The Church Revitalizer Magazine March - April 2017

THE

March/April 2017 Vol 3 Issue 2

CHURCH

Revitalizer

“A Revitalization Retreat in Every Issue”

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Are you shrinking or SUSTAINING your ministry in your church

Sustaining Sustainability in Church Revitalization and Renewal

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

ENOVATE R National Church Revitalization Conference

November 7-9, 2017

Speakers Include:

Orlando, FL

Karl Vaters Micah Fries Gary McIntosh Jennifer Bennett David Murrow Tom Cheyney Paul Smith Terry Rials Ron Smith Steve Smith Jason Cooper

(FBC Winter Park)

RenovateConference.org

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Church Revitalization Workshops

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National Church Revitalization Speakers

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Breakout Session Opportunities

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Main Sessions by Revitalization Practitioners

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Pre-Conference Intensive Subjects

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March/April | Vol 3, No 2

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Running Home! A Guide to Running and Finishing Well

By Chris Irving

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Twitter

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Repentance: A Missing Piece in Much Church Revitalization Today

By Joel R. Breidenbaugh

Why Pastors Need to Know Church Systems

By Steve Smith

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Facebook:

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a Church Will 32 How Reconnect by Using a Thread

By Mark MacDonald

Long-term Success in Church Revitalization

By John Kimball

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Get Ready to Hang in There Before the Going Gets Tough

By Bill Tenny-Brittian

It’s Worth It! Six Powerful Questions that Create Momentum

12 28

By Ron Smith

THE LEADERSHIP LINK…

By Michael Atherton

Sustaining A Culture of Forward Movement In Your Church’s Revitalization Journey

30 48

By Darwin Meighan

“The only magazine dedicated to Church Revitalization.”

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Pastoral Abuse Is Real Even Though Some Church Members Won’t See It

By Tom Cheyney

16

Creating Summer Events!

By Bill Hegedus

18

Building Sustainable Student Ministry Volunteer Teams that Last

By Drew Cheyney

35

Are You a Leader of Change?

By Tracy W. Jaggers

40

“I Can’t Get No Satisfaction!

No…No…No..”

By Rob Myers

44

Turning Back a Complacent Church

By Bob Whitesel

50

Pastoring is Like Parenting

By Estelle Myers

52

Are You in Your Groove or Stuck in a Rut?

By Mark Weible

54

The Law of Inertia

By Jim Grant

58

Sustainability in Church Revitalization

By Kenneth Priest

60 Finishing Well: Keys to Pastoral Sustainability

By Glenn Stewart

revitalizer

LIBRARY BOOK REVIEWS

The Church Revitalizer Book Reviewer: Rob Hurtgen

57 Re.VITAL.ize: Lessons Learned in a Recovering Church, By J. Pete Tackett, 57 An Uphill Journey: One Small Church’s Story of Revitalization, By Brian Nall

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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THE

CHURCH

Revitalizer Volume 3, No. 2

The Church Revitalizer Is published bi-monthly by Renovate Publishing Group 1906 West Lee Road Orlando, FL 32810 Email: ChurchRevitalizer.guru

PUBLISHER Dr. Tom Cheyney Associate Publisher Mark Weible Associate Publisher Circulation & Marketing RENOVATE Staff Executive Editor & Brand Manager Tom Cheyney Magazine Designer & Format Editor Gerald Brown Executive Director of Advertising RENOVATE Staff Web Ad Traffic Director Mark Weible Digital Media Associate Rob Caraballo For subscription information contact this office at: www.churchrevitalizer.guru/subscriptions.

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ChurchRevitalizer.Guru

By Tom Cheyney

Welcome to the Church Revitalizer Magazine: A Church Revitalization Retreat in Every Issue!

Church Revitalization speaks of a church renewal effort becoming self-sustaining, self-propagating, and self-supporting for it to really be a sustainable revitalization effort. Church revitalizers are seeking to redevelop sustainable ministries in their communities and they renew the church, develop leaders, and reach the lost of the community they are called to serve. For some denominations who are disinclined to support the three S’s of sustainability they opt for the belief that churches which are unable to be self-supporting should be held up by others because they are strategically placed. They may be strategically placed but if they fail to reach the community are we being strategic to keep them going rather than giving the facilities to a church revitalizer who can bring revitalization to the community and the church? I believe that there are unsustainable churches all over that because they are so inwardly focused they are no longer able to sustain the efforts of ministry.

Want a quick idea for beginning the effort of sustainability?

If you will seek to reach ten new people and develop at least two new entrance points in your church you will have a better chance of beginning to make the shift necessary to bring about revitalization. I believe that it will eventually take eight new entrance points into a dying church to break the bonds of decline but the initial two is a great start!

It is hard to believe that the Renovate Group and Renovate Resources are beginning the third year of the Church Revitalizer Magazine! Please continue to let us know areas which need to be addressed and specific topics you and your church leaders would benefit.

This edition of The Church Revitalizer focuses on Sustaining Sustainability in Church Revitalization and Renewal.

Stay connected, more is coming in 2017 and it is going to be a great year.

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

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Pastoral Abuse Is Real Even Though Some Church Members Won’t See It There will be church member who choose to hide their heads in the proverbial sand and say it just can’t be true. They may have had a long-standing friendship with the individual so their judgment is fogged by their group dynamic.

Some will even choose to hide for fear of the church split which could happen. The sad thing is that it will anyway unless pastor abusers are dealt with sooner than later. The reason for this is that the membership knows what is going on and they are waiting for something to be done and if it is not handled, they will take flight from the church and the things they feared will happen anyway. Eventually, those closest to the abusers will have to either turn against this unrepentant individual or they will become part of destroying the church as well. Most church members do not want to be found in that group so they either must fix it or take flight. Often both happens. When an abusive lay person practices controlling tactics to keep the minister in check it has a ripple effect throughout the entire congregation. Trust levels are destroyed and the casual decline becomes rapid decline as the church falls meteorically towards destruction. Often, newer members just will not be able to see the problems. Here are some simple tail tale signs of those who operate as pastor abusers: •On Sundays, they appear quite charming and hospitable •Other strong leaders are a threat to him •They are magnificent manipulators to disguise their individual vulnerabilities •They are controllers and practice it on weaker church members as well •Unwilling to take responsibility for things they do wrong •They marvel when pastors and

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staff walk on eggshells fearing the worst •Has huge mood swings, happy one minutes and mad the next •Verbally assaulting towards the pastor shepherd •Is isolated from the majority of church members and most of his family •Very sensitive and takes offense easily •Delights in cruelty toward the minister •Repentant often but seldom means it Rediger has identified seven characteristics of these vicious people.

They are destructive, determined, deceitful, demonic, in denial, violate rules of decency, and experts of disguise.1

Dealing with Such Abuse

There will always be people in the church who seek to create pain for the minister. But there are a few things you can do to deal with these individuals. Practice Matthew 18:1520 when dealing with pastor abuser offenses. This is the beginning place I might add. Do not sweep this abnormal behavior under the rug. It is not likely to go away on its own, especially if it has happened more than once already. Remember that past performance of an individual is a strong indicator of future performance. Give prayerful consideration to the possibility that the abusive member may be dealing with an emotional disorder. Not all bad behavior is of a spiritual nature only. Be careful if you are encountering such an individual and seek professional clinical advice. The abusive person may need to be removed from any 1 G Lloyd Rediger, Clergy Killers: Guidance for Pastors and Congregations Under Attack (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1997) pg. 9.

By Tom Cheyney

church office due to their unrepentant persistence in wrong-doing.

Educate the church concerning the biblical causes and consequences of abusive behavior among Christians. Don’t be afraid to address these issues in the church. Heed the biblical injunction to remove an unrepentant person from the church membership. Maintain a grace-filled ministry at all times, but be firm when necessary, and consistent in dealing with damaging conduct in the church.

Advice for the Non-Abusive Laity

Your pastor needs to know you are standing with him and right beside him. Do not think others are doing this so you be the first to come along side of him and support him in the work of revitalization of your church. Do not think that because your pastor has not shared this that he is not under some sort of abusive attack. There are disgruntled people in the church no matter how great it is doing. I believe that most pastoral exodus could be lessened if the rank and file openly displayed their appreciation for their pastor.

Stand by him and pray for him daily.

Ask the Lord to give him wisdom to deal with abusive individuals. Cover his family in prayer. Ask the Lord to anoint his preaching. Encourage him rather than finding fault. Write a note to him and bless him by your kind words. Submit yourself to his leadership as pastor. Be willing to submit to the authority in the church you have chosen to be a part of. Be a regular attender. Schedule a time to have a meal with your pastor. Serve the church you are a member. Be a contributor and not a complainer. Speak positively about your pastor or don’t speak at all.

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

Get Ready to Hang in There Before the Going Gets Tough Leading a church turnaround is unquestionably the most difficult and arduous job in ministry.

It sometimes (most of the time?) seems like no one is really in your corner. Those who want change are tired of waiting for it and don’t understand why you can’t deliver instant results. But the majority of your turnaround-church members are likely gentle foot-draggers or full on road blocks who believe that 1954 is coming back any day now. In an environment like that, surviving and thriving long enough to lead a church revitalization is one of the issues every revitalizer has to face.

There are no tricks to longevity in a church turnaround, but there are some key practices that will help you stay in the game.

Spirituality First

This one seems so obvious, and yet it’s the one key practice I see neglected over and over again. There are two levels here.

1. Your personal spiritual life needs to be up-to-snuff.

Prayer: “God gave you two ears and one mouth to be used in that proportion” –Grandma. That goes for your personal prayer time too. When you’re turning a church around, listening to the Boss is more than good practice.

Bible Immersion: Sermon prep and Bible study creation don’t count.

Your soul isn’t nourished when you’re processing the Word to feed others. The image of a bird regurgitating for its young comes to mind here – think about that metaphor for a moment. ‘Nuff said.

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Reflection: This is the most important tool for learning from life’s lessons. For most of us, life is made up of two things: Event and Response.

Something happens or someone says something and we respond to it. If we’re really good, we’re proactive, meaning we “cause” the event, but the pattern is the same – Event and Response. The problem is most people don’t learn much from the two-step process. Unless you reflect on whether your response was helpful, harmful, or pointless you’re destined to make the same mistakes over and over. So at the end of the day, sit down with God and reflect on each event and each response.

Did you respond well with Steve questioned your decision? How did you do when the senior didn’t see you in the next lane and pulled in too close? Reflect on your responses and contemplate whether you want to respond the same or differently next time.

Accountability: Christianity is a team sport … no one becomes an effective disciple of Jesus on their own. The same can be said of leadership. There are lots of accountability plans “out there.” Find one, recruit an accountability partner, and engage.

There’s no more powerful change agent than a weekly question about your Scripture reading, your prayer life, how you’re treating your family, or how many Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups you ate.

Create a Compelling Vision Normally, the first step most church leaders go through is developing a mission statement. If your church doesn’t have one, or if the one they have has its letters fading fast in a Walmart document frame in a back hallway, then let me help you out.

Jesus gave the church it’s reason for existence: to make disciples. Every-

By Bill Tenny-Brittian thing we do is ostensibly meant to further that end.

With that out of the way, the next piece is to develop a compelling vision. The key word in that step is compelling. There are lots of “vision statements” out there that are a lot of things, but compelling they’re not. “By 2025 we’ll worship over 1500 people in two locations” is a great goal, but it’s hardly a compelling vision. Great visions capture imaginations and inspire action.

They paint a picture that’s almost tangible. And when a church not only “sees” where it’s going, but “feels” where it’s going, then the church gets going. (And once it gets going, it’s pretty much up to you to keep the momentum.)

You can explore more about compelling visions at http://BigMouse.

Vision/.

Build Realistic Expectations

Turning around a church isn’t an overnight process. In fact, successful turnarounds tend to take three years or more before you reach a tipping point. Three years on paper doesn’t sound like a long time, but given most successful turnarounds begin with rather significant losses, when you’re in the trenches, three years can seem like an eternity. Therefore, build in realistic expectations.

Have a Coach

You’ve probably heard this before.

Over and over. Many, if not most, highly successful CEO s have a business coach. It’s axiomatic that church planters need coaches. And many, if not most, of the largest church pastors depend on a coach.

And since a church turnaround is the single most difficult ministry of all ministries, getting a coach should be a no-brainer.

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“But I don’t need a coach. I know what to do.” A great mentor “teaches” and “trains.” A great coach, however, is a lot less about teaching and a lot more about helping you keep focused on the priorities. And when the inevitable conflicts begin to percolates around you, it can be difficult to keep your eyes on the prize.

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Build Alliances

Probably the best advice I ever got when I started leading turnarounds was to build powerful alliances.

There are always going to be adversaries who will crawl out from under the pews when you try to lead any

Continued on Page 22

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Creating Summer Events!

By Bill Hegedus

Typically the summer months are low-attendance times for churches across America. It is, however a great time to connect into your community and meet new families, some of which have just recently joined your community. Planning summer activities for kids and for families to share in together is a great way to build your church over the summer and build great momentum as you transition into the upcoming Fall months.

Here are a few ideas to help make this summer a memorable one, even if you’re on a tight budget:

Vacation Bible School--most churches do a

tried and true VBS every year. This is a great way to teach kids Biblical truths in a fun, week-long setting. This is one of the easier things to do as there are many pre-packaged curriculum options. Two great publishers are Lifeway and Group. All of the details are included for you, such as instructional DVD’s, prop & set design & building, videos and music, and snack and craft options. It’s usually a great way to introduce new volunteers into the world of Children’s Ministry!

Family Fun Day--this would be a great day to

spend at the park together as a family. Rent some inflatables, set up relay games, provide burgers and hot dogs, or choose to have it potluck style.

Events like these are great to invite surrounding neighborhood families to. It shows that you’re a family-focused church and place value on providing a shared family experience. This also provides an opportunity for fellowship. Make sure to build plenty of time into the schedule for you and your key leaders to mingle and have conversations with those in attendance who are unfamiliar.

Movie On The Lawn--set up a movie outside

& encourage families to bring chairs & blankets.

Having food trucks and a s’mores bar is always a big hit. We’ve also had reusable bags printed with our ministry logo and supplied movie basics--water bottles, bags of popcorn, some snack sized candy and an invite to join us for another 16

upcoming event, as well as church that weekend. This is a very community friendly option that is always very well attended!

Family Night @ the Ballpark--this is super budget

friendly as you’re just organizing the event. Order tickets, have people provide their own transportation, and show up to watch a fun game as a group!

To make any of these events a great success, you need to follow the 3 P’s:

PLANNING-nobody wants to come to an event that

isn’t planned out well. Make sure to think through the details, foot traffic flow, signage, materials, printed materials, etc. Think through the lens of someone who is unfamiliar with the area of your event. How will they find you? What will they do once they’ve arrived? Are you ready to welcome them and make registration as quick and painless as possible? Do you have a way to capture their contact information for follow up? Think in steps and plan accordingly.

PROMOTION-you could’ve dotted all of your “I’s” and

crossed all of your “T’s” in planning, but if you haven’t properly promoted your event to your church and your community, it’s wasted effort. Make sure to utilize weekend announcements, slides, posters & signs, handouts in the Children’s area, social media, community bulletin boards (think Starbucks & Panera), and even radio spots or movie theater slides.

PRAYER-now that your first 2 P’s are rolling along,

this is the most important “P”…prayer. Make sure to present your requests to the Lord and pray for a safe & enjoyable event. If you’re holding an event in or near neighborhoods, prayer walk the area prior to the event. This is such a powerful way to prepare for all the great things that God is going to do through the event.

Keep in mind that to pull off these memorable summertime events, you’ll need plenty of volunteers. Now is the perfect time to do a big volunteer push for some of your church attenders not currently serving anyContinued on Page 26

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Building Sustainable Student Ministry Volunteer Teams that Last

Whether you want to admit it or not, in today’s world of Student Ministry, the Student Pastor who only builds relationships with students and fails to invest into leadership will always find themselves not only behind the curve in their ministry, but also in a position of frequent panic and consistent plateaus. Why you may be asking? Because you cannot have the kind of impact you have been called to have if you are always doing it by yourself. Think about this for a second; what would it be like for you to have 4 hours a week to dream about where your ministry could go? What would it look like to have a plan in place that is executed monthly instead of coming up with things last minute or on the fly? To tell you the truth, most Student Pastors would love to have time to ask the questions yet alone discuss the answers. If you are anything like most Student Pastors in our nation, you have a desire to impact eternities past graduation, you want to teach students how to use their influence to impact people, and hopefully, you want to see the church and its student ministry thrive.

The complication in this dream however, is that most of us use our energy and efforts striving to be superheroes when it comes to Student Ministry instead of leaders of an architectural structure.

We plan, plot, problem solve, and hope that if we come up with the coolest new ideas that the climate in our ministries will go from stagnant to impactful. Here is the skinny though, if you are going to have successful student ministries that last, then you

must have a deep volunteer team to HELP! As Pastors, we all want to lead the kind of change that matters, but few leaders in student ministry today are actually willing to take the necessary steps needed to do so. What is the first step you may be asking? Well it is this: START CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE! It sounds so trivial when you hear it since that is what our job description calls us to do in ministry, but when you think about it, when was the last time you went up to a complete stranger in your church and struck up a conversation that went past “hi” or a passing “hello”? For some of us it is been way too long, and it is for this reason that the leadership in our Student Ministries is going nowhere!

To be clear though, really good leaders will not come to you the majority of the time. In fact, the best leaders in your church probably will never even sign a card letting you know they were in attendance yet have a desire to serve. It is because of this that Dan Reiland, Executive Pastor at 12 Stone Church, puts it this way, “If you’re serious about increasing and expanding your leadership, you have to take the initiative to form new relationships. You can’t sit back and wait for people to come to you.” Why you may be asking? Because good leaders do not know the potential they have to impact an eternity until you encourage and challenge them with the opportunity to do so. It is because of this fact that you are going to have to find them first!

By Drew Cheyney

Finding them though, is just the start of the equation; after finding them, you then need to connect with them. Strike up a conversation, find a reason to have a cup of coffee, maybe eat a meal together. Then you need to do something most Student Pastors get squirmy on, you need to humble yourself and ask people to check out your ministry to see if there is an area they would be willing to help make better.

Yes you may be told “it’s a bad time right now” or “no thanks, I’m just not that interested,” but you have to at least ask the question.

When we fail to even ask the proverbial question, we as Student Pastors are saying “NO” for people. And by doing so, we are robbing them of an opportunity to serve in a much bigger venue in God’s Kingdom. I personally say it like this, “My responsibility as a Student Pastor is to put as many ‘good people’ in the lives of our students as possible; not perfect people, but people like yourself who are trying for better day in and day out in their lives. Would you be interested in at the minimum checking it out and just seeing if there is an opportunity in Student Ministry for you?” Then I listen to their answer and pay attention to how God works on people’s hearts. Sometimes they want to know more and sometimes they do not, but nothing will happen if we do not at least ask.

Thirdly, it is your responsibility when people do want to be a part of your ministry to put these potential leaders in the right places and then invest into their lives.

Continued on page 36

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Does God really set people free?

Or are we just talking?

Transformational Discipleship was developed to train leaders how to guide both brand-new and longtime believers towards deep spiritual change.

This training is foundational for every believer. It guides people who are stuck on their faith journey due to unresolved, often hidden issues in their lives towards true spiritual, emotional and mental freedom through intimacy with God.

“It’s not like anything I have been through before.”

Pastor John Wright, Titusville, FL “This is life transforming. I’m going to teach the socks off this thing.”

Dr. Phil Phillips, Ft. Myers, FL

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Running Home! A Guide to Running and Finishing Well This new year has not disappointed for those who thrive on controversy. From the Millennials marching every chance they get, to the continued surge in the DOW as it continues to reach new heights, our world is changing faster than ever. The church faces many challenges but perhaps the most difficult of them all is the task of change. But failing to change is fatal to the church. Pastor, you took the challenge to revitalize the church where you live and that is a serious, difficult challenge. Don’t give up!

I have competed in several 5K’s races over seven years here in Gonzales. It never fails when I reach the halfway point of that 3.1 miles that I think… “That’s only halfway?” Have you ever felt like that as you are in the process of revitalization? So many steps, so many obstacles of all shapes and sizes and it seems like you will never reach the end. Do not ever give up hope of reaching the finish line!

Step One: Remember Your “Yes, LORD”

Isaiah 26:8 says, “Yes, LORD, we wait for You in the path of Your judgments. Our desire is for Your name and renown.” In 1999 at the Passion Student Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, this verse came alive for me. The Lord spoke to me that evening through Isaiah 26:8 and since that day I have decided that my answer will be “Yes, LORD”, no matter the question.

In the work of revitalization, you must constantly remember your “Yes, LORD.” There are many days when you will not want to say “yes” to anything because Deacon Dan or Sister Sally aggravated you and shut down the next step in the church’s revitalization strategy. When your “Yes, Lord” is on the table before God, your life will become a target for the enemy to attack. Satan will try to steal your desire to see your church healthy once again for God’s glory.

It is in these moments that you are sustained by your “Yes, LORD.” The people of God were sustained by the hope of walking in the righteousness of God and through that He would make their path straight.

What brings more peace than a straight path where the way forward is clear? This determination to say, “Lord, no matter how long this takes, I have an unreserved ‘yes’ for Your will and Your way.”

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By Chris Irving

Your calling to pastor and revitalize the church is but one simple reminder of how we are sustained.

The people’s way was not smooth in the book of Isaiah, but they had a hope that God would fulfill His promise and so they waited for Him, because His name and His renown were the desire of their heart.

Remember your “Yes LORD.”

Step Two: Keep your Heart Focused

When I am running a 5k in my hometown, oftentimes the race course passes right in front of my home. I love the thought of running home as this is a route that I am very familiar with in my normal exercise routine. My home is located just around the corner from the actual finish line and it gives me a burst of energy at the end of the race to keep pushing and to finish strong. Every coach I had in my athletic career stressed the importance of finishing the game or the race strong.

Isaiah 26:3-4 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.” Notice the importance of where you focus your heart or your mind. You must focus on and stay your heart and mind upon Christ. As you focus your heart and mind, notice the grace of God brings perfect peace. What sustains you in the revitalization effort is the peace of God. For those who focus on Him, He is an everlasting rock.

Oftentimes when I am in the race, the thought of being almost done, almost to the finish line, almost home helps me to finish strong. Focus your heart and your mind on the glorious finish line that is the Day of the Lord and the return of Christ.

Step Three: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Dear pastors, we are not in a sprint for revitalization.

Revitalization is a marathon that will at least take 1,000 days to reach. Some of you will take longer. It has taken my church nearly seven years to reach the point of intentionally working the plan to revitalization. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain

it.” He goes on to talk about the perishable wreath that runners win, but that in Christ our wreath is imperishable. The book of Revelation reveals to us that our prize will one day be laid at the feet of Jesus.

What a glorious moment!

God called you to run the race of revitalization. That also means you are not only running, you are also training. One of the worst mistakes an athlete can make is to assume they are in perfect condition for any race. They must continually train for the race.

One way to keep your eye on the prize is to continue to read, study, and seek training on church revitalization strategies. This very magazine is a great resource as well as many of Dr. Tom Cheyney’s books and several others that are on the market.

But you must commit to keeping your eyes on the prize. You will not revitalize your church haphazardly, nor will you revitalize it by blindly walking in to it.

Train, run, and win the prize for God’s glory lest you be disqualified.

Step Four: Preach the Word

I recently attended the Text Driven Preaching Conference held at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. It was during a luncheon and panel discussion that I texted my question to the host of the event. I asked, “What are the keys to sustaining and persevering in a church revitalization effort?” Interestingly enough, my college pastor fielded the question because 30 years ago, he took on a fledgling Central Baptist Church in Bryan, TX. Thirty years later, CBC is the largest church in the Bryan-College Station area, but it did not happen overnight. His answer was two-fold. First, he said, “you’ve got to give it time, so be patient.” But the second answer has proven true in the church I currently pastor. He said, “You’ve also got to consistently preach the Word of God.” In 2 Timothy, Paul reminds his young protégé to “preach the word.” One reason, among many, why churches begin to fail and die is lack of concern for the exegetical preaching of God’s Word. The world has crept into the church and the only way we can confront the challenges we face is the solid truth of God’s Word. So as Paul exhorted Timothy, so I exhort you…Preach the Word!

Brothers, do not give up. Our enemy and adversary pursues you and wants you to quit. But don’t quit!

Read the fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation and see for yourself, the suffering is only for a little while. Glory awaits you and the Church! As you run, just remember you are running home and the finish line is just in reach. Yes Lord! I will press on!

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. 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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Five Myths of Effective Preaching Continued....

change. However, if you’ve done your homework and have built powerful allies, the pew crawlers will slink back into the shadows because it will be clear you’re not alone or in a weakened position.

The most credible way to build alliances is to first make sure you’ve got a compelling vision. It’s good to build relationships with your church folk – especially with those who wield power – but it’s way better to build that relationship on the wings of a vision. If they can see it and if they believe you have a shot at delivering that vision, they’re likely to back you in the rough times.

(But as you probably already know, relationships can be fickle, so spend your alliance-building time investing in the relationships that can make the most difference.)

Bill Tenny-Brittian is the managing partner of The Effective Church Group. For over thirty years, The Effective Church Group has been equipping churches and church leaders so they can be successful in reaching their mission.

We provide consulting and coaching using the time-tested Complete Ministry Audit to help churches reach maximum effectiveness. Learn more at EffectiveChurch.com.

Celebrate, Celebrate, Celebrate

When you’re looking at a great big vision, it’s easy to chalk up the tiny wins. I’m working with a pastor who has lost about 25 percent of his congregation in the first nine months of his turnaround. When you’re facing those kinds of losses, it’s difficult to see anything good.

But over those same nine months, he’s done a half-dozen adult baptisms and has taken in eight households.

When I mentioned that he needed to do some celebrating, he pretty much only saw the losses and hadn’t been focusing on the new lives in the kingdom and in the church.

There are almost always celebratory-worthy things happening in a turnaround, even in the midst of tough times. Baptisms, first-time visitors, spiritual conversations you’ve had when you’re hanging out with the unchurched, and there’s almost always someone who’s been touched by something going on at the church.

Find these positives and make a big deal of them. Use the video camera on your phone and record an interview with someone who’s experienced a win. Make sure you get photos of your baptisms and baby dedications and people who participate at your ministry events. All these can help turn gloom into party.

A church turnaround is time intensive. The successful few get there because they have great leadership who’s been able to hang-in there long enough to navigate the downs and ups, the twists and turns. Using the key practices above will help you hang out long enough to make it happen.

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Repentance—A Missing Piece in Much Church Revitalization Today My oldest daughter and I enjoy putting puzzles together. We pick one out that we like and we sit down and begin the puzzle-process. We get some puzzles completed in a few days, but some take weeks and months, due to the difficulty level and how much free-time we have. We always start puzzles the same way—we find the corners and edge pieces, we group the same colors together and we piece the puzzle together one piece at a time. On one occasion, we got down to the last couple of pieces and they were cut wrongly. They would not fit in the puzzle. Even if I cut them to fit in certain ways, they still would not connect in other ways—they would leave a hole. Since I had bought the puzzle in a foreign country on a trip, I could not simply return it.

It was frustrating and incomplete… and there was nothing we could do about it. So I boxed it up and gave it away as a White Elephant gift at Christmas!

That real-life scenario of missing puzzle pieces reminds me of a missing piece in so much preaching and ministry today—repentance. Repentance is foundational to the Christian life. It is also foundational to church revitalization. I want to demonstrate biblical, theological and practical reasons to include repentance as a vital piece in church revitalization.

The Biblical Reason for Repentance—The Heart of Responding to the Gospel with It

As a pastor and professor of preaching, I have heard thousands of messages over the last fifteen years.

Even though most of those sermons come from students of preaching (that is, non-seasoned pastors), many still come from well-known preachers throughout America. I believe I am being generous when I say some 3% of the messages I have heard mention repentance as a response to the gospel.

Most students do not mention repentance because the preachers they are emulating have failed to emphasize it. But maybe I am expecting too much.

Does Scripture itself underscore repentance as a response to the gospel?

Yes! Although one may argue the Old Testament only sprinkles the gospel here and there, the mes24

By Joel R. Breidenbaugh

sage of repentance is clear in Israel’s history, songs and prophecy (see 1 Kings 8:47-48; Job 42:6; Psalm 7:12; Isaiah 1:27; Jeremiah 34:15; Ezekiel 14:6; etc.).

Moreover, a reader only has to get into the opening chapters of the New Testament before he reads the message of John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Then, he sees the same words from the lips of Jesus: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17). These words of repentance ring throughout the Gospels (11:20; Mark 6:12; Luke 5:32; 24:47).

A puzzle missing a piece or two at the end can be frustrating and disappointing. A pastor, member or church missing the piece of repentance can be frustrating and disappointing to some, but it is also a travesty to the kingdom of God.

Not only is repentance key to the story of the Gospels, but the message of Acts shows the mission of the church in taking the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles. Acts serves as a bridge to the epistles to the churches and church leaders. Peter calls his audience to “repent” for the forgiveness of sins (2:38; 3:19; 8:22). Paul declared the same message of repentance (17:30; 20:21; 26:20).

Finally, the apostolic letters to the churches highlight repentance (Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:9-10; 2 Timothy 2:25; 2 Peter 3:9). These few references prove the Bible’s insistence on repentance as a main response to receiving the gospel (along with faith).

The Theological Reason for Repentance— No Salvation without It

The fact that the Bible underscores repentance is not simply a response to the gospel but it is also a crucial requirement for salvation. One cannot be saved without repenting from their sins.

I realize there are a few theologians who argue you can come to believe in Jesus as Savior without repenting from your sins and surrendering to Him as Lord. Biblically and theologically that line of thinking is false. Jesus, the prophets and apostles all spoke of the necessity of repentance (as shown above).

Repentance is a change of mind about your sin.

It is one side of the coin of salvation (the other is trusting in Jesus). Repentance includes confession as an agreement with God about what your sin is and how it separates you from Him. It also includes a sense of grieving over sin and turning away from it (see 2 Corinthians 7:9-10).

People who have bought into an easy-believism message about the gospel without being told about repenting from their sins will find out that such preaching is incomplete. The message of the Bible and the process of salvation requires faith AND repentance. Pastors trying to grow a church numerically without focusing on the spiritual requirement of repentance will find they are missing a vital piece of church growth and revitalization, to which we now turn.

The Practical Reason for Repentance— Church Growth Depends on It

A final reason for repentance ties to church growth and revitalization. The Book of Revelation displays a few cases of second- and third-generation churches in need of revitalization. They had waned in their initial commitment to Christ some thirty or forty years later.

We know the church at Ephesus began in the mid-50s of the first century and John probably wrote Revelation AD 85-95. The people had left their first love and needed to repent to be restored and revitalized (2:1-5).

The surrounding churches of Revelation probably have their origins around the same timeframe as Paul helped spread the gospel from Ephesus throughout Asia Minor (see Acts 19:810). Several of these churches also needed to repent to begin to grow again. We see the necessity of repentance to people within the churches in Pergamum (2:16), Thyatira (2:21-22), Sardis (3:3) and Laodicea (3:19).

Repent for Your Ministry and Church Depend on It

Repentance is not simply required at the moment of salvation but it is needed whenever believers and churches fail to follow the Lord faithfully. Repentance should be modeled by pastors, believers and churches.

Pastors must begin by preaching on repentance regularly as part of the sinner’s response to the gospel. Pastors should repent from failing to address repentance.

They may need to repent if they led their pride get in the way of shepherding the church.

Church members should repent where they have stood in the way of God’s work in the church. They may need to apologize to the pastor for fighting him or they may need to repent before the church family for being divisive and hard-hearted.

Sometimes an entire church needs to repent for failing to follow the Lord. The church may have fired a pastor for unbiblical reasons (like Jonathan Edwards’ church).

They may have split over trivial matters. Whatever the sins may have been churches which recognize their previous sins can repent and seek the Lord for forgiveness and revitalization.

Conclusion

A puzzle missing a piece or two at the end can be frustrating and disappointing. A pastor, member or church missing the piece of repentance can be frustrating and disappointing to some, but it is also a travesty to the kingdom of God. So search your heart and ask your people to search their hearts and seek repentance where necessary. Then you can be ready to receive the Lord’s forgiveness and blessing for revitalization. Even so, do it, Lord Jesus.

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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When We Are Doing Everything! Continued...

By Bill Hegedus where in your church. Ask for people to sign up for a one time Summer serve opportunity. Make sure you are quick with follow up and clear with instructions for new volunteers. You want to do everything you can to make this a fun and enjoyable serving experience for one time volunteers.

Ensure that they have an amazing experience serving in the Children’s area, and that they’re set up to “win”. Make observations of your “one-timers” to see how they’re responding to serving in this capacity—how are the kids responding to them, have they been on time, engaged & willing to pitch in and do whatever is asked? If the answer is YES, you may have found a new volunteer who would be willing to sign on for a more permanent serving role. Ask for their feedback after your event. Ask for ways you could improve in the future. Take them out for lunch or coffee to discuss their input. Capitalize on the relational equity you’ve been building throughout the serving experience and see if they feel called into serving with you. I’ve always gone by the motto that I don’t want people DOING ministry FOR me, I want them DOING ministry WITH me. Summer volunteers turn into committed, long-term volunteers if they’re treated well, feel like they have been set up to win, and had an overall great experience. All of that is in your hands!

As we think about sustainability in church revitalization, what kind of new membership does a declining church need to remain sustainable? If your church’s average Sunday attendance is 150 participants what will it take to keep the church going? Consider that the average church participant remains an active participant for 15 years. Further think about todays church member averages every other Sunday during the year. With this in mind for the stuck and declining church of 100 it will need twenty new active church members this year to keep it sustainable. To keep the revitalization process going the church will need sixty new active members in the next three years.

- Tom Cheyney

Bill Hegedus is the Family Pastor at Bethlehem

Church in Atlanta. Bill has over 15 years experience ministering to kids and families and currently serves as the Family Pastor of Bethlehem Church. His heart and passion is to help kids understand and live out a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Often described as a big kid himself, Bill uses laughter and innovation to do ministry in an exciting and memorable way kids enjoy.

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It’s Worth It! Six Powerful Questions that Create Momentum Feature Writer

It’s Worth It!

6 Powerful questions that create momentum

Question #1: Why am I here?

“Ministry is the worst profession but it is the best calling.” Adrian Rogers As Pastors we live by a calling. According to Ephesians 4:11 and 1 Timothy 3:1, this calling is special, spiritual, and sacrificial. Its specialness is found in its giftedness. Its spirituality is found in its intentionality. The clause of the calling is that we are to equip others for the work of the ministry, a pursuit not to be treated lightly but to be executed purposefully. The calling is not marked by the hours we clock into or out of the physical office.

Ask yourself, “Do I see my calling as special?” “Do I engage with my calling sacrificially?” “Am I here because of my calling, or because of something else?”

Question #2:

What is keeping me here?

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By Ron Smith

Question #3:

Where is God moving in my life?

The Bible is very clear in Proverbs 29:18 when it defines spiritual vision.

Vision is not a great idea, the latest program or the most current cultural trend. Vision is seeing God at work.

How we choose to view programs, trends and activities will determine our capacities to see God at work. God’s movement must be center, while everything else remains peripheral. Just because it is not the main focus does not mean that it is out of our sight. God must be our focus, and nothing less.

Mark 5 tells of the town madman who was possessed by demons. But, “when he saw Jesus…” the demons left him. Our job as ministers is to put people in front of Jesus. When we have “sightings” it makes all of our efforts worth it.

Pastor, when was the last time you witnessed God moving in your life? Can you recall the God moments in your personal relationship with Him?

We cannot preach hope in God to others if we ourselves are not dependant upon that hope. The complicated dichotomy of serving God forces us to find our hope in Him. Left to our own leadership we would fail. Only our hope in Christ allows us to live out the duality of our tasks: being confident and humble, a servant and a leader, compassionate and courageous.

When you see Jesus, you will have something to share, and preach about. The people will see this in you and this will create a hunger in them. Your experience will become their possibility. They will want to see Him because they know that you have.

The work of serving requires a called man of God who is confident that his hope in God alone is what keeps him going. Ask yourself, “If it is not my hope in God that is keeping me here, then what is?” Your answer to this question could lead you to an understanding of not just how far you will go, but how far you can go. You can only go as far as your focus. Where are you looking?

A moral inventory of motives, missions and methods must be taken. Every church has an inventory of stuff to evaluate like stuck pastors, dead programs, old curriculum, lazy leaders and contented congregants. The trash needs to be identified and removed. We like the comfort of the predictable. We are creatures of habit. Habits have a way of helping us settle in. Every once in a while we must take a moral inventory of our routine. Why do I preach?

Why do I lead, pray, study?

As pastors we can preach to our people calling

Question #4:

Why do I do what I do?

them out of their slumber, but if not we’re careful we may have fallen asleep on the job.

Why do you do what you do? And, that thing you’re doing; is it taking you anywhere? Is that destination the place you want to go to?

Question #5:

If I weren’t paid to be here, would I join this church?

Wow, that’s a tough question. Truth be known for most of us the answer is no, and that’s ok – at first.

We know from Titus 1:5 that we are to “put things in order.” This means we are assuming the leadership of something undone and messy. So, at first we probably would not choose this place as your home church. At some point, your place of service should become a home to you.

It’s taken years at my current place of ministry for me to answer this question positively. I can say that I would choose this church if my family were looking.

I love the worship, the infrastructure, the people, the mission and the future.

Question #6:

Are the next three years promising and exciting?

A bleak outlook can be overwhelmingly discouraging. In the work of growing, developing and revitalizing a church there must be an intentional plan. Just as the construction of a house follows blueprints, the work of ministry needs a blueprint.

Sermons must be planned out and intentional. The calendar needs purpose. The church budget needs to reflect the mission. Teams must be formed and handed a target. The energy of the church needs a focus. The worship must be the support for the messages. Without this type of approach there isn’t much of a hopeful forecast.

Spiritual growth isn’t automatic and neither is church growth. This takes work, but this work provides an outlook – a promising future. In asking yourself this question, can you say that you have hope for a promising future?

Pay attention: The asking of these questions reveals more than

it appears on the surface. Your answers will be the catalyst to the process of shaping the work of revitalization. As you ask these questions of yourself, naturally you will ask these questions of your church. When you both are asking these questions, this will create an environment where the light bulb can go off.

Trust me, these six questions are more than just questions. They reveal culture, mission, direction, hope and a possible future. These six questions will help you know what to preach and how to lead.

Answering them will help your church members and leaders see what you see and hear what you say. Until that happens, no matter what you preach or teach it will only be interpreted through their personal lenses. As long as that exists you and the church are on two different paths. Asking these questions will not only guide your work, they will sustain it.

Are you willing to answer?

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R eRoan Smdityh By Ron Smith is the lead pastor

of Waterstone a church working towards revitalization and renewal. He leads the National Coaching Network for the Renovate Group as its lead coach.

Ron is a husband to Rana, father to three girls. Ron is the author of Churches Gone Wild. You can follow Ron and receive free resources at RonBSmithJr.com. Ron serves as CO-Leader of Renovate Pod-casts as well as serving on staff of the Renovate Coaching Network.

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Revitalization Sustainability The Leadership Link…

Revitalization Sustainability

It seems reasonable, if one is going to talk about revitalization sustainability, they must first consider what revitalization is. A technical definition of revitalization carries with it the notion of instilling new vigor, renewing hope, and redirecting or redefining purpose. In essence, we are making someone or something that was formerly vital again vital. Therefore, church revitalization is the process in which a church is renewed in their determination to experience healthy and sustained spiritual, numerical, and organizational growth by refocusing on their God-given mission as expressed through their obedience to Scripture. Let me make a couple of observations.

First, one of the desired outcomes of revitalization is growth in one or all of the three areas: spiritually, numerically, or organizationally. However, a by-product of true revitalization will be that the growth that happens in those areas will be healthy and sustained. I use the term healthy in the sense that as the church or individuals are growing, they are growing based on the principles and precepts found in Scripture. To be sure, Scripture is our plumb line. When my son was almost four months old, it did not appear that his motor skills were developing at the average rate. So, our pediatrician referred our son to a developmental specialist team in the hopes that a little physical therapy would help correct the problem. The point is this: though he was growing older and growing bigger, he was not necessarily growing in a healthy way.

Churches that are growing, need to be growing in a healthy manner.

Second, when we are talking about sustained growth, we are talking about growth that takes place over a long period of time. How long? I am not entirely sure that we need to designate that.

But what we are talking about here is the reality that we do not want to be a one-hit wonder, if you will. In college, I went out for the basketball team. My tryout was spectacular, if I might say so myself. Every shot that I threw up went in. The 30

By Michael Atherton coach would have been foolish not to put me on the team. However, I knew at the time that what I was doing was not a real representation of my basketball skills. I was an average player or a good player. I was not an awesome player, despite the fact that I wish I would have been.

Though I played all four years and had moments of brilliance, I often wondered how many times the coach asked himself if he was ever going to see that player who played so unbelievably well in tryouts. The point is this: one great game does not make you a great player. It is sustained growth that is the chief end in revitalization.

With this in mind, what is necessary to produce a culture in which revitalization can be sustained within the local church? Let me offer you three leadership traits (certainly not an exhaustive list, but a good place to start) that are absolutely critical to sustain the revitalization you have experienced.

1 Vision

You can go and study 5 different church leadership books today and the overwhelming majority of those books will have at least one topic in common: vision. The one quality or characteristic that a leader absolutely cannot neglect or abrogate is vision. You lose a vision and you will lose your leadership. This we know, a church with no vision is going nowhere and it will get there very quickly. Yet, be cautious here; your vision for the church is uninteresting. What the church needs, to stay vital, is God’s vision for the Church!

Most every church, school, and business functions with some type of vision in place. Yet society has only grappled with and adopted a principle that Solomon spoke of many years ago. Proverbs 29:18 reads, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.” Some translations use the word vision in the place of revelation. You can call it a revelation, a vision, a dream, or whatever other clever catchphrase you wish, but the reality is the church will not be sustained on another man-made idea. To be

clear, the vision you must employ as a leader if the church is to remain vital, is the picture of what God wants to accomplish through His church for His Kingdom’s purpose. Notice the progression in this statement: it is God’s will for God’s church for God’s purpose.

2 Managing Change

Leadership within the church can at times seem like nothing more than an exercise in managing change. Changing programs, changing memberships, changing cultures, changing times, changing resource pools, changing ideals, changing leadership, and the list goes on and on. We have convinced ourselves that nobody likes change and therefore after we have led the church through an expansive time of change, revitalizing the congregation, we tend to want to back off and give the people a break. Though this can sometimes be appropriate, the challenge of not slipping back into the grips of mediocrity is tremendous.

As a leader, let me challenge you. When you think of change, let’s live by a new axiom. Everyone is fine with change. I realize that this statement likely gives you a pause. Your experience may be different and if I am honest, so is my experience.

But, let me offer this one caveat; everyone is fine with change so long as it is on their terms. Now, let’s think about that. It is silly to argue change, look around you…everyone experiences change on a regular basis. But listen to people talk about change. When change was on their terms, they often celebrate the change. When the change was not on their terms or was forced upon them, they gripe.

Your job as a leader who is helping to sustain the benefits of a season of revitalization is to help people see change in terms that they can accept, embrace, and even be excited about. This is why you are the leader…start leading!

3 Faithful Preaching

A church will only be revitalized and stay vital to the degree that they hold unswervingly to a very high view of Scripture. God’s Word is what has the ability to touch lives and change hearts.

Though a program might be the conduit to reach people, it is not a program that brings life to a spiritually dead individual. If programs were the chief end, then Paul’s theology and application thereof leaves a lot to be desired. Yet we know that is not the case.

So, the problem resides somewhere else. I submit that the church has a weapon in our arsenal that has the ability to radically transform our society, yet we largely leave it in our holster. The writer of Hebrews says, “The Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). How amazing is it that we all too often turn to conferences, books, magazines, and other people to learn all about revitalization of the church, when the greatest tool for revitalization is sitting on our desk, often overlooked? Don’t underestimate the power of the pulpit as it relates to revitalization and the sustainability thereof.

Friend, as one who has led a major revitalization effort and consulted with other churches who have done the same, let me leave you with one final thought. Revitalization takes far too much time and effort to allow yourself to fall back into the traps of mediocrity simply because you were unwilling (knowingly or unknowingly) to consider a plan for sustainability! Be vigilant in the battle of leading God’s church to become and stay all that she was created to be.

Dr. Michael Atherton, Senior Pastor Cornerstone Church, Lone Tree, Colorado.

Mike has served as a Senior Pastor for 15 years. Leading a church in a church merger, he has learned firsthand the challenges of a revitalizer. Mike is the author of “The Revitalized Church.” Mike leads a Mentored Master of Divinity program at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and is the President of the Colorado Baptist Convention.

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As we think about sustaining church revitalization in the local church, consider that in these declining churches most members have not been members there fr fifteen years. A pastor of a dying church recently said, “If you can keep them for 15 years, you must be doing something right.” Did you know that the average membership length of time for an evangelical church is only nine years and charismatic churches burn people out in a little less than six years. To revitalize a church one must be focused on doing real disciple-making. So if we drop a person’s tenure to something like ten years, then we would need to incorporate 30 new people each year. A church with an average Sunday attendance (ASA) of 100 would need to incorporate 20 people. Sustainability can be achieved but it does not happen without a plan to connect and reach with ones community.

- Tom Cheyney

How a Church Will Reconnect by using a Thread

By Mark MacDonald

I stretched out my hand to the Pastor siting next to me at a recent conference and introduced myself. He was an Outreach Pastor of a medium-sized church in another state. I explained that I’m a church communication strategist and author that works with churches across the country helping them reconnect with their communities by revitalizing their reputation.

That intrigued the gentleman I was talking with.

He asked a few questions about our process, and I inquired about his community around his church.

He said, “We have a unique demographic near us. There seems to be so many different groups of people including Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans; plus we have many older people and also many younger people too. It’s so hard to know how to connect to them all.”

He just described America. And the plight of most churches! It is difficult to connect, so often the church doesn’t.

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Across this nation, there are so many diverse groups to reach for Christ! Yet, most churches aren’t growing while our communities are continually expanding. If we were more engaged with our communities, God would use our message to reach more people and to grow His church.

But what message are we talking about? How can you speak to so many different groups?

Should you have multiple messages for each of the groups? The questions kept getting asked at lightning speed. Should it just be the wonderful gospel message?

With about a third of our communities not having any connection to a local church or even looking for a church, they’re probably going to reject a gospel discussion quite quickly. It’s more effective if the church engages a community over time so they’ll be more willing to listen to the Hope we have in Christ once they have a relationship with the church.

But how does a church do that? If it’s not about initializing the Gospel message, perhaps we need to have multiple messages so we will ultimately reach everyone? I disagree, since adding more communication messages rarely works for attracting attention and seems to only add to the noise in this marketing cluttered world we live in.

It’s like Jesus did (John 4) when He approached the woman at the well. He knew she was in need of water, so He engaged her by using the thread concept of water. Once He had her fully engaged, He made “the turn” to water that would quench her thirst eternally. Of course she engaged since she was thirsty!

Ministry Silos

Want to reconnect to your community?

Many ministry leaders think that a church, with all the different ministries offered, can reach their various age groups through diverse communications. But what’s the other outcome for multiple messaging? It creates ministry silos.

Busy churches rightfully start diversifying into student ministry, children’s ministry, adults, deaf, etc. and these individual ministries approach their demographic groups with a message honed to the people they feel called to lead. But their leadership often becomes ministry-centric where they stop paying attention to other church ministries, and their benchmark for success becomes their numbers and possibly their ministry health; but certainly not the church’s health. They’ll often be heard self-congratulating themselves about what they’re doing in the hopes the church will grant them increased budget because of their accomplishments. And every ministry fights to “capture” volunteers from other ministries so they can continue their success. It becomes a vicious cycle and the church ultimately suffers.

Ministry silos will destroy a church.

A Thread

The local church instead needs a thread. Yes, a thread that will effectively reach the community and tear down the ministry silos.

So what’s a thread? It’s a controlled, simple, benefit-driven, communication device that your entire church becomes known for. It’s based on who you’re trying to reach and what they’re looking for (usually at a temporal, non-spiritual level). And that’s intersected with your ministries and what you do well as a biblically-based church in the community.

Figure out what your “water” thread is to correspond to your community’s need.

In fact, a well-chosen communication thread will not only engage the community and get them to pay attention to your church (perhaps for the first time), but it’ll do these 3 things for you:

1. Unite your community’s groups. As you

research your “reach area”, you’ll identify all the demographic groups around you. Segment them and try to identify their concerns and needs. Are there similarities between all the groups? Perhaps you should focus on what their goals are to find continuity. Is there a central theme with goals?

If not, list the concerns, needs, and goals to see if one solution can be a thread that will speak to all the groups’ needs. A good thread unites the community’s diversity and allows you to offer a solution that most will need. Remember, “birds of a feather flock together” when it comes to a community; so take the challenge to discover what’s the similarity that brought them to your area.

2. Unite your ministry. Once a solution is

suggested for a thread, consider how each of your ministries can interpret it. That’s the joy of a slightly ambiguous thread. Your communications don’t have to be exactly attached to the thread in a boring way, but most ministries will use it loosely in proximity. Say you discovered throughout your demographic groups that the divorce rate is much higher than the national standard.

Your overall church thread could be about giving advice for healthy marriages. As an extension throughout your ministries, the children’s communication could be about helping parents build a better family life by raising morally sound chil-

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dren. Or the student ministry could be more about healthy relationships.

3. Connect to the Scarlet Thread. This is critical. You can offer

a benefit thread to your community and they’ll love you, engage with you, and even promote you. But if you don’t attach your thread to the Scarlet Thread, you’re simply a community club. And we’re called to do more. The 66 books of the Bible, all very diverse in content, are united by the saving blood of Christ that’s been drizzled through every chapter and verse as a Scarlet thread. That Gospel is the key to real church ministry, so like Jesus at the well, we MUST make “the turn” to connect everyone (who’s attracted by the temporal thread), to the eternal thread. Teaching your congregation how to do that is helping them to make disciples!

By uniting your community and ministries, a thread is the best solution for simplifying your messages and allowing your church to be known for something needed. And through that engagement process with the world around you, you demonstrate what it means to be known for love.

Because you share the best and eternal love. Of Christ.

Mark MacDonald is a Bible Teacher, speaker, au-

thor of Be Known For Something, and communication strategist for BeKnownForSomething.com. He empowers churches to become known for something relevant (a communication thread) throughout their ministries, websites, and social media. His book is available at BeKnownBook.com and amazon.com.

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Are You a Leader of Change?

By Tracy W. Jaggers

As I write this article, I hear the voices of numerous pastors I have known and to whom I have worked alongside. The questions that grip us over and over are – “Am I the one who is hindering our church’s growth,” or “Do I really want to go through the valley for a change that is not guaranteed?”

I think we ought to learn a great phrase by which to serve the Lord, as presented in Star Trek – LET US BOLDLY GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE! Here are the major points:

Do we really want life-altering change? Of course! Do we expect God to do something amazing if we relinquish our will to His?” Sure! BUT, do we trust ourselves? Do we believe we have the tools, the skills, the stamina to go through what is necessary for change to become a welcome reality in our ministry setting? Rarely! Our own weaknesses knock us down and our lack of strength often pins us to the mat for the “ten count.” So what can we do to keep our head in the game and our heart in the ministry?

2) Let us be unstoppable in our quest for finding the new life and helping those who crave a new civilization.

In Paul Nixon’s book, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church, he gives some great ideas for helping leaders join with their people in becoming a growing, thriving church, but the reality is – Every pastor is leading a dying church! You may say, “Wow, how cynical can you be,” but let’s face it, all our churches are in a world setting that is passing away. Even Nehemiah’s great rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem only lasted a few decades. After Nehemiah’s great victory, the walls of Jerusalem were almost completely destroyed in 70 A.D. during the Roman siege (First Jewish-Roman War). Once again, they remained in ruins for decades. The walls as they are seen today were rebuilt during the Ottoman Empire (1535-1538). Revitalization or rebuilding can have limitations and restrictions. That is why revitalization is a process, not a program! It is a consistent conduct of living, not a mountain top experience to be attained and forgotten.

5) Let us focus on the fun of the finish line and not the woes of the journey.

What I have experienced is church leaders (I’m not pointing a finger at pastors alone) are excited about the prospects of their church regaining vigor and productivity, but they draw back when the process is presented and they view the lengthy labor of that process. As has been seen for about 3+ decades, we welcome the fast-food version of living but we steer away from slow, laborious technologies and methodologies.

1) Let us give our best and die to self, even if no one will go with us.

3) Let us remain undeterred in the face of opposition or threat.

4) Let us remember, there is a real hell and real people are going there.

6) Let us be diligent and selfless, not mediocre and lazy in reaching those who are yet to believe.

7) Let us stay true to the Owner’s manual – Man does not live by bread alone!

We cannot help but walk amid the constant degradation of the world around us, but we must not allow the spiritual demise of our planet to overcome the task we have be called to - preparing the Bride for the Bridegroom’s coming. We are to be ever expanding the Kingdom on earth, and we are to be steadfast in our holy trek at the same moment.

True revitalization is indisputably and unequivocally linked to a spiritual catharsis in each of us. Rebuilding walls destroyed by the enemy is a great thing, but the victory of Nehemiah’s time was his people experienced a season of repentance and revival and they were blessed with peace.

So, how can we as leaders obtain “the tools and the energy” needed to invite the Spirit of God to bring revitalization, and remain steadfast in the work before us while being torn between work, church and family? Would we --Continued on page 62

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Student Ministry: Put Your Heart Into It Continued

By Drew Cheyney

It is not your calling to plug holes just so you can fill a 7th grade boy’s small group leader position or a registration leaders spot. It is also not your calling to put people where you know they will not succeed just because they want to serve wherever it is. It is our responsibility though, to place people where they can excel and succeed in God’s kingdom. Maybe for you that means letting people be a fly on the wall and trying various opportunities out for 3-4 weeks to see what works. It could also be identifying a certain person’s greatest strength and putting them in an avenue of leadership that allows that strength to be maximized at its most impactful level. Whatever method you choose, develop the kind of leadership opportunities that allow ‘good people’ to serve in areas that they love and not only will they develop and grow, but they will stay. John Maxwell, Pastor and Author, says this about building leadership teams, “Leaders create and inspire new leaders by instilling faith in their leadership abilities and helping them develop and hone leadership skills they don’t know they

possess.” This is what God has called us to do if we are going to build Student Ministries that last. We have to connect with high capacity people, ask them to partner up with the mission of our student ministries, & develop them to use their influence to impact hearts forever.

You may be wondering how many times you will have to create this process and the answer is, as many times as you need to have more leaders than you actually need. Most Student Pastors only get the amount of leaders they need to accomplish what they are already doing, but if you are going to have the kind of impact and leadership that lasts, you have to invest into/ recruit more leaders than you actually need. If you do that, you can have a team of volunteers that lasts.

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

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst

of wolves; therefore be shrewd

as serpents, and

innocent as doves…Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and

anyone who welcomes me

welcomes the one who sent me” Matthew 10:16 & 40

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RenovateConference.org/church-partners

Would you consider partnering with Renovate to help us revitalize churches across North America? You can do so by including us into your church’s Annual Church Budget. Your Monthly or Annual Support will help us continue to scholarship pastors and leaders of declining churches to the annual Church Revitalization Conference. Here are three ways you can become a Church Alliance Partner with Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference, in return for your partnership we will give you: RESTORER RE-INVENTOR LEVEL LEVEL Monthly or Annual Support

RENOVATOR LEVEL

$25 / $250

$50 / $500

$100 / $1,000

FREE Passes to Renovate

5

10

15

Digital Access to Downloadable Resources

-

Unlimited

Unlimited

Virtual Coaching Network Membership

-

-

√

-

√

$1,100 Value

$4,900 Value

Personal Coaching From Tom Cheyney & Renovate Staff $500 Value

How to Become A Church Alliance Partner Please register online to begin your alliance partnership with Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference at RenovateConference.org/church-partners 37

Why Pastors Need to Know Church Systems

I met a great church pastor in a North Carolina restaurant. He was a sharp, articulate entrepreneur kind of guy, just at the front end of what will probably be a very long and fruitful ministry. Since successfully planting his church four years before, he had helped start three daughter churches in nearby towns. As he shared the details of these churches, he mentioned that one was running over 1000 people. Since his church was trying to break the two-hundred barrier, I asked him why one of his daughter churches had grown so much bigger and faster than the one which had initiated it. He answered without hesitation, “When that pastor started, he had a partner who was all about systems. That’s all this guy does— put together the systems that make the church work. I, on the other hand, do not understand systems and need to learn.”

That pastor’s experience is why church planters and established churches pastors need to understand church systems. I know that systems alone are not the magic pill leaders are looking for to grow a church.

But I also know that even terrific leaders cannot increasingly retain, train and guide new people into the life of the church without workable systems. It does not matter how spiritually deep your walk is with God, how outstanding your preaching is, or even how good an evangelist 38

you and the leaders in your church are. The church is an organism that requires functional structures to grow and sustain itself. To ignore systems is to put an unseen lid on your church’s growth capacity.

“System” is a word used to define the dynamics of how your church does its ministry in each area.

It does not mean program. It is merely a descriptive shorthand for how a church accomplishes a necessary biblical function— such as discipleship, leadership training, or evangelizing— regularly and consistently. Other churches may have a different way of doing the same system.

What your church does will depend on the vision strategy of your church and the leading of the Spirit.

“System” is a word used to define the dynamics of how your church does its ministry in each area. It does not mean program. It is merely a descriptive shorthand for how a church accomplishes a necessary biblical function— such as discipleship, leadership training, or evangelizing—regularly and consistently.

By Steve Smith

In other words, there is no one right way to do any church system. The issue is to make sure you are aware that you have all the parts of each system in place.

Systems, unlike programs, have multiple facets and have to be developed progressively.

Think about Netflix. People love Netflix because they can watch their favorite programs, whenever they want. But program watching is only possible because Netflix is a complete system. One part contacts with movie studios to use their products. Another part uploads the programs in to equipment for streaming. A third part is the Internet that makes streaming possible. The fourth and fifth parts are your receiving devise and your big screen to broadcast the program in your home. If any of those five parts are missing, Netflix does not work. This is true also for church systems. If parts are missing, they just do not do what you want them to do.

Here is the crucial question that you need to ask of all your systems: Is there evidence of fruit from the way you do it? If the system you use is not producing the results that it should produce, then it is not helping the church make and retain more disciples.

Either the system is missing some necessary parts or it is not being led by the right leader. Failing to address this in a timely fashion

may discourage the people you are trying to serve through that system.

Why should you work on your church’s systems? Here are five reasons.

First, you need to develop

your systems so that your church can become healthier.

Having broken or incomplete systems is like missing an arm or a lung. You can get by, but it is harder and you are less sustainable.

Second, developing your

church’s systems will help in the growth of your church. If you are intent on cooperating with God in expanding his Kingdom’s reach in your community, you will need to reproduce disciples, leaders, ministries and new churches. This takes healthy working systems.

people within the congregation to step into the gap left by a past ministry leader or even to expand the ministry to meet the current needs.

Fifth, healthy systems increase your church’s capacity to handle the lost people God is sending you. This is at the heart of developing systems. If you want to effectively prepare for a greater harvest of people, you want to strengthen your church’s systems.

Below is the chart of the eighteen systems every church has in some form, whether healthy or not. As you look it over, think about your own church. Which ones are working for you and

which ones have you wishing you had taken up plumbing instead?

I have coached pastors in systems for over a decade. I have mentored pastors who took these systems seriously. One of the first planters I coached in systems came up with a visual model for his systems based on building a house from the foundation up.

His church continues to grow.

Another pastor realized he would not be the one who developed the systems for his church, so he brought the leader who would to our coaching sessions. He still thanks me every time I see him and has referred a number of pastors to me for help. I also have sat with those who listened politely, took no notes, did none of the challenging work, and

Third, having healthy systems allows you as the pastor to focus your energies instead of spending time trying to fill the gaps caused by broken or incomplete systems. Healthy systems means others are offering appropriate leadership, freeing you to do what God has called you to do.

Fourth, healthy church

systems allow your congregation to grow through change without losing ground.

In a church without healthy systems, the loss of a member can spell the end of a necessary ministry process until someone new shows up. Systems allow for the continued development of 39

continue to wonder why their church remains stuck.

You may say you already know how to do this or the other system. But what if you have overlooked something that would make your system stronger and more productive?

Your system may not be missing much, but what is missing may be the key difference between growth and frustration. It’ll be worth your time to find out and do it better.

Where do you go from here?

If you are curious and want to know more, what can you do?

I invite you to discover what you do not know about healthy systems. Check out the Church Equippers’ website (www. churchequippers.org). There you will find a downloadable systems evaluation, plus a way to purchase Increasing Church Capacity Primer, which will teach you have to think systemically about your church. For you who are looking to dive headlong into systems, look for The Increasing Church Capacity Guidebook, which is a step by step approach to building each of the eighteen systems.

Steve Smith is the founder of

ChurchEquippers Ministries. He is the author of several books including The Key to Deep Change and the Increasing Capacity Guidebook. He is a strategic thinker, a relational networker, a mentor and coach to pastors and young leaders.

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“I Can’t Get No Satisfaction! No…No…No..”

What’s longevity these days? We live in a divorce culture, where if you don’t like your marriage, if you argue too much, if he or she over spends, doesn’t pitch in or help cook and clean, and one I heard just recently, if the wife refuses to lose weight, as the man just did, you JUST QUIT. Oh, but this E-Zine is not about marriage, it is about REVITALIZATION. Actually, this month’s emphasis is on sustaining your revitalization accomplishments. My point in this article’s introduction is that there is a cultural bleed into our thinking about everything, which is encapsulated in the scenario of divorce: if it gets too hard, too messy, too tiresome, just quit.

We have a divorce/quitting epidemic, which has become a spiritual stronghold in almost all areas of our culture. The church culture is not immune to this. Most of us are familiar with the stats, which show us that the divorce stats are not different from the world around us. Understanding the divorce culture in the United States at this time is crucial to understanding your ministries environment. Let’s look at the underlying issues. In our church, for example there are far more “Brady Bunch families” (families who are re-marriages from two divorced couples, each with children), than families that have never experienced a divorce. Families that have not experienced a second hand divorce in their close familial relations are approaching 100%. This impacts the parenting skills and the leadership skills of your people. We know that the chance of getting a divorce in the second marriage

is between 75-80%. Why, because they have gotten used to quitting when tough times or circumstances arise. Quitting when things are difficult then becomes the norm, because the more you quit, the easier it becomes to quit. The quitting in the marriage then bleeds into a lack of fortitude direction in the parenting. Children of divorce are more prone to quit as well.

In the last generation (40 years), we have come to a time in the church when it is hard to even find men who meet the marital qualifications of being a Deacon or Pastor. Many churches have adjusted their interpretation of scriptures to argue that the passage in Timothy means, one wife at a time and so have brought into the core structure of the church governance men who have quit.

This generation will quit quicker than any prior generation. At home, they unplug games if they are in danger of losing; they fain an injury rather than face defeat; they call in sick to avoid a difficult reckoning at school, and at church they will aspire to leadership, until it cost them something either in effort beyond attendance, or finances; they will volunteer and not show up after a few weeks, and when church continually asks for a strong commitment, they will quit and go somewhere they can just attend, because too much was being expected of them.

This is not a pretty scenario; it is just the fact of what we are dealing with in revitalization. In order to sustain the changes you are making in the church, which are designed to revitalize your church,

By Rob Myers you have to develop an intentional discipleship model to discourage the environment of the quitter. The key to finding an answer to this cultural dilemma is to find within our culture an example, which breaks this tendency to quit. Fortunately, there are several examples in our current culture where people will take on tremendous challenges and choose by their sheer will power and negative peer pressure, NOT TO QUIT. One culture that used to be used to develop this mental toughness is found in sports. If you examine our past football or basketball legendary teams, there was a built in peer pressure not to quit… ever. This has diminished as political correctness has decided that everybody gets the same trophy and everybody wins. At the higher levels, the system leading to the pro’s still requires the achiever to never quit.

In that environment, losing is not good, but quitting is not acceptable.

Today, Vince Lombardi and Don Shula would probably be run out of the N.F.L. for being to tough on their men. Now more than ever, the reality T.V. shows which document the making of a Special Forces Soldier, or a Navy Seal are very popular.

I believe that the military is the last bastion of true examples of a system that creates a non-quitter.

This provides us with two facts: First, there is something out there that works at changing the environment of quitting with a pool of recruits from our same society, and Second, it’s popularity and pride shows that there is still a national interest in defeating enemies through discipline rather than being defeated by a disciplined enemy. The good news is that there is something in every person that hates quitting and admires

fortitude. This is one of the issues that I have built into the Renovate Publishing book: The Xristos Factor’s Tip of the Spear Workbook and Seminar. In the 10-week boot camp we kick-start the environment of not quitting in your church. However, in this article I want to get you aware of the epidemic of quitting in your church and where it is coming from.

Many of you have been to a renovate conference or seminar and have made changes in your church, but you are finding a real difficult time maintaining the change and continuing your positive momentum. Let me give you some principles of leadership that will help you establish and maintain change in a quitting culture.

• First of all, realize that Jesus was the greatest hard-core and hard commitment-asking leader to ever live. As a result, it is Christlike to ask for a hard-core commitment, so do it!

• Secondly, ask the person to make a public decision in front of his or her peers…we do it with baptism, let’s do it with church work. Have them sign something at a meeting… a contract or a covenant but something! People do more when they sign up on the dotted line.

• Third at the meeting display a Quitter bell and let them know that when they want to quit their commitment, they can come in and ring the bell and give you permission to ring the bell for you in their place. Make sure you communicate and remind by communication clearly the expectations

of the job.

• Fourth, Lead by example, you can’t be a quitter and expect them not to quit either.

• Fifth, nothing in the church has autopilot. If you take your hands off the wheel, the boat will cavitate and come back around and run over you (single engine motors on boats turn the prop in one direction, which creates a natural pull to one side. Before the lanyard tied to the kill switch many people upon a wreck causing the driver to go over board were run over by their own boats, because they circle back directly due to cavitation).

• Sixth, remember that while Jesus recruited 12 men and even one of those quit and that he had his replacement, Paul, in the wings under development. The point is that God has a man He is choosing to be a replacement for any man that quits; you just don’t have enough sovereignty to see it. Brothers, God never asked us to see it, we just have to believe it!

Rob Myers is

the Lead pastor of Miami Baptist Church, a vibrant multi-cultural church of over 700 in attendance located on the main East - West corridor of South Miami. Rob has been pastoring for over twenty eight years and before that was in music and youth ministry for ten years. Rob was a church planter for seventeen years and has now been the Senior Pastor of Miami Baptist Church for eleven years.

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Long-term Success in Church Revitalization I’ve been in pastoral ministry for over 30 years. I’ve been working with churches in turn-around ministry for nearly 20 years – 10 of that on a national level. During that time I’ve seen some really good approaches to local church revitalization emerge, and I’ve seen some really useless ones too. Some folks take a strictly organizational approach based upon good business practices drawn from corporate America. Others take a more spiritual approach using timeless principles drawn directly from the Scriptures. In reality, some combination of both is needed. But regardless of the methodology one uses to return a local congregation to vitality, there are two non-negotiable that must be implemented or any success will ultimately be short-lived.

Intercession is all but missing from today’s American church.

When I listen to people pray in churches all across our nation, they are almost always self-centered or at least about our own family or church needs. In my own experience, less than 2% of local congregations regularly participate in true intercession for their communities. Few local churches take the time to purposefully gather what I call “prayer intelligence” about their own neighborhoods and cities so they can pray with specificity and kingdom power. Yet this kind of prayer – prayer that consistently focuses on the harvest of souls outside of the church – is a non-negotiable when it comes to real and long-lived revitalization within the life and ministry of any congregation.

Prayer and Intercession

If a local body wants to have sustained and vibrant development and revitalization, the vast majority of people in that body must make intercessory prayer a consistent personal and corporate priority.

Those who know me know that I’m passionate about prayer – especially intercessory prayer.

The sad truth is that most congregations (likely most Christians) in North America today simply do not pray. Prayer has become an afterthought rather than a vital part of everyday life. Prayer is in response to a crisis or some other situation rather than a spiritual habit woven into the fabric of one’s day. Prayer is often either a laundry list of what we want God to do for us or a mindless repetition rather than a joyful conversation with One whom we deeply love.

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Disciple Making

The second non-negotiable for long-term revitalization success is disciple making. Paul calls us Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). We have been commissioned by the King Himself, under and with the full authority of heaven and earth, to continue establish His rule and reign among every single ethno-linguistic group on the earth (Matthew

By John Kimball 28:18-20). Our work, our calling, as ambassadors is to make disciples.

If there is one thing I have learned in all my years working with churches in revitalization, it’s that faithful obedience in disciple-making makes or breaks the church. Period. End of sentence. The Great Commission is Jesus’ prime directive to us. It is not a call to missionaries. It is not a call to pastors. It is a call to Christians. It is our King’s parting instructions and His primary expectation for His church. Congregations that take disciple making seriously are congregations that flourish. Congregations that see disciple making as something the pastor does, or something some people do, or only one part of church life rather than the very basis for church life will continue their downward spiral.

I have also learned that it is important to define what we mean by disciple making. A disciple is not just a convert to Christianity, but rather it is someone who is daily growing to spiritual maturity in the Faith and producing kingdom-oriented fruit.

A disciple displays the fruit of the Spirit and personally reproduces, making other disciples. Such a person truly loves God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30), loves those around him fully and with humility (Luke 10:25-37), and is devoted to Jesus’ mission (as noted above, Matthew 28:18-20). Until these things are true and maturing, the

work of disciple making is not complete. Therefore, each of us must continue being discipled while at the same time we are discipling others toward such maturity.

A study conducted by LifeWay Research found 80 percent of those who attend church one or more times a month, believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith, but 61 percent have not told another person about how to become a Christian in the previous six months. In my own work with churches, I have found that a similar number have never truly invested themselves in others so that they grow toward Christian maturity (a possible exception may be discipling their own children, but even that number tends to be low). I would argue that the primary reason we even need revitalization in so many churches today is that they have been busy in many things, but neglecting Jesus’ Prime Directive of making disciples.

The Bottom Line

Any effort toward church renewal and revitalization must include both an emphasis on intercessory prayer and disciple making.

Because these two priorities are often lacking (or even missing) from the regular life and ministry of local churches, they must be carefully reintroduced as non-negotiables.

We need to teach people how to pray and intercede once again. We need to help them discern the needs and specific spiritual condition of the community outside their church walls. We need to make such prayer and intercession a normal part of worship, small group gatherings and even personal devotions.

We must also reintroduce disciple making as the Prime Directive of every local congregation. We need to help all believers understand their need for continued personal discipleship and mentoring – regardless of how long they have been a Christian. We also need to teach them how to disciple others – paying special

attention to ongoing growth in both spiritual maturity and Christ-like character. The key is to help each congregation to think “generationally” when it comes to their disciple making pathways – following the example of Paul when he writes to Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2).

It is only when intercessory prayer and disciple making retake their rightful positions of priority in a local church that such a church will experience long-term revitalization, health and kingdom fruit.

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

gregational Christian Conference and has been working in the area of church revitalization for approximately 20 years. He is Lead Pastor of Palmwood Church in Oviedo, Florida and also serves as a consultant and trainer with the Praxis Center for Church Development out of Manchester, NH. He is available to local congregations, associations and denominational groups for church assessment, ministry coaching and revitalization training. Call the Praxis Center for more information at (603) 518-5007.

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Turning Back a Complacent Church 7Marks© of a Growing Church – Getting Volunteers Involved

Turning Back a Complacent Church 7Marks© of a Growing Church – Getting Volunteers Involved (5th in the Series) The American Congregations Study (Hartford Seminary, copies available at www.FaithCommunitiesToday.org) may be the most exhaustive study of churches in America. In it are seven marks of a healthy, revitalized church. This is number five in “The 7Marks© of a Growing Church.”

This fifth mark is “involved church members.” My colleague, Aaron Earls at LifeWay, summarizes it nicely: How likely is it that a church grew? For those whose laity was …

• Not at all involved: 35% • Involved a little or some: 45% • Involved quite a bit: 63% • Involvement a lot: 90%1 Since Villfred Pareto famously intoned that 80% of the value lies in 20% of the components, people have applied this to church volunteers. This seems about right: most of our churches have about 20% of the people doing 80% of 1 Aaron Earls, 7 Statistics That Predict Church Growth, Facts & Trends, LifeWay, March 17, 2016.

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the work. If this study is correct (I have looked at its research methodology and believe it is), then most of our churches need to double, triple or even quadruple the number of our church volunteers in order to be healthy. How did we do that? Let me list four ways:

1. Create a compelling vision.

People are motivated when they see the future. But, how do we create a compelling vision? First, it begins with understanding what your organization is already good at doing. I believe that churches, like people, are given special gifts by God. We see in the Bible the church at Antioch had a special gift for sending missionaries, and in Jerusalem we see a church that had the gift of sorting through emerging theologies.

I believe churches today have special attributes or gifts in certain types of ministry. Thus, to create a compelling vision, you must start with what you’re already doing well.

For example, a smaller church in a growing suburban hosted a 12-step recovery ministry for many years. When new people starting moving into the neighborhood, the church decided it needed a contemporary worship

By Bob Whitesel

service. It tried its best to mount a contemporary service, but it just didn’t have the right people or the right gifts. Then the pastor began to build upon what the church was already doing well, a 12-step recovery program. The church leaders launched a similar program for people recovering from divorce. This appealed to the younger people moving into the community and also built upon what the church did well. Soon the church was offering other recovery ministries, such as grief recovery. Once you find out what you’re doing well, the next step is to get your volunteers into the right job.

2. Help volunteers fit into the right job.

Three types of complementary leaders are needed on every team. As I describe these types of leaders, ask yourself, “Which one am I?”

Strategic leaders. These are

leaders who see the big picture, sometimes called visionaries.

They see the future so well that they may be out of touch with the present. They often don’t know how to get to the future from the present. Therefore, while they may be senior leaders who cast the vision, they need the other two types of leaders on their team.

Tactical leaders. These are

probably the most overlooked, but most needed. Tactical comes from a Greek word that means “to put in order.” These are people who work with planning charts, budgets, spread sheets and numbers. Such tasks are usually the things strategic leaders don’t like to do and sometimes conflict arises because of it. The strategic leader may propose a new idea, to which the tactical leader may respond, “How much is that going to cost?” This frustrates the strategic leader, who sees it as a lack of faith. But in reality, the tactical leader is just asking: How does the strategic leader envision God providing the money for this idea? The tactical leader believes that God will move in the numbers too. Tactical leaders are crucial and critical members of your team. They will keep you from getting in debt or from having too few volunteers for a project.

When they ask, “How are we going to fund this?” Just respond: “I’m not sure, but I’m hoping you will help me figure that out.” They want to be part of the team and they want their skill in organization to be appreciated.

Operational leader. These

people who lead through the relationships they have made and are often happiest leading a small team in some task. Because they enjoy the relationships more than the task, they may not want the task to change. They like doing the same thing over and over again, because it allows them to forget about the task and focus on developing deeper friendships with other team members.

When all teams have three types of leaders involved, people can easily find a place to contribute.

Look around and ask yourself, “What kind of job does this volunteer do during the week?”

Asking this question can give you a hint about his or her strategic, tactical or operational gifts. Then find people who have strengths where you have a weakness and make them a part of your team.

3. Organic recruitment.

Many churches hold job fairs to recruit volunteers, but these seem to me unnatural and uncomfortable for volunteers. Rather, let me suggest an organic approach.

Require all leaders to be training someone that can take over for them one day. This is a “mentor– mentee” tactic.

Every leader should not only be required to put their name on the line, but also to write down the person they will be training to take over for them. This creates not only a church of volunteers, but also a church of emerging volunteers who are learning on the job. Training someone to take over for you, also allows volunteers to look forward to a break.

After all, our God who did not need a sabbatical took one as a reminder to us of its importance (Genesis 2:3).

Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., is a award-winning writer and sought-after consultant on church growth. Founding professor of Wesley Seminary at IWU, he holds his “Annual 1-Day Church Consultant Training” as a Pre-Conference to Renovate in Orlando including: • Credit available for Society of Church Consulting Training Levels 1 & 2 • Credit available for continuing education or 3-graduate credits through Wesley Seminary.

are relational leaders. They are

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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Sustaining A Culture of Forward Movement In Your Church’s Revitalization Journey Success in your revitalization journey becomes evident as God changes the church culture from one of being spiritually stuck and unhealthy to one of thriving forward movement as God’s people carry out the visionary process and strategic plan God gives to the church. If as a pastor or church leader you’re exploring the possibility of embarking on the revitalization journey or you’re taking the beginning steps in the process, there are many great resources provided at the Renovate website www. renovateconfererence.org to guide you as you seek the Lord’s direction in your unique ministry setting. Or if you will contact me I will share with you some books, tools and other resources that would help you along the way as well.

The question however in this article is, how do you lead your church to sustain forward movement in revitalization as together you carry out the plan God has for your church? First, a definition of the word “move” is beneficial for our consideration at this point. “Move” means to go in a certain direction with a continuous motion. For a church seeking to turn things around after perhaps experiencing many years of plateau or decline, this idea of continuous motion under God’s direction is absolutely crucial.

The good news is Jesus has given his church the remedy for 48

By Darwin Meighan out when it comes to sustaining a culture of forward movement in every church’s revitalization journey.

sustaining a culture of forward movement. Following his miraculous resurrection and before ascending into the heavens, Jesus spoke significant last words to his followers. Jesus said: “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

(Matthew 28:18-20) On another occasion, the physician Luke also records Jesus’ last words, “But 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 end of the earth.”(Acts 1:8)

Empower

In these two passages, Jesus is speaking very plainly and clearly to his disciples. He’s commanding God’s people, his church, the called out ones, to forward movement. He says, “Go make disciples” and “you will be my witnesses.” God’s direction for the revitalizing church is one of forward movement as he works through a people who are outward-focused in direction and purpose. In Jesus’ final words, there are three things that stand

To sustain revitalization in your church, pastors and church leaders must lead their people to be mighty men and women of consistent, fervent, persevering prayer. Revitalizing pastors seek to create an “outward-focused” evangelistic culture in their churches by helping their members participate in intentional seasons of prayer in which they are continually praying for the lost by name. And as a result,

Matthew 28:18 - All authority has been given to me…

Acts 1:8 - you will receive power…

First, the people God has called you to provide spiritual leadership need to know (based on the truth of God’s Word), as Jesus gave his final words, he said every Christ follower has been empowered by God to live a life of service and mission. The word empower means “to give official authority or power to.” Because of Jesus Christ and the gift of His Spirit we have been given authority and supernatural power on high to evangelize our communities and world making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many a pastor shepherd has entered their present place of service with a mental picture of peaceful mountains with gentle slopes and a luxurious lawn inviting you to lay down in green pastures.

Images of gentle sheep waiting to hear the shepherds voice abound. Tranquility in the fertile fields with sheep longing for the shepherd to provide them nourishment come to mind. Many a pastor has been blessed with such images coming to fruition. Yet there are some places where the submissive sheep can turn into hateful spiteful monsters, viciously snapping with fanged teeth at the heels of a escaping shepherd. We are living in a day where the make-up of the local church has allowed such behavior to go one for too long without any reprisal. Ministers today are in the midst of a war they did not choose and every Sunday the majority of the participants fail to realize what is going on because the minister rises above the war and the abusers put on a pretense that they are innocent of their sins.

These abusers get mad and attack the pastor at every chance they get. We should not be surprised though because even the apostle Paul was maligned by those who lived in both Galatia and Corinth as the books of Corinthians and Galatians share. Paul was regarded as the enemy for many in those community. I see pastors all the time changing careers because of mean spirited people who abuse them and their families. One pastor said it was more peaceful to be yelled at three or four times a year selling a specific product than to be crucified each and every Sunday by someone who wants to pick a fight.

ministry leaders, teams and every member knows and believes they are empowered and unleashed to share their faith and do the work God has called and gifted them to do in their unique ministry setting.

Engage Matthew 28:19 - Go therefore and make disciples…baptizing…teaching…

Acts 1:8 - you will be my witnesses…

Second, equip your church members to engage their culture, community and world with the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

The word “engage” means to enter into conflict or battle. If you’re serious about embarking on the

revitalization journey in your church and sustaining it over the long haul, you must be prepared for the spiritual opposition and warfare that will often come your way. Do not be surprised or caught off guard as opposition will come from both inside the church and outside the church.

In my experience and in the experiences of many pastors I’ve talked with and coached through the process of revitalization, the primary threat and reality of spiritual opposition and warfare will occur from within the inside of the church. The truth is, Satan, the enemy, does not want your church to be revitalized, nor does he want to see the people in your community have their lives and eternity forever changed through a personal, life-transforming encounter with our living Savior

- Tom Cheyney

and Lord Jesus Christ.

“Engage” is also defined as “coming together to interlock.” What an amazing description of the Body of Christ as together they experience a season of renewal.

After perhaps years of distrust, disunity and troubled relationships (which are commonplace in a struggling and declining church,) now all of those challenges and difficulties are replaced with an army of God’s people working side by side, shoulder to shoulder, in unity to defeat the schemes of the evil one. (See Nehemiah 3)

Continued on Page 56 49

Pastoring is Like Parenting Church revitalization is not for the faint of heart, but then neither is being a parent. The shepherd of the flock is very much like being the good parent of a good family. This is probably why Paul tells Timothy that a pastor “must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. If any man cannot manage his own family, how can he manage the household of God?” (I Tim. 3:4-5, NIV) All too often this verse is left out of the requirements of the pastor’s job description, yet is a crucial element to not only obtaining church health, but essential to maintaining it as well.

Healthy parenting includes three essential character traits: God given authority, sacrificial love, and consistent role modeling. The moral character development of a child begins at home under the authority of his/ her parents who model godly principles of love and acceptance early in the life of the child, teaching the child he/she can trust other human beings, ultimately teaching them to trust God, for God describes Himself as love and one who is faithful.

During this early attachment period within the life of the child (birth-7 years) which we call the formative years, emotional, social, and spiritual imprinting is taking place in the life of the child as parents, care givers, teachers, and pastors alike, teach and model godly character for the child to follow.

It is extremely important that special attention also be given to the moral character of all those who have influence over the life of the child, that they too be able to model and teach godly principles throughout the day.

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Consistency is key here. Children must see unity of speech, attitudes, and actions to be able to process, without confusion, the principles being taught. Inconsistency in the moral integrity of parents, caregivers, or teachers will only weaken the moral fortitude of the child, who will eventually cast off all moral training if the trainers are not living out what they are purporting to the child.

The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, not only gives us our biblical mandate to “go and make disciples,” but also gives us the basis of our authority by which we are mandated to go in the first place.

Jesus tells us that all authority has been given to him “in heaven and on earth” and then imparts upon us His authority to go and make disciples, “teaching them to obey all things that I have taught you.” The making of a disciple, one who consistently follows Jesus Christ, is done over time by consistently modeling and teaching the principles that Jesus has taught us and doing it with the same God given authority that even amazed the religious leaders and people of Jesus’ day, “The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.” (Mark 1:22, NIV) When parents and church leaders utilize their God given authority properly, their children and congregation will listen.

All authority, however, must be rooted in love. Jesus was clear to his disciples that they were not to rule over others as the rest of the Gentiles. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and

By Estelle Myers

their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”

(Matt. 20:25-26, NIV) A godly father and mother understand that the parenting model to be followed is that of our savior, Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that he sacrificially and willing laid down his life for his children. This is why Paul tells fathers to “love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” (Eph. 5:25-26, NIV) Paul also reminds fathers to not treat your wives harshly (Col. 3:19) or to “provoke your children unto anger” (Eph. 6:4, KJV) or to embitter your children against you.

(Col. 3:21) Jesus is our example of love and compassion in both family and church. Likewise, authority is given by God to fulfill our roles, but not with an iron fist like a dictator, but rather with godly authority, in all humility, recognizing that we are all one in Christ, yet we all are given certain roles in this life to keep order and peace on this earth. Children recognize and respect godly love and authority. In fact they crave it, for they are looking for peace and order in the home, in the same way that church members desire it in their congregations.

Finally, we must model what we teach. We, as parents and ministers in the church, must obey the commands of God ourselves if we ever hope to lead our children or congregations to do the same. Godly characteristics must be evidenced in our own lives in order to have credibility in the eyes of our children. When there is inconsistency between what

we teach and what we actually do, children will naturally discard your teaching and follow your behavior. Moral integrity is a must, and it should be demonstrated by ones actions as well as in one’s speech.

To do otherwise is to cause God’s children to stumble morally and spiritually. Parents and leaders are held culpable by God for what they teach and reflect in their own personal lives in regard to those whom they influence. We do not live in a vacuum, our children are watching and imitating our every move, our teaching has eternal consequences.

Likewise, those in our congregations are doing the same.

is sustained by patience, persistence and prayer throughout one’s tenure on this earth. Training our young or our congregations is not an overnight task; it is a life long journey with others who are willing to follow. This includes your personal family as well as your church family.

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Phil. 4:9,NIV)

“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” I John 5:4.

“ And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!” (Matt. 18: 5-7. NIV) How do we maintain revitalization in our churches? The same way we maintain it in our homes, by consistently teaching God’s principles with love and authority and constantly modeling those same principles in our own speech and behavior daily.

Parenting or pastoring is not for the weak. It requires a strong faith that

The ultimate key to success is to never give in, to never give up, and definitely to never ever quit. IF you feel like you’re failing, welcome to the club, you’re human. Stay the course, for it those who continue who will overcome the obstacles of life and obtain the reward of a loving family and a healthy congregation.

Estelle Myers is the wife of Rob

Myers and a leading voice for wives of church revitalizers. She has spoken at the Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference for many years as one of the key voices to assist wives who find themselves in the work of revitalizing a local church. she is also a radio personality along with her husband Rob in Southeast Florida.

Are You Abusing Your Pastor?

We are living in a day where satanic forces are everywhere. Even the local church can become a place where evil individuals are allowed to run rampant. This chapter deals with the hardest issue pastors face when trying to begin the work of revitalization. It is when abusive lay people seek to hurt their under-shepherd. There is within some churches an air of toxic DNA that surfaces when those who have been part of killing the church are not happy with the pastor who the Lord is using to revitalize the church. Pastor abusers seldom repent of their sins and seek to remain in power until someone with a stronger backbone removes them. As shepherds continue to be battered, they ask themselves, “When will the silent majority of godly church members join together and excommunicate these bullies?” Satan loves that the membership within the local church have not risen to expose and remove such individuals from destroying the church.

God’s shepherds are being destroyed by these abuses while the rest of the membership avoids dealing with these unhealthy situations in the church.

-Tom Cheyney

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Are You in Your Groove or Stuck in a Rut? Keeping Church Revitalization Going Church revitalization is a never-ending process. We can never reach a point where we are satisfied with the status quo, because the world is constantly changing, our communities are changing and our churches are changing. I recently watched a television commercial for Chick-fil-A where a guy was eating lunch in the break room at work.

He was standing in a waistdeep hole in the floor and he was being challenged by a co-worker. The dialogue went something like this: “Hi Tom, you’re really stuck in that rut.”

“What rut, what are you talking about?”

“It’s clearly a rut” “I thought I was in a groove.”

“Oh, classic rut thinking.”

Have you ever driven down a muddy dirt road? Well-traveled dirt roads have grooves that you can follow that make the ride smoother and decrease the likelihood of getting stuck. Ruts occur when grooves have been worn down too far. When you are in a rut, it becomes difficult to steer and the undercarriage of your vehicle scrapes the surface of the road. Grooves are helpful, but ruts are dangerous. Has your new groove now become your rut?

When you are working in your groove, you are in your zone.

You are using your strengths and working at your best.

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When you are in your groove, you are on-mission and laser-focused on the fulfillment of your vision. When you are in a rut, the rut determines where you go and ultimately leads to vehicle damage or getting stuck. To avoid getting stuck in a rut, you have to steer your vehicle out of the groove that you’ve been driving in and start making your own before it is too late.

Churches get stuck in a rut when they sanctify and idolize their organizational structures to the point that the structures no longer support the mission of the church.

Satisfaction Leads to Atrophy

Millions of people in the United States have taken up physical fitness as a way to improve their lives by strengthening their bodies. Loosing weight and gaining energy are very satisfying, but you can never stop exercising. Once you reach your ideal weight or level of physical stamina, you don’t just stop exercising.

Likewise, as your body ages and you face new challenges it becomes necessary for you to vary your routine. You may not be able to keep up with the same level of intensity, or you may need to make changes to focus on specific areas of need. Just as our physical bodies are constantly changing and adapting to new environments, so are our church

By Mark Weible bodies. As much as we want to stay the same, we can’t. So, after an effective revitalization process, our future dangers becomes resting on our current successes.

When things are working well for us, we tend to want to preserve our systems and processes that got us to that point. Especially, when a church has gone from an un-healthy state to a healthy one. We want to do everything we can to keep from reverting back to our days of plateau and decline. So, our natural instinct is to lockdown our successes to insure that we keep doing what is working. The problem is that our current systems won’t work forever and will quickly become irrelevant in the near future. If we are not careful, we will cause to happen the very thing that we are trying to avoid. After all, wasn’t it failure to adapt that got us into a mess in the first place?

Rate of Change

Way back in 2010, Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google claimed that “Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003” That quote from Mr. Schmidt is now outdated, but the point is that change is happening at a rapid pace and change is getting exponentially faster.

Rate Of Change: ROC = {(current value / previous value) - 1} x 100 You may feel uncomfortable with change, but God loves it.

Everything He created changes and everything He touches changes. The only constant is God himself and His unchanging Word. The Gospel of Jesus is a message of change. Our future hope in Christ is the reality of massive change. Jesus brings people from death to life, from darkness to light, from sinful to righteousness in Him. He promises to take us from this place to Heaven, which in and of itself is a massive change from our status quo. As the church, we must expect and embrace change in order to remain faithful and biblical.

In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

(I Corinthians 15:52)

Looking to the Future

I had a conversation this week with a pastor of a mega church. All current indications point to incredible success and health for this thriving church. However, the leaders of the church are looking to the future. They are studying trends in population, culture and attitudes among the peo-

ple in the communities that they serve. They are looking at possible scenarios where their current systems may not be sustainable in future environments. The leaders of this church are already planning for the next wave of change and are making plans to be pro-active instead of waiting

When you are in your groove, you are on-mission and laser-focused on the fulfillment of your vision. When you are in a rut, the rut determines where you go and ultimately leads to vehicle damage or getting stuck. To avoid getting stuck in a rut, you have to steer your vehicle out of the groove that you’ve been driving in and start making your own before it is too late. to react to whatever may come their way. They realize that we live in an era of rapid social change and that good stewardship of God’s resources requires them to plan ahead. It would be so easy for this church to just assume that their current trajectory of growth is going to continue indefinitely if they just keep doing what they are doing.

But, wise leaders will anticipate future obstacles and plan accordingly.

Keep Revitalizing

Church revitalization is not a one and done endeavor. Now that you have your church back on track, its time to start preparing for your next season of revitalization. Things may be running smoothly for your right now, but one day, your groove will become a rut and your current successes will cause your future failures.

Let me encourage you to stay focused on the Word of God and listen to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus hates stagnant religious thinking and He wants to lead you into His future. Learn from the past, but don’t replicate it. Look ahead and anticipate what God has in store for you.

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14).

Mark Weible serves as the

Church Planting Director f the Greater Orlando Baptist Association and the strategic Director of the Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference. Mark has a wealth of experience as a church planter and local church coach.

Mark is passionate about church multiplication, renewal, planting, and coaching.

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The Law of Inertia An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This law is often called “the law of inertia” – Isaac Newton http://teachertech. rice.edu/Participants/louviere/ Newton/law1.html In previous articles to this magazine I have used the word Revitalization. I use this word to identify that both spiritual revival and leadership structure are necessary for revitalization to occur.

In the process of developing a revitalization strategy, the Team must look beyond the “Turning Around” point of the Church. It has been said that to turn around a huge ship it takes quite a bit of water; the same can be said with a dying or declining Church.

Once the revitalization effort has begun its “turning” it has to keep the momentum or it can easily return back to a listless position.

Momentum is very important within any organization; for a lull can be detrimental to all that was previously accomplished.

Since we all know that change is unwelcomed, if there is a hint of stabilization before the revitalization process is complete, there will be none accomplished except wasted effort. Once a

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church is moving, it must keep moving.

Revitalization has at its heart two key principles:

1st – Create a sense of urgency 2nd – Create an atmosphere of change.

A church must embrace its true condition; but knowledge of this does not mobilize the Church to do anything. The Revitalizationist like an artist must draw a new future to be embraced. While most of the plan and implementation is to bring a Church back from extinction; there must also be incorporated in the process, an extension of keeping the Church moving. This action can be simple as establishing an evaluation interval for course correction of previous actions. Part of the process I have incorporated is while establishing a Strategic Plan for “turning the boat”; we also establish a Long range Planning Team. This Team will take into account those actions implemented and will if necessary bring forth course corrections to achieve the original goals. But Revitalization is more than turning the boat around; it must also include how to get the “boat to move up-stream”. A Church/boat

By Jim Grant

can be turned eventually; but that doesn’t mean it is moving, it could after turning around, then be caught flowing down stream, which only means it is in greater danger going down stream backwards.

In the Strategic Process, the Church must have clearly established goals and actions. These actions necessarily need to be accomplished over a period of time. Normally most experts say 5-7 years. Too fast a change can have the effect of no change.

Revitalization takes time; we have all heard this over and over. But there can be a “push” to “get it done” that just puts too much at one time on the congregation.

We have heard that we must have small wins to create a willingness to make bigger changes.

Use the Wins to keep the Church moving. Once the Church has made the turn from drifting and declining, a great amount of effort has to be expended to get it to go upstream. As with a boat, it will take a lot of horsepower to move the boat forward; this is just as true for the Church.

While the Strategic Process is at work, the congregation must be Strengthened. The Spirit of Revival can be this catalyst. Just as Nehemiah had the task of building the Temple Walls, he had to motivate the people to build. Nehemiah had an Ezra to

help him “renew the spirit” of the people. As a consequence the “people had a mind to work” and the walls were complete in 52 days! [Nehemiah 6:15] People forget quickly what God has done. If Revitalization is going to be successful, the Church must believe again in the power of Jesus.

While the task of building the Wall was accomplished; there was so much more that needed to be done. This is likewise true in Revitalization. This is where the Long Range Planning Team [LRPT] comes in to the picture.

Establishing a LRPT will act as the fuel for the engine to travel up stream. The goal of Revitalization is never just to turn the boat around! There must be in the Strategic Process the answer to the question – “Where are we going?” The LRPT establishes the course to get to the new destination. These course plans will have to be long, medium and short term. A typical format would have a 3, 5 and 10 year outlook of plans and actions to be accomplished. Now word of

caution; this LRPT is an on-going process; it is part of the new DNA of the Church. The Church faltered because it “had arrived” so to speak and quit. To prevent the cycle from recurring, develop a continuous course. To do this when the 3 year plan has been implanted, the 5 year now be-

Once the Church has made the turn from drifting and declining, a great amount of effort has to be expended to get it to go upstream. As with a boat, it will take a lot of horsepower to move the boat forward; this is just as true for the Church.

comes the 3 year and the 10 year plans become the 5 year.

This means there is a new 10 year plan to be envisioned, and the subsequent cycle continues. Obviously, a church cannot continue to build building and the like, so the LRPT must include things like new staff positions, church planting and missions’ involvement. As a Revitalizationist, we must also be visionaries.

We cannot be content with bringing a Church back from the depths of decline and death; we must enable them to become healthy and reproductive; and all of this will take time; a lot of time. When I read about Churches that have been Revitalized, it usually includes a long-termed pastor and on-going leadership and shepherding of the Congregation.

This is why the Long-Range Planning Team is important, it sustains the initial movement to head the right direction; but also provides the enthusiasm to stay on the journey. Happy Sailing!

Jim Grant is the Lead Pastor of Heartland Baptist Church in Alton, Illinois. He is a veteran with 25 years of service in the Air Force. His extensive travels, while in the military, allowed him the unique ability to have served in the full spectrum of churches, styles, and health. Jim is the Gateway Baptist Association Revitalization Team Leader 55

Sustaining A Culture of Forward Movement In Your Church’s Revitalization Journey - Continued

Expand Matthew 28:19 – make disciples of all nations…I am with you always…

Acts 1:8 – you will be my witnesses…in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth…

Third, where an empowered people of God are regularly in the unity of the Spirit, praying, working and serving together to engage their community for Christ, forward movement takes place as in victory Satan is defeated, all the while the Kingdom of God is gloriously expanded. The word “expand” means to increase the extent, number, volume or scope of. God’s sovereign plan of the ages is one of influence, impact and expansion. And he has mysteriously chosen to carry out this plan through his followers.

Sustained revitalization efforts, where the pastor and church together persevere with the intentionality of fulfilling Jesus’ final words will result in the church becoming a multiplying, disciple-making body of believers. In his final words, Jesus commands believers to “make disciples of all nations” and “to be his witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and

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Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Over time, churches that are experiencing true revitalization and renewal from the Lord will be characterized as: Ministries multiply. Leaders will multiply.

Professions of faith and baptisms will multiply. Membership will increase. Scores of people in the community will be reached for Christ. The Holy Spirit will permeate the life of the church. More and more people will find their place of service and will live on mission daily for Jesus. Financial giving to the church and to missions will soar. Churches will partner with sister churches who need to be revitalized. New churches will be planted. Influence and impact through God’s people will increase in influence and impact both locally and around the world.

Some Final Thoughts As you seek to sustain revitalization in the church, under God’s direction and leadership keep your church moving forward.

Empower. Engage. Expand. Remember the priority of spiritual disciples. Keep the main thing the main thing – the mission of God. Develop leaders and teams to carry out the plan. Evaluate

By Darwin Meighan

progress regularly. Be flexible as God leads. Expect both setbacks and victories. Lead the church to celebrate the wins. Biblically deal with troublemakers. Stick with God’s plan—persevere no matter what. I’m praying for you and the awesome forward movement of God in your church.

Darwin Meighan serves as

State Director of Church Revitalization/Evangelism for the Nevada Baptist Convention. As a coach and practitioner, he encourages pastors and churches toward the process of renewal and hope – guiding them in the journey of rediscovering their God-given purpose and mission of making disciples which embraces an outward focus of engaging their community, culture and world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you would like to talk about a revitalization process for your church or if you need tools or resources, feel free to reach out to Darwin at dmeighan@nevadabaptistconvention.org

revitalizer

LIBRARY

J. Pete Tackett, Re.VITAL.ize: Lessons Learned in a Recovering Church, published in 2016 by J. Pete Tackett, This work anecdotally details the

revitalization that was brought to Antioch Baptist Church, Johnson, Tennessee. From the introduction, Tackett expresses both surprise and excitement that the reader would pick up

An Uphill Journey: One Small Church’s Story of Revitalization,

by Brian Nall, Renovate Publishing Group, 2017, is the second story of renewal featured in this edition of the Revitalizers Library.

An Uphill Journey tells the story of revitalization at Ferris Hill Baptist Church in Milton, Florida. Ferris Hill is described as presently a church

this work from an unrecognized name in the ministry of Church Revitalization. Every revitalizer though has a story to tell. Stories of revitalization encourage others in what they could do and what they should not do in working towards renewal. Every revitalization story needs to be told, no matter how poorly it is written.

Tackett’s story is good but his writing style is hard to follow. This reader had difficulty following the chapter theme through some of the chapters. Other chapters flowed incredibly well. Some further editing would have been helpful in sharpening the work; particularly in the printing of a referenced name and book title incorrectly.

In Tackett’s defense, the story of renewal is good. Other revitalizes should be encouraged by this

story of a smaller church turning around and making a big impact for the Kingdom. Tackett’s insight is keen. He writes, “It doesn’t matter how fast you are going if you are going the wrong way.

Yet, the deeper I go into church health issues, the more apparent it becomes that most churches have a sense that they are doing good things, and they just need to press the gas harder and do it faster and more fervently and everything will be okay.” (Kindle Locations 187-189). Nothing could be further from the truth.

The process of loss that yielded growth is felt in the work.

Despite some challenges revitalizers would be encouraged by the story. Re.VITAL.ize:Lessons Learned In A Recovering Church is a fair edition to the Revitalizers Library.

near 200 in attendance, located in a very impoverished area, near several military facilities. Ferris Hill is a church very similar to many churches dotting the landscape of the United States.

appreciated his own vulnerabilities both in sharing his failures in taking a vacation and resting while encouraging other to rest. This is type of honesty and transparency that flows through the work.

The principles in An Uphill Journey were very clear, though the reader needs to dig a little to transfer them to their own setting. Nall is telling his story not telling the reader how their story should be. Digging and thinking through the transferable principles is good and necessary work to write one’s own story.

Towards the end of the work, Nall delivers a paragraph that should be read to those wavering between a call to plant a church and a call to revitalize one. He writes regarding facilities,

The reader will get the sense from the book that Nall is a very focused, on target person. This reviewer

You don’t have to set up and take down each week. Unlike many church planters, you don’t have to deal with school guidelines if you rent a space on campus. Whatever Continued on Page 58 Book Reviews by Rob Hurtgen

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BOOK REVIEWS CONTINUED... the facility is that God has given you, view it as a treasure. Sure it might need some scrubbing and fixing, but so do the people who attend. If broken windows and cracked walls and cluttered rooms concern you, you are in good company. Nehemiah had concerns for

the broken walls of Jerusalem (page 120).

If you are broken for broken people and broken facilities then God has burdened you to the ministry of Church Revitalization.

Sustainability in Church Revitalization I believe the greatest issue confronting churches today is the issue of sustainability. As such, in revitalization, one must focus on who to create a sustainable model in order for the church to not revert back to previous passivity or complacency in ministry effectiveness. This opening thought might seem difficult.

This is to say, I am presuming the reason for the present decline in a church has to do with passivity or complacency of ministry effectiveness. This is true. However, to validate my case, the only question I would ask a pastor and church who believes they do not fit into this category, is the question of salvations; ie “how many people have you led to Christ this past year, and thereby seen the baptism waters stirred?� Most churches who are in need of revitalization cannot answer this question with a positive number; certainly maybe a few biological additions. However, there is no significant kingdom movement happening in their midst. No baptisms = no salvations = no growth = a declining church.

When a church catches a fresh passion for reaching the lost, 58

complacency leaves, and ministry effectiveness rebounds.

An Uphill Journey is a solid story, well organized and a good read. Nall tells his story of being calling to Ferris Hill Baptist Church and the day in and day out work pressing towards revitalization. An encouragement and challenge to many. Nall’s work is an excellent addition to the Revitalizers Library.

By Kenneth Priest

Make Worship an Experience. How?

er a challenge to move forward in your relationship with Christ. We should not be satisfied to remain as we are. The message must be challenging and not watered down. The messenger must provide meaningful life application illustrations. We must encourage congregants with what God expects from his followers.

Gospel Experience

Emotional Experience

So what are some thoughts to sustainable revitalization methods?

There are several key drivers to designing worship experiences.

First is the gospel experience. The Word of God must be proclaimed effectively. Travel through sermons of the past, and the great communicators of the gospel.

What stands out in their messages and the ministry effectiveness which followed their respective preaching was the gospel experience. They did not shy away from the truth of the gospel but stood firm on the truth of Christ.

Intellectual Experience Understanding the centrality of the gospel allows us to move to the intellectual experience of worship. The key word is that of challenging. We are not talking about level of difficulty, but rath-

Notice I did not list this one first.

Too often worship services are designed purely on emotion.

There needs to be emotional consideration, after all we are guiding congregants to the throne of grace which should drive our emotions. However, if all we do is focus on emotion, we are missing out on the knowledge of who God is and how God relates to his creation. One should think of each of these experiences not as steps in a formulaic process, but rather as an intricate helix, interwoven together so tightly they cannot be separated. Each must work together if we are to bring about a meaningful worship experience.

Physical Experience

Worship should involve movement. Whether we are participating in the Lord’s Supper, singing congregational songs, reciting Scriptures, or some other element that involves a physical involvement, we must be involved to be truly engaged. I sit too often in worship services which are not worship experiences. The worship leader/choir/praise team are the ones on the platform participating, and the rest of the congregants are simply spectators. Whether by design or simply unintentional, congregants need to, and want to participate.

Cultural Experience

This one gets tricky. This is not actually referring to various cultures in the community.

Although there are many churches which are located in diverse communities which could impact the culture of the church; and we need to be sensitive and open to changing the culture to better reflect the community. We are referring to the actual culture of the church. Who we are as a congregation. Sustainability in revitalization requires us to know who we are and represent who we are. Transparency in who we are means we do not try to be something we are not. This concept necessitates an illustration: if your church is in a rural, blue collar community; if your

community reflects a certain style of music i.e. country/western. As a church leader, you should not try to force a worship style that is Christian hip-hop on the church.

This hip-hop culture is not in your community, so why try and force it on the church. Now in this illustration I took liberty of using two extreme cultures to prove a point. The same is true for any worship shift. Know the culture of your community and then create a culture in the church reflective of what they are accustomed to.

(Please do not send me emails thinking I am being unbiblical in my view that the church culture should reflect the community culture. My helix illustration above already addresses this; we must be gospel centered in all we do, but this does not mean we have to only sing hymns. It also does not mean you have to stop singing hymns. Know your community context and reflect the heart language of the people).

Whatever music is done, it should be good, vibrant, reverent, appropriate and most of all, touched by God.

Technological Experience

Welcome to the twenty-first century. It might have snuck up on

Know the culture of your community and then create a culture in the church reflective of what they are accustomed to. -Kenneth Priest

you; however we live in a technological age. We are not simply talking projectors in the worship service. As I travel and work with church across North America, we find the majority of pastors and churches are engaged with modern day amenities; with satellite television, Internet, Netflix, Facebook, live streaming worship services, etc. Even in remote country churches, thanks to Facebook Live, pastors are getting their messages on line for people to watch and experience the gospel. There is a growing demand to engage technological advances in spiritual experiences.

A revitalization church must be prepared to join the movement if it wants sustainability. Providing platforms for members to engage the church, even when they are not able to physically attend, has become a real and present need for the church.

Each of these areas should be a constant evaluation we make in the local church insuring we are always looking toward the future of our church and not who we were in the past. As pastors we have an obligation to create a worship experience which will engage our congregants with the gospel. This engagement will move our respective churches to a position of sustainability focused on the right things. This culture of sustainability moves us out of passivity and into truly effective gospel ministry.

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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Finishing Well: Keys to Pastoral Sustainability

Seminary can’t prepare you for everything you will face in the pastorate. How is that for stating the obvious? Seminary primarily educates and prepares you for understanding and communicating God’s word.

Over the length of my pastoral career (40 years), it has become obvious that we need more training and skill in interpersonal relationships and organizational leadership and development. A few courses can’t adequately prepare you for the realities you will face in these two critical areas.

Unfortunately, when faced with these difficult challenges, some pastors become disillusioned, disappointed and discouraged.

Sadly, that leads to their departure from pastoral ministry. Others may not consider leaving the pastorate, but they think about changing churches. Sometimes this can be the right move, but not always. It may be a way to get out from under the current pressure or avoid the conflict they are experiencing.

The church I founded and pastored for the past 19 years is going through a major transition.

Due to a terminal medical diagnosis, I had to resign and they began a search for my successor. At first, we posted the need through an on line church staffing service.

What an eye-opener! Within one month we received over 200 resumes. Some were in their current church less than two years and a few less than six months. In response to the question, “Why do you want to leave your current church to come to Faith Community?” Answers ranged from, 60

“I want to live in Florida,” to “I looked at your website and I am the perfect fit for you.” So, there are a lot of pastors on the move.

My concern for pastoral sustainability became acute about two years ago. Within one week I talked to three pastor friends who decided their only option was to leave the pastorate. One felt this way after 23 years. He could not take any more criticism, conflict and subversive opposition. He was deeply depressed and in need of counseling. The second was leaving after six years. He went into a traditional church that said they wanted change.

But such was not the case. Wanting change and experiencing change are two very different things. The resistance wore him out and he could see no other way but to leave the pastorate all together. The third planted a church but after eight years he was disillusioned. The church wasn’t what he dream of. He closed the church and pursued a different career.

What these men faced is not unusual. You may have heard some shocking statistics of pastors leaving the ministry. Thankfully, most of them are exaggerated.

Pastors are not leaving in droves though there is enough departure to be of concern.

What can help pastors sustain their ministries over the long haul? Let me suggest two broad areas that I have seen neglected and at times have neglected myself.

By Glenn Stewart

1. Self-care

When the apostle Paul gave his farewell address to the Ephesian elders he exhorted them to, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood,” (Acts 20:28, ESV).

Notice, taking care of self comes before attending to the flock.

One of the maxims I share often is, “You can’t do good unless you are doing well.” Pastors must be healthy if they are to lead a healthy church. The following are three key areas of self-care.

• Spiritual formation

How is your spiritual life? Not, how is your preaching, sermon study or small group preparation? How is your personal soul feeding time with God? At one church I pastored, the church board needed a spiritual transformation. They viewed themselves as a corporate board and not as a spiritual body to care for God’s people. So, we spent time focusing on our own spiritual growth and each month we shared where we were in reading God’s word and how we were applying it to our lives. One of the men began to call me on his break at work and ask, “Pastor, where are you reading the word today and what are you taking away for your life?” That was encouraging and eventually three or four men took that kind of interest. They wanted their pastor to have a vital, personal walk with God. This is essential if you are to stay healthy.

• Emotional health

Our emotions are a critical part of who we are and we must learn to identify them, manage them and express them appropriately.

What are you feeling? Anger?

Discouragement? Overwhelmed?

How much time are you giving to caring for your emotional state?

Pastors’ emotional states and actions affect the emotional states and actions of the people they shepherd. Caring for yourself emotionally demands the courage to disappoint people, to say, “No,” at times to their requests.

The Pastor’s Summit, an initiative of Covenant Seminary and the Lily Foundation, asked the question, “What does it take to sustain pastors in such a way that they will flourish in ministry over the long haul?” One Summit pastor commented, “We have to develop the ability to look people in the eye who have genuine needs and say, ‘I am not the answer to this need.’ And then not to flinch when that person says, ‘That pastor is so uncompassionate, so uncaring.’”1

• Marriage and family -

We know this cognitively, but do we live it practically? Often our spouse becomes the “dumping ground” for our frustration, anger or criticism. One pastoral spouse put it this way, “Pastoral spouses suffer from the hits and conflicts their partners take as pastors, but they don’t get to participate in the resolutions directly. There 1Burns, R. W., & Chapman, T. (2012). The challenge of sustaining fruitful ministry.

Covenant, Spring-Summer, 2012, 22-25.

is analogy between this and getting cancer from exposure to second-hand smoke.”2 This highlights the need for a pastoral confidant. This is often someone outside the church.

You may have allies who share your dreams and friends who you enjoy within the church, but a confidant – someone with whom you can share your deep hurts and crushed dreams is most often going to be someone outside the church. Can you identify who those people are in your life?

2. Leadership development

surprised by how much leadership skills are part of their work.

It is estimated that leadership and management related activities take 45 to 65 per cent of a pastor’s time and energy.

One of my favorite leadership verses is Psalm 78:72, “And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.”

Character, described in the verse as, “integrity of heart,” must be coupled with competence, or “skillful hands.” Pastors must embrace their leadership responsibilities and develop the core skills to the best of their abilities.

Recently, as part of a farewell by our church, my daughter put together a book of pictures and comments from people I’ve pastored. What struck me as I read is none of them said, “I remember the structural organization you blessed me with,” or “The programs you started were so very special.” Instead the comments were relational. “I remember when our son was rushed to the hospital, you were there when we got to the emergency room,” and “The time you invited me to have coffee.

We talked about my marriage and separation and you prayed for me. Today my wife and I are together and doing well.”

Stress is a part of ministry, whether it is caused by conflict, being overwhelmed with responsibilities or dashed hopes and dreams. To sustain yourself, take care of yourself and continue to develop your leadership competency.

Relationships are the fabric of pastoral ministry, yet alongside them there needs to be competent leadership. Most pastors enter ministry with little preparation in leadership. They are

tor, an author, and a leadership development speaker; he is also the founder of LifeEquip, Inc., a pastoral support team ministry (www.lifeequip.com). You can reach him at glenn@lifeequip.com.

2Ibid.

Glenn Stewart is a forty-year pas-

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Are You a Leader of Change? - Continued

be willing to labor for 52 days to see our homes and families safe and secure again? We often shy away from any project, meeting or training that takes “too long.”

Here are some thought-tools for your toolbox: 1) There will be resistance. Whether due to fear or loss of status or stability, change can be uncomfortable and unwanted.

2) Change may mean death to something or someone. “A grain of wheat cannot bear much fruit unless it first die” (John 12:24).

3) Revitalization without spirit-empowered revival is merely a bandaid.

4) Those who appear to be “resistors” may just be wrestling with the change that we have already embraced. Give the congregation time to hear from the Lord.

5) Help the church to see that the change will help them be successful in meeting their needs and accomplishing their values with less negative impact and with God’s favor.

Are we daily, dying to self so our Lord can use us to bear much fruit? Or, are we striving in our own flesh to produce fruit, only to find we are producing the bitter fruit of this world’s system?

Some pastors, who have requested the revitalization process, quickly change their tune when we unpack the commitment required. I close with some of Paul Nixon’s ideas/tools as well as a few of my own:

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1) Keep the Biblical Rationale/ Foundation for revitalization always before your people.

Help them to be unified (in one accord) and to find joy in regular fellowship and camaraderie.

2) Remind them to always choose what brings life and vitality, not stability and survival. We were called to thrive, not survive.

We are to bear much fruit, not protect the fruit basket.

3) Choose to be focused on the yet-to-believe, not on the ninety-nine already in the corral. We spend too much time, money and effort on the structure, rather than on the mission (Acts 1:8).

4)Equip the congregation to be bold witnesses, not fearful followers (Phil. 1:19-21; Prov. 28:1).

Consider “How Can I Share My Faith Without an Argument?”

By William Fay (https://discoveryseries.org/discovery-series/ how-can-i-share-my-faith-without-an-argument/) 5) Intentionally and regularly get the congregation out into the community. Your community needs to see the body serving, once a quarter or even monthly.

How will they know you care if you hide inside the walls of the sanctuary?

6) Do what you value! Purpose-driven church has a biblical base, but values-driven churches are usually more passionate and aggressive.

When we value something, we tell people about it. We have no qualms promoting what we

By Tracy W. Jaggers

value to the rest of the world.

Ever seen or heard the claims of, “You can make thousands of dollars per week from your own home!” Ever buy a new car and not tell someone about it? I verify my point!

7) Choose your new frontier. Google “revitalization” often and read all you can on the subject. Glean what is helpful for you and your church and discard the rest.

8) Last, but of greatest importance, PRAY! Seek first His plan! Then, ask the Lord to guide your steps and empower your efforts. If we abide in Him and He abides in us, we will ask what we desire (which is also His desire) and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).

Are you the one to advance your church by making adjustments, both easy and hard? Ask Him and then decide!

Tracy W. Jaggers

Associational Director of Missions Gateway Baptist Association, Edwardsville, Illinois. Tracy is an adjunct professor with Gateway Seminary in CA. He earned his Doctor of Ministry degree in Church Revitalization from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO. He is a frequent blogger and writer for state and national revitalization websites and magazines, and is an active speaker in state and national revitalization conferences and webinars.

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ENOVATE R National Church Revitalization Conference

November 7-9, 2017

Speakers Include:

Orlando, FL

Karl Vaters Micah Fries Gary McIntosh Jennifer Bennett David Murrow Tom Cheyney Paul Smith Terry Rials Ron Smith Steve Smith Jason Cooper

(FBC Winter Park)

RenovateConference.org

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Church Revitalization Workshops

25

National Church Revitalization Speakers

4

Breakout Session Opportunities

4

Main Sessions by Revitalization Practitioners

4

Pre-Conference Intensive Subjects

1000+ Fellow Church Revitalizers Working Together

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