Nate Williams

Equipping the Church and Engaging the Culture through Apologetics

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

@Kevin_Bernal92 Yes, a pastoral/elder team’s job is to know every face in a local church. A shepherd is to know his sheep individually.

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

Responding to your rebuttal of the "no church should be that big" crowd:

The time to church plant or get into church revitalization is at this size, for the reasons you mention. When the pastoral/elder team cannot know everyone by name, that's when you know a church is too big.

[Ryan Visconti @ryanvisconti]

The hardest size of church that I’ve pastored was right around 800 people in average attendance. I’ve gone from ~ 275 to ~ 6,300 currently, and the transitioning dynamics right around 800 were BRUTAL.

A few reasons why: the church is becoming too big for you to know and have close relationships with everyone like you used to. There are other pastors and staff available to share the ministry load, but people still want and expect to meet with and talk to the LEAD pastor. You’re also not big enough yet to have the staff support you actually need for what the church is managing and where the church is going.

You’re getting 1000 text messages and emails a day with all manner of requests because everyone still has your contact info and some of these people get hurt and offended when you don’t immediately respond, not understanding you’re always dealing with someone in crisis.

The church is starting to look large enough, from a casual observer’s point of view, that people expect the kind of quality, facilities, and benefits they’d get in a MUCH larger church even though your growing church still has the budget of a much smaller church than you actually are. (Because there’s usually a 9-18 month delay between giving growth catching up to attendance growth as many new Christians need to be discipled into it).

As a pastor, you wrestle with incredible feelings of pressure and guilt — WANTING to be available and present for everyone, while coming to grips with your own human limitations, having to delegate responsibilities, and trusting God to handle what you can’t.

You start to deal with a noticeable increase in scrutiny and unfair attacks. People who used to love you start to accuse you of becoming aloof or “changing” because your leadership dynamics change with church growth. People fear loss, so they tend to react illogically and emotionally when they worry they’ll lose something good they used to have with “the way things used to be.”

The size of church staff & volunteer leaders starts growing to the point that leadership problems (which are one of the greatest sources of stress) become more common. Your church is still too small to attract the talent level you need to staff the church you’re becoming, and you couldn’t afford to pay those people what they’d expect even if you could recruit them. At this size, it’s still very hard to raise up leaders from within who can lead at the highest levels. This stage of growth is absolutely brutal for staffing dynamics.

Some people will say: “no church should be that big!” Cool. At what size are you supposed to lock the doors and turn people away? At what church size do you stop sharing the gospel and inviting people to believe? There’s no righteous reason to have a bad attitude about church growth. The people who do are always either: selfish, jealous, insecure, or prideful. God is not willing that any should perish.

I never pastored a church of 120 people by myself. I imagine that would be very difficult for different reasons. I can only speak to what I’ve experienced. When I was pastoring a church of 800, I remember a “famous” pastor of a church of 30,000 people telling me “it never gets easier.” I thought that sounded like a lie then, and I can tell you it is now. It absolutely does get easier. It’s always hard, but there’s no denying that some stages of leadership are emotionally, physically, and spiritually more challenging. But no matter the sacrifice, it’s always worth obeying God’s calling on your life.

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

@ryanvisconti Jesus was not a local leader of a local church. His role was/is different than a local pastor. Saying something accurate is not cope 😂

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

@ryanvisconti Jesus was not a local leader of a local church. He was a traveling teacher, thus expectations and responsibilities are different.

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

Did you watch the first Captain America movie? He sacrificed a lot

[☘Serenity☘ @piinkperiwinkle]

Captain America is not the hero claims to he. He had no right to question stark because when time came it was tony who actually sacrificed,it was natasha..all steve did was use those(for which nat died btw) to get a happy for life for himself like the selfish person he is

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

One thing I love about Ben is that there are some things bigger than "strategy." Ben is pretty consistent, and will call out anyone. I love it and conservatism needs more of it.

[Corey Walker 🇺🇸 @CoreyWriting]

Not sure it's the strategically sound decision to aggressively attack every other prominent conservative commentator. Ben did it with Megyn and now with Matt Walsh. He's likely to just end up isolated.

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

So funny it hurts

[TBC @TBC_on_X]

Do you suffer from Israel Derangement Syndrome??

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

Did you get to the end of Jeremy's tweet?

[Sean Davis @seanmdav]

This performative empathy nonsense is so gay and revolting.

Her murdered children deserve sympathy. Her husband deserves sympathy.

Unrepentant psychopaths, which is what Lindsay Clancy is, deserve contempt. And Lindsay Clancy specifically deserves the chair.

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

Sorry, I will continue to roast ALL the Astros for ALL TIME because of what they did. They were never properly punished, and they got away with it (they kept their "championship").

You'll survive :)

[₿erryhorse @berryhorse_29]

I’m not sure there is a more crippling mental illness impacting our species than Jose Altuve derangement syndrome.

He is one of the best/kindest human beings to play sports, with one of the most (arguably THE most) impressive baseball careers of all time.

And is still constantly criticized/hated/booed 9 years after ~half a dozen of his teammates net-penalized themselves in a scheme he provably did not participate in.

If you wanna hate Correa/Springer/Bregman/Beltran I still think it’s a psychotic waste of energy but at least they actually did something (again, very unsuccessfully).

Mind boggling stuff lol

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

@CwkQuan I’ll help you out. Players are at a certain level, and coaches/managers are at a different level. I am speaking of the higher level of a team. Brees had a better organization at the higher level. Does that make sense?

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

@FreakyPeezy Payton just made it to the AFC championship game, and he would've won it had his QB not been injured.

The Saints (with Payton) were the far superior organization, and were run well for a decade.

The Lions have been pathetic up until the last few years.

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

@CwkQuan Compare Brees' coach with the Saints with Stafford's coaches with the Lions real quick, and report back :)

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

Quick, name Brees' coach! (Payton) Who is now doing GREAT with the Broncos!

Now name Stafford's Lions' coaches! (Schwartz, Caldwell, Patricia)... How did that comparison go for you?

I'll take Payton and the Saints over the mess that was the Lions every single day.

[LovemyNish @LovemyNish]

@nateapologetics Brees so damn great, brother made an entire generation forget how ass the Saints were before he got there. My GOAT!

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

Stafford played for the Lions, known for being a terrible place for great players (Sanders, Megatron). We ALWAYS have to factor that in.

[Freaking about Football @FreakyPeezy]

You do reqlize brees has 4 seasons where had a higher passer rating than staffords mvp season.

Also Stafford has had 4 years where he threw 30+ tds out of 17

Brees had 10 out of 20 including 9 in a row

Brees had 12 straight years of 4000+ yards. Stafford has 10 total

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

We need to consider that he played those years with the Lions, who have been terrible for most of their existence (up until the last few years).

[Chase Pletcher @ChasePletcher4]

Stafford ending his career with his most successful seasons (which is uncommon) is going to result in him getting compared to QBs who he played at the same time as during both their primes and was never once better than

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

They actually don’t need to do any of this. According to the far left, they just need to call themselves women and we have to trust their inner feelings,

[Walter Masterson @waltermasterson]

As a progressive, I fully support Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White declaring themselves for the WNBA.

I only ask that they commit to the bit.

Medically transition. Take HRT, take blockers. Show us what your performance looks like when your body is at a deficit of both testosterone and estrogen.

Do this for 2-3 years. Then show up to open tryouts and show us all how well you perform after gaining 30% in fat mass and losing 5% muscle mass.

Go ahead Enes and Royce, chemically transition, or STFU.

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

Alternatively, we were taught communism is bad because of the countless millions of people that were murdered by their own government under its ideology.

[LSDon @LSDonTV]

We were taught communism is bad by the generation who thought segregation was good

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

Islam is not a race. Hope this helps!

[Nate Williams @nateapologetics]

This logic is so bad

[Mac the Lefty @ColinTheLefty]

Caitlin Clark is 6’ tall.
Sophie Cunningham is 6’1” tall
Han Xu is 6’11” tall

The average woman is 5’3”

Those women have a biological advantage over average women and shouldn’t be allowed to play basketball.

See how silly that sounds now?