The Church Revitalizer Magazine August - September, 2016

THE

CHURCH

Aug/Sept 2016 Vol 2 Issue 4

Revitalizer

“A Revitalization Retreat in Every Issue”

Knowing When to Pull the Trigger in Church Revitalization!

“The only magazine dedicated to Church Revitalization.” ~ Tom Cheyney

RENOVATE National Church Revitalization Conference

Speakers Include Bill Easum Tom Cheyney David Lema Lee Kricher Larry Wynn Terry Rials Ron Edmondson Rob Myers Bob Whitesel

November 1-3, 2016 Orlando, FL

70 Church Revitalization Workshops 35 National Church Revitalization Speakers 4 Breakout Session Opportunities 4 Main Sessions by Revitalization Practitioners 5 Pre-Conference Intensive Subjects 1500+ Fellow Church Revitalizers 2

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Revitalizer FEATURES

Aug/Sept | Vol 2, No 4

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Are You Getting In the Boat?

By Chris Irving

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Going Through Life and Ministry with Blinders On

For Things To 32 Waiting Come Back Around

By Lee Kricher

By Joel R. Breidenbaugh

54

Rebooting Our Lives

By Greg Kappas

the “Green Light” 42 Discerning for Revitalization

By John Kimball

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Church is Community: What are the Building Blocks?

By Glenn Stewart

Those Were the Good Ole’ Days

By Ron Smith

THE LEADERSHIP LINK…

By Michael Atherton

12 28 30

What Time Is It?

By Darwin Meighan

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Are You Ready for the Challenge?

By Tracy Jaggers

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5 Questions to Ask Before You Attempt Church Revitalization

By Ron Edmonson

18 Knowing When to Pull the Trigger for

Church Revitalization in Student Ministry

By Drew Cheyney 26

Some Habits That You Need to Ditch as A Church Revitalizer

By Tom Cheyney

38

Family Friendly Church?

By Bill Hegedus

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What Are You Aiming At?

By Jim Grant

44

7 Marks of a Growing Church – Supernatural Worship

By Bob Whitesel

50 When Is It Time to Begin Church Revitalization

By Terry Rials

“The only magazine dedicated to Church Revitalization.”

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Get Over it!

By Bill Easum

58

Providing Space and Equipment

By Kenneth Priest

60

The Benefits of Outward Thinking in Church Revitalization

By Mark Weible

62

The Magic Revitalization Pill

By Rob Myers

revitalizer

LIBRARY BOOK REVIEWS

The Church Revitalizer Book Reviewer: Rob Hurtgen 57 TED Talks: The Official Guide to Public Speaking 57 Reclaiming Glory: Revitalizing Dying Churches

Rob Hurtgen is the Pastor of First Baptist Church Chillicothe, Missouri. He holds an M.Div from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree in Church Revitalization from MidWestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been married to Shawn since 1995, and they have five children.

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Checkout our lineup of resources that will help you revitalize your church.

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BRING THE 2015 RENOVATE CONFERENCE to Your Staff or Leadership Team

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THE

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Revitalizer

ChurchRevitalizer.Guru

by Tom Cheyney

Volume 2, No. 4

Welcome to the the Church Revitalizer Magazine:

Email: ChurchRevitalizer.guru

Our goal every other month is to provide you with a Church Revitalization Retreat in every issue. During these issues we are assisting with a clearer understanding of revitalization terms. With the field of church revitalization and renewal expanding so quickly, here are a few of the key fundamental definitions to begin ones journey:

The Church Revitalizer is published bi-monthly by Renovate Publishing Group 1906 West Lee Road Orlando, FL 32810

PUBLISHER Dr. Tom Cheyney Associate Publisher Mark Weible Associate Publisher Circulation & Marketing Linda Goans Executive Editor & Brand Manager Tom Cheyney Magazine Designer & Format Editor Gerald Brown Executive Director of Advertizing Linda Goans Web Ad Traffic Director Mark Weible

A Church Revitaliztion Retreat in Every Issue!

Three-self Standard: Used to describe indigenous churches which stand on their own two feet. Such churches are often described as being self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating.

Yesterday’s Commentators: One of the biggest challenges to change towards revitalization is the number of Yesterday’s Commentators a church possesses. These are the tribe that simply just kills any momentum gained toward renewal through a backwards view that seeks to anchor them in the past unable to make any steps toward the future.

Ribbonville: These surround a city and often referred to as collar counties.

Repotting: This is a kinder more friendly term often used by those in the midst of restarting. It is the same strategy as restarting but ministers feel they can handle this term better.

Reinventors: The Reinventors are those completely committed to the unceasing radical change necessary to bring about growth and renewal.

Stay connected, more is coming...

For subscription information contact this office at: www.churchrevitalizer.guru/subscriptions.

Subscriptions donations are $30.00 per year for six issues, $52.00 for two years (12 issues).

Outside the U.S. add $10.00 per year prepaid.

Stock images from ISTOCK Photo or where otherwise noted. © Copyright 2016 Renovate Publishing Group

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This issue is focused around Knowing when to Pull the

Trigger in Church Revitalization!

Dr. Tom Cheyney is the Founder and Directional Leader of Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference and Executive Editor of the Church Revitalizer.

Logos Bible Software delivers insight to you because you deliver insight to others, whether it be your congregation, classroom, or colleagues.

Visit Logos.com to get Logos 6 today.

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Are You Ready for the Challenge?

I recently sat across the table from a pastor discussing the possibility of beginning a Revitalization process in the church in which he serves.

His barrier to initiating the process sounds all too familiar – he is uncertain whether he can be the man to lead the charge to change and renewal.

I unpacked the process and informed him that the process can either be championed by him, supported by him or usher him toward a new venture and ministry somewhere else. The holdup is that he has not heard from God! My first inclination was to tell him to keep doing what he knew was right, until the Lord gave him a clear answer, or go somewhere else and quit maintaining a status quo. But alas, I am not God and neither are you. As revitalization facilitators, we must allow church leaders to struggle with God about their personal need for change or a willingness for Him to change their location. We must point them to the Word of God and to encourage them to spend generous time on their knees seeking for the mind and heart of God. No pastor can lead effectively unless the Lord is center of his focus.

This is my own personal biblical rationale and practice when it comes to starting something new and innovative in the churches where I have served and consulted.

A. Wait on the Lord (Acts 1:4) until you have a clear answer. The church did not get into trouble overnight and it will surely not be turned around in an instant. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that transforms a church; not a process or a program.

Isaiah 49:18-19 teaches us to let go of the past and let the Lord do what only He can accomplish. He can and will do a new thing! We can be blindly passionate about making changes and doing something new and innovative, so much so, that we get in the way of God’s surgical procedure on the pastor and/or members who need His healing. He wants us to wait on Him, to rely on Him and to follow Him – then we are positioned for revitalization.

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B. Submit your process to the Lordship of Christ. Getting people to embrace change is like nailing Jell-O to a fence; just the time we think we’ve got a grip on things, some part breaks loose or morphs into something we can’t handle.

That is point at which He is able to do what we cannot! Prayer and trust are imperative. Pray, then wait confidently, knowing what God has previously revealed to you. Now you can boldly advance with God. No force on earth can substitute the power and anointing of God. The idea that we can somehow be in charge of manipulating the Spirit of God is deception! We must join the Lord in His strategies. All our plans are just smoke and mirrors in comparison to His anointing. STAY in Jerusalem – that’s a horrifying command (I detest waiting); stay on your knees - in your prayer closet, until you have God’s vision and His goals. Then, run with patience the race that is set before you (Hebrews 12:1-2).

C. Search the Word of God for direction and confirmation to dive deep into a revitalization process. Preach unashamedly on the necessity for revival and restoration.

Lead with an attitude of victory by proclaiming the vital resources of the Word and fervent prayer.

D. Seek out an educated/skilled revitalization facilitator. Renovate can help you locate just such a consultant near your area. None of us have all the answers, but we have developed some healthy processes and gathered an extensive toolbox from which to work.

Here are 25 questions to help you determine if or when the time is right to kick off a revitalization process in your church: 1. Do you have the influence/gifts/skills to lead a church through change?

2. What are you willing to risk in order that you might obtain the health and restoration of your congregation?

3. Do you handle conflict well?

4. How do you react to conflict (avoid or explode)?

5. Do you know your congregation well enough to recruit a team that

by Tracy Jaggers

the majority will receive as a Church Revitalization Team?

6. Does your church face any factors that could easily derail the process?

7. Does your congregation admit there is a need for change?

8. Are you certain they are receptive to change?

9. Are you committed to a 1-5-year transformation timeline? If not, stop now or get out of the way!

10. What level of crisis is your congregation presently facing (urgent vs. unmotivated)?

11. Can your congregation handle further stretching?

12. Will you lose a significant number of regular attendees if you incorporate the changes proposed?

13. Are your present systems flexible or rigid?

14. Do your present systems match the practices of the church?

15. Have you personally exposed yourself/your congregation to the community’s attitudes toward your church (your known reputation as seen through community interviews/ surveys)?

16. Is there a sense of urgency/excitement to become a healthy, vibrant church for the Kingdom of God? 17. Were the best days of your church in the past? Or can you see them in the not-so-distant future?

18. What do you hope to experience as a result of the Church Revitalization process? Restoration or Renovation?

19. Does the church have the resources to weather the travail of change?

20. What can you keep?

21. What needs to be revamped/overhauled for greater effectiveness?

22. What must be discarded (left behind)?

23. What is your pattern/your model for success?

24. What will you do when the going gets tough?

25. Do we have any supporters/partners?

Hanging on to a position or a paycheck hurts a church rather than helping her. I close with this reminder – the future significance and value of the church you pastor is not based upon the latest and greatest program. It is founded in HIM!

RENOVATE RESOURCES ALL YEAR LONG

If your church has plateaued, is in decline, or is not moving forward as quickly as you wish, the RENOVATE Church Revitalization Coaching Network is just what you are looking for. This Revitalization Coaching Network is designed to help you and your revitalization team develop a successful 18 month plan to increase church attendance, develop new people for ministry, impact community, solidify finances, become more missional, develop new ministries and deepen the making of disciples within your church renewal effort.

RenovateConference.org/coaching-network

Each and every week, the RENOVATE National Church Revitalization Podcast publishes a free audio training covering various aspects of church revitalization and renewal. Hosted by Tom Cheyney, each podcast features content for this week’s edition of his Church Revitalization and Renewal training.

Included in this series of equipping tools are interviews with key Church Revitalizers and in-depth commentary and analysis from pastors, revitalization coaches, laity, and practitioners in the field of church revitalization and renewal.

RenovateConference.org/podcast

Church Revitalization / Church Planting RenovateConference.org/bookstore

“A Revitalization Retreat in Every Issue” RenovateConference.org/magazine 11

Church is Community: What are the Building Blocks?

When we began our church, we wrestled with whether or not to call it Faith Community Church.

After all, a church is a community.

It seemed redundant, like saying “Faith Church Church.” But tradition won out and now we are officially Faith Community Church.

However, we usually just refer to ourselves as Faith Community, or better, a community of faith.

Church is community. Community is not a buzzword, or a fad based on cultural shift. It is deeply rooted in the character of God and His design for His people. Consider the following three foundational realities.

3 Realities of Community: 1. God exists in eternal community

God has eternally existed in the friendship of Himself. He is one God, but three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the Triune God who has never been alone or lonely. He exists in a perfect love relationship, in harmony of person and purpose. And we are created in His image. We are made to relate to others.

2. Jesus modeled the need for community One of the very first things He did after beginning His public ministry was to select twelve disciples from among the broader group that traveled with Him. Within that group of twelve, He was particularly close with three, and when life got really crazy 12

He leaned into them. And when Jesus sent the disciples out, He never sent them out alone.

3. Scripture instructs us to live in community

The New Testament has an abundance of passages that describe how we are to interact with one another. All of those scriptures assume we are sharing our lives with one another. We are commanded to love one another, encourage one another, care for one another, serve one another, bear one another’s burdens, be at peace with one another, wash one another’s feet, respect one another, submit to one another, forgive one another, comfort one another, pray for one another, confess our sins to one another, and be hospitable towards one another. Every one of these commands requires that we are in relationship with each other.

You can’t get away from the biblical reality that community is God’s design and intent for each of us. Each church is God’s design for community that we are destined to experience here and now. Our purpose is to live in fellowship with God and each other, thereby pointing in the direction that the Lord is taking all of history. The present nature of all churches is determined by what the Church is destined to become - the eternal, loving community of God. We are called to live in the present light of the glorious future that awaits us.

Our job as pastoral leaders is to build community. In our fast

by Glenn Stewart

paced society and churches that are too busy for relationships, connecting doesn’t just happen.

We have to be intentional about developing a community of faith followers of Jesus Christ. Churches are not just a collection of people, but a relational community.

How do we do this? How can we as pastors develop the fabric of community life in the in the face of individualistic living?

The answer is to focus on building relationships.

Certainly you should build strong personal relationships within your church, but here we are talking about building mutual relationships among your people.

They often need guidance, direction, and opportunity to connect with others beyond the surface, social level. We may call this the friendship factor. But it is much more than merely attending worship services or serving on the same ministry team, though that may be a start. Community isn’t built in worship services nor are these services designed for that purpose. You can be nice and courteous and friendly to 100 or 150 people, but you cannot share your heart, life, and burdens with them. Community means nurturing deep friendships with a small group of other Christ followers who push you closer to God. These people know both the good and the bad about you (their love is not contingent upon either). You can always call them if you are in a crisis.

Pastors, we need to model this for our people. Yes, I know, you can’t be the connector for everyone, but you can set the tone with your leadership team, and for your congregation. Talk about it often, reference your experiences, and provide environments such as small groups that are focused on relationship building as well as understanding the scriptures. Living in community will become the norm, not rare, for those who have the diligence to seek it.

We grow through our interactions with others. Others help us see ourselves, coach us, push us, love us, and call out the best in us.

Remember what God tells us, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another,” (Proverbs 27:17).

There is mutual benefit in life on life interaction. Sometimes it is not all that pleasant because being sharpened involves vulnerability and “rubbing” up against others. In the process, the rough burs of our personality and character are shaved off. Having our rough edges rounded can be painful, but it is necessary if we are to be Christlike in our lives.

In a church I pastored many years ago, one of our men ran a business making handcrafted wood toys and country knick knacks all by hand (he used no power tools). One evening he took me to his shop to show me how he sanded all these rough wooden items. In the center of the room was a large drum with a handle attached. He put what he had

made in the drum and then hand turned the handle so that the wooden objects collided against each other. Over and over again the items would crash into each other, and in the process the roughness rubbed away. When he stopped the objects were smooth.

You can’t get away from the biblical reality that community is God’s design and intent for each of us.

Each church is God’s design for community that we are destined to experience here and now. Our purpose is to live in fellowship with God and each other, thereby pointing in the direction that the Lord is taking all of history.

As I watched, I thought, “This is like the Church.”

Within the community of faith we bump and rub against each other creating friction that is designed to smooth out our sharp edges and mold us more into the image of Christ. Community is the pruning process that enables us to bear more fruit - the fruit of the Spirit

which is the life of Christ within us. Unfortunately, we don’t like the sanding process so we jump out of the “barrel.” We look for a solution that is easier and more appealing to our self-fulfillment.

We never address the real issues going on in our soul.

Pastors, this can be us. The sandpaper God uses often comes in the form of people who are hard to get along with, very different from us, and seemingly contrary to everything we propose. They may be the blockade to what God wants to do in your church, or maybe they are the means to what God wants to do in you.

Relationships are fragile. They must be developed intentionally, nurtured consistently, and tended carefully.

It sounds like work. Yes, it is. But remember the Church is not a collection of individuals. It is a relational community of faith that mutually invests in one another with the goal of becoming more Christlike in the character and conduct of our lives. Always keep facilitating connections and nurturing, because these are the blocks that build the Church (God’s community).

Glenn C. Stewart, is the pastor of Faith Community Church

in DeBary, FL. and the founder of LifeEquip, Inc. (a coaching and consulting ministry for pastors and churches). You can reach him at glenn@lifeequip.com.

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5 Questions to Ask Before You Attempt Church Revitalization It seems every week a church contacts me to ask advice about church revitalization. I also frequently hear from pastors who are considering stepping into a role in church revitalization. I greatly appreciate the Kingdom platform God has given me – but sometimes it feels overwhelming – as if I have something to offer.

Frankly, I am still in the learning process.

But, we have learned a few things.

And, we have had some success — twice in church planting and twice in church revitalization.

And, I fully believe we need lots of church revitalization. Here are 5 ways to incentivize church planters to do church revitalization:

1. Paint the need.

I don’t have the statistics, but I’m convinced there are far more Kingdom dollars tied up in plateaued or declining churches than is being invested in all the church plants combined. If we want to be good stewards of what God has given, then we must revitalize some established churches — and maybe even make some hard decisions to close some and spread the resources elsewhere.

Denominations and church leaders will need to become passionate about church revitalization and cast vision to younger leaders as we have in church planting.

2. Coach them.

One of the concerns I have heard from those who consider revitalizing an established church is the fear of the unknown. It’s true in church planting too, but church planting is “all the buzz”. You can find lots

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of resources for a plant. There are fewer resources available for church revitalization — and fewer success stories. Partner the one entering revitalization with someone who has experienced church revitalization and been successful at it.

3. Provide care for them and their spouse.

Church revitalization is hard on a pastor’s family. Again, I’ve lived in both worlds. Church planting can be very difficult, but when you enter the role of trying to change an established church prepare for the onslaught of personal attacks, criticism and opposition. Church planting struggles typically come from external pressures. Church revitalization struggles are usually more personal — from inside pressures.There needs to be some plans to periodically care for the church revitalizer and the spouse.

4. Assure them the church is ready.

There should be some sort of assessment made before the pastor arrives which indicates the level or openness there will be to change.

It’s not always a popular topic with established churches — most don’t want to admit there is a problem — but it is incredibly helpful in starting the revitalization process. This will never be foolproof, but you cannot revitalize without change. Change will always face resistance — it’s human nature — but some churches can and will adapt — some never will. The pastor can waste a lot of time “testing” the culture of the church only to find out some things will never change. The more a pastor knows about the church — it’s reaction to and history with change —

By Ron Edmonson

on the front end the more strategic the pastor can be implementing change and the more successful revitalization will be.

5. Provide adequate resources.

There needs to be some better resources available for church revitalization. Every denomination and national church planting group has, for example, a church planter assessment. We need similar assessments in revitalization to help discern if the pastor’s temperament is suited for revitalization. Conferences do a great job focusing on the church planter — few focus as much on revitalization. Many established churches will not need the level of funding a church plant needs, but there are other resources needed to be successful. If we recognize the need for revitalization, then let’s develop and fund the resources.

It’s a work which must be done.

Too much is at stake.

The problem for me is it seems people often start the conversation at the wrong place. They start with the how and I want to start with the why – or maybe the what.

When people start to talk about the how of doing church revitalization – the things we have done or haven’t done – I always feel like we are putting the proverbial cart before the horse. We need to talk about what church you are going to attempt to revitalize – and why you are considering the move in the first place.

Continued on Page 22

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Knowing When to Pull the Trigger for Church Revitalization in Student Ministry Revitalization is a scary word for a lot of Student Ministries because it means something that no leader likes to admit or, for that matter, truthfully wants to hear. It means that something used to work in the past and for whatever reason(s) “it” no longer makes the kind of impact “it” once did. So words like decline, patterns, and dying are by no means any leader’s favorite descriptions to use when talking about the ministries we lead. Nevertheless, there are churches that some of us led, or are currently leading that are avoiding this very topic. Knowing when to pull the trigger on revitalization is a big deal not only for student ministries that are currently dying off, but also for the Student Ministries that are right on the cusp of potentially tilting either way. Now I am not a huge list maker, but if you find yourself hearing the following statements frequently, you may want to start having some very honest conversations about Revitalizing your Student Ministry.

1. “Almost no one comes to our Student Ministry anymore.” If you have led anywhere

on a church staff you have heard the saying “we count people because people count.” As a staff member, attendance is something we celebrate, count, and measure every week. And while numbers fluctuate throughout the course of a year, consistent patterns of decline in the areas of reaching students should be a huge concern. You can make groups seem bigger by changing environments, you can have your huge event that brings in your biggest number of the year, but when each week your leaders, students, and even you start to hear this statement, it is time to ask the question- WHY? You & I may come to the conclusion that it is environments, or program-

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ming, maybe even its our Group Structures, or leadership is the reason people are not coming, but there is typically one fundamental reason Students stop caring about your Student Ministry: Lack of Authentic Community. Students attend things they find value in; and for the majority of students, any place that makes them feel like their noticed, valued, and matter will always hold a spot in that student’s heart and weekly schedule. So, is the reason “almost no one comes to our Student Ministry anymore” really more about the lack of programming, environments, or whatever else, or is it more simple then that? Carey Nieuwhof, Author & Lead Pastor of Connexus Church, says this: “Nobody should be able to out-community the local church. You can make a legitimate argument that one of the reasons behind the explosive growth of the first-century church was because of the way they loved each other and the world. Love should be a defining characteristic of the local church. If we loved the way Jesus loved, people would line up out the door.”1 Maybe part of the reason our ministries will one day be in decline if we are not careful, is because the D.N.A. of our ministries is not a great representation of the way Jesus had community with people.

2. “But “THAT” is what we have always done.” Ever heard

this one before? You snicker because all Pastors have heard this one at some point or another. In fact, it is a very common theme for those of us who have taken over any areas of Ministry at any point or time. We all know getting people to buy into change is hard, but it is those of us who master getting people to care 1 Nieuwhof, Carey. Lasting Impact.

Cumming: The Rethink Group, Inc. 2015.

Print.

by Drew Cheyney

about healthy change that may never have to pull the trigger on revitalization from the ground up.

In his book Lasting Impact, Carey Nieuwhof says this, “The honest truth is, most churches, people, and organizations struggle with change.

Change is hard because by default, we cling to the status quo. Typically, people change when the pain associated with the status quo becomes greater than the pain associated with change.” Churches that choose to keep doing what they have always done are essentially deciding to live with the consequences of stagnation, decline, and decay. 2

3. “It’s not as fun as it used to be” This is a no brainer for

most of, but while Jesus is 100% the reason for what we do in the local church; your church cannot just sing songs, teach a message, and think that will be the kind of Student Ministry that moves teenagers towards Jesus. Student Ministries that stand the test of times do so because their idea of “fun” is consistently evolving. Events, Small Groups, Summer Camps, and weekly engagement are the places students start to lower their walls and enjoy the company around them. Student Ministries that do not take the time to have legitimate fun each week with their students will eventually be non-existent. Students will always stay for something that engages them, but if we continue to rob them of fun memories and moments they had while in our ministries then we may need to consider if our approach to inspiring students to live more like Jesus is actually working [F.Y.I.: Jesus Had Fun Too].

2 Ibid, 146.

Continued on page 36

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Are You Getting In the Boat?

Developing A Plan for Knowing When It’s Time to Launch

By Chris Irving These four words spoken to me multiple times in my life always terrify me when I think about stepping off of the dock and into the boat. There are many reasons why I am filled with fear and trepidation when it comes to stepping into a boat from the dock. I have about 76 inches and 250 pounds worth of reasons to be nervous. Let’s just say that balance is not a spiritual gift nor is it a natural God given ability that I was blessed with by my wonderful Creator.

So inevitably I hesitate when it comes time to step off and into the boat. I realize I will not catch that beautiful large-mouth bass unless I do, but the fear is real! The fear of missing the boat and falling into the water (where I am sure there is a large Texas alligator waiting to eat this large meal) is very real to me. And just like stepping into the boat, when it comes to launching the plan to revitalize the church, the fear is real here too. Questions and doubts race through our minds like stock cars around Daytona.

Eventually, I get in the boat and enjoy the ride on the water, hearing the splash of my lure hitting the water and landing the big one…well in my case not so much.

One of my favorite men of the Bible is Nehemiah. He is certainly a prominent figure in the realm of revival and revitalization talk. Nehemiah is to church revitalizers what Mickey is to Disney enthusiasts. If you will study Nehemiah’s procedures and processes, you discover encouraging actions and relevant patterns to his leadership in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Months before one stone was cut and put in to place in Jerusalem, the foundation was being laid in Persia in this man’s heart.

Step One – From Brokenness to Passion

In Gary MacIntosh’s book “Thriving Churches in the Twenty-first Century”, he makes a point about the pastor’s “heart allegiance.” He says, “Whether a ministry succeeds or fails over the long haul depends, to a large extent, on what is going on in the secret spiritual compartments of a pastor’s life.” (McIntosh and Reeves 2006) Nehemiah was made aware of the dire situation in Jerusalem. And though he was in a great, comfortable place of service as the cup bearer to the king, deep down in his heart he knew the outlook of his city was not good. Passion birthed out of brokenness is dangerous to the status-quo.

Nehemiah was stunned into a state of brokenness, but knowing that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and serve Him, Nehemiah bursts onto the scene, not with a wreckless passion and disregard for his current place, but rather a great sense of urgency and need to act. Pastor, like Nehemiah, your heart must be broken for your people, your church.

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Brokenness leads us to a sense of genuineness and out of this genuineness your people will know that you are not in this for fame, but for their health and for their good. You can seek to pull the trigger for your sake or for their sake.

Nehemiah’s heart was broken for the people of Jerusalem, not himself. Take note of Nehemiah’s heart and make it your own.

Step Two – From Passion to Prayer

Nehemiah didn’t just go all “bull in a china shop” on rebuilding this wall. You know the story well…he prayed… and he fasted…and he prayed more. This totaled four months’ worth of prayer and fasting for Nehemiah, the would-be revitalizer of the once great city of God. I cannot emphasize this enough- You must pray. This is what McIntosh is pointing out in his book. Success is due in large part to your prayer life. Prayer, fasting, and persistence in both practices will tune your heart to God. That anxiety you have about stepping off the dock of planning and into the boat of implementation is combatted with a look at Philippians 4:6-7. The remedy to this anxiety is pretty simple and most people are dumbfounded when they hear that is the counsel I give them. Pray! It really is that simple.

“What do I pray for?” I am glad you asked…

•Humility – Like Nehemiah, admit to God that you cannot do this on your own.

•Confession of Sin – Like Nehemiah, confess any personal and corporate sin.

•The Word of God – Like Nehemiah, pray the Word of God. Read it in Nehemiah 1:8-10 •Success – Like Nehemiah, go ahead and pray for success.

Remember though, it is not about you.

Step Three – From Prayer to Planning

After Nehemiah went before King Artaxerxes, he made the journey to Jerusalem. Starting in verse 11, Nehemiah begins to inspect the city walls with a small team of trusted people around him. There are several important steps in moving from prayer to planning. Let me pause to remind you that prayer should continue through the whole process, even as you transition to planning and implementation. Important steps in the planning process include these four areas: •Develop the planning team – This should include ministry staff and key lay-leadership with long-term members as well as newer members.

•Evaluate the current situation – Once the team is in place, the evaluation process is vital. There are many resources available for evaluating your church. See past articles in this magazine, any books by Tom Cheyney, or my dear friend Terry Rials’ work at churchrevitalizer.com.

•Develop the vision – Do you know your vision? It is difficult to plan anything if you don’t know the why and what of your purpose.

•Develop the mission – Define your core values and vision to lead to better, more effective planning and development of the mission.

With these four key elements in place, you are now ready to plan a way forward. Churches get to a point of complacency and can lose track of the Biblical imperative to making disciples. The discovery and planning process is so vital and one reason why Nehemiah was successful in rebuilding the wall.

Step Four – From Planning to Promotion

Every step thus far is a step toward revitalization. But now it is getting serious. This is the point of the story where I am still on the dock, but I am leaning my weight forward to take that first step off the dock and into the boat. In Nehemiah 2:17-18, Nehemiah calls the people to action.

Promoting revitalization of the local church you pastor will call you into depths of dependence on God where you will need courage, strength, and valor to proclaim the truth just like Nehemiah. When it’s time to step off the dock, remember these four things: •Raise the Awareness – Nehemiah says, “You see the trouble we are in…” Don’t be ugly and brash, but speak the truth in love.

•Invite for the Fight – Nehemiah says, “Come, let US…” Invite the people to join you in the work.

•Communicate the Vision – Nehemiah says, “Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem…” Lay out the complete plan for the people to understand.

•Anticipate the Buy-In – The people said, “Let us start rebuilding.” Be ready to take action!

Step Five – From Promotion to Pulling the Trigger

About 6 months ago, I set out to take a certification course that would license me to carry a handgun. With all the book work and the paper test completed, the one thing I lacked was pulling the trigger of my pistol to qualify on the range. At some point, you have to “just do it.”

You must pull the trigger. The dangers of not pulling the trigger can have lasting effects.

The church I currently pastor already had a growth plan in place when I arrived. This plan had been set up by the previous pastor, yet no action had ever been taken.

It was just words on paper. The main focus of this plan was a new building, but when the former pastor moved to a new church, the wind was zapped right out of the church’s sails. Don’t be afraid to pull the trigger on a plan for revitalization that you are confident God has given you!

The secret to implementation is doing what you set out to do. Implementation is one of the greatest problems in

the strategy building process. “Having a strategic plan in writing is one thing; turning it into action is quite another.” (Malphurs 2013) Executing is big and scary. But if you have done the work of building a great team, naming the problems, evaluating the situation, all while praying, you are ready to execute the plan. When it’s time to pull the trigger, remember: • Determine who will execute the goals – Who’s on first, What’s on second…You must clarify the who to execute the what.

• Execute specific objectives and goals – Don’t be vague in your objectives and goals.

• Provide target launch and completion dates – You need to put these on the church calendar and your personal calendar and stay committed to the process.

• Find resources, resources, and more resources – Be generous and give the people what they need to succeed.

They are not Creator God who created “ex nihilo.” Nehemiah had letters to collect resources for the people to rebuild. Be creative in locating resources.

• Pray, Appraise, & Redirect – Don’t stop praying through the process. You also need to have a method of evaluation through execution so that you can take action to redirect the plan or people if needed.

• Celebrate, Jesus Celebrate – In Nehemiah 8, Ezra reads from the Law. The people hear the Word of the Lord and are led by Nehemiah, Ezra, and the scribes to celebrate, “for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Pastor, do not ever hesitate to give God glory for His marvelous work in your church.

Psalm 118:23 says, “This is the LORD’s doing, it is marvelous in our eyes.” Ultimately, every element of revitalization is God’s doing. We are not seeking to revitalize so that we have a greater name for ourselves, but a greater fame for God. We are called out of darkness into His marvelous light to tell others of His excellence. May God grant you success in the great endeavor of church revitalization.

May He fill your heart with courage and strength. He has not given you a “spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.” Now, step off the dock and into the boat and launch!

Chris Irving is the Lead Pastor of the First

Baptist Church of Gonzales, TX. Chris has served in ministry for 15 years in Texas. He led a small rural church to revitalization and is currently involved in the revitalization process of First Baptist Gonzales. He earned his Masters of Divinity at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and his Doctorate of Ministry in leadership studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Irving aims to help pastors equip the lay leadership of the church to serve in ministry. He and his wife, Amber have been married for 14 years and have six children.

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5 Questions to Ask Before You Attempt Church Revitalization CONTINUED...

I think before you consider revitalization you need to first consider some broader questions.

Here are 5 questions I would consider before I would attempt to help revitalize a church:

1. Can this church be saved?

There is actually a more difficult question. Is the church worth saving? I know those are difficult questions. They may even make me seem very arrogant.

But, there are some toxic churches in the world. I know churches who have never held on to a pastor for more than two years. They are brutal to pastors.

They don’t want someone to help them grow they simply want someone to maintain things as they are, fill the pulpit three times a week, and visit them when they are sick. And, if you try anything else they will remind you they were there before you came and will be there when you’re gone. What is the realistic potential even if the church is saved from eventual death? Will a pastor be able to lead? Can changes actually be made? Nothing of value happens in church

The message doesn’t change, but the demographics of communities change over time. People move. New people move into the community. If the church isn’t willing to embrace the unique needs of the community maybe there is a more receptive area elsewhere. Are they willing to ask such hard questions? revitalization – or really anything organizationally speaking – without some change. Chances are good it won’t be popular – in any church – but change is always necessary.

2. Is this the right location?

Look at the demographics of the community. Does it — or are the people willing for it to — represent the community? If the community has changed demo-

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By Ron Edmonson

graphics around them they may need to make changes for the community to see them as a vital part of the community. The message doesn’t change, but the demographics of communities change over time. People move.

New people move into the community. If the church isn’t willing to embrace the unique needs of the community maybe there is a more receptive area elsewhere. Are they willing to ask such hard questions?

3. Is this the best use of resources?

Would Kingdom dollars be better spent elsewhere? And, again, hard question, but the longer a church has been plateaued or declining, the longer – and harder – it will be to help the church grow again. Another hard question – how many churches could be planted with the same resources and efforts? Is there a wiser stewardship for the Kingdom than this? Now please understand – I believe in revitalization. I think established churches still play a huge role in the Kingdom – for so many reasons – but, you should be willing to ask the difficult questions or your chances of seeing progress are limited.

4. Is everyone willing to pay the price?

It will be hard. Change will be difficult for some to accept.

Revitalization is harder than planting – in my experience.

Will change be accepted? Can you take the hits? Are the leaders of the church going to stand with you? Does your family fully support your decision and are they up for the challenge?

5. Are you the right leader?

Does your experience, passions and skill sets prepare you for this role? Would you be more effective elsewhere?

And, the bottom line question here: Is God calling you to this? I have often said I believe God gives tremendous latitude at times in where we are to serve. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. We need more church planters, more healthy leaders in growing churches, more missionaries, more people to be solid, missional believers serving in secular positions – and more people to revitalize churches. But, sometimes God calls us to specific places, even if only for a season. If God is calling you to this then nothing else matters. Obey quickly!

Answer those questions – then we can discuss the how questions.

Going Through Life and Ministry with

by Joel R. Breidenbaugh Blinders On Having lived in Louisville, Kentucky for 5 years during my seminary days, I got an up-close and personal view of the Kentucky Derby—“The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports!” Every year race horses step into the starting gate, ready to spring into a sprint for one and one-quarter mile. Jockeys urge their horses to maneuver into prime positions. Exquisitely-decorated women and less-ornate men stand to cheer on their favorite horse, hoping to cash in from the day’s festivities. The sights and sounds of it all leave quite an impression on the observer. But one part goes largely unnoticed—the horses’ blinders.

By nature horses are a hunted animal, having their eyes on the sides of their head, as opposed to the front, so they can have peripheral vision. To help keep a horse focused on moving forward, blinders cover the horse’s backward sight. With this kind of forward-focus, a horse can race or plow a straight line or pull a carriage along a road. Without these blinders, horses will wander rather aimlessly.

Blinders for Ministry-Focus

When we think about ministry, it is important to have blinders on. A pastor or leader who doesn’t continually force himself to think forwardly can lead rather aimlessly. Which pastor among us hasn’t learned our lesson from listening to everyone and everything to the extent that we actually accomplish little, walking in circles while appeasing various members? We need blinders to compel us to look forward.

I’ve had the privilege of serving a few churches during my ministry. For established churches, I’ve tried to help the church celebrate their anniversary every five years. I’ve seen it happen multiple ways, so I can tell you what not to do and what works much better.

While it may be helpful for a marriage to focus on the past with lots of pictures, memorable music and lots of old friends, I believe this is counter-productive for a church anniversary. A church which displays lots of historical pictures and plays their favorite music from years-gone-by tend to think only of the “good ole days,” reminiscing of times when everything seemed

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right with the church. Focusing on the past will never help the present affect the future positively.

On the other hand, I have seen a church celebrate an anniversary, thanking God for His faithfulness in their lives. But instead of looking at their history, they invest in their present by inviting the community to celebrate life through a block-party atmosphere (on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon). These churches require registration wristbands to receive free food, games and a chance at a door prize. The information allows for future follow-up and the setting promotes the celebration of life in the here and now. I have seen prospects at these events become regular church attenders and then members and faithful followers of Jesus. This significant life-change happened when a church looked forward in their celebration of their past.

Wearing blinders help church leaders look forward in life and ministry. Church life and ministry without blinders will all-too-often look to the past and feed the “we’ve always done it that way” mindset far too prevalent in declining churches. Growing churches will force themselves to look ahead.

Blinders for Humility and Dependence

As important as blinders are for forcing us to look forward, there is also a negative drawback to having them on. You can fail to see things happening in the present because you are singularly focused on the future. Thus, while pastors and church leaders should wear blinders, not every church leader should wear them or they should at least remove them from timeto-time to see what’s around them.

After serving a church for several years, I had an associate pastor and a couple of key lay leaders ask to meet with me. They shared with me how I was not connecting with a significant portion of the congregation. In essence, I was spending too much time on explanation and not enough time on illustration and application of the text. I listened to them, apologized and promised to work better on sermon preparation and delivery. I also asked the church family to pray for me as I worked at becoming a better preacher and

pastor to them. They accepted it well and I made the much-needed changes and both the church and I grew from it.

I mention this story to highlight the importance of humility before the Lord and others, as well as dependence on the Lord and others. The church body is a family. Family members need each other to function most effectively. They function best when they communicate to each other.

No matter how successful or effective I may think I am in leading my church, I must be humble enough to accept construction criticism aimed at helping me (not destruction criticism aimed at hurting me—that’s another article for another time). Sometimes I have to ask for help, because I have blinders on and I don’t see everything I need to see. Humility and inter-dependence on others will aid me in removing my blinders from time to time.

Conclusion

Race horses aren’t the only horses to wear blinders.

Horses pulling wagons or plows also wear blinders.

Otherwise, a horse may lead a cart off the main road or a plow will stray from plowing a straight row. Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). He wasn’t talking about horses. He was talking about His followers in His kingdom. That certainly includes pastors and church leaders.

Imagine this scenario with me: a large stadium is filled to standing-room only. The spectators include some of your family members and friends. They are people who have gone on to be with the Lord, but now they get to witness something special. They have turned out to watch a race, but the race is not a normal contest. It is the race called the Christian life and ministry. They are watching you compete with (not against) other pastors and church leaders.

While the spectators may not have always run the race effectively in the past, they are cheering you on to move forward for the kingdom. Those who are doing so all have something in common—they are wearing blinders. They are forced to look ahead to reach the next generation of church leaders.

Even though some of the spectators fought against you when they were living, they now have a new perspective and they are cheering you on! So run with endurance and with faithfulness!

Wearing blinders help church leaders look forward in life and ministry. Church life and ministry without blinders will all-too-often look to the past and feed the “we’ve always done it that way” mindset far too prevalent in declining churches. Growing churches will force themselves to look ahead.

To move forward in ministry, we have to wear blinders.

They will force us to look ahead without constantly dealing with things in the past and all the distractions in today’s world. Blinders must be removed from time to time, however, or we will miss out on important opportunities of ministry right beside us. May God grant us the wisdom, foresight and key leaders to help us look ahead of us and beside us to minister effectively in the present and future!

Joel Breidenbaugh is the lead pastor of FBC Sweetwater where he has led the church in revitalization and renewal. He is a contributing author to a new Christian Theology book due out early next year.

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Some Habits That You Need to Ditch as a Church Revitalizer For the Church Revitalizer creating good habits is essential. There are some bad habits which it you have them they will immensely hinder your ability to succeed. Further while a key ingredient is the ability to be relational, if you have any of these bad habits they will make it harder for you to be liked by the very ones you are seeking to revitalize. Here are five personal habits that you may want to ditch as a church revitalizer if you want to succeed:

1. You recurrently use the words, “I don’t have time right now” Having those key conversations with those lay leaders who are not yet aboard in the effort of revitalization. I see all of the time church revitalizers who refuse to sit down with those who are a little more difficult and have a healthy discussion on why the church needs to be turned around. If you keep putting them off until you have more time guess what? When do you really have more time? You will never make the time or take the time to spend the time in a difficult conversation. Sometimes people just want to be heard so stop putting it off. When you make choices like these are not about time, they are about avoidance. Many a church revitalizer will spend time doing stuff that never counts for success and yet avoid have important conversations with lay leaders to get them aboard. As a revitalizer begin by making a list of all of the items you have been putting off and choose a few items a week to accomplish.

2. You let your mind drift when others are talking Granted there are all times when we drift as an active listener. Many church revitalizers admittedly have difficulty focusing on others as they are speaking. Part of that can be because they are not disciplined as a listener. Mostly for the creative individuals, they drift in and out of a dreaming mindset as they think about something you have just said that rang true to their ideals. It is best to work hard at being focused because people want to be heard, validated, and valued. Work on maintaining good eye contact as you try to be an active listener. Asking a key question and remaining connected helps those speaking to know you are involved in what they are sharing.

3. You ignore advice and ideas without contemplation Insecure pastors of declining churches often have a bit of a chip on their shoulders. Successful church revitalization leaders are open to receiving counsel, advice, and ideas from others. It is hard to turn around a church and there are times when the counsel you receive will not be targeted towards how great you are, but receive counsel anyway. Insecure revitalizers pray for a magic pill or miracle they can take that never comes. Listen to sound advice and do not get perturbed by such advice. Deep down inside you often know their assessment is correct, but you are frightened and want to keep your dream alive. Before you decide to ignore an idea, no matter how weird it appears, give it a good once-over--with your brain, your spirit, and your heart.

4. You believe that to get something done right you have to do it yourself Many pastors who have lead their church into meteoric decline believe they are the only ones who have the right answers. These leaders are huge micro managers and believe that they are the only ones with the correct answers.

This is classic for the one who is more of an entrepreneur. When a worship leader or youth leader does something you are quick to point out how you would have done it. I know of a pastor in Augusta who was the youth minister formerly but can’t let go of still trying to be the youth minister. Remember, what is common sense to you, is not always apparent to another. Guard yourself that you do not become overly controlling. Most importantly, resist the temptation to do it yourself. Offer feedback and hand it right back to the other person.

5. You ignore the needs of your body It is easy when things are difficult in ministry to forget to take care of your body. The stress of turning around a declining church brings about exhaustion, moodiness, and can cause weakened health if you ignore your body. At the very minimum this includes sleep, nutrition, exercise, and time out. Get some sleep and avoid taking the challenges of ministry to bed every night and causing you to loose sleep. Pay attention to what your body is telling you.

26 by Tom Cheyney

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Those Were The Good Ole’ Days

by Ron Smith Feature Writer

“We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic” Numbers 11:5.

Your church is in need of revitalization when you think your best day was yesterday.

The statement of freedom made in Numbers 11:25 is one of the most amazing statements you can read in the Bible. The people of Israel, who were former slaves for over 400 years, actually refer to their time in slavery as a time of freedom.

A church that is in need of revitalization is a church that believes they are free when they are actually enslaved.

Many things can enslave a church. They can be stuck in the past; tied to traditions, bound by budgets, fear, and poor leadership. Churches can be enslaved to internal control, conflict and church politics.

As Pastors it is part of our calling to discern the movement of God in the life of the church. Every ministry faces the difficulty of becoming a slave to programs and predictable environments. Discerning these occurrences is an essential part of leadership, which begs the question, “How can I know when my church is in need of revitalization?”

Here are some indicators: - Does your church value business meetings over evangelistic events?

- Do visitors leave as quickly as they come?

- Is there more anxiety over the temporary removal of the Lord’s Supper table during a kid’s event than concern praying for these kids to come to Christ?

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- Does Pastoral leadership become anxious over preaching or teaching toward change?

- Is there an excitement in the air during worship?

- Is affection for the past greater than hopes for the future?

- Is there great concern when a donor nameplate is missing from the pew?

- If the church budget is full of designated line items.

The good ole’ days is code language for don’t mess with my stuff. Those days might have been good in some way, but I can guarantee that they had their share of money problems, conflict, politics, drama and fear. The only “good” that accompanied free onions and garlic meals was the predictability. Sure we were slaves; sure we had to work hard and we were beaten; sure my family was miserable, but we had three predictable meals served daily.

I must admit that I rather enjoy hearing that statement because it opens the door for an opportunity to start the process of revitalization. For almost every person that makes this statement there is a memory attached. When I hear this I always ask them to share with me the stories of when the church was great. I ask them to share what was happening that made the church so good. At almost every church I have pastored, stories have been shared; and they were good stories. I have heard miraculous stories of intense prayer times and God coming through in great ways.

I have heard stories of month long revival meetings, physical healings, last minute financial blessings and days of great singing, preaching and serving. For many of our churches, those days were truly good days.

After the stories are shared, I always follow up with two questions: “Wouldn’t you like to see that happen again?” and, “Wouldn’t it be great if this generation saw the miraculous provisions of God, experience powerful worship, great preaching, revivals and 11th hour blessings?”

The majority of the story-tellers genuinely hope that the next generation, often their grandkids, experience moments like these. With these stories and my two questions, I start the process of revitalization.

Digging a little further into the stories, you can hear them share how to they changed, adapted, and overcame some level of change in order to meet God where He was working.

Why in the world would we want to rob the next generation, our grandkids, of the opportunity to experience God? This is where revitalization starts. This is when you, the Pastor, say, “Follow me. We are going to experience God and all He has for us for the next generation. And yes, it will look different – after all, the desert looks different than the Jordan.”

As ministers we are always on the stand-by, ready to guard against mission-al drift. As a church it is easy to settle into a routine and then let that routine be-

come a habit rather than a step toward fulfilling the Great Commission in our communities. As a Pastor/ Leader/Minister it is also very easy to become comfortable with a certain level of stability. The energy required to motivate, disciple and develop people in the ministry is tremendous. So when our church reaches a point of stability we naturally tend to take a rest. If we are not careful, this resting period becomes a settling-in period. It is in this settling-in period that bad habits form. In this resting we become more dependant upon systems and programs rather the movement of God’s Spirit. This is never more evident than when we recall the times of slavery as free.

The good ole’ days are only the ones we are living right now with the anticipation of things to come; obedience and faith allow us to experience the good ole’ days. When we step away from obedience and faith, we step back into reliance upon what was and cease living for what could be.

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R eRoan Smdityh By Ron Smith is the Lead Pastor of

WaterStone Church in Longwood, FL. Ron serves as Co-Leader of Renovate One Day Training as well as serving on staff of the Renovate Coaching Network.

Follow Ron at RonBSmithJr. com for leadership material and sporadic blogs. Ron is the author of Churches Gone Wild. You can follow Ron and receive free resources at RonBSmithJr.com.

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A New Ministry in Need of Revitalization…

Over the years, I have been asked by friends and fellow pastors, who after taking a new church assignment where revitalization is needed, “where do I start?” It is a fair question. So much work needs to be done that we can lose sight of the end goal because of all the challenges we see. In this article, I thought it might be helpful to offer a few thoughts on how we should approach the process of revitalization, after accepting a new ministry assignment in need of revitalization.

1. Shepherd people

The Bible likens the role and responsibility of a pastor in the church to the role and responsibility of a shepherd. Very literally, to the sheep, a shepherd is their leader, their provider, their guide, and their protector. Sheep will not rest unless basic needs in their life are met. This includes being free from fear, being free from friction or aggravation, being free from hunger, etc. Every day, sheep walk through the “valley of the shadow of death” and the shepherd is responsible to ensure that the sheep are not in want,” that they are able to “lie down in green pastures,” and are fearful of “no evil” (Psalm 23).

As you consider the process of revitalizing a church, you must stop to consider the needs of the sheep. As the shepherd, are you aware that revitalization will often cause those in the church family to fear the unknown? The reality is that nobody likes change…including you! Change, or the notion of change, has the ability to bring out the worst in anybody. It was the Israelite children who would have rather died in Egypt as slaves under Pharaoh, than face the unknown realities of freedom. Often, church members express the same realities. They would rather live in the securities of what is comfortable, than to venture into the unknown.

As a shepherd, help your sheep process change, deal with change, and carry out change. We should be mindful; unity does not mean complacency. The revitalizer is compelled by God to help the church see and achieve a brighter future, a clearer vision, and a motivating mission. There30

by Michael Atherton

fore, a shepherd leader does not give the sheep what the sheep think they need; they give the sheep what the shepherd knows they need. In church revitalization, change is often necessary.

However, we don’t have to sacrifice unity on the altar of expediency, pragmatism, or personal preferences.

2. Consider your Leadership Ledger

Recently I was talking with my daughter about how to balance a check book. If I wanted to be overly simplistic, your bottom line is this: you can not write a check for more than your checkbook balance. If you do, then your check is deemed no good and you bounce the check. Well, so often times, the same can be said in leadership.

There are times in which we decided to run a low balance in our leadership account and then when we need to cash a check, the funds are not available.

When, as church leaders, we decide to serve the people we build our leadership reserves. You serve people by showing up at the hospitals, go to the ball games, pray over the phone, send a note, offer an encouraging word, or remember an important date. We must be willing to council, sympathize, empathize, even when appropriate, offer a word of caution or rebuke. We seek their best interest; we serve the people. As we serve, people are honored and blessed and will deposit money into our leadership account.

Then when it is time to call on the people to follow us through a difficult situation, you will find that people will follow you, not because they have to, but because they want to. A word of caution: don’t be manipulative. We should not serve people for what we gain, but when we serve people, the unintended consequence is often that they gain confidence in us and are willing to follow our leadership. From your first day on the job, begin to build your leadership account

3. Study your context

If you have just taken a new position, then it is real likely that you have been in a

different city, maybe a different state. Everything changes. The culture is likely different. The people are different. The history is different; I could go on and on. You need to take time to become an expert on your new context.

A. Study your new congregation…

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the congregation as a whole?

• What motivates the congregation?

• Who are the leaders within the church, both formally recognized and informally asserted?

• What frustrations does the church carry? What setbacks has the church experienced?

• What significant relationships exist within the body? How do those relationships affect the church?

• How is the health of the congregation? Spiritually? Socially? Financially? Psychologically? Evangelistically? Emotionally?

• What dreams has the church dreamed? What goal has the church set?

• What are the major mile-markers of the church as expressed by the people?

• What makes the individuals within the church excited?

• What ministries does the church currently offer?

How successful are those ministries?

B. Study your new community…

• What businesses exist within two to five miles of the church? What causes these business owners to struggle? To thrive?

• Who are the community leaders? Mayor? Chief of police? Fire chief? City council members? Do you know them? Do they know you?

• Is your church in a neighborhood that has a homeowners association (HOA)? Who are the board members of the HOA? What is the HOA striving to accomplish in your neighborhood?

• What neighborhood schools are within two to five miles of the church? What struggles do they have? What can the church do in order to assist the local schools in meeting their goals and objectives?

• What are the demographics of your community?

Population? Educational background? Resident turnover rates? Economic outlook? Average age?

• What are the biggest needs in your community?

Demographics can reveal this answer, but door-todoor surveying might also be appropriate.

• What types of resources are available for you to use? What are the stipulations on park use? Can you use the gym at the local school? What businesses will help you advertise?

C. Study your new competition (what is vying for people’s attention)…

• What types of activities do people in your community naturally gravitate to? Do they spend their weekends at the lake or in the mountains?

• What type of work schedules do people have? Do a majority of people in your area have to work on the weekends? Do they have to work night shifts?

• When do the little leagues in your area schedule their games?

• Are there professional sport teams in your area that garner a great deal of attention? For example, in Denver, I have found that people watch the Colorado Rockies and Denver Nuggets. However, they rearrange their schedule for the Denver Broncos.

• When do the area’s malls, stores, and shops open and close for business?

• What television shows and series are popular and have the attention of the people within the church?

Why are they popular? Why should they not be as popular as they are?

• When do families in your congregation take vacations?

• Do weather patterns have any effect on your attendance? Should weather patterns have any effect on your scheduling?

Be sure to look for next month’s edition of the leadership link as we continue to consider elements necessary as you begin a new work requiring revitalization.

Michael Atherton is the lead pastor of the Cornerstone Church in Longtree, CO where he has turned around two churches through a church merger.

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Waiting For Things To Come Back Around

by Lee Kricher Amplify Church, located in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh, embarked on a revitalization journey in late 2003. After years of declining attendance, we were on the verge of closing our doors. Over the coming months and years, we prayerfully put into place a number of change strategies with the hope of turning things around. Thankfully, the church became healthy again. Not only did attendance increase, the average age of those attending Amplify Church decreased from 50 to 35 years old. Every generation is well represented for the first time in many, many years.

Waiting For Things To Come Back Around

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is known as the Steel City. Pittsburgh was America’s leading steel manufacturer for over a century, providing steel that helped to build the nation from the Empire State Building to the Golden Gate Bridge. Unpredictably, because of the changing world economy, most of the steel mills in Pittsburgh were shut down by the late 1980’s.

Pittsburgh has since experienced a remarkable transformation and has become a world leader in technology, education, and health care, but the years at the end of the steel era were traumatic ones.

I recall a conversation that I had during that time with a steelworker in his mid-thirties. He had been laid off by Homestead Steel Works, one of the many steel mills that had ceased operations. The mill where he had worked was to be torn down to make way for a water park and a shopping plaza. When I asked him what he planned to do for a living, he replied, “I am not changing careers. My grandfather was a steel worker, my father was a steel worker and I am 32

a steel worker. I’m waiting for things to come back around.”

That never happened. The changes in the steel industry were not temporary. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we might wish, some things will never come back around. Some things will never go back to the way they were.

After spending several decades studying local churches that had ceased to exist, Thom S. Rainer in Autopsy of a Deceased Church writes: The most pervasive and common thread of our autopsies was that the deceased churches lived for a long time with the past as hero. They held on more tightly with each progressive year.

They often clung to things of the past with desperation and fear. And when any internal or external force tried to change the past, they responded with anger and resolution: “We will die before we change.” And they did.

Most churches that close their doors have somehow lost touch with the next generation by refusing to change their approach to ministry. It is not about changing core beliefs or values. It is about changing church ministries, programs and practices to better connect with the next generation. Instead of dying, why not accept the fact that you cannot approach church the same way as you did in the past and expect to effectively reach the next generation?

I was installed as pastor of Amplify Church in September 2003. It was one of the fastest dying churches in our city. We had clearly lost touch with the next generation. I knew that any plan for effective change in our church

had to start with the congregation adopting a new mindset. In his letter to the church of Rome, Paul encouraged the Romans to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

(Romans 12:2) Personal transformation always begins with a change in mindset. The same is true of organizational transformation.

The most important change of mindset needed at Amplify Church was clear. We had been building our church around the unspoken assumption: “If it was good enough for me, it should be good enough for our children.” Now, we had to stop assuming. We had to turn that statement into a question. We needed to start building our church around one key question – “What will it take to reach our children?”

This was a formidable challenge for the people of our church. Though they had voted me in as their new pastor, most of the people who were currently attending the church were there because they were OK with how things were.

For the most part, they felt that young people should come to the church as it was without any need for change. Discussions about the lack of young people in our church usually focused on what was wrong with the next generation rather than how we needed to change as a church. People were waiting, hoping and praying that things would come back around.

I knew that we would never change unless we adopted a new mindset. From the moment I was voted in as pastor, I spoke regularly during weekend services about God’s heart for the next generation and our responsibility to build a bridge. I challenged church members to start thinking in terms of doing whatever it would take to reach the young people of our community. I considered every message to be a critical opportunity to help our church to adopt a new mindset. This was a recurring theme in literally every weekend message during my first few months. I did not use that time to criticize the past or to criticize those who disagreed with change. Instead, I cast a positive vision about what the future could hold. The weekend mes-

sages were the single most powerful vehicle for changing the mindset of our church.

I also took several church leaders on a “field trip” to experience a church that was effectively reaching the next generation. It proved to be a transformational experience. They had lived so long inside of the walls of our dying church that they had lost touch with what a healthy church with all generations well represented was like. These leaders also read books and articles about church revitalization. Naturally, they began to share what they were learning with other church members. Their enthusiasm for change and their openness to thinking in new ways began to spread to the rest of the church.

I sincerely wish that everyone at Amplify Church had adopted our new mindset of doing whatever it would take to reach the next generation. I remember the day that one of our members pulled me aside. He also happened to be one of our biggest givers. He said to me, “The kind of changes that are being discussed are going to cost a lot of money and the kids you are trying to reach don’t have checkbooks.”

He was stating two indisputable facts. Then, to my dismay, he added, “If you go through with these changes, I’m leaving the church and my checkbook is going with me.” That was not easy to hear. The reality is that if too many people had responded that way, our story would have turned out very differently.

Fortunately, most people did not respond in this manner. Most people caught on to the vision. They embraced the hope that we, as a church, could reconnect with the next generation. Most people took the leap of faith that our church could become healthy again with all generations well represented. In fact, the definitive change in mindset that we needed as a church did not take several years to kick in.

There was a tangible shift within a few months.

We still had very few young adults or children attending our church, but most members were 33

now openly embracing new ideas.

They talked about the importance of rebuilding our church around the question, “What will it take to reach the next generation?” There was still much work to be done, but we were on our way. We were not content to just wait for things to come back around.

Take a Moment to Ponder!

In what ways does the mindset of the people of your church need to change?

What practical actions can be taken to inspire a positive shift in the mindset of the leaders and members of your church?

Lee Kricher is the Senior Pastor

of Amplify Church, Pittsburgh, PA amplifychurch.com and author of For a New Generation – foranewgeneration.com

HOST A 1, 2, OR 3 DAY CONFERENCE IN YOUR CHURCH! If you and your organization wish to explore the possibilities of hosting a Church Revitalization and Renewal Conference, you may do so by dropping us a line at: Tom@RenovateConference.org For those organizations who are desiring to train and equip a Church Revitalization Assistance Team Workshop we have a retreat format for your organizations leadership which allows for group times as well as times of personal reflection and examination. You may inquirer by dropping us a line at Tom@Revitalization.guru 34

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Our Motto is: If I can go, I will go…

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Thomas Myers is an amazing 24 year old Evangelist who will travel to your church and help bring Real Revival to your congregation! His relevant and inspirational messages from God’s Word will help to “Re-set” your church.The alters are full when he gives an invitation. He can be booked for weekend Revitalizations through our website.

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Take your Church on a medical missions trip or help serve in Orphanages around the World!

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Church Revitalizers Need an Active Prayer Life

Knowing When to Pull the Trigger for Church Revitalization in Student Ministry - Continued 4. “I never really found out what my NEXT STEP was.”

Reaching our students is a huge part of getting them into the doors of our ministries, but what keeps them connected is the way we help them navigate through their spiritual journey. The best way to do so is by helping your students get connected in areas they are passionate about serving in, encouraging them to attend Mission trips, challenging them to have a personal relationship with God, AND SO MUCH MORE! However, none of this is possible if you and I do not care about executing our follow-up strategy really well. Reaching people is so important, but consistent follow-up with our students will not only help them excel, but it will also help them not lose their faith by the time they leave for College as well.

____________________

5. “At least those who remained are “high quality” people.” Lee Kricher, Pastor of Amplify Church and Author of

For A New Generation writes this in his new book: “Our church had accepted as truth a statement that is popular with declining churches: “God is more concerned with quality than quantity.”3 Just like Lee realized, when your church begins to care less that lost people are not attending and starts to care more that at least the people who are coming are “high quality” then you need to come to the realization that what Jesus has called us to do is not being accomplished. Depth and personal growth are great things to strive for, but we are supposed to be reaching lost people in our calling, not just reaching Christians.

Prayer is the beginning place, the residing place, the safe place, and the finishing place for all that you will do as a church revitalizer. The most critical key to any church working in Church Revitalization and Renewal is prayer. Prayer is the foundation for beginning any new direction a church might take! It anchors the future and the past by drawing participants closer to the Lord.

Daniel chose to spend the night in the lion’s den rather than go one day without prayer. People ask me all the time in conferences I am leading what is the number one technique or methodology for church revitalization? I quickly reply that for me it is the daily going to God in the prayer closet and seeking his face regarding the church you are seeking to renew and what he wants you to do as the leader of revitalization.

Have You Seen Any

We all have our “things” when it comes to the ministries we lead, but at some point each and every leader has to be making the kind of decisions that allow for people’s hearts to be impacted.

I know that the world we live in is not the “church world” of old where people felt guilty if they did not attend, where families made church part of their weekly schedule instead of a thing they do if they have time, but that is why this conversation matters. It is the churches and Student Ministries that are not afraid to have this conversation that last the changes in times and generations.

Student Pastors maybe for you, it’s time to have a conversation about changing the way we do church and figuring out new ways to breathe life, energy, and excitement into the Student Ministries we serve in.

3 Kricher, Lee. For A New Generation: A Practical Guide For Revitalizing Your Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2016. Print.

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Drew Cheyney is the Student Pastor at Neighborhood Church in Visalia, CA and frequest writer on Revitalization of Churches through student ministry.

____________________ -Tom Cheyney

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Family Friendly Church?

by Bill Hegedus

Being in ministry is one of the greatest blessings. To be a part of what God is doing in our local communities and families is a wonderful, yet humbling thing.

We get the privilege of leading others to what matters most. We get to look for new and creative ways to reach others for Christ.

In ministry, we are called on to ask ourselves some tough questions. These questions can lead us to despair or to greatness.

Here is a question I want you to ask yourself. Is your church a family friendly church? I ask myself this question all the time. There are a multitude of ideas that flow out of this one question. It actually forces me to look as what I do as a family pastor through the lens of a first time guest that has children. It also spurs all kinds of follow up questions.

Ones like, “Do first time families know where to go? Who is there to greet them? Do they feel safe leaving their children in our care?”

Think about it. Now, think about it even deeper. Children are the most valuable and cherished possession of a parent. (This could be debatable based on the behavior of the child at any given moment, but generally speaking, they are a true gift!) We are asking first time families to trust us, someone they have never met, with their cherished possession. That is why it is so important that we do all we can to communicate in both verbal and non-verbal ways that we are a family friendly church.

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The majority of all growth happening in the church today is from young families. I have had the privilege of visiting churches all over the country and the thing that I see in common with the ones that are experiencing tremendous growth is that they have a large percentage of young families. They wouldn’t be experience this growth if they didn’t figure out how to communicate that they are a family friendly church from the minute you walk in the door.

out to me is “teach” because that highlights our responsibility.

They are going to be the future of the church. How we teach them will equip them to lead the way. I told you it was corny, but it’s true!!

Families want to know you truly care about their kids. That you want to give them the very best you have to offer. That you would treat them like Gold. Jesus actually said himself in Matthew 18:5 (NIV) “and whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me”.

Now this isn’t all about first time guests. The goal we should have for first time guest is to have them come back as a second time guest, and from there to be connected to the church.

Now let’s think outside of the church building into our surrounding communities. Community is actually a word we throw around a lot in the church today.

As a local church we take pride in serving our community. Letting the love of Christ flow beyond the walls of our building. Here are just a few ideas you can do to serve your community and let them know you are a family friendly church. Hold a Family Fun Day in a local park. Something as simple as having relay games, serving hamburgers and hot dogs, and doing carnival style prize-based games. Get the word out by prayer walking neighborhoods near your church and placing invites on their door knob. Do a Fall Festival--one that is welcoming to anyone. Don’t make is a religious alternative to Halloween, but rather a block party that’s on steroids. There are tons and tons more simple ways that you can connect with families in your community through these

God made each of us with the desire to be connected with others. So how does that happen for kids? What does that look like at your church? If these kids are having a great time but not learning about Christ, you are only providing childcare. In my opinion childcare is a four letter word in children’s ministry. Plus, it does the opposite of communicating that you’re a family friendly church.

Teaching kids how much God loves them in a very exciting and engaging way should be the goal of every children’s ministry. That is what fuels me week after week.

It may be corny, but Whitney Houston was right when she sang “the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.” The word that always sticks

family-focused events. Think in terms of things that foster fellowship and conversation. By proving a great place for families to come together have a great time, and see for themselves your church cares about them, you are way more likely to see them walk through the doors one weekend.

All from just a simple gathering. I have had great success and seen the benefits and fruit this can yield firsthand.

The majority of all growth happening in the church today is from young families. I have had the privilege of visiting churches all over the country and the thing that I see in common with the ones that are experiencing tremendous growth is that they have a large percentage of young families.

To do this actually requires one of the hardest things in life to master--consistency. I’m just going to be honest with you here; consistency has been an off and on struggle for me. Few people I know have it mastered. I can usually be the most consistent in things that are not actually good. Sometimes we can mistake consistency with routine. I love routine! I love when things run great week after week. But to keep everything in our children’s ministry functioning at a high level I need to stay consistent on making things better instead of instituting a routine.

Here is my challenge for you--be consistent in challenging yourself and your church to do the most for the next generation. To be consistent in letting your community know you are a Family Friendly Church. This will help setup the next generation of the church for success. All while modeling the way for them to equip the generation behind them.

One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Walt Disney.

Walt was a true innovator and you can’t say his name without thinking family friendly. He said “Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.” What a great quote! I use this quote as the lens to process things through when it comes to families. Our passion comes from the Lord and it should be contagious!

People should want to bring others to see our passion, because it all points back to Him. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” Matthew 5:14-16 (NLT).

Do you see how all of these questions came from asking the bigger question “Are we a Family Friendly church?” So, do everything you can to always be able to answer this question with a resounding ”YES”!

Here is a question I want you to ask yourself.

Is your church a family friendly church? I ask myself this question all the time. There are a multitude of ideas that flow out of this one question. It actually forces me to look as what I do as a family pastor through the lens of a first time guest that has children.

It also spurs all kinds of follow up questions.

Ones like, “Do first time families know where to go? Who is there to greet them? Do they feel safe leaving their children in our care?”

Think about it.

Bill Hegedus serves as the Family Pastor at Bethlehem Church near Atlanta, Ga. He a national speaker, coach and strategist for family ministries across the country. Bill loves developing Next generation leaders and of course, all things Disney.

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What Are You Aiming At?

By Jim Grant

Since the topic of this issue is discussing “Knowing when to pull the trigger for Church Revitalization,” I am going to rely on my hunting experiences to address the topic.

First and foremost is the fact that “pulling the trigger” is the easiest act of hunting, and probably for Church Revitalization. Once the “trigger is pulled” the hard work begins. But long before the hunter/revitalizationist pulls the trigger there are major steps to be taken.

In the hunting scenario, you have to know what you are hunting. I won’t bore you with the statistics of how many cows and horses have been tagged as someone’s deer. The hunter has to know something about what he is hunting. He needs to know what are the living patterns and environmental conditions which the game animal lives. In other words what is the animals’ habitat? This is true for a church that is potentially going to be tried to be revitalized. What make the church tick? What are the demographics of the area, the animal and the church live in the area on purpose! The research for the hunter will increase his ability to “bag” the game he is hunting.

Likewise it can be said for the revitalization attempt. The more you know about the “creature” the better your chances. Too often in hunting as in revitalization, those attempting the task haven’t thoroughly investigated the situation or “hunting grounds.” It would make sense that if you are going to hunt deer, that the location you’re hunting actually has deer.

What I mean by this is that not all locations are suitable for revital-

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ization/renewal. Sometimes the ground is vacant of a church/spirit and the church must be allowed to die. A hunter cannot “shoot at anything that moves” nor can a revitalizationist just start the process.

I liked hunting in Texas, they have plenty of game to hunt, and I was usually very successful. But before we donned our hunting gear for the hunt, we had months of preparation to do. We set up cameras in the field to get a good view of what was in the area. We tilled up the ground for a food plot, and of course we made sure the deer stand was in good condition. Likewise with a revitalization situation, much leg word has to be done. The congregation needs to be studied and viewed. If you don’t know their patterns of living, you can easily mistake what needs to be done. Observation is key; “pulling the Trigger prematurely is what we call “Buck Fever.” Identification again of the game is essential. The Fish and Game warden doesn’t care whether you made a mistake, if you shoot the wrong animal you lose!

Once the decision on what Game to hunt; the next decision of importance is “what am I going to use to hunt with?” This could range from black powder, rifle, crossbow, shotgun or pistol. Varying regulations and limits apply for each. Additionally, the hunter must determine what caliber of rifle is going to be used. This isn’t as easy as one would think. If you use too big a caliber, you not only kill the game, but destroy the meat – for example you don’t hunt rabbits with a 30.06! But the opposite is also true;

you don’t hunt bear with a 22 rifle!

I would equate the Weapon of choice for hunting to the process to be implemented in the church for revitalization. There are many tactics to hunting and also with church revitalization. Applying the wrong process to a situation could just “wound” the church or worse yet destroy it. This is where some more preparation comes in – I have to check my sights and accuracy before I go on the hunt.

I must be familiar enough with the rifle so I can know what it can do, but also my limitations with it.

The Church Revitalization process must be known and capably implemented. If there is unfamiliarity with the rifle/process, the hunter could be the one who is shot!

So the game has been investigated sufficiently, the location has been scoped out, the preparation of the field; deer blind and such has been checked and re-checked.

It’s time to get up early in the morning for that first day of hunting. There is excitement in the air, we just know that we are going to be successful our first day out!

A word of caution here; one of the greatest benefits of hunting is the hunt. What I mean is the joy of being out in nature, watching it all come alive. I have learned that there is more to hunting then bagging my buck the first day. I have on too many occasions shot my limit of one buck an hour after hunting season began. I was done, even though there was more hunting time, I was done. When we think of church revitalization, we can’t always have in the forefront – “fix the church.” The journey of revitalization has greater rewards besides that if we will be patient.

Jim Grant is

Church revitalization is for a “season” not a day. This brings me to my next point. Too many hunters shoot the first thing that walks into their sights, pull the trigger and they’re done. It doesn’t matter what size or quality of the animal at that point – the animal is down and the limit is filled. A smarter hunter/revitalizer will patiently watch and see what is in the area.

Remember the church and game live there on purpose. Sometimes my greatest pleasure us watching a group of deer frolic in the autumn breeze without thinking about “pulling the Trigger!” Sometimes we can be in such a hurry we miss the joy of the process. But let’s say that you have watched a certain buck coming in and out of the hunting area, you have all you preparations completed, even having some “scent” out so they won’t recognize your odor. [Word to the wise here, not matter what you do, you’re not a deer!] You make the decision to “pull the trigger.” But pulling the trigger takes practice.

I have missed my target too many times because I “jerked the trigger, rather than pulled it. In hunting and revitalization, how the trigger is pulled many times determines how the shot was effective. We can do all things right, but if we “blow the shot” we may never have another opportunity. When taking a shot, the field of view has to be clear, if there are things blocking a “good kill shot” or “launch,” take care of them, or pass up the shot.

SO now you are leaned over your rifle scope, ready to pull the trigger, breathing must be right, a rhythm must be reached. Revitalizer – Breathe, accuracy depends on it. Once all is in harmony, squeeze the trigger on purpose, with expectation of hitting the target.

senior Pastor at Heartland Baptist Church in Alton, Illinois. He came to Heartland Baptist from Texas, where he served three churches.

He is an Air Force veteran, retiring with 25 years of service.

His extensive travels while in the military allowed him the unique ability to have served in the full gambit of churches styles and health. He has a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological seminary with a concentration on Church Revitalization. He has been married to his wife for 39 years; they have two daughters and four grandchildren. Blog: preachbetweenthelines.com Email: pastor@hbcalton.com

But learn this great lesson – know when to pass up the shot! If there is something that prevents a clear unhindered shot – don’t shoot. Wait for a better day.

Revitalization is hard enough with all things “appear” to be right.

Hunting is the same way; sometimes the animal gets away; so it is with churches. One thing about it, there is always more deer and more churches to pursue. Happy Hunting!

Tom’s Newest Book is now available at :

RenovateConference.com/bookstore

Prayer is the Critical Connection Between God and the church Revitalizer Andrew Murray said: “The man who mobilizes the church to pray will make the biggest contribution to world evangelism in history.” Without such connection the revitalizer will often feel like they are left out on the high sea alone without any protection or guidance.

An important point for you to consider as the church revitalizer is that whatever you want to see the church become at the end of the renewal effort, you will need to build in at the beginning of the renewal process.

Prayer is the chief ingredient to revitalization and renewal. But prayer is so important that believers need to receive grace from God to prayer. And not just once in awhile prayer but to pray without ceasing. Prayer is a deterrent to sin in our lives.

Remember the devil is running to and fro looking for whom to devour but we are to resist him steadfastly and one way is through prayers.

So get praying today without ceasing. Praying is the one thing many Church Revitalizers struggle with even though they know they ought to pray daily for the revitalization of their church. Prayer should not be a chore but a joy.

Many church revitalization leaders underestimate the amount of spiritual warfare they will face over the three to five years it takes to revitalize a church. Prayer must be a priority for the Church Revitalization Leader.

- Tom Cheyney

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Discerning the “Green Light” for Revitalization Pastors, especially when considering new calls, are often really good at seeing potential in churches. I think God uniquely gifts pastors with spiritual insights for the congregation and spiritual passion for reaching the community. The problem is that most churches do not necessarily share such insight and passion. Many a well-meaning pastor has “gone for the jugular” on revitalization work too soon or too vigorously and actually injured relationships, or at least fostered frustration.

Timing and pre-work are so important when it comes to the work of revitalization. And both of these factors must be fully Spirit-led or the work will be of human origin and likely useless over the long haul.

Lasting transformation of a local church is not done to the congregation, but done with the congregation. A Holy-Spirit-led partnership makes all the difference. And once such a partnership is formed, revitalization is not only possible, it is likely.

Prayer Investment

Let me be frank: there will be no vital move of the Spirit without concerted prayer and intercession.

Pastors who think they can revitalize prayerless congregations are fooling themselves. And congregations that desire revitalization but have prayerless pastors have little hope of seeing fruit. Because revitalization must be Spirit-led, the pastor, leadership and people of the church need to band together in honest and consistent intercessory prayer where such prayer becomes the bedrock of their congregational lifestyle and they are regularly calling out to God as one for vision, empowerment and kingdom fruit.

Before any actual tactical work on revitalization begins, an authentic

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by John Kimball

here, but allow me to unpack a few prominent possibilities.

prayer movement must be established. Typically, this starts with the pastor, leaders and a small group of people who have a prayer passion.

These folks gather at least weekly to pray for their church, for the Spirit to move upon the congregation, and for God to open everyone’s eyes to the spiritual harvest that exists around them. It then becomes a slowly growing gathering as people begin to catch the unction to join in the prayer. Key needs are recognized out in the community (outside the church family) and these are soon added as matters of intercession.

Before long, a prayer movement has been birthed and it may even show up in additional prayer gatherings throughout the week. A Spirit-driven congregational prayer movement is the springboard for all revival and revitalization.

Timing Considerations

Once prayer and intercession have become consistent, then the pastor and others can begin looking to other markers of revitalization readiness.

It is impossible to provide an exhaustive list of obstacles to readiness

The first and most-common obstacle is unaddressed (or unsuccessfully addressed) conflict in the body. It doesn’t matter if the pastor or certain leaders are parties to the conflict or if it is mainly among church members – biblical reconciliation is non-negotiable. Because forgiveness is at the very heart of God, the gospel and the Christian Faith, it is unthinkable to carry on with ministry and revitalization while conflict is still bubbling (or raging!) in the church family. Unresolved conflict patterns are the number one reason people leave local churches (that includes pastors). And such conflict will also fully undermine any revitalization efforts. God will not bless and empower a church that does not practice the reconciliation power of the gospel in-house.

The second most-common obstacle is unaddressed past wounds in the church family. Obviously, these can be related to conflict, but they also may have been brought in by folks from other sources (like a previous church). Not all wounds will prevent revitalization, but pay special attention to wounds that may have been caused by previous pastors or other church leaders. Such infractions not only cause pain, but they also destroy trust. Revitalization is often a frightening adventure for the congregation because it requires so much change. If the environment of trust is damaged, the best revitalization plans are unlikely to bear fruit.

Other obstacles might include needed mindset or paradigm shifts, especially as they relate to ministry. If a church has been self-focused for a generation or more,

fostering both understanding and urgency for ministry outside of the church is essential. On occasion, one might also run into theological obstacles. These are less likely, but do show up if a church has been immersed in inadequate (or truly bad) teaching.

Pre-work Considerations

For some congregations the line between “pre-work” and actual revitalization work is difficult to discern.

But generally, there are some steps that are necessary before jumping into the developmental process of revitalization. These would include (but are not limited to):

• Establishing an outward focus – churches in need of revi-

talization are nearly always self-centered when it comes to planning and ministry. They may have a heart for reaching the lost, but their plans are often aimed at ministry to those who are already a part of the church and their families. Usually, this inward focus has slowly crept in over time.

Take the time necessary to help all of the leadership and most of the congregation to see God’s call on the church to reach those who do not know Jesus. While not forsaking ministry to the church family, the majority of time and resources should be focused on ministering to those out in the community who have yet to come to Christ.

• Studying the community

– this emphasis will help greatly in addressing the one above. By taking the needed time to really study the makeup of the community around the church and identifying the greatest needs (especially those the congregation is already equipped to address), it is possible create a sense of urgency in the hearts of the membership. When coupled with the intercessory prayer emphasis mentioned above, this step can be very powerful.

• Thorough assessment of the church’s current state –

it is impossible to build a revitalization plan (next step) without first understanding the current state of the congregation and its ministry.

There are many good assessment tools available today for the local church, but I would avoid using a self-directed assessment. Like it or not, the current leadership is at least partially responsible for the need of revitalization. They have blind spots. They don’t know what they don’t know. Hiring a good outside consultant to do the assessment and help the church understand and apply its findings it critical here. Tom Cheyney and the Renovate organization can give wonderful guidance on this point.

• Building a revitalization plan – once the previous con-

siderations are addressed, then it is possible to begin developing a revitalization plan. Having a consultant is helpful here too, but the results of the assessment may provide enough information for leaders who are people of prayer to begin the process themselves.

From my own consulting experience, at least six areas must be dis-

cerned and made part of the plan: values (which express the identity of the congregation), vision (a clear picture of God’s preferred future for the church – what He is telling the congregation to become), mission (an adaptable and workable strategy to literally make the vision a reality), disciple-making (infusing the membership with the priority of being modern disciple-makers who raise up disciple-makers), leader development (establishing a pathway to continuously raise up teachers, deacons, elders, pastors, church planters, missionaries and the like), and direct community engagement (plans with resources to do ministry out in the community that woos people to Christ). All six of these priorities are non-negotiable – in fact, in my own ministry I have full training seminars devoted to each of them.

When a church is fervently praying for the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, has addressed obstacles to revitalization, and has done the necessary prework to be ready for the journey, only then will they have the “green light” to move ahead with revitalization. Just like building a house, the pastor and leaders must start with the foundation or the whole enterprise will crumble around them. But again, with this foundation in place, revitalization is not only possible but likely.

Now available at :

RenovateConference.com/bookstore

Dr. John Kimball is Director of Church Development for the Conservative Congre-

gational Christian Conference. He has nearly 30 years of pastoral experience, most of it in revitalization ministry, and coaches pastors and churches through development in his denomination and in partnership with the Praxis Center for Church Development.

John serves as the Lead Pastor/Planter of Palmwood Church in Metropolitan Orlando.

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7 Marks of a Growing Church – Supernatural Worship

(3rd in the Series)

Before we begin to turn around a church, we need to know what worship should be turning toward.

This is the third in a series on the “7 Marks of a Growing Church,” based on my analysis of the American Congregations 2015 Study undertaken by Hartford Seminary. Free copies of the study are available at www.FaithCommunitiesToday.org The American Congregations Study found that in renovated churches, attendees describe their worship as “very innovative.” As I read deeper into the study, it became clear that it’s not mere innovation congregants appreciate, but it is innovation that keeps the worship fresh and supernatural. Let’s look at how you can renovate a church to a fresh and supernatural worship encounter.

not mean changing the musical style, but adding in fresh lyrics, fresh structure and/or fresh order. For instance, fresh worship often takes the words/melody of a new song and rearranges it in the musical style with which the congregation is accustomed.

Thus, you add freshness without adding offense.

2) Exploration is Fresh.

Fresh worship happens when worship leaders are exploring a wide variety of “new” worship songs. Because the worship leader can separate the musical style from the content, they are able to take the latest songs and rework them into a style that is acceptable to the listeners.

3) Experimentation is Fresh.

How to Return to a Freshness in Worship.

Everyone knows that worship can become stale. Here are three ways to keep your worship fresh.

The fresh worship leader is experimenting with different arts including poetry, painting, dance, drama, etc. The key is the word “experimentation,” for these are tests, not something set in stone.

The fresh worship leader will keep elements to which a majority of the audience relates.

1) Content is Fresh: Fresh-

4) Feedback is Fresh.

ness in worship often means utilizing a style with which the audience can relate, but infusing it with fresh content. Church leaders understand people tend to like music in the musical style with which they have become accustomed. So freshness does 44

Fresh worship results when worship leaders get weekly feedback regarding what is working. However, it is important to concentrate on what is working. Christians too easily focus on the negative (what doesn’t work) rather than the positive

By Bob Whitesel (what does work). Thus, the fresh worship leader takes note about what elements are creating a freshness and concentrates on them.

How to Return to Supernatural Worship.

As I look over the American Congregation 2015 Study it becomes evident that people seek a worship service where they can forget about their problems and encounter the supernatural love, protection and fellowship their Heavenly Father offers. But, too often today worship has centered around attracting people to a church with high production values. There is nothing wrong with high production values, unless they become more important than the value of providing supernatural worship. Why is supernatural worship so important?

The very word worship in Hebrew gives a clue. The Hebrew word shachah means to come close to God and bow down at his feet, as “a close encounter with a king which fosters in reverence, respect and praise” (Whitesel, ORGANIX: Signs of Leadership in a Changing Church. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2011., p. 96).

Thus the word “worship” reminds us that it is about an encounter in which you feel you’ve been in the very presence of God - mere inches away from Him. It is not about appreciating the staging, lighting effects or this seamless integration of the liturgy - but about a

feeling that God is present with you.

There are three phases to turning a church back toward a supernatural encounter.

1) Prepare Supernaturally:

Spending time in supernatural preparation often prepares us to lead others in supernatural encounter. A pastor friend told me that his church was stuck in the small size, until God told him to go to church every Saturday night and pray for Sunday’s ministry. God told him, “If you show up on Saturday night, I’ll show up on Sunday morning.” Today a megachurch, it has multiple campuses in Atlanta. God may not say the same thing to you. But it reminds us that to lead others supernaturally, our preparation includes communing with God in prayer, His word and quietude.

2) Lead Supernaturally:

Next it is important that everyone involved in leading worship is not thinking about the mechanics of their task (e.g. singing, playing, words to the song, etc.) but rather enjoying the worship encounter that comes out of it.

One church I attended had the band off to the side of the stage

and a large cross at the center of the stage, so the focus will be on Christ. Another church, famous for its music ministry, hid the musicians in an orchestra pit so (according to the pastor) “The musicians wouldn’t struggle with

Fresh worship happens when worship leaders are exploring a wide variety of “new” worship songs. Because the worship leader can separate the musical style from the content, they are able to take the latest songs and rework them into a style that is acceptable to the listeners.

pride and the people wouldn’t focus on the musicians.” Of course judging whether someone is worshiping supernaturally is not easy.

But worship leaders should gauge their ministry by asking if they are feeling close, within inches, of their Heavenly Father.

3) Participate Supernaturally:

A final aspect to supernatural worship is to observe if congregants are participating in a supernatural experience. I’ve noticed that gifted worship leaders will not only worship themselves, but also notice what’s happening in the audience. They know if the audience is connecting with God and if they are not. The gifted worship leader will make corrections midway through worship.

To revitalize a church is not about changing worship to something more attractive or trendy … but it’s about living out in a church what the word worship means: a fresh encounter with a living, loving Heavenly Father. The next article in this series will delve how to foster the fourth mark of a growing church as revealed in Hartford Seminary’s “American Congregations Study.”

Bob Whitesel (D.Min. and Ph.D., Fuller Seminary) is a sought-after speaker and

award-winning writer on organic outreach, church leadership and church health; who has been called by a national magazine, “the key spokesperson on change theory in the church today.” Author of 11 books in 12 years, he serves as the founding professor of Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University and holds two doctorates from Fuller Theological Seminary. The recipient of two national McGavran awards, he is a nationally respected consultant helping churches grow and regain health.

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47

What Time Is It? Timing is important to everything that exists. Think about the meticulous timing of how our solar system operates. Think about how crucial timing is in the arena of sports. For example, in football, if the timing is off, the quarterback won’t connect with the receiver for a completion. In baseball, the batter has to time his swing according to a variety of pitches he might see. During the summer Olympics in Rio this month, obviously timing is critical in so many ways to these athletes.

When my 11 year old black Labrador George was living, even he knew the importance of time.

When George would hear our family room clock chime 8 times in the evening (when it was 8 o’clock) George knew it was time for his nightly ritual of getting one scoop of ice cream to eat. According to my calculations, in George’s lifetime he ate approximately 4000 scoops of ice cream. I imagine you get the idea that ice cream time around our house matters. Absolutely!

Most importantly, according to the Bible, the timing of things matters to God. In Ecclesiastes 3:1, Solomon says “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” To the church in Ephesus, Paul wrote in Ephesians 5, “Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Once again in Galatians 4:4 Paul emphasizes how critical the

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By Darwin Meighan timing of things are to God and his sovereign plan. He says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son…” The Bible says, “but when the time had fully come,” at just the right moment, “God sent his Son.” Throughout this edition of The Church Revitalizer magazine you will find excellent articles written to address the topic, Knowing When to Pull the Trigger for Church Revitalization. So, for the pastor and church in need of revitalization, when is it the right time to begin the journey of renewal and hope together?

To help us answer this question, a closer look at Ephesians 5 is beneficial. Concerning the issue of timing, Paul instructs God’s people to “make the most of every opportunity.” In this passage, with a sense of urgency, Paul is strongly urging his readers to “redeem the time.” The Greek word he uses in this passage for time is the word kairos. A kairos moment is an opportunity or a divine moment where God says, “Move now! Now is the time!” So there is clearly an urgent command in the Scriptures where God is calling Christ followers to obey him and to do it immediately.

Paul says we’re to “understand the Lord’s will.” God also wants us to discern, to know and to understand his will. Since this is true, how then do we go about understanding and discerning God’s will as it relates to the issue of timing in church revitalization? For the church revitalizer there are four

major steps to help determine God’s will and his timing when it comes to leading hope and renewal in our churches.

ASK

The first step concerning the issue of timing is to ask God in prayer. What is God saying to you in prayer and as you study his Word? Have you clearly heard the voice of God calling you to be a church revitalizer? Are you committed to the journey and willing to persevere no matter what? A second wise step is to ask for help from a revitalization coach. Invite someone who is trained and who has successfully led churches in successful revitalization efforts to come alongside and partner with you in the journey. The Renovate Team is made up of a great group of folks who will be glad to assist you and your church.

ASSESS

Along with the two “ask” steps we’ve just looked at, there are also several key areas you will need to assess when it comes to discerning this critical issue of timing. To help determine calling, characteristics and readiness, every pastor should complete a pastoral assessment.

A church readiness assessment is also a valuable tool to discern God’s timing for your congregation. A third area is to assess the community God has called your church to serve on mission. Renovate, along with several state conventions are prepared to provide you with tools and resources to assist you with these areas of assessment. Following the completion of the assessments, meet with

Does Your Revitalization Process Have a Prayer Initiative?

In addition to personal prayer, the Church Revitalization Leader should solicit a growing prayer team. No partner is more important than prayer partners. Restarting or revitalizing a church is a big deal. Satan does not want you to succeed.

Surrounding yourself and your team with prayer partners is the single best thing you can do to ensure success.

How to Find Prayer Intercessors There are three basic types of prayer intercessors: General Intercessors – pray for the many issues and concerns.

Personal Intercessors – pray for specific leaders in specific ways.

Warfare/Crisis Intercessors – pray specifically against spiritual strongholds As a top priority, the Church Revitalization Leader should form an initial prayer team with at least 10 people praying regularly for him and the restart church. The Church Revitalization Leader should especially approach those individuals who are known to be consistent prayer warriors. To recruit the first ten prayer team members, consider the following options. First, Brainstorm of at least ten people who would be committed to praying for you and the new church revitalization restart effort. Secondly, start by touching base with them about being on your prayer team is your first action step. Thirdly, launch some form of weekly e-mail with them with particular prayer requests.

- Tom Cheyney

your coach to help you determine the readiness level and timing as to whether or not the pastor along with the church are in a position to move forward in the revitalization process. If these first two steps of “asking” and “assessing” indicate it is time to move forward then, by all means “go!”

izing Your Church by Lee Kricher, and Repurposed: A Strategic Plan to Revitalize Your Church – a manual which I developed for pastors and teams to utilize in the alignment stage of revitalization. Of course, Renovate’s website has an extensive suggested bibliography of resources as well.

ALIGN

ACTION

Next, form a team under the pastor’s leadership to develop a visionary process and strategic plan designed specifically to align your church’s ministries - for the purpose of most effectively making disciples in your unique ministry context. Suggested resources to guide the team in the church’s alignment of its ministries are: Simple Church by Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer, For A New Generation: A Practical Guide to Revital-

Once the pastor and team finalize the strategic plan it is affirmed by the church, then it is time to implement the new plan God has given the church. In other words, it is time for action! Key action steps at this point are to: Develop church staff, ministry leaders and teams to carry out God’s plan.

Evaluate progress regularly. Be flexible as God leads. Expect both setbacks and victories. Stick with God’s plan – persevere no matter

what. It will be worth it all!

WHAT TIME IS IT?

Pastors and church leaders, is God saying to you, “This is your kairos moment?” Remember, a kairos moment is an opportunity or a divine moment where God says, “Move now! Now is the time!” If this is what God is saying to you, you must do everything possible under his direction and power - to understand and discern his will, to make the most of every opportunity, and yes, you must…redeem the time.

Galatians chapter 4, verse 4 says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son.” Jesus not only came to the earth at the right time when he was born,

Continued on Page 56 49

When Is It Time to Begin Church Revitalization How do you know when the time has come to begin church revitalization? Perhaps a better question is, “When is it not time to work on church revitalization?” As we know, our churches are in serious trouble.

I have done some research into my own state – our total church membership is down more than 22%, Sunday School attendance is down 24%, baptisms are down 28%, and the number of those joining the church by ways other than baptism is down 37% over the past fifteen years! I would say that now is the time for revitalization! If you need a little further convincing, please consider using one or more of the following approaches to determine if the time is right for church revitalization in your ministry.

I have tried this approach with several denominational leaders, most of whom still do not have a cogent strategy to address church revitalization. I posed the question in this way, “What if 25% of your churches were revitalized and were able to give 10% more to your cause? Or what if 50% of your churches were no longer in danger of dying but are now healthy, thriving, and contributing handsomely? Would revitalization be worth it then?” You would think that most denominational leaders would leap at the prospect of having new funding resources, but sadly, I have never had a denominational leader commit to leading church revitalization based entirely upon the logical argument, which is, as Spock would put it, “Illogical.”

Logical

Numerical

Whenever I think of the word logical, I am immediately transported (pun intended) back to the days of my youth watching Mr. Spock on Star Trek. I admired his ability to think rationally, even in the most critical of moments. At this critical juncture of church life, maybe, we need to stop and think about church revitalization in a logical, Spock-like manner. The logical approach involves clear, sound reasoning. The logical approach is the natural or sensible approach, given the present circumstances. The church does not appear that it will accomplish the task of perpetuating itself or its mission without making serious adjustments to its trajectory. Think of it this way, if the doctors told you that if you did not have a critical surgery you would die in a very short time, you would give that surgery some very serious consideration. There are an untold number of churches that will be dead within two years if something is not done.

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This approach requires a careful consideration of things that are. A look at the numbers is telling, especially when they are analyzed over time.

When you look at numbers over time, you can spot significant trends and predict future scenarios. For example, a look at attendance or the number of baptisms over the last five years or ten years will provide a very clear picture of the church.

Another significant number is the number of people involved in mission projects. I realize that this is not a number that most churches track, but it is an excellent indicator of the missional heart of the church. Take a look at median age of the church; many churches have a median age in the 70s, which is a disaster about to happen. How old is the youngest father in the church?

One word of caution – when churches begin to be in trouble they tend to minimize the importance of numbers or they cease to track them altogether. To make matters worse,

by Terry Rials they can no longer report their numbers either to the church or to their denomination. Long gone are the Sunday School boards at the front of the church. In my state, we used to post attendance reports from the churches in our state newsletter. When the newsletter stopped reporting attendance numbers, attendance dropped significantly.

Do you see the correlation? Numbers are a form of accountability and they can even provide motivation for churches to do better. One may say that this is ministry for numbers’ sake, but I would argue that if ministerial pride makes us work harder for the Lord, then so be it.

Historical

When I came as pastor to the church I serve presently, I did a historical study of the church. I noticed a sine wave that repeated itself every two years or so. I asked a lot of questions and determined that when the church began to grow, the old guard felt like they were losing control of their church, so they would run off the preacher, which made the attendance drop back down. The church would call a new pastor and the cycle would repeat again. I am still serving the same church twenty-five years later, partly because I did a historical study of the church and knew what had to happen if the church were to break its cycle.

Look at the history of your church and determine when the church was at its peak in terms of ministry and effectiveness. What caused it to experience its valleys? Listen to your most senior members and hear their heart for the church to return to its heyday. Look at the size of your church building. Many times, the building will hold several times the number of people who attend presently. I work with churches all the

time whose sanctuary was built to hold 900 to 1,200 people, but they are running less than 70 in attendance now. If your church does not fill the space it has presently, it may be time to make history and begin revitalization.

Pastoral

Many pastors know that revitalization needs to happen, but they do not know what to do or where to start. Others are afraid to do something that may upset the equilibrium of their church. When peace, not progress, becomes the goal, we are in big, big trouble. Remember when we, as pastors, preached the truth so hard that it looked like we were trying to get fired? Whatever happened to the prophet in us? When did our fear of getting fired overcome our desire to make Christ known? Why do we settle for personal comfort rather than the furtherance of the gospel?

Pastors have a high degree of intuition about the health of their churches. No one understands the church quite like the pastor does.

In the same way that pastors sense their direction in preaching and leading, pastors have the innate ability to sense the need for church revitalization. The problem is not getting pastors to sense the need, but getting them to do what is required to see church revitalization happen. Without a significant lay-leader who will help the pastor motivate the people, the pastor may not feel that he has the clout to get his church to move. The truth is – pastors have all the clout they need to move their church into revitalization from the authority of the Word of God!

Spiritual

The Spirit of God will lead us toward

revival and revitalization. He can break our hearts, humble us, and inspire us to venture into the amazing world of church revitalization.

Through prayer and fasting, Nehemiah became so convinced that God was leading him to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls, that he was willing to risk his life to accomplish the plan of God. He knew that the true King would convince the earthly king he served to allow him to go.

He knew that God would give him success.

The spiritual process is not just dependent upon the pastors either. The letters to the churches of Asia Minor serve to remind us that revitalization is always a spiritual endeavor that can begin in the hearts of the churches. To each of the seven churches Jesus says, “Hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Jesus’ message is especially aimed at lethargic, spiritually complacent believers who have allowed their personal comfort and personal preferences to replace His commission to make disciples of all the nations.

It is doubtful that some ecstatic experience will draw you into revitalization. Like Nehemiah, at the Spirit’s leading you will see the need, be broken from it, and be compelled to do something.

The changes are, if the church you serve is not plateaued or in decline already, it will be within the next five years. It is preferable to be ahead of the wave and get started on your revitalization project now. However you determine your need for revitalization, the need for it is unmistakable. Prepared yourself today to hear God’s voice and condition your heart to follow Him when the time comes. It is never too late to start the process of revitalization.

How Do You Know When the Time has Come to Begin Church Revitalization?

Perhaps a better question is, “When is it not time to work on church revitalization?” As we know, our churches are in serious trouble. I have done some research into my own state – our total church membership is down more than 22%, Sunday School attendance is down 24%, baptisms are down 28%, and the number of those joining the church by ways other than baptism is down 37% over the past fifteen years.

Terry Rials serves as the Senior

Pastor of the Crestview Baptist Church of Oklahoma City, and he serves as the Church Revitalization Team Leader for Capital Baptist Association in Oklahoma. He is a frequent conference speaker and teacher, leading church revitalization efforts in his state and nationally. You can contact Terry at terry@ cbcokc.org.

51

Get Over it!

The question is, ”When is it time

to pull the trigger on revitalization?” Now I know right off the bat some of you are upset I used the phrase “pull the trigger.” Well, all I can say is get over it. This is not an article on gun violence so don’t fall victim to political correctness and miss the hope you can find in this article. Stay focused on the issue of revitalization. And the issue is how do you know when to start the process of revitalization for you church?

The answer to the question is you take action before decline sets in. So that means some of us are already behind the curve when it comes to revitalization. But don’t fret because there is always time to address any issue. Let’s take a look.

Some years ago Imparato and Harari wrote a book titled “Jumping the Curve.” Since then their take on how organizations remain healthy has been used by thousands of organizations. Their theory is best described in the following graphic.

The graphic clearly shows that the key to revitalization is to institute a new action before the decline sets in. The fall back position is to institute change as soon as possible. The longer a church 52

By Bill Easum is allowed to remain in decline the harder it is to turn it around.

Taking Action While on a Plateau and Before Decline Sets In You will notice in the graphic that the new action or was set into motion just as the organization began to plateau and before it began to decline.

Understanding this point is key to most effective revitalizations because once momentum is lost it is hard to regain. What happens in most cases is churches refuse to take action until they are almost dead.

Another way to discuss jumping the curve is by realizing that churches in decline seldom, if ever, come out of their decline incrementally over a long period of time. We haven’t seen this happen without the advent of a new pastor, which by the way is a new action.

Instead, they usually jump off the plateau by initiating some new ministry.

In conducting over one thousand consultations our group has found that the number one action taken by most plateaued churches has to do with staffing new matter what size the church is. Either the pastor needs to learn some new skills because the church has outgrown his or her skill set or some of the staff

needs replacing. What happens is the church outgrows the skill set of its leaders. They may have done a great job when the church was smaller or the pastor may have come from a smaller church but now those skill sets isn’t what is needed to take the church to the next level. Look the graphic below that shows the skill set of the pastor as the church grows through one Tipping Point after another. You will

see how the skill set of a pastor changes in a church under two hundred in worship to one of over a thousand.

Taking Action While in Decline

Churches that have waiting too long and have decline set in have to take drastic action and initiate the equivalent of a “hail mary” that propels the church upward and out of its decline. By the time decline sets in an anti-change culture takes over and holds the church hostage to the status quo.

Now it takes an action that will shake the culture to the point

that its hold is broken and a new direction is initiated. At this point there is usually a struggle between the two or three anti-change leaders and the pastor resulting in the resignation of one out of four pastors who attempt revitalization. Just another reason to take action before decline sets in.

In my book, Unfreezing Moves, I write about nine actions a church can take to initiate enough change to break the culture and set the course for a new upward direction.1 You may want to get the book and apply the actions (I don’t have space to list the actions).

Determining When to Start the Revitalization

So, how does a person know when the church is starting to plateau? There is only one way to catch the plateau in its infancy - keep stats on everything that is important to the life of the church. And most pastors or averse to keeping score on how they and their church are doing.

They don’t want to play what they call “the numbers game” and by doing so they look around one day and the church has jumped off the plateau and is in decline.

Folks, numbers are people and people are numbers so start keeping stats.

Measuring results is important for two simple reasons: one, it allows you to see patterns before they develop; and two they keep you focused on the important 1 Easum, Unfreezing Moves, Abingdon Press, 2002

aspects of ministry. What you measure is important to you. And what is important to you should be measured. It’s that simple.

So what stats should we measure and how often should we measure them? The second part of the question is simple- every month. The first part of the question is more complicated because some of the answer depends on the type of church you are trying to grow. But there are some aspects of ministry that should be important to every church such as: • How many new disciples do we have this month (adult baptisms)?

• How many new leaders have we raised up this month?

• How many small groups do we have and how many are in them?

• How many interns do these small groups have?

• How many new small groups do we have • What is our average worship attendance (including children and youth)?

• What is our giving this month?

• How people in weekly ministry?

• How many children and youth in Sunday School?

• How many children under two years of age are in the Nursery area?

If you use this method, baring a catastrophe, there is no way you can mistake the onset of a plateau and you can take action before decline sets in.

When I was pastor of a church I looked over these stats once a month. These stats were my second Bible. Reviewing them was more important than the preparation of my coming message.

I received these stats in two forms. One was simple a spreadsheet of numbers for each item.

The other form was a graph on each one comparing the month, the quarter and the year to the previous time periods. Over the years these stats proved to be invaluable and helped the church I was pastoring have 24 years of growth year over year. I encourage you to use them also.

What To Do With These Stats

Once you have started keeping stats compare them in three ways – how they compare to last month, last quarter and last year.

The question is, ”When is it time to pull the trigger on revitalization?” Now I know right off the bat some of you are upset I used the phrase “pull the trigger.”

Well, all I can say is get over it.

- Bill Easum

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Rebooting Our Lives It has been called the burning fuse of hostility…it seems to abide in pulpits, elders and deacons meetings, pastoral and leadership training times…why is it so? Please, tell me it is not so? I want to close my eyes and not believe what I see. I want to deny the reality that is shouting out to me and so many others.

Please, tell me it is not so?

are thinking and/or saying, “That is not me…I am struggling with depression.” I can barely face my day let alone be angry. Ponder this…our American dream, the John Wayne pick up and point up your chin and make it happen… may sound great and cool, but is it really Biblical? Is your depression coming from expectations that are rooted in the wrong center of your very being?

Why are our pastors, leaders, congregation members so full of Anger? Why are WE so full of Anger? Our newscasts… full of anger and terrorism?

Our stewardship meetings in the church board room, full of anger. Our Democratic and Republican Conventions, anger…anger…anger! Our blocked goals in ministry, anger. Our low attendance on Sunday mornings and/or Sunday evenings, anger. Our No Shows on Wednesday nights or Small Group Leaders Trainings, Anger.

Are we really content on seeing the American Dream fulfilled in our lives and in the lives of those we love? Is the foundation of our very existence to be built on pride, success and we did it? Is the We or I made it happen really expressive of godly community and dependence on Jesus? Is there a reason why Jesus is left out or tagged on at the end to sound spiritual?

Our Baby Boomers nearing retirement and their outlook toward Social Security, Anger. Our Baby Buster pastors taking on large church facility rentals, with few people and even less dollars, Anger. Our Millenial Pastors driven with entitlement and telling us that they deserve their 100k salary before benefits, NOW…even more anger.

Some of you reading this are nodding your heads. Others 54

By Greg Kappas

I thank the Lord Jesus that I was born in this great country. I am honored to be an American. I am proud to call this my country. Yet, I am rebuked to make too much of that. When I cross the borders of Liberia and Sierra Leone and look into the mountains where there are thousands upon thousands of grass and tree branch homes, held together with mud and banana leaves, I am humbled and ask the Lord, Why was I not born there? Why was I given the opportunity to hear the Gospel over and over yet these dear people only know Islam and have never even heard once about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When I travel throughout interior India and see one village after another with no Gospel, no Jesus, no electricity or clean water, but Hindu gods everywhere, I am troubled inside…I am angry and so burdened.

When this grips me, my anger melts to gratitude. My heart becomes passionate to go into those regions and preach/teach the Gospel to them for the first time. Anger can be both godly and ungodly…usually it is for the wrong reasons…We claim our rights, which may or may not be accurate. You see the greatest injustice of all, is the spiritual starvation of people who do not have the Gospel.

Some of us as pastors are so upset that our people will not listen and our communities go on without turning to Jesus Christ…many of our congregational leaders are so driven with moving up the ladder that they count their square feet in their homes more than those who are lost around them. I thank God for nice homes and we live in a nice rental home ourselves in the greater Phoenix area. These are gifts of God, but why have we become so consumed with our monthly budget and forgot about those perishing to hell around us? That should be part of where godly anger resides. We must care deeply about the lost!

Our passion for Jesus and His mission to the lost, should call us to populate heaven and depopulate hell. Are we really urgent about the glory of God in

Greg Kappas, is the President of the Grace Global Network and Vice President of TTI all things and with all people...

If people in your congregation see you burn with passion to reach your community for Jesus through faithful Gospel prayer and proclamation, then they will hear your wood kindle even in your tired hours. Certainly, some of your people will Catch the Vision if you keep burning with passion to reach every man, woman and child in your community with Christ and lock arms with other churches and those on mission with you.

Anger that is not healthy, lives in a mindset that says I and/or We deserve better. We earned this and we will take this. I…I…I…I… We…We…We…We. Terrorism should make us angry. Taking lives of all ages is so sickening, and terrorism needs to be shut down. Yet the Ultimate Terrorist, Satan, has ignited people all over the world whether knowingly or unknowingly to take human lives and maim others. We are shocked, fearful and angry when we see images on our phones, laptops and televisions’. These sins make us angry and rightfully so.

Meanwhile the Enemy, terrorizes our congregations and takes out key leaders right before our eyes and we stand bewildered. Bewildered…he is seeking to devour us, our leaders and other believers in our own flocks. This should make us really angry and very dependent upon Jesus…eternal consequences that rake the souls and spirits of men and women.

What should we do to bring health, revival, renewal, rennovation…actually Resurgence to our congregations? I stand in agreement with my dear friend and colleague in ministry, Pastor Mark Driscoll. Mark gives us 7 principles to help build, rebuild and surge churches forward at all times (I added a little to reflect some of my thoughts): 1. Preach and Teach the Word of God 2. Genuinely Love the Church – That Includes Your Congregation

Why are our pastors, leaders, congregation members so full of Anger? Why are WE so full of Anger? Our newscasts… full of anger and terrorism?

Our stewardship meetings in the church board room, full of anger. Our Democratic and Republican Conventions, anger…anger…anger! Our blocked goals in ministry, anger. Our low attendance on Sunday mornings and/or Sunday evenings, anger. Our No Shows on Wednesday nights or Small Group Leaders Trainings, Anger.

3. Contend for the Faith and Contextualize 4. Be Missional, Incarnational and Attractional 5. Receive, Reject and Redeem 6. Consider the Common Good

7. Embrace and Evangelize Through Suffering1 Oh yeah, how about some of you releasing your anger toward Driscoll and giving it to God. So many people do not really know what this fine brother and evangelical leader went through. God will reveal it in time. His family has been spread over the coals enough. He is learning, growing, influencing and moving on. That is more than what I can say about most leaders, especially the ones with ungodly anger.

Let’s complete the task of glorifying our Lord through reaching lost people and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry…disciples making disciples who make disciples who make disciples.

Let the other lazy Christians stay angry and stare at their belly buttons until they repent. Meanwhile, you and I have work to do.

Refresh the screen of your lives.

Reboot your spirit and soul.

Remember to reboot multiple times a day…be controlled with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit…now those are Two Lion Tamers.

“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” Ephesians 4:26,27.

1From “A Call to Resurgence: Will Christianity Have a Funeral or a Future?”

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To Boldly Go - God’s Call for Today’s Church Revitalizer’s (continued) By Darwin Meighan but he also comes to you and your church at just the right time now. His timing is always right and perfect.

Romans 5:6 says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” He came at just the right time to save his people (that’s you and me) from our sins.

So how do you know when the time is right to pull the trigger for church revitalization? God promises to come to you at just the right time and provide just what you need. When we are powerless (utterly helpless, where we are totally dependent on God), Jesus still comes to us today. He comes to bring renewal and hope to pastors and churches who are desperately crying out to him for a fresh breath of his Spirit to move mightily.

ASK.

ASSESS.

ALIGN.

ACTION.

Is the time for you and your church…now?

䔀一 䔀匀倀䄀턀伀䰀℀

David Lema Strategical Leader in RENOVATE EN ESPAÑOL

Practical Hints that Can Help Ones Boldness in Church Revitalization and Renewal Remain upbeat and positive at all times even if you are working through a challenging scripture passage or thought. Put the Fun back in Worshipping the SON! Share the adventure. Work hard at including new participants in various forms of the worship. Use new members as “call outs” in your messages, “John Brown and I were talking about this biblical concept last week or earlier this morning, etc. Bless people from the stage more often (stop worrying you will cause them to loose a crown in heaven)! Work towards building community through challenges from the pulpit that draw people together for a cause and not for a meeting! What ever we do as a worshipping body we must continually be looking out for ways to keep it fun or make it fun.

Fun is part of the doing of ministry! Drudgery and the weekly grind is deadly and poisonous for the growing & renewing church!

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RenovateConference.org

-Tom Cheyney

revitalizer

LIBRARY

Chris Anderson, TED Talks: The Official Guide to Public Speaking (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston), 2016.

Hopefully you are already familiar with TED Talks. If not, as a leader you need to be. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design featuring eighteen-minute talks stemming from these fields. The first TED event was held in 1984 and failed. Six years later a second attempt was launched and the TED event took off. For the past thirty-plus years TED Talks have engaged leaders, intellectuals, scientist and activist around the world with short and inspirational talks rebirthing the value of rhetoric – or to use the authors terms “presentation literacy’ - to the masses. In TED Talks: The Official Guide to Public Speaking Chris Anderson, Head of TED, shares his insights from numerous presentations as to how someone achieved something extraordinary in just a few short minutes (xiii). Much like the inspirational eighteen-minute talks each chapter is short, directly to the point, engaging and leaves the reader inspired to explore and be betters at speaking before people. The task Anderson sets out to accomplish is to identify traits that can be emulated and processes to avoid from the best and the worst TED Talks over the past decades of presentations.

Clifton, Mark.

Reclaiming Glory: Revitalizing Dying Churches Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2016.

As a revitalizer you need to read this book for one simple reason; you are a leader with a crucial message to deliver.

That crucial message must be delivered in such a way that those who hear your call to renewal feel your passion and conviction and begin to share in your vision of what a revitalized church looks like and does. Revitalizers need to develop their skills in speaking to people so those who they address will feel impassioned about the tasks before them.

Anderson challenges the readers to remember their mission as communicators. The mission of a talk is not to impress the audience, have them buy your book or even to entertain but rather, “ to take something that deeply matters to you and rebuild it inside the minds of your listeners” (12). One of the greatest challenges revitalizers has is to build a passion in the church members they have been called to serve with so that they will become the healthy and vibrant congregation that the revitalizer already sees. It does not matter how great your vision is if you do not know how to share that vision to others. Just as leaders with out followers are just out for a walk, a vision that cannot be articulated is a just a dream.

TED Talks: The Official Guide to Public Speaking does not present a set of rules for public speaking but rather gives the reader tools in their arsenal of communication. One of the most helpful tools is how to develop a “through line.”

That is a connecting theme that carries through the talk. One idea presented in a passionate way.

Often in any talk or sermon there are people who are listening but not hearing. People who are filtering and

I have had the privilege of knowing Mark Clifton for several years. Reading this work was like reliving some of those conversations around renewal and replanting. It is a pleasure to encourage others to step into this conversation through this book. The writing style greatly reflects the author: simple, straightforward, encouraging, incredibly gracious and generous. In this work Clifton peppers principles

critiquing every word, body language, manner of dress and every other nuance that occupies your delivery. TED Talks: The Official Guide to Public Speaking gets the readers into the heads of their audience so whether they are preaching or giving a talk the speaker has skill set to connect and engage with their audience more fully.

Revitalizers cast vision, recruit leaders and preach sermons. Each method of communication requires a different strategy than the other. Revitalizers need to no only know what to say why how to go about saying it for maximum impact.

Now, sermons are different than talks; at least they should be. The preacher is presenting the word of God. What is says. What it means and what the congregation is supposed to do about it.

Preaching is spiritual and physical work.

God the Holy Spirit softens the ears and hearts of the listeners and quickens the tongue of the preacher. Yet sermons and talks share one very crucial commonality. They are both addressing people.

You must know how to speak to people in a manner that they feel your burden for the church. Speak to people in a way they see where you are leading them.

Speak to people in a way that calls them to action. Ted Talks: The Official Guide to Public Speaking gives some tools to get into their heads and hearts.

TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking is a great read to develop the nuts and bolts of public speaking. It is a must read for anyone who stands before a group and want to communicate to them in a way which they will connect with them and they will remember.

Anderson’s work is a great read for the Revitalizers Library.

of replanting with stories of his and others in their replanting journey. The singular question, “What about a dying church brings glory to God?” (11) Permeates the entire work. The principles expressed in Reclaiming Glory: Revitalizing Dying Churches will encourage all whether engaged in a re-plant or leading other works of revitalization.

Continued on Page 58

Book Reviews by Rob Hurtgen

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BOOK REVIEWS CONTINUED...

Clifton is an advocate for the smaller church as being “normative.” He cites the statistics that the overwhelming majority of churches – specifically Southern Baptist Churches - are under 100 in weekly worship attendance. A normative church then is 100 to 150 in size. Clifton does not degrade mega churches but stresses they are unique not normative. He argues that an army of normative churches which are gospel centered, disciple making and intentional about impacting their immediate community with the gospel will have far greater impact than a few mega churches will.

develop as a leader. The imperatives laid out in Chapter four alone are worth the book. The applications of these principles stem beyond the work of replanting making their way into other aspects of revitalization.

Clifton processes the reader through some strategies to replant as well as personal anecdotes and principles to

The largest critique of Reclaiming Glory is not of the work itself but the reflection of the singular revitalization

Seasoned Revitalizers know the spiritual, emotional and physical wear that intentional revitalization can have on the leader. Clifton humbly details his own experiences of spiritual warfare in taking back anemic ministries. Neither Revitaliza tion nor replanting is easy work. It is not for everyone.

Providing Space and Equipment This article is part 3 of a 5 part series In church revitalization, typically space is not an issue. Many declining churches have an abundance of space, however, the space is not always attractive to the community.

This was addressed in Part 1 of this series, under the topic of Facilities.

Once we accept, something needs to be done with our facilities we can develop a strategy to make the necessary adjustments. As I have worked with churches, we have recommended shutting down entire floors of a multi-story building. This helps in several ways, including financially, as you no longer have to heat and cool those floors for occupancy. However, you cannot have on-going neglect of those areas either. So what is a church to do?

This is where developing a strategic plan to address the facilities should be done.

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When I teach on growing a church, and specifically in church revitalization, I remind churches of what I call the “3 P’s of Church Growth”. A church must have space for parking, preschoolers, and the preaching must be good. Adults will overlook a lot of areas and smaller ministries, however, they will not attend if there is not a place to park, and they will not attend if their babies are not in an appropriate environment. Let me address the first two below as it relates to this writing.

Parking

Whether or not a parking lot is paved depends greatly on the community you are serving. Obviously paved parking is ideal, and especially in communities which receive a lot of rain. Even a portico is necessary in this environment if you want church attendance to be somewhat

philosophy of “Revitalization = Replanting.” Replanting is a strategy, in many cases the best strategy, but it is not the only strategy for revitalization. Church leaders whose congregations who are not demonstrating reproductive health and strong spiritual vitality but are not near death, not near closure, will not benefit from replanting but can benefit from some of the principles illustrated here in their revitalization efforts.

Overall, Reclaiming Glory is a good, straightforward read, rich with principles and practice from a man who has not only replanting a church but has encouraged countless others in their work. These principles of replanting will continue to encourage others in fulfilling their calling.

by Kenneth Priest

reasonable on a rainy day. But generally speaking, if you have space available, people will use it, whether paved, gravel, grass, or even dirt. The average parking space is approx. 8 ½ feet wide and 18 feet deep (these dimensions are especially necessary in Texas where I live due to the high interest in large SUV type vehicles).

Once you measure out your square available space, you can determine the number of cars which could fit in your parking area. Each church will need to determine the average attendee per car; a simple formula is to count the number of cars in the parking lot on Sunday morning, and divide by the number of people (you should do this for five weeks in a row in order to get a solid average).

Once you know the average attendee per car, you can multiply that by the number of parking spaces you have, and know the number of people you can host on your campus at one time.

Preschool

I work with many churches in revitalization, and the one area which seems to always suffer is that of preschool. Mostly, because there are no children in many of these churches. I want to discuss here the issue of expectation and preparation. I believe this is a biblical issue for the local church. Looking to Acts 1 and 2 for our text. You know how the story goes here, right? Jesus tells the disciples to not depart from Jerusalem (1.4) but to wait for the “promise of the Father, which he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” But here we are moving into a radical shift in the way God relates to His people. He is moving from His chosen people of Israel to offering a relationship with all mankind through Jesus Christ. And Jesus gives the disciples the charge in Acts 1.8; “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The power of the Spirit. To this point, the disciples had functioned under the earthly power of Christ – even though they had cast out demons and performed miracles; it was a power from having been with God in Flesh. Now that Jesus is ascending, they would need someone else to be with them as the sign of God in them…this is the Spirit.

As we read on in our text, we know Matthias is chosen to replace Judas as one of the lead 12. We move into chapter two and have the Day of Pentecost. 2.1 says “When the Day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.” A more accurate reading for the word “arrived” would rather be “fulfilled.” The fulfillment language bears more weight than mere chronology as the

fulfillment of the time of the divine promise for the gift of the Spirit.

This was it! This is what they were waiting for! Acts 2.2 “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?’.”

Why was this able to occur? Go back to verse 1; the end of the verse; “they were all together in one place.” This had nothing to do with proximity of location. No, this has everything to do with unity of the disciples. Were they in the same room? Yes! But this text has to do with the certainty that they were unified in waiting and unified in expectation.

Is your church unified? Are they expecting God to do something each week?

Revitalization inherently means, the church is in the midst of a transition and the church needs to unify under the leadership of the under-shepherd God has placed there for the purpose of leading the church. This unity is understanding that God wants to use the church to reach the surrounding community, back in 1.8 that is our calling. Are you ready for God to do something great in your midst as a church? If so, then prepare your preschool area and expect God to do something with it.

Have teachers ready every Sunday and have them appropriately supplied so they can meet the needs of whomever God chooses to bring to your church. Be a church shown ready for guests so you are not surprised when they show.

They may not come for weeks, or even months, but be ready!

The final piece of this writing, provide space and equipment, is to address the issue of equipment.

What equipment does a church need to have? This has already been somewhat addressed in that, when you provide space and are ready for preschoolers, you provide all the necessary supplies a teacher will need to care for the children. The same should be true for all aspects of the ministry you are engaged in. Insure all ministry leaders have what they need to fulfill the ministry God is using them in.

That is when God will move. Not that this is a formula. But it is a reality; God seeks unity among His people.

Kenneth Priest serves as the Director of Convention

Strategies for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in Grapevine, TX. Kenneth has been leading revitalization endeavors since 2008 with the SBTC. He holds a Doctor of Educational Ministry degree with an emphasis in Church Revitalization from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, MO. Please contact Kenneth at kpriest@ sbtexas.com.

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The Benefits of Outward Thinking in Church Revitalization There once was a church that had a very effective evangelism and discipleship strategy. This church had a transformational impact on their city and the entire region surrounding their church. This church was so effective that they actually shared the gospel of Jesus with every person in their city and region. They also sent people to other cities to preach the gospel and plant churches. These new churches were also incredibly effective. They also shared the gospel with each person in their cities as well. These new churches multiplied the work of the mother church so that, “all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10).

But… all of that came to a screeching halt and this incredibly effective church started to plateau and decline. The Church at Ephesus is featured in the New Testament more than any other church. It was indeed a model church until Jesus threatened to shut it down. In Revelation 2:5 when the church turned inward and stopped advancing the gospel, Jesus gave them some very stern words. This had been a pioneering church- taking the gospel into new territory. This was a sending and releasing church that was commended for sending out people like Epaphras, who started the Church at Colossae (Colossians 1:7). This was a multiplying church that trained disciples to go out and make more disciples (Acts 19:910). This church had great pastors such as Timothy and John.

However, Jesus threatened to shut them down. He had commended them for their sound 60

doctrine, their hard work, their perseverance in the face of persecution and their hatred of the practices by evil men (Revelation 2:1-3). Yet none of that was good enough to keep the church open. In the eyes of Jesus sound doctrine, hard work, perseverance, and hatred of evil are not good enough reasons to exist as a church. What did this church lack? They lacked an outward focus. They had forsaken their fist love. When things got tough in Ephesus, the church turned away from Jesus and turned inward. Jesus warned them to repent, and to do what they did at first (evangelize, disciple, send, plant new churches and multiply). When a church quits doing these things, Jesus takes their lampstand (church) away from them and either gives it to someone else or He snuffs the light out.

So, what are the benefits of being an outward focused church?

Well, number 1 is that you don’t have to die. How is that for a motivator? Why read any further? Let me put it this way, if your church is an inward-focused church, it is illegitimate and you should be thanking Jesus that He has giving you a chance to repent and turn things around.

The second benefit of being an outward-focused church is that you don’t stink. Have you ever been around stagnant water? It stinks! Things are dying in there and nobody wants anything to do with it. In a stagnant pool, nothing new comes in and nothing goes out. In Florida, we have a brain-eating amoeba that thrives in stagnant water. It kills people! Now, you don’t want your church to be stagnant do you?

by Mark Weible Another benefit of being an outward-focused church is that you don’t have to wear the label of “dead”. Ok, lets say your church is growing, but not sending. In other words, you are hoarding all of the people and resources that God sends to you in order to feed on yourself.

Open up your Bible to the back of the New Testament and take a look at the maps. Find a map that shows the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. What is the difference between these two seas?

The Sea of Galilee receives and releases water and produces life.

The Dead Sea only receives water and, even though it is four times larger than the Sea of Galilee, it does not promote life at all and it is called Dead.

The only way for water to escape the Dead Sea is through evaporation. When it evaporates, it leaves behind all kinds of toxic minerals.

There is no marine or plant life that can survive in that kind of environment. Instead of intentionally sending people in obedience to Christ, dead churches hoard them until they evaporate.

Thus, creating a deadly situation for the church until Jesus comes and takes his lampstand away.

Outward-focused churches produce life. Sometimes young couples decide to wait until they can afford to have children before they procreate. However, most couples soon realize that if they wait until conditions are prefect before they have children, then they will never have children! Likewise, outward-focused churches realize that great sacrifices bring great rewards. Waiting to reach their community, send missionaries or plant churches will not strengthen the church.

Churches are strengthened by working toward fulfilling their mission. Jesus blesses the churches that sacrificially serve Him. Fulfilling the mission of Christ requires an outward focus. In Acts 1:8, Jesus commanded the Jerusalem apostles to expand their mission outward from Jerusalem into the surrounding regions and ultimately unto the uttermost parts of the world.

In Acts 8:1, the apostles are recorded to have deliberately disobeyed Christ’s command, so He allowed persecution to scatter the church. The first church plant out of Jerusalem was unintentional. It happened in Antioch, where ordinary believers started a multi-cultural church and took on the label of “Christians.”

At this point the Jerusalem church began to become more outwardly focused. They sent Barnabas to Antioch in Acts 11:22 to check on the new church. He vouched for their legitimacy, joined the Antioch church’s leadership team and enlisted Saul to help. A year later the Antioch church obeyed the command of the Holy Spirit and sent Barnabas and Saul off on a missionary journey to preach the gospel, make disciples and plant churches (Acts 13).

While they were gone, the Jerusalem church continued to have an interest in the goings on of the Antioch church. When Barnabas and Paul returned to Antioch, they decided to pay a visit to Jerusalem as well. Acts 15 records the account the Jerusalem church taking a healthier interest in the welfare of new churches planted among the Gentiles in the region of Galatia.

It was on his second missionary journey that Paul planted the church in Ephesus. He stayed in Ephesus some time to build and sending base in Asia. In Acts 19:9, we see Paul having daily dialogues with new disciples who not only reached Ephesus with the gospel, but the entire Roman province of Asia.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of outward thinking on the part of the local church is people coming to Christ, growing as disciples, and taking the message of the gospel all over the world.

Mark Weible serves as the Church Planting Director for the Greater Orlando Baptist Association and is the Strategic Director for RenovateConference.org.

Here are some of the recommended introductory prayer requests that should be suggested.

Start with asking them to pray for you as their church revitalizer and leader. Ask them to pray for God’s wisdom for you as well as persistence and strength. Then remember to include your family. Another strong suggestion would be for your protection as the leader of the church because Satan will attack you, your family, and anyone who wants to join you so prayer will fortify you against spiritual warfare. Ask them to lift up the vision f the church revitalization process and ask that God would guide your planning and give you a clear vision for the church revitalization effort. Advise them to begin seeking the Lord about the team that God would provide the right people to form the core of the revitalization restart.

Lastly, it is always a good idea to ask your prayer team to pray for strong tithers to support the effort of revitalization, reminding them that only God can provide.

-Tom Cheyney Find out more at: personalcalling.org/more 61

The Magic Revitalization Pill Is there a magic pill that can “Fix” your church situation? Don’t you wish there was? When I was a young pastor my biggest enemy was my desire to set out on paths to do church in a new and better way. I tended to focus on what I had seen done in churches that I considered was wrong and then tried to come up with a newer and better creative plans. After a few years of slow growth, I struggled to learn the latest in breaking growth barriers. I went to “Beyond 200” with Peter Drucker, then “Beyond 400” and “Beyond 700”, and was still struggling to find that magic pill that would revolutionize my ministry, but no dice! In fact all my churches seemed to initially grow and then cap out at about 175 in attendance. I had been able to attend the original and initial church growth conferences with Rick Warren. I pride-fully picked and chose the parts of his seminar that I liked and rejected the rest.

Rick invited my wife and myself to come out and attend again. Her question to me after day three of the seminar, was: “Why haven’t you done this system just as it was presented?

Why don’t you just drop your pride and take this thing by the numbers?

At her encouragement, we came back home and implemented the strategy that Rick had given us and the church bloomed into a sustained growth.

It took my wife to jar me out of my self-centered preoccupation with being “original!” I learned some crucial secrets to his material: It is not original, but it is just what we were taught in Seminary, re-packaged and brought into modern times.

Let me give a brief synopsis of what Rick teaches you to do. First he teaches you to focus on the central Biblical purpose of the church. That purpose is to organize God’s people on and for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission. He teaches you to

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measure all you do as a church for this aim. And is not the Great Commission Christ’s final charge to his church? To glorify God we must focus on the Great Commission! God has not called us to circle up and sing: “Kum-by-ya my Lord,” but to face the world and sing: “So send I you…”

Next, Rick teaches you to utilize a system to bring the average entry-level guest into a belonging relationship with the local body (Rick got this from Dr. Oscar Thompson’s book: Concentric Circles of Concern).

His class system then moves the people from spiritual maturity to spiritually hungry disciples Add to this, Rick’s emphasis on the importance of small groups and you can take all these factors and examine under the light of an out of print book by Andy Anderson entitled: The Growth Spiral.

Now I am going to create a modern interpretation of the spiral, which I can visually illustrate for this article. Let’s call it the Growth Rocket.

Stage 1 of the Rocket is

trained leadership. John Maxwell teaches that, ”Everything rises and falls on leadership.”

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is taking a short cut on trustworthy leadership.

Teach them, then test them, and then prove them as assistants; as second chairs of existing leaders with the goal of them leading a group by the end of the quarter and if the person does not qualify, reassign them to another function. No one teaches who does not attend your training both initially and ongoing. If you don’t make your training time important to the job, they will

by Rob Myers not do it. This means training time is mandatory.

In stage 2 you have to provide

space. There are ratios of space that you can find in Anderson’s book for actual Sunday schools. In small groups you want more host homes. It is good if the teachers or leaders are not the host. Once your group in either case reaches 15, your meeting times will lengthen and your group will be on the way to birthing another group. If the group cannot birth another group in 2 quarters, then dissolve the group into other groups and evaluate and retrain the leadership. By the way it is easier to manage or oversee Sunday school than small groups. One educational director can control curriculum and handle problems and problem people in a Sunday school setting. It is logistically much harder to manage the small groups and takes more leaders to rotate through.

In stage 3 you are going to find

your greatest challenge. People who are enrolled with their name on a document have a 4 out of 10 probability of actually following through on attending a small group. On the other hand, they only have a 1 out of 10 probability on an “ask” with no paper work or signature. Who do you enroll? After service your leaders need to be in the foyer of your church or the greeting area enrolling anyone who is not enrolled. Once a month your group needs to go door to door using a church-mapping program like www. mappingcenter.org. Here they actually do the Great commission! They can also do block parties and get creative to reach their communities. In this stage, the small groups in homes have an advantage over the Sunday school classes, but the s.s. classes can use their homes for this as well for outreach.

Stage 4 is measuring your attendance. Rick says, “We count people,

because people count.” The larger stages one through three grows, the greater your Sunday attendance or weekend attendance will grow.

As you can see, there are advantages and disadvantages to small groups verses Sunday school classes. Both are right, they are however different. To grow with Sunday school you have to have physical church space that is comfortable and conducive to teaching. If you are an older church with space, by all means use it till you run out. At the point you run out you will have to determine if you can afford to build more space, or if you want to venture into homes. The advantage of homes is that as you grow, you gain more homes but you never

run out of space. If you are working in a culture that does not respect the strict use of curriculum, your small groups can become problematic. If you have a lot of mavericks like we do in the Spanish/ Latin culture of Miami, then Sunday school should be a safer bet.

Sunday school will cost you more eventually in buildings, but home groups will cost you more in staff supervision.

So the genius of Rick Warren is not found in his originality, but in his humility to learn from what has gone on before him and adapt it to today! By the way I don’t teach in any manner similar to the way Rick teaches in the pulpit. He is very topical and I am a verse-by-verse Bible teacher. Here

is what we have in common: we have both chosen not to try and re-invent the wheel, but have gleaned from the foundation of church growth that has gone before us. Try it and you’ll like it!

Rob Myers is the lead pastor of Miami Baptist Church, national radio host and frequent speaker at the Renovate Conference.

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RENOVATE National Church Revitalization Conference

Speakers Include

November 1-3, 2016 Orlando, FL

Bill Easum Tom Cheyney David Lema Lee Kricher Larry Wynn Terry Rials Ron Edmondson Rob Myers Bob Whitesel

RenovateConference.org Aloma Church

70

35

4

4

5

1500+

Church Revitalization Workshops

National Church Revitalization Speakers

Breakout Session Opportunities

Main Sessions by Revitalization Practitioners

Pre-Conference Intensive Subjects

Fellow Church Revitalizers Working Together

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