When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man

“Few books have impacted me, my family, and my church more deeply than When People Are Big and God Is Small. It introduces concepts—biblical truths—that have transformed the way we understand our relationships with God and man alike. I am delighted to know of this revision, which maintains all the strengths of the original while supplementing them with even more truth and even more treasures.”

“Few living writers have helped me more deeply to connect the dots between my heart and my actions than Ed Welch. He is a wise and seasoned diagnostician of the various ways our hearts go haywire and what specific aspects of gospel deficit are fueling our various internal struggles. One of those struggles—universal and pervasive—is fear of people. Welch’s book When People Are Big and God Is Small helped me when it first released in 1997, and its insights never stray far from my mind. I celebrate the new lease of life that this revised version represents.”

“Reading the first edition of When People Are Big and God Is Small was a defining moment in my preaching ministry. I remember thinking that I would never look at preaching and counseling the same way again. For years, I’ve included it on my list of the top five most important books for Christian ministers to read. Dr. Ed Welch’s careful examination of the human spirit, the sins that hold us captive, and the liberating power of the gospel will not only set your own heart on fire but instruct you in how to lead others. “Fear of man” speaks a lot to my own weaknesses, but time may reveal that it was the primary stumbling block of our generation. Whether you are a parent, a pastor, a counselor, or a friend, this book is a must-read. I am grateful to see a new edition released for a new generation.”

“This book challenges our thoughts about ourselves in relation to God and the people around us—an increasingly crucial challenge for increasingly self-conscious people. Ed Welch makes clear the goodness of fearing the awesome Lord God and the emptiness of fearing anything or anyone else. God’s Word is at the heart of the matter, and God’s Son is the point.”

“One of the first assignments our interns do each semester is to reflect on their own lives using Ed Welch’s book When People Are Big and God Is Small. For decades now this tool has helped me to get to know my new interns, and it has helped them to get to know themselves better too. Ultimately, in the process of reflection the book encourages, we get to see something more of how “big” God really is. The thesis is in the title, but the whole book helps to unpack it. Read, and pray that your fear of other people shrinks while your fear of God grows.”

“When Jesus was asked to boil it down to what matters most, he gave us two great commandments: Love God, and love others. It sounds simple, but our propensity to fear people instead of loving them is what keeps us from loving God and others the way we should. That’s why I’m so grateful that a revised edition of Ed Welch’s book has arrived. I read it almost thirty years ago, and for decades I have been waving it around and encouraging others to read it. Get it. Read it. And live it out, to the glory of God.”

“The fear of man is a universal sin that can easily take root in our hearts. It can dominate the withdrawn teenager who isn’t accepted by his peers, motivate the middle-aged man who is striving to climb the corporate ladder, riddle the stay-at-home mom who compares herself with others on social media, or tempt the pastor who is prone to avoid teaching certain passages from Scripture. Although cultural headwinds and technological changes have only heightened the dangers, the core issue in our hearts hasn’t changed. Twenty-six years after its original publication, Ed Welch’s When People Are Big and God Is Small continues to offer a penetrating assessment of this common temptation. But not only does Welch diagnose, he also prescribes. The God who accepts us in the gospel also empowers us, through his Spirit, to no longer need or use people. Welch shows how we can, out of obedience to Christ and as a response to his love toward us, pursue others in love. May this book help a new generation to see others as small and God as big!”

“I have often said that When People Are Big and God Is Small is the best book title ever. And the content lives up to the billing. Ed Welch masterfully uses the Scriptures to help us to overcome the fear of man by striving to comprehend how great and sufficient God really is. I have assigned this book and taught its principles to my students and counselees since it first came out. This revised and updated version is even more accessible and helpful to those of us who need to make more of God and less of people (including ourselves).”

“For twenty-five years Dr. Ed Welch’s book has been a welcome medicine for us all, prophetically calling us short in our far too low view of God and pastorally pointing us to a better path. Today this book is even more necessary to help us to live wisely and courageously by knowing who God is.”

“You may read a good book, but a great book reads you. This book, now in its second edition, has established itself in the field of biblical counseling as one of the great books. Ed Welch establishes a clear biblical perspective to look closely at an experience we all relate to: fearing one another too much and God too little.”

“Ed Welch’s masterful work has helped many Christians to battle insidious manifestations of the fear of man. The second edition distills the powerful biblical truth from the first publication while updating the work to address various modern channels of temptation. Generations to come will be blessed and equipped to fight this pervasive struggle.”

“Need people less. Love people more. that's the author's challenge.... He's talking about a tendency to hold other people in awe, to be controlled and mastered by them, to depend on them for what God alone can give.... proposes an antidote: the fear of God ... the believer's response to God's power, majesty and not least his mercy.”

“Biblical and practical. The reader does not need a problem with peer pressure or codependency to profit from this book. Opens our eyes and directs us back to God and his Word to overcome the fear of man.”

“Much needed in our own day. User fiendly as a resource for Sunday School or home bible study. Here is a volume that church libraries and book tables ought to have. Its theme is contemporary. Its answer is thoroughly biblical.”

“... refreshingly biblical.... brimming with helpful, readable, practical insight.”

“Readable and refreshing.... goes to the heart of an issue immobilizing the church. Exposes and repudiates the trivia of therapeutic theology with wisdom and compassion.”

“Ed Welch is a good physician of the soul. This book is enlightening, convicting, and encouraging. I highly recommend it.”