) | Church Finance Series (Part 3)
This episode unpacks one of the most misunderstood issues in small churches: declining giving. It’s not that people have stopped being generous - generosity is everywhere. The real challenge is that many churches have slowly lost th...
204: Models That Work: Paid Pastors, Bi-Vocational Leaders, and Fully Volunteer Churches | Church Finance Series (Part 2)
A large part of a small church budget often goes to paying the pastor. Most small churches assume there’s only one “real” model of leadership - usually the one we’ve always known - and anything different feels like failure, pride, or d...
203: Money & Mission: Why Revenue Doesn’t Save the Church | Church Finance Series (Part 1)
This episode reframes the entire money conversation by separating the Church from the nonprofit structure that houses it. We name the fear, pressure, and assumptions that swirl around finances - and then clarify why re...
202: Do No Harm - Sorting Through Counselors, Coaches & Confusion (and Why It’s Worth the Effort )| with Licensed Therapist Kati Quigley
Finding the right kind of help shouldn’t feel complicated - but between long waitlists, confusing titles, and church mixed messages about therapy, it often does.In the final part of the Do No Harm series, Laurie and licensed the...
201: Do No Harm - What Churches Can Do to Support Real Healing | with Licensed Therapist Kati Quigley
In small churches, we’re often the first people others turn to when life falls apart - whether we’re on staff, leading worship, teaching kids, or serving on the elder board. In Part Two of the Do No Harm series, Laurie and ...