Starting a Church Revitalization Effort Out Strong by Renovate Resources

May/June 2019 Vol 6 Issue 3

THE

CHURCH

Revitalizer A Revitalization Retreat in Every Issue

Starting a Church Revitalization Effort

Out Strong

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The only magazine dedicated to Church Revitalization.â&#x20AC;?

From The Editor Welcome to the Church Revitalizer Magazine: If you are going to start out strong in revitalization and renewal you must be aware of the stumbling blocks that could keep you from achieving it. Just like there are essential building blocks to church revitalization, there are also many stumbling blocks. It is much easier to discover the stumbling blocks than it is to unearth the lasting building blocks to revitalization. If the work of a church revitalizer was easy, we would have more ministers from all denominations committed to doing the work of church revitalization and renewal. It is a difficult thing, and often grueling work, that can get messy at times. At the heart of most of these stumbling blocks are people and churches that are not all that interested in change. Have you ever played dominos? As a kid I really enjoyed taking a large number of these ivory rectangles and laying them out so that I could eventually tip over the first one and watch the rest follow suit. Sometimes, whether we mean it or not, that is what we do in church revitalization. We tip over the first domino and canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t catch it before the rest of the dominos come falling down. Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s people must become more excited about who God is and what He is doing in our midst. The church must become a praying church. The churches structure needs to change to facilitate ministry taking place. If the present structure were working, the church would not need revitalization. As the lead pastor, oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role must evolve as a church revitalizer and the laity within the congregation will need to comprehend this evolution. The major role of the church must move from doing maintenance ministries, to developing new avenues and entrance points to reach and gather those who will be part of the churches growing future. Starting out well will enhance the churches chances for revitalization and renewal. Within this edition we want to look at:

Starting a Church Revitalization Effort Out Strong Stay connected, more is coming!

ChurchRevitalizer.Guru

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

Contents

First Things First in Revitalization Tom Cheyney

p. 10

The Missional X-Factor: Part 2 Ken Priddy

Facing Down Fear Getting a Great Start Toward Revitalization

Grand Opening Ron Smith

p. 14

Tracy Jaggers

p. 18

Pete Tackett

p. 26

p. 24

Practical Steps Toward New Life George Thomasson

p. 30

Also in this issue: The Revitalizer

Book Review Rob Hurtgen

p. 76

Bill Hull, Conversion & Discipleship: You Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Have One Without the Other. Zondervan; Grand Rapids, MI. 2016.

May/June | Vol 6, No 3

Revitalization Needs Vision Steve Smith

p. 34

The Starting Block Chris Irving

p. 36

Don’t Fall for These Three Newbie Turnaround Traps Bob Whitesel

Where to Start? Rob Hurtgen

Know Your Destination

p. 52

Chad McCarthy

p. 60

p. 42

Getting off to an Effective Start David Jackson

p. 64

A Good Start Doesn’t Just Happen p. 40

The Necessity of a Clear God-Given Vision p. 70

Bud Brown

Steve Sells

The Best Laid Plans p. 46

Dynamic Small Groups: Three Kinds of Leaders p. 72

Jim Grant

Fred Boone

Here Am I, Please, Send Somebody Else! p. 48

Sometimes You Have to Hurt Their Feelings p. 78

Walter Jackson

Mark Weible

The Leadership Link: The Revitalization Starting Line p. 57

Teamwork: Essential for Revitalization p. 80 William T. Chaney Jr.

Michael Atherton

THE

CHURCH

Revitalizer Volume 6, No. 3

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

PUBLISHER Executive Editor Dr. Tom Cheyney Associate Publisher Mark Weible Associate Publisher Circulation & Marketing Ashleigh Cheyney

The Church Revitalizer Q&A: What is The Church Revitalizers purpose? To help churches that need to be reinvigorated and renewed effectively receive help in issues that revitalizers face everyday. Articles, resources, and information are gathered from authors all over the country who have been through, or may currently be in, the revitalization process and we want to share their knowledge. How can I write for The Church Revitalizer? Contact us at Goba@goba.org How do I get help with subscription issues? Go to churchrevitalizer.guru to renew, order a gift, or resolve any issues. May I reprint articles? Yes, if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for church education, for small group purposes, is less than 1,000 copies and is not offered for resale. Please contact us for more information.

Brand Manager Tom Cheyney Magazine Designer & Format Editor Ashleigh Cheyney Director of Advertising Renovate Staff Web Ad Traffic Director Mark Weible For subscription information contact this office at: www.churchrevitalizer.guru/subscriptions. Subscriptions are $19 per year for six issues. Outside the U.S. add $10.00 per year prepaid.

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By Tom Cheyney Struggling churches and church revitalizers want to start out strong in their revitalization effort. An accurate assessment of a church revitalizerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s potential is essential in a field where much is at stake, whether it is the health of a church revitalizerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family, identifying the right revitalizer, or launching the revitalization effort at the right time within the right church. Unless you really like pain and frustration as a church revitalizer, you do not want to attempt to revitalize a church without being equipped, gifted, and specifically called by God to do so. Since revitalization is a minimum investment of a thousand days, it is critical that your church begin its journey well. I receive calls from churches all the time asking me for some of the first things they ought to do in Starting a Church Revitalization Effort Out Strong. So, what would be the very first thing I would do as a potential church revitalizer or as a local church needing to be revitalized?

Before your church begins the revitalization effort, first assess the potential of the church revitalizer. An in-depth assessment of a church revitalizer will establish whether they have the skills to do the work of revitalization, as well as the critical core values necessary for being the leader of revitalization. Just as each culture assesses certain things in our daily lives by a standard, God has clearly laid out the standards by which leaders in the church must hold and be evaluated by.

The primary contribution the church revitalizer makes to a declining church is toâ&#x20AC;Ś Lead the plateaued, declining, or dying church to be revitalized into a healthy regrowing, self-sustaining, self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-identifying church. For explanation here is a short description of each: A self-sustaining church is able to keep its doors open by gathering long time members, reclaiming inactive members as well as other forms of willing participants through the developing of prospects into the faithful members committed to the church and its ongoing mission. A self-governing church makes its own decisions. Though seeking the wisdom of others is helpful, there is no need to consult an outside body in all matters of church life. There is no governing official or authority overseeing the local congregation and mandating what that particular church will do or not do. For example, the local congregation is free to govern itself regarding the purchasing of property, appointing leaders, organizing its own order of service, and developing ministries.

A self-supporting church supports itself financially. If the congregation needs a new building, the congregation provides the money for such a structure. If it is necessary for the church to provide a full salary for the leaders, the church provides the income. A self-supporting church is not dependent on outside funds to meet the day-to-day financial requirements for ministry. A self-propagating church is able to spread the gospel across its own local geographic area and throughout the world. Everything the local church needs in order to share the good news with others is already present among the members. No outside and separate authority is needed for the church to carry out the Great Commission. A self-identifying church has its own identity as the local church in its area. To be considered a church, those who gather as a group must identify themselves as the local expression of the body of Christ. The group is not a mission, chapel, Bible study, or a preaching point. The group is not seen as a ministry of another congregation or a second campus. Self-identifying is the concept that the membership of a congregation has come together to clearly identify itself as the local church in its area. The goal of a church revitalizer is to see the church turn around its declining status and begin to be regenerated into a lively

ents, and competencies of these candidates you can discover the likelihood of success in the revitalization of a church. Groups that have limited funds to invest in revitalization need to discover and deploy only the best performers in the Church Revitalizer Top Performance Profile Assessment. Renovate also continues to discover, develop, and deploy church revitalizers who have a passion to see churches reaching communities for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Renovate Group has been your “Go-To” partner since 1997 in the field of church revitalization and the renewing of churches. The assessment provides a quick and easy way for prospective church revitalizers to discover if they are better prepared to serve as a church revitalizer or as a church revitalization team member. We have partnered with Exos Advisors to use their patent pending algorithms to discover Core Values patterns in existing top performing church revitalizers. This validates and proves that the resulting CRTPPA will consistently identify new future top performers in the field of church revitalization, while screening out a vast majority of future low performers.

church with a new vision and mission for reaching a target area with the Gospel. Initial steps include slowing the exodus, while beginning to reach new adults who willingly desire a relationship with this renewing church. The goal is for the church revitalizer to be able to regrow the church to significant strength allowing it to survive and flourish. If the church has fallen to below the necessary critical mass of fifty adults, the initial work is to work towards regaining a solid group of adults which can undergird the work of revitalization. This person should be a visionary leader who can market, motivate and inspire those around him.

The Church Revitalizer Top Performance Profile Assessment New from The Renovate Group is the Church Revitalizer Top Performance Profile Assessment. CRTPPA has been developed for local churches, associations, districts entities, and denominations to qualify candidates for their potential success in turning a church around through revitalization and renewal. Most of these groups really do not have financial resources to squander so pre-qualifying candidates is essential. This Core Values Index (CVI) decreases the cost of hiring unqualified pastors that would deplete the necessary funds for the revitalization of a declining church. It aligns these candidates with the tasks and jobs that are required to restart and revitalize a church. By discovering the skills, tal-

How this works: When a church’s revitalization team is searching and considering the calling of a Church Revitalizer to lead in the revitalization and renewal process, the prospective candidate is sent an email with a link to the CRTPPA. The assessment is then completed by the candidate and their score is automatically received by The Renovate Group and will be shared within seven days of completion with the candidate and the local church. The report will be compared with the top church revitalizer profile assessments across the country. Those candidates which assess as a “high” potential for the successful revitalization of a healthy church are then recommended to local churches that are plateaued or in decline. The calling church will still need to qualify the candidate in the areas of: character, doctrine, financial stability, and experience which is done on the local level. To find out more or to take the online assessment, go to: www.RevitalizerAssessment.com. Tom Cheyney is the Founder & Directional Leader of the RENOVATE National Church Revitalization Conference (RenovateConference.org). Some of Tom’s books include: The Church Revitalizer as Change Agent, Slaying the Dragons of Church Revitalization: Dealing with the Critical Issues that are Hurting Your Church; and Church Revitalization in Rural America: Restoring Churches in America’s Heartland. Tom lives in Orlando, Florida with his wife Cheryl and travels all over North America assisting declining churches by bringing revitalization and renewal to the congregations.

Put in last pic

The Missional X-Factor: Part 2 By Ken Priddy In the Missional X-Factor: Part 1, I stressed the importance of skilled pastoral leadership in establishing a church’s Great Commission effectiveness. Three of six Great Commission skills for pastors were identified as Skill 1: Discerning & Developing Vision, Skill 2: Casting Vision & Creating Ownership and Skill 3: Setting Objectives & Establishing Accountability. These three were further contextualized as the three corners of the Missional X-Factor Triangle. Part 2 sets out the remaining three skills, further identifying them as the contents of the triangle (see Figure 1).

Skill 4: Managing Ministry Time

Time is perhaps the only resource that can’t be replenished. Money spent, whether wisely or unwisely, can be replaced by securing more. Leaders lost because they move away, pass away or simply go away, or, hopefully, are sent away to lead in other ministry contexts, can be replaced by developing more. Time, however, once spent, can never be recovered, not even one second. Stewardship of time and strategic use of time, then, demand that time be missionally leveraged if Great Commission ministry is to be effective. We speak of saving time, but, in truth, saving time is impossible. It moves one second, one minute, one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year at a time with unrelenting regularity. Time cannot be saved but can only be invested wisely or spent poorly, never to be recovered or replaced. Scripture

speaks of making the best use of the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-17) and making the best use of the time (Colossians 4:5). Many a pastor has lamented to me that there’s just not enough time to get all that is needed, expected or required in ministry done. Since we can’t create more time, we’re left with the reality that we must maximize the skill of better leveraging the time that we do have. Author Steven Griffith, in The Time Cleanse, speaks of time performance over time management per se, observing, “With this way of operating, time becomes a supportive relationship that enables you to bring focus, energy, and attention to what’s most important in your business and life. By doing this, you are mastering time, not living as a victim of time” (p. 27). Consider six elements in your relationship with time: 1. Time Allotment: Quantify the amount of ministry time that you have. Quantify the ministry to be accomplished and plan your time disbursement. 2. Pro-Active Scheduling: Anticipate routine demand and schedule time in advance rather than waiting to react to people and activities as time is demanded of you. 3. One-Touch Filing System: Adopt a filing system for both hard copy and digital copy that permits you to “touch” communications only once.

4. Email & Voice Mail Control & Response: Schedule routine checks throughout the day for reading and responding to incoming communications, thereby limiting interruptions and maintaining focus. 5. Meetings on Purpose: Meetings should have a vital and clearly stated purpose that is communicated in advance with decision-making as the meeting objective. 6. Teaching/Preaching Preparation: Streamline preparation to keep most ministry hours on the field and not in the study. Use your acquired reservoir of Bible and theology and don’t start each teaching/preaching assignment from scratch.

Skill 5: Working with Staff & Leaders

Pastors are typically placed at or near the top of the organizational chart in their respective churches and most certainly serve as positional leaders. However, positional leadership is a poor platform for leading in a church. Rather, leadership in the church must be spiritual leadership and the most important leadership relationships that exist in the church are the relationships of pastors to staff and pastors to leaders. It’s not about pulling rank but is the outcome of true servant leadership emanating from spiritual authority. That begins and grows into Great Commission leadership when a pastor is disciplined and committed to personal spiritual development. A pastor’s first responsibility to staff and leaders is, indeed, his or her own personal spiritual development. As pastors develop spiritually, the impact of the Great Commission in and through them will move the church forward in Great Commission ministry. Grounded in spiritual authority, pastors are equipped and empowered to represent God’s interests properly, biblically, spiritually. With spiritual priorities correctly in place, pastors are able to work with staff and leaders toward spiritual objectives and outcomes that transcend the conventional pastoral patterns of simply managing a church and fulfilling teaching, preaching and caretaking expectations. Pastoral interaction with staff and leaders must include the building of strong relationships and the maintaining of healthy communication. Strong relationships require investment in people, not just in terms of what they do for the church but in terms of who they are and what’s important to them. These investments, though labor intensive at times, pay rich dividends over time. Think of Jesus and His investment in His disciples. Healthy communication should follow two directives: 1. Communicate with candor and. 2. Communicate often. Much of the conflict in a church is the result of poor communication, miscommunication or a lack of communication, and a conflicted church, especially among staff and leaders, cannot effectively reach a lost community. Say what you mean, mean what you say, listen in order to understand and communicate frequently.

Finally, productively working with staff and leaders demands both ministry clarity and role clarity. The Great Commission pastor unifies all ministries around the central core mission of going in the authority of Jesus to make disciples through evangelizing the community and teaching obedience to the commands of Christ. Clearly defined roles among staff and leaders guard against both neglect and redundancy and routine evaluations promote accountability.

Skill 6: Leaving a Gospel Footprint

John 1:14 informs that when Jesus Christ Incarnate came and dwelled among us, He came full of grace and truth. He became a person in order to connect with people, and grace and truth effused from Him in every encounter. Jesus always left a Gospel footprint, an imprint of grace and truth. What imprint are we leaving? What should our imprint be? What do we want it to be? Consider this: The engagement of a pastor in personal outreach and evangelism will influence the corporate outreach and evangelism of a church, positively or negatively. Likewise, the personal discipling of a pastor will influence the corporate discipling of a church, again, positively or negatively. Outreach, evangelism and discipleship must move from inward to outward. These are driven by purpose and passion and not by program management, and they are only effective by a pastor’s intent, not by ministry happenstance. All six skills of the X-52 ministry philosophy and strategy can be learned and practiced with intentional commitment and with the discipline to stay the course. Equipped with these skills and their practice, pastors and other leaders will both model and inspire Great Commission ministry. The lost will be found, the found will be discipled and the discipled will be mobilized to go and make even more disciples, all to the glory of God. As a pastor or leader, bring the X-Factor into your ministry life and leave a Gospel footprint everywhere you go. Ken Priddy (D.Min., Ph.D.) is Founder and Executive Director of the GO Center, a training and consulting ministry committed to church vitalization and revitalization. Ken also directs LEADERTOWN: A Laboratory for Organization & Leadership Development. His thirty-plus year journey in church planting and revitalization has grown into a national presence among evangelical leaders. He’s an effective trainer and consultant, but perhaps his most significant contribution is his extensive development of training curricula. Ken has published several books, most notably The Leadership Ladder: Developing Missional Leaders in the Church, co-authored with Dr. Steve Ogne, and the accompanying Leadership Ladder Workbook.

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Getting a Great Start Toward Revitalization By Tracy Jaggers The first thing to ask yourself when you are considering a revitalization process: “Is this the right time to start the process?” The second question should be – “Am I willing to see this through to the end?” That being the premise for the rest of this discussion, we need to determine the healthiest avenue to begin the journey. Revitalization must be clearly defined, repeated until a consensus is reached, and led with a risk-taker’s passion and perseverance. So, when is the healthiest time to begin the process and launch it from a solid platform? Start early in the lifecycle of the church. Do not wait until the church has begun the slippery slide down the right side of the bell curve. It is time to start a renovation event when the church is healthy and flourishing. It is best to begin evaluating and assessing the future of the church, discovering the strategy of the redesign, and bolstering the strengths of the congregation. Start when momentum is increasing, and the morale is high. Too often the church doesn’t think revitalization is necessary until people are rushing out the back door like a herd of water buffalo being pursued by a ravenous lion. Start early. Evaluate often and redesign as often as today’s technology! Start when you are strong, not declining. I was consulting

with a church in Texas that any spectator would consider healthy and thriving. The pastor and staff sensed it was time to see if there was more that the Lord wanted from them and ways they could better serve their community. After presenting the process, we dispersed the surveys and began utilizing observation tools to determine present effectiveness. After performing eleven community interviews, we uncovered only one person who even knew where the church was located within a 3-mile radius. Mind you, this was a fairly-new relocation of a church that ran 700-900 each week. One interview was performed less than two blocks away at the local donut shop where numerous church members picked up donuts each week for small group Bible studies. When the results were presented, the outreach and discipleship pastor wept. Their gospel message had been silenced, and their community care was impeded. I visited that same donut shop several weeks after the observations were presented. I found myself face-toface with the same teenage girl that I had interviewed two months before. She let out a shriek and stated, “I remember you. You’re the one who started all this.” She had remembered our earlier conversation. She informed me that since that dialogue, numerous church members had come into the shop and gave the employees gift cards,

brochures from the church, invited them to the services and to lunch on a Sunday when they weren’t working, and apologized for having been insensitive and uncaring. Every worker in the shop that day could tell me EXACTLY where the church was located and something good about it. The church body decided to redesign and renew their “care-factor,” and it made a memorable impression. Start when you sense you are slowing down. Every church begins as a mission, with a mission! They grow into a mission with a ministry. They impact the community, with their mission and their ministry. But, after years of church busyness, they get distracted and they begin to remember what used to be, instead of envisioning what needs to be and what is to come! It is at this point that the church begins to function more like a museum replete with wonderful exhibits. “Here’s who we used to be.”“Look what we used to do,” or “Let me tell you about our glorious history.” Unless the church returns to the passion of their ministry and the purpose of their mission, they slide headlong into the dead zone – the mausoleum! Lifeless, cold and pointless. Start again at the apex of the bell curve. Determine once again why God planted your group in this location. Research the founding culture and reason for its inception and ask yourself, “Has our community changed? Does our church look like our community? Are we still a relevant instrument for the spread of the Gospel and the advancement of the Kingdom to this community?” If your answer to these questions is a barrier to reaching the people surrounding your location, then it is past time to start a revitalization process. Get to it! Start now! Seek to make an eternal difference, even if the risk is high and the resistance is harsh. Start when there’s still life and hope. A few churches with which I have consulted have little to no critical mass to continue moving forward. A church with 15-20 people who are in a building with significant indebtedness is not likely to be able to sustain the financial pressure of the facility AND the necessity of presenting community-changing ministry. A church in this state of decline is usually a prime candidate for a partnership, a merger, takeover or replant. A plant that is brown and has no nutrients is dead! We must accept this fact; when it’s dead, it’s time to let it die and allow another new plant to grow in its place. It matters not that it looks like the former entity; just that the Great Commandment and the Great Commission are foundational to its birth. Another way to understand this fourth evaluation point is this: Start when you just need a repair and not an overhaul. Redesigning and renewal are much more palatable than a full-blown replant. Plus, the fact that an overhaul is more expensive and time consuming than a simple repair. To add a turbocharger to your prize vehicle is a one to two-day endeavor, but an overhaul can easily be a two to four-week pain, depending on the parts and shop work. It still astounds me that we tend to tread water until a flood occurs. Only then do we get out of our Lazy-Boy. Solomon said to his son, “But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—

then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber (Proverbs 6:9-11 NLT).” We cannot be dull in our vision, apathetic in our attitude toward the problem and lazy in our response. Start when you sense a spirit of comfort or complacency. If you and your congregation sense you have arrived, or have attained all that you envisioned, it is the icy start to the slippery slope of ineffectiveness and self-centered ministry. Remain externally-focused and community-minded. Start in prayer. This is the primary starting point, and the source of empowerment for you, for your congregation and for your revitalization process. No prayer, no power! Start with great coaching. Seek out leaders who have been through successful revitalization journeys. It is beneficial to hear from those who have transitioned church renewals or business makeovers. Write down every lesson they learned, apply them to your situation and location, and ask the Lord if these new ideas should find their way into your process. Great coaching often leads to great teams and strong teamwork makes the going much less grueling than doing it all alone. Start when you are rested and healthy. Don’t make major decisions and big audacious plans when you are despondent or suffering burn out! If we are weak, wavering or washed out, we can fail in the starting blocks and never get to run the race at all! “Sleep deprivation has a negative impact on training,” says David Claman, M.D. (director of the University of California-San Francisco Sleep Disorders Center). “The average person needs seven and a half to eight hours of sleep.” This is true of starting a revitalization process. Don’t begin a renewal process when the congregation if weary and grumpy. Get emotionally healthy and happy and the finish line will seem much closer. Start when you still have friends, followers, and fellow workers. Beginning revitalization with an auditorium full of supportive, happy team members is precious. They will be far more productive and enjoyable to work with. If you start with ticked off people, attempting to get them on board with the future vision will be like herding cats. Finally, and most important of all, start with Jesus as the team leader. Join Him in what He wants done and His Spirit will be with you all throughout the course. Start weak, finish fast! Start strong, finish well!

Tracy Jaggers is the Associational Director of Missions of Gateway Baptist Association, Edwardsville, Illinois. He has held the Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor, Minister of Music, Youth Pastor and Minister of Education roles. He is a contributing author for the book entitled, Practical Tools for Reinventing the Dying Church. His website is: www.churchoverhauler.com

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et’s revisit something we know. Church is about God and what He wants to accomplish. As ministers we know by memory Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision of God, the people run wild.” We know this verse is not talking about images of God miraculously appearing in toast or the face of Mary in a tree or other wild image sightings of God. Revelation here is referring to the spoken Word of God spoken by God’s mouthpiece – the prophets. If there is one thing lacking in today’s modern church it is preachers who have an inspired message from God. If there is one thing that will reach people, it is the Word of God. Don’t ever be fooled into thinking that anything else can replace the preaching/teaching of the Word of God. Romans 10:14 has not been re-written or revised. As ministers we must preach the Word of God. For me, the preaching of the Word of God has always been the greatest change agent in the work of revitalization. Jeremiah 23:29 declares the power of God’s Word; “Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

Gather the Words of God

The Words of God to the minister are very critical. They form the basis for sermons and every word that comes out of our mouths. God’s spoken words to us are what we speak in every situation. We can contextualize the Words of God in all meetings, to all our leaders, to the church, to

the lost and saved. Those words combined with weekly messages form the “story” of revitalization. As you gather the Word of God you must begin gathering resources about your community. Know the demographics, schools, culture and feel of the area. As you learn this you can then talk about a vision or spiritual direction that the church needs to pursue. When you have the Word of God and the stories of God moving along with the needs of the area – you now have vision. Without this, you as a pastor, and they as a people, will perish.

Next, discover the resources of your church

Discover your churches resources and how they might be re-tasked or even re-purposed for a new season of life. Every church has resources and every church probably longs for the resources of another. Even churches are not immune to the greener grass syndrome. Often in our fence, we fail to see what resources we have. Take a look at things differently. Drive up to your property with a new view and try to see what the community sees that you do not. Look at Google Earth and discover ways to use your property. Clean out rooms and re-assign them. Find out what the needs of your community are and ask, “How can our

property meet a need?” Don’t think along traditional lines of Sunday/Wednesday services. Think outside of the box. Look at what you have and use it.

Recall God moments in the past “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” At the time when God was making these statements, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead. We need to remind ourselves and the church we serve that God is not dead. We also need to remind the church that just because God moved in a certain way at a certain time through certain songs or programs, does not mean that he cannot move in a new way in the present. If the language of the church only includes stories of what God did move in the past, then that is a dying church.

I love studying Moses and Joshua. I love reading the Exodus account, the wilderness wanderings, the transfer from Moses to Joshua, and the conquest of the Promise Land. Joshua 24 is a perfect example of recalling and how it leads to choosing and stepping out toward a promised future. Joshua gathers all the people at Shechem and through the inspiration of God he recalls all that God did from slavery to the Promise Land. He turns the corner at verse 14 and turns the recall into a choice – “choose this day…”

“When you have the Word of God and the stories of God moving along with the needs of The language of the dying the area – you now church is I was. The language of a church that is alive is I am. have a vision.” I am is language that God is still moving just like He did in the life of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Remind them that each generation needs to see God move or we will be like the lost generation found in Judges 2:10. The book of Deuteronomy is Exodus on repeat. Moses recalls for them the covenant and conditions of walking with God. It’s both a warning and a map to the future. Moses reminds them of the work of God in times past and what must be done to secure God’s provision moving forward. There is so much there that serves as a biblical recollection for Christians to follow. The stories and how strongly they relate to the church are incredible. A great agent of change is a strong reminder from the past. Most church people are slow to change as it relates to the future. I have found that when you show them their future by looking back at biblical stories of those who failed because they cherished status quo over following God, you will gain a group of people who are willing to secure a faithful future rather than die being faithful to the past. Here’s the point, true recollection serves as a challenge toward the future.

The goal of recall is to remind them what God did and that He wants to do it again – but, we must choose this day. We are not choosing yesterday. Today, right now, we are choosing to step out toward tomorrow.

In just a few short sentences you should be able to recall the “remember when” God moments and end it with – God do it again!

Recalling is choosing. Choosing to follow the I AM God. The God who is active. The God who is ahead. The God who is alive. Listen, sometimes we put the church in front of a living God. Often in our systems, habits, and comforts we, like the children of Israel, forget who delivers us, blesses us, and prepares a table before us. Gather – Discover – and Recall. These are great points of preparation for a grand opening to a new, healthy church. Ron Smith is the Lead Pastor of WaterStone Church in Longwood and serves as Co-Leader of Renovate One Day Training as well as serving on staff of the Renovate Coaching Network. Follow Ron at RonBSmithJr.com for leadership material and sporadic blogs.

Facing Down Fear By Pete Tackett Most people love their church and want what is best for it. Rare is the exception when someone knows they are hurting their church and militantly continues down that path. Most remember the good days and are certain the church needs to return to doing what they used to do, only with more vigor and determination. Thus, when a new or transitional pastor or an existing leader starts talking revitalization, the immediate emotion is most often fear - fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of loss, and fear of change.

means, pray! Let God do what only He can do and then you do some of the following as He leads.

It is not enough for the revitalizer to remind them of 2 Timothy 1:7 (“God has not given you a spirit of fear….”), but he must lead them to understand and overcome their fears. Otherwise, the paralysis of fear will cripple the process before it even gets started.

The church revitalizer can address those fears by having a clear, concise, written plan that the church will follow. It must be said up front that we might have to deviate from this plan and we can’t put a time limit on it, but in general, here is what we are going to do. That written plan should include a clear understanding of who is going to speak for the team, when they can expect reports, how changes to the plan will be adopted, and how they will be allowed to offer input.

There are some specific fears unique to the various constituencies involved in a revitalization process. I am certain every article in this edition will make some mention of prayer as the foundation for starting out right, so may we just stipulate that prayer is the first thing you need in facing fear? No revitalization effort will ever be successful without the involvement, oversight, blessing and leadership of the Holy Spirit. By all

There are two specific sets of fears that must be addressed. The first is of the longtime members who fear that if the changes don’t work, there will be no way back. They are concerned that once they commit to revitalize, they will be left in the dark and changes will happen without their input. These are legitimate fears, at least in their mind.

Practically, here is how we have done that. We allowed anyone to suggest names of people who should be on the team. Not everyone was ultimately selected, but the people had input and we were careful that every

age group was represented. We committed to a written report at each Quarterly Business Conference even if it is just said that we do not have anything to report. We also committed that if there were major decisions being made between quarterly meetings, we would have a well publicized opportunity for them to ask questions and offer feedback. Finally, we said repeatedly, if they did not get it in writing from the team, it was to be considered gossip and sin. One of the lighthearted moments came when our oldest active member, Fred, told his neighbor, who was not a member, that he was gossiping because he asked if we were becoming one of those “rock ’n roll” churches. The members also knew that at the end of the process, there would ultimately be a vote on the specific major action points and they would have opportunity to ask questions there as well as vote. At the risk of being simplistic, the answer to fear in the extended church family is communication, communication, communication. My first Senior Pastor said to me, “Tell the people and trust the Lord.” It is still good advice. The second unique set of fears that has to be addressed is the fears of the core team of offending someone, killing a sacred cow, or discussing something in the group that gets out before the conversation is finished. When those fears are present, they will either talk it to death and never move on it or sit in the room and say nothing, effectively killing the idea by being unwilling to own it. My job is to realize they are not purposely trying to kill our plans with the paralysis of analysis or by withdrawing, but are controlled by fear. To paraphrase an old church phrase, you have to “name it and blame it.” There must be freedom in that group to discuss not only what needs to happen but their fears of what that decision will cause. One of the greatest fears of our team was their concern about having the freedom to discuss what was wrong and the options to fix it. They were fearful that their discussions would get out and longtime friends would be mad at them before a decision could be made. Without that freedom, no productive conversation was possible. I spent the first session letting them talk about the good old days, their dreams, and their fears. The second session though was wholly dedicated to establishing the ground rules of our meetings. We brought in a neutral third party, but in other settings, I have led this myself, so you can choose. We spent the whole session letting the team establish

rules and writing them down on a white board. Each suggestion was discussed at length and massaged until everyone was in agreement or the whole group decided it was not a good idea. Once we were finished, we had seven ground rules for our meetings. I went around the table to all twelve members and asked them to verbally commit to the rules. By the next meeting, we had them in writing for their notebooks and asked everyone to sign their copy and then each meeting, we reviewed them prior to our discussions. The team where I serve currently was controlled by a fear of what that same oldest member couple thought. Perhaps you have been in meetings like this. It seemed every time we started discussing something for the first few months, the inevitable question was “What do Fred and Jewell think of this?” Early on in the process, I spent some time helping them see this as an unwarranted fear. It took nearly a year to get people to quit asking that question but each time we just called it what it was. Fear! Ultimately, we just systematically walked them through several fears they had and let them figure out solutions when necessary. By talking about them and exposing them, there was often nothing that needed to be done. Once it was exposed to the light, it was almost laughable. However, once you address those fears, productive and difficult conversations can be had in a manageable environment. We had some difficult, painful discussions, but it was safe to have them and I preferred to have them in that room and around that table than for them to be happening in the hallways and classrooms and blowing up in a church conference. Starting out right in your revitalization process will need to include facing down fear and calling it what it is. The answer is communication for those not on the team and confidentiality for those who are. Pete Tackett is Lead Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Johnson City, Tennessee, and a Pastor Connector for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. He regularly partners with churches and pastors engaging in revitalization. He is the author of re.Vital.ize: Lessons Learned in a Recovering Church.

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Practical Steps Toward New Life By George Thomasson I am convinced that one of the most important things a pastor can do is to become thoroughly acquainted with the history of the church he serves. When I was called to Northwood Baptist Church in West Palm Beach (now a campus of Family Church), the records revealed that they had lost an average of 105 net members per year for the previous five years. I did not have to convince the people that the church was in serious trouble. Everyone knew that something radical must happen if the church were to continue its ministry. It was obvious that the people were discouraged and didn’t know what to do. So, one of the first things I did was to attempt to gain an accurate picture of the history of the church. There were still several remaining charter members, so I set appointments with them, interviewed them, and recorded the sessions. As these precious, founding members reflected on past years and God’s supernatural activity in and through the church, their discouragement was transformed into delight. I learned so much about this historic church. When I asked the staff for the original business meeting minutes, they could not produce them. The next day I came to the office in my jeans and began searching for those documents. I looked in every closet and possible hiding place. Finally, mid-afternoon, I uncovered an old box under a stairwell. It contained the treasure! The first notebook of minutes dated 1928 told about the organization of the church with thirty members. As I continued to read, I discovered in writing what the charter members had shared verbally. The first facility, built only one year after the birth of the congregation, was completely leveled by a hurricane in 1929. Nothing remained but the concrete slab! A business meeting was called with only one item on the agenda: “Do we rebuild on the same property and continue as a church or do we disband and attend other existing churches?” After much passionate prayer and lengthy discussion, it was unanimously decided that God Himself had led them to plant the church, the hurricane was not a surprise to Him and they must continue. Since there was little in the way of financial resources among the members of the infant congregation, the pastor drove all over Florida sharing their need with sister Baptist churches. Offerings were taken and enough was received to purchase the materials to rebuild. After the architect re-drew the building plans to make them stronger, the men of the church along with a few profes-

sionals, rebuilt on the same site. The Lord’s hand was so powerful on the new congregation that it began growing at a rapid pace. In just a few years, the Northwood church became one of the strongest churches in south Florida growing to over 1,200 in Sunday morning attendance. I began immediately to weave many of these God stories from the past into my messages. Little by little the people began to catch a vision of how the Spirit of God worked in the life of the church. We prayed that He would do it again for His glory. A fresh fire of hope and anticipation was ignited. When the time came to lead the people to relocate to a thirty-six-acre property on Interstate 95, I referenced the spirit and the DNA of our founding members and challenged them to trust the Lord and walk by faith just as they had many years before. Miracle after miracle occurred as we purchased the property debt free, developed the land, sold the original facilities, and built an entirely new plant. The church experienced exponential growth. We must be careful not to try to re-live the “good old days,” but we must also be intentional to affirm the victories of the past while challenging our people to move forward by faith. In our case, the church was still large enough to undertake the demands of a total relocation. However, this will not be

4. Is the location and/or general condition of the church’s facilities a detriment? Changes in the community over time can result in crime and other factors that make it more difficult to attract new families. Additionally, since offerings are usually insufficient, maintenance of facilities is neglected and in need of significant attention. A feasibility study should be conducted examining the level of existing debt, if any, as well as the total cost required to bring the buildings and grounds back up to par. 5. Does the church have enough effective leaders to guide the her through a revitalization process? This may be the most important question of all. If the church has been declining for many years, it is likely that many if not most of the progressive and passionate leaders have already left. If these godly men and women are no longer active in the congregation, wisdom would dictate that outside help from a strong, healthy church is needed. This may result in a temporary partnership to help the church become healthy or the declining church may become a campus of the stronger church. In most cases a church that has been struggling for a long time should ask for help from the outside. We all have blind spots and often a consultant with a fresh set of eyes can provide the direction needed for revitalization.

true in most churches. I simply cannot overemphasize the importance of doing a thorough assessment of your church before choosing a revitalization option. You may want to ask and answer the following questions: 1. What is the current strength or viability of the church? Look at budget needs versus income; debt service; condition of buildings and grounds; average attendance; small groups; leadership base; etc. 2. Does the church have an existing senior pastor? If not, it would be wise to consult a denominational leader or experienced consultant to give advice. If a pastor is still on staff, he should seek advice from other trusted leaders to help him determine if he has the gift-set to lead the church through a revitalization process. In many cases fine pastors are gifted as shepherds ministering to the flock, but not in leading a church through the massive and intentional change required to bring new life to a struggling church. 3. Is the current ethnic and socio-economic make-up of the church community compatible with the composition of the existing congregation? Often a major reason for plateau and/or decline is the effects of a changing community. As a result, the church cannot adequately engage the changing community with effective ministries and so it begins a downward spiral.

A skilled consultant will help the church with the following: • Coming to grips with an honest assessment of its current reality. • Beginning to dream about God’s vision for the church. This will necessitate developing mission, values, strategy, measures and vision. It brings clarity, alignment and purpose. • Identifying the limiting factors that are holding them back from realizing God’s vision. • Prioritizing the limiting factors. Answer the question, “Which factors, if solved, will have the most positive impact on revitalizing our church?” • Projecting possible solutions for the factors and assigning them to work groups with clear expectations and timelines. Note: A practical tool to guide a church in a revitalization process is RESUSCITATE…How to Breathe New Life into a Gasping Church, by George A. Thomasson. It can be purchased on Amazon.com. George Thomasson is a native of Arkansas but spent most of his ministry in Florida and Texas. He holds degrees from Palm Beach Atlantic University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Sandra. They have two grown children, Angie Gould and Greg Thomasson, who blessed them with two grandchildren each. He presently serves as Mobilization Pastor for Christ Place Church in Flowery Branch, Georgia.

Revitalization Needs Vision By Steve Smith A country church was down to its last eighteen elderly attenders when the new pastor showed up. Years before, a congregation thirty miles away had started this congregation as a daughter church. Now they were sending someone in to close it up and encourage the remaining attenders to attend the mother church. The church had dwindled because the local retirement community had stopped attracting retirees that made up the congregation. Many had moved or passed away. Almost everyone else living in the surrounding countryside were Hispanic agricultural workers, who were poor and disinterested in the church. Instead of closing the church, this pastor saw a harvest field. Since there were no other churches nearby, what if this congregation reached out to the people around it who needed the gospel? The pastor began roaming the community, meeting locals, asking questions about what people were looking for in life, what people thought. The pastor got the local agricultural businesses to donate much needed food. The mother church donated clothing. The attenders became mentors to the children who needed help with their education. The pastor sowed the gospel. Locals began to follow Jesus. Before the second year was out, the young pastor actually guided the church in calling a successor—a Spanish-speaking pastor. The church became a thriving Hispanic congregation. It never closed its doors. What this young pastor had was vision. Out of that vision, a workable strategy was developed. The result was that lost people who had no hope in the gospel became the church. Having vision is as old as the Bible. But the practice of developing individual church vision statements has been with us only about forty years. They became a staple of the modern American church due to the influence of the Christian business community. Numerous books and hundreds of seminars were offered that hammered home the idea that every church needed to pursue a vision that would guide them to achieve their preferred future— as in, “What do we want to become as a church?” Vision as a preferred future is an interesting idea. But it is not the same as biblical vision. Nor are many church vision statements about a preferred future. More of them are really just theological statements—all about making more and better disciples, passionately worshiping God, sowing the gospel. All of these are good things, which can be summarized in the statement, “We want to be a biblical church.” But both a preferred future and a desire to be a biblical church are only about looking inward at yourself as a congregation. Neither depends on God revealing anything. Both are guided more by a desire to be rather than to see. The central idea of biblical vision is about seeing something God wants you to see besides yourself.

And if vision is about anything, it’s about seeing the harvest. Who are we here to reach? Who do we see? Who do we have compassion for? This is how God brought your church into being to start with. The lost were found and they formed the church. You are now the person God has brought to lead this church to recapture this same kind of vision. Consider how Jesus demonstrated this to his followers. “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:36-38 NIV) Two things stick out in this story. The first is that Jesus saw the people. They were the reason for his incarnation. He came to be the sacrifice for their sins. So he could not see them and be unmoved. He felt ‘compassion’ for them. That word meant that he felt gut-twisted. It hurt to see them as the lost. This was typical for Jesus. Wherever he went, he saw the lost. At the well. Up in a Jericho tree. Weeping at his feet. Crying out for healing. Being lowered through a hole in the roof by friends. Slipping in to see him at night. All of them mattered to him. So many congregations that are true to biblical doctrine and believe the Bible is God’s authoritative word are stuck because the people in the congregation no longer see the lost. They only see each other. They look forward to being with each other. They plan events for each other. But their church buildings are surrounded by lost people who are never really seen with

Jesus and holding dear to Him as their source of all joy and worth. -A place where the hurting, the depressed, the frustrated, and the confused can find love, acceptance, help, hope, forgiveness, guidance, and encouragement. In Jacksonville, FL, a church called The Well is focused on reaching people trapped by addictions and the lifestyle addiction draws them into. Their vision statement explains that “We believe that we are not just here to share good news, but to be good news. Our goal is to be good news to our community and the people who live in it. We believe God’s love will be poured out as we make serving people in tangible ways a priority, especially as we serve the least of these.” Guided by this vision, they started Dope Church in the parking lot of a local motel that serves as a flop house for prostitutes and drug addicts. As a result, scores of people have come to faith. So how do you do this? Here are four steps:

compassion. The lost remain nameless, faceless, unmourned. To these congregations, revitalization can just mean new paint and updated worship or more attendees and a brighter future. But to revitalize means to imbue something with new life and vitality. Revitalization calls for believers to gain a renewed desire to be used by God to see the lost found—and to behold God dynamically giving new life to them. Seeing the lost is what true vision is. Vision is looking outside your doors to see who in your community needs the gospel and feeling gut-twisted that they are lost. Point two about this story is that Jesus sees the lost as the harvest. These are reachable lost people. But the workers are few. He directs his disciples to pray that God will send more people to help with the harvest. Here is Jesus’ focus for his church—for your congregation. That they see the lost and reach the lost. That they count themselves among the workers. If this isn’t true for the people of your congregation now, it will be. Otherwise, your church will not be revitalized. Here are a couple of dynamic church vision statements I have come across: -We desire to be used of God to reach other Latinos in this area with the good news about Jesus, especially reaching kids who have become gang members. -To see the people of Cincinnati forever changed by the Gospel of

1. Start with conviction of your theology. You have been in ministry long enough now to have integrated what you know from the Bible with what you long to see in your church. How should your church accomplish its mission? How should your church function as the body of Christ? How should your church relate to the other local churches in the community? What is the relationship of your church to the Kingdom of God? Furthermore, explain your understanding of Christ as the Head of the Church, into whose likeness all of you are being conformed. 2. Begin to pray and ask God who you should see with compassion as you look at the people in your community. And invite your congregation to join you in praying and looking. Instead of starting a new prayer service for this, you need to utilize every gathering and scheduled meeting to spend time praying for the lost. 3. Write out a strategy. You need to determine how the congregation will reach the lost together. What do we need to do to prepare ourselves to be a disciple-making church? What do we need to do to open them up to the gospel? How will we use our building, time, finances and abilities to sow the gospel? You may need advice and coaching on this. 4. Do the work of an evangelist. Don’t wait until the rest of the church is ready to join you. Go after those God has prepared you to reach. If you do not know who the church is to reach, it doesn’t matter what you do. But if you know who the church is to sow the gospel to, you will find that the congregation will join in with you. If you are going to start out strong in revitalization, this is the place you begin. All the other things you do will depend on a clear vision.

Steve Smith is the founder of ChurchEquippers Ministries, serving churches by training them in transformational discipleship and church systems. 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. For more information, go to: www.ChurchEquippers. com

The Starting Block By Chris Irving You must watch the video of Texas high school sprinter Matthew Boling of Strake Jesuit College Prep in Houston run the 100 meter event from April 27th. Maybe you watched it on Facebook or Twitter. He’s been nicknamed “White Lightning” by Twittersphere. Matthew ran the 100 meter sprint in 9.98 seconds which is the fastest time ever by an American under twenty years old. Matthew is only eighteen years old. Recently, I sat with a high school track coach and asked him if he had heard about this kid in Houston. He said he had watched the video. Jay offered his opinion and said, “Chris, the scary thing is, he didn’t come out of the blocks clean. If he’d had a good start, his time would’ve been much faster.” Good starts are obviously important in a race, but even more important is a good start in church revitalization.

Know the Course

Your church must know the race course. Matthew knew he had to run 100 meter and no further. This was not a 400 meter race in which he just ran 100 meter and quit. Course layout determined the distance he ran. God planned for the church to accompany His mission. Let us remember when talking about a good start, the reason you and I are even in the race to begin with. The mission of God is to restore people back to Himself. John 3:16 is very clear about His mission. The purpose of the church is no different than God’s mission. The church does not have a mission, rather, as Ed Stetzer says, “the mission has a church.” That mission is to make God known to the nations through Jesus Christ. Remembering the mission is essential to a good start. Starting a race without knowing the race course is ridiculous.

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Think about this…if you began a race thinking you were running 100m, but the race was actually a 5K, you would be in trouble. The body can be trained to run short bursts. We call this anaerobic exercise. Physiologically the body is not able to sustain the sprint great distances because the body is unable to supply enough oxygen to the heart and muscle groups required to sprint. Church revitalization is not a sprint, but rather a marathon. Physiologically the body can be trained to run greater distances at a slower pace in which the body is conditioned to supply ample oxygen to the heart and muscle groups. This is the more natural tendency for church revitalization. But even in a marathon, a good start is essential. Training is a necessity and you can receive training through the Renovate Church Conference regional events this year. Keep a sharp eye out for these upcoming dates and locations. I am leading my people through the book of Exodus. Thinking about a good start, Moses certainly did not have one in his leadership journey. Over time though, the Lord used Moses to free Israel from Egypt. Here are three truths Exodus taught me regarding church revitalization and leadership.

Start with God’s power. (Exodus 17:8-16)

A healthy church must rely on God’s power. In Exodus 17, the Israelites are beyond Egypt but you might remember they faced a new opponent in the Amalekites. This is the first time opposition arose from someone not Egyptian. They needed God’s help. In the story, when Moses held up his staff, the Israelites prevailed. When his arms grew tired and he lowered the staff, the Amalekites prevailed over Israel. So it is within the Church. You and I must rely

and depend on God’s power. First and foremost, you must look to the head of the church, Jesus Christ. He promised the Father would send a Helper. Jesus told the disciples in Luke 24 to stay put until they received power from on high. The start of the church was marked by the arrival of God’s power in the Holy Spirit. A simple way to find out if you are operating under God’s power is to ask yourself this question, “If God removed Himself from the church and ministry I lead, would I know it?” If the answer is “no,” or “I’m not sure,” then you are not relying on God’s power by looking to Christ. Church, you and I must depend on God’s power. His power alone will change how you worship, how you serve, how you lead, and your attitude toward one another. My good friend Dr. Jim Grant once told me, “As long as they looked at the staff, they fought a battle they could not lose. But when they looked away, they fought a battle they could not win.” AMEN! Paul worshiped with the Ephesians when he wrote, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20. Start with God’s power!

Proclaim a Clear Gospel Witness (Exodus 18:1-12)

In the Exodus story, chapter 18 relays a story where Jethro arrives with Moses’ family. He hears of God’s work in releasing the people from Egypt. The Lord works a conversion in Jethro’s life in this moment from being a priest of Midianite gods, to a worshiper of the LORD. That is quite a life-changing event. A healthy church must present a clear gospel witness. I have been told I preach the gospel too much. I do not know how to respond other than that I am convinced that some in the church still need to hear it and the world is certainly in need of it as well. I am also one who needs to hear it consistently! It does my soul good to remember the great work of God in salvation. The Gospel changes lives as the story of Jesus is recounted over and over. John 6:40 says, “This is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” You might question some days what the will of God is for your life or your church…well…Jesus made it pretty clear in John 6:40. This is the race marked before the church. Proclaim the Gospel and make disciples. If is the will of God, then it must be a vital component for the church to bear witness to the work of God through the Gospel! I once heard Dr. Barry McCarty preach at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary a sermon entitled, “The Gospel is the Change that Changes Everything.” Pretty much sums up the road marked before us. After you start with God’s power, keep a clear gospel witness.

Sustain a Good Start with Shared Ministry (Exodus 18:13-26)

During Jethro’s visit with Moses, he notices an unhealthy leadership practice. He points out to Moses the practice of judging, teaching, and leading the people on his own

is not healthy nor is it a sustainable method of leadership. Jethro proposed a method of shared leadership and responsibility. If Moses had ignored his father-in-law’s advice, the consequences would have been catastrophic for Moses and Israel. But Moses listens and divides the people into smaller manageable groups. The danger was Moses wearing out while at the same time wearing out his people. He is trying to run a marathon like a sprinter running a 100m sprint. It just was not sustainable. But a good start will lead you to a sustainable future if you can plan to grow and train leadership. This is the guiding coalition of like-minded Christians who are invested in the work of revitalization. This is very similar to Acts 6 when the Apostles could no longer meet the needs of the church so they elected men who could help serve while they focused on their calling to the word and prayer. The Apostles, and eventually the Elders and the Deacons, were joined together serving the mission of God. We still practice this ministry concept today. It isn’t healthy for just a few to share the burdens of ministry in the church. The Church is composed of people who are gifted by the Holy Spirit to carry out the ministry of the church. Moses was carrying the load by himself and Jethro pointed out that was not healthy. Now, we Texans, especially Aggies, like to think we are self-made folks and we do not take kindly to asking other people for help. But the mindset is not a Biblical concept. The New Testament church established a system of ministry helpers because the Apostles could not lead effectively by themselves. Just as Moses was corrected by his Gentile father-in-law which helped prepare the people to receive the Law from God, we need to remember the biblical concept of “every-member ministry.” Every-member is a runner in the race. Provide not only for yourself a great start, but set them up for success for God’s glory as well. I am praying you will come out of the starting blocks well and run the revitalizing race so that you win the prize! “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 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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A Good Start Doesn’t Just Happen By Bud Brown

An aspiring sprinter doesn’t casually stroll onto the track, get in the starting blocks, and explode with Usain Bolt’s power and speed when the starter’s pistol fires. The entrepreneur’s business venture starts long before that new boutique’s doors open; she conducts market research, develops and markets her products, sets up and stocks the retail space, and promotes the grand opening. Then her business gets off to a good start. My weight training coach spends significant time teaching me the skills required to master a good start in the deadlift. Once I position my feet properly, apply a firm grip in the right spot, and assume good posture, then I’m ready to lift. Time and again my coach makes minor corrections, shows photographs and slow-motion videos of my technique, and trains me to envision the perfect deadlift. Thanks to him I lift significant weight for a senior citizen without harm or injury. In sports, business, marriage, or life training, discipline, and skill development precede the good start. The same is true of ministry. A good start in church revitalization doesn’t just happen, it is the result of a lot of work. In many ways, training for church revitalization is like training for the deadlift. You have to practice until you master foot placement, grip, posture, and execution. In the process you learn to envision the lift before weight moves off the floor.

Training for the deadlift is like training for church revitalization.

A skilled coach

Life isn’t about just one thing. Neither is church revitalization leadership. There’s no magic formula, no secret sauce, and no silver bullet. But there is one essential component that will make or break getting a good start: the coach. Accomplished revitalization pastors invariably have coaches.1 There are four reasons why. 1. A coach understands your potential and weaknesses. 2. A coach tailors a program suited to your particular needs so you can achieve your potential and avoid injury. 3. A coach sees mistakes you’ll miss and makes adjustments on the spot so you can master leadership skills. 4. A coach motivates and encourages, which spurs us to work harder and achieve more. Action Step: if you don’t have a leadership development coach, find one who knows best ministry and best leadership practices and has a proven track record of developing revitalization pastors.

A solid stance

A good start begins with the feet. My coach pays close at1See Penfold and Malphurs, Re:Vision, p. 95. They discovered that revitalizers are far more likely to work with a coach than maintainers.

tention to and continuously refines my foot placement and balance. He recommends lifting with bare feet to maximize a constant, mindful contact with the floor. He’s taught me that pushing the floor down with my feet translates into greater strength. When I’m anchored to the floor and focused on steady feet, I can lift more. Where do pastors plant their feet to lift and move a stagnant church? The mission of God is the revitalization pastor’s only sure and immovable footing. His plan to restore the creation to blessedness is a major, if not the primary, biblical theme. Scripture’s narrative arc, from the first chapters of Genesis to the last chapters of Revelation, traces this mission. You’re on solid ground when you align your preaching, leadership development, programming, and pastoral care with God’s mission. This positions you to distinguish means (which should evolve) from ends (which do not). Action step: if you can’t explain your church’s mission in a single declarative sentence, do it now. It is the foundation and justification for everything else.

A firm grip

A firm grip is crucial to a good start in lifting the weight off the floor. Grip limits how much you can lift. It doesn’t matter how strong your core, back, and legs are if your hands can’t hold the weight. A strength coach drills you on hand strength, placement, and a grasp that endures for the whole lift. Revitalization pastors have a firm grasp on vision. Turnaround Pastors define vision as a statement about what this church will do to reach that group of people using these resources. Getting off to a good start toward church revitalization is highly unlikely without a firm grip on vision. With it you’ll be able to hang on for the three to five years it takes to move a church off the plateau. 1. It ignites passion in hearts and minds that supports the required changes. 2. It reveals “green shoots” showing the church can still grow. 3. It realigns resources to their highest and best use. 4. It is a logical basis for cutting ineffective programs and saying “no” to opportunities that don’t fit. 5. It focuses everyone on the destination when they grow weary. Action step: if you don’t have a clear, compelling vision that’s specific to your church, work with your coach to develop one. Read Chapter 10 of Malphurs and Penfold, Re:Vision: The Key to Transforming Your Church.

Healthy posture

More than anything else, my weight coach drills his clients on posture. Learning and keeping proper posture is vital to avoiding injury, particularly as weights increase. He insists we master the optimal alignment of back, hips, and knees

before lifting. He constantly reiterates the proper sequence of movements of hips, knees, and back throughout each lift so we don’t hurt ourselves. Pastors must learn to adopt and maintain a healthy posture. This involves keeping a beneficial distance between their emotions and the church’s anxiety. Churches will always resist change, even when they clamor for it, and resistance produces anxiety. It’s hardwired into the human system. Revitalization pastors must learn to self-differentiate. 2This is vital to staying healthy while moving heavyweight congregational resistance. The primary cause of pastoral burnout isn’t hard work or long hours; it is lifting the anxiety that other people are carrying. Pastors must master the alignment of emotional systems — theirs and the church’s. A healthy emotional posture involves standing partly in and partly outside the church. It is staying close to the people, particularly the difficult people, but refusing to “make them feel good.” Action step: if you are unfamiliar with self-differentiation, learn this crucial emotional posture. Read Edwin Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve and Jack Shitama’s Anxious Church, Anxious People. Then, work with your coach to develop a healthy emotional posture. A plan Next week I’ll attempt a new personal best on the deadlift. If I succeed, part of the credit will go to a good training plan. Months of work on grip, footing, posture, and escalating weight will look like nothing more than a single deadlift. But without the plan, the discipline, the coaching, and the skills it wouldn’t happen - ever. It’s a given that plateaued churches must plan for revitalization. Plans evolve as new opportunities and challenges appear. (That’s not an argument against planning, it’s an argument for adaptability.) Action step: with your coach’s guidance, assemble a planning team and get to work. It takes months to draw up a plan people will embrace. Don’t start without one! 2 Self-differentiation is the ability to stay close to people while not reacting to their anxiety. Bud Brown has ministered in a wide variety of settings, from small rural to mid-sized suburban to rapidly growing megachurches. He has trained and mentored international students, intentional interim pastors, doctoral students, and now serves as president of Turnaround Pastors (www.turnaroundpastor.com).

Don’t Fall for These Three Newbie Turnaround Traps

By Bob Whitesel As I prepare to teach my course titled “Turnaround Church” at Fuller Theological Seminary this fall, I thought it would be helpful to describe the most common traps into which inexperienced turnaround leaders fall and ways to avoid each. TRAP 1: Being hired to do the work of revitalization. Why this trap occurs: Hiring your way out of trouble is a standard practice in the for-profit world. However, because their business model operates on a for-profit basis, it allows them to plow profits into hiring their way out of adversity. Nonprofits run mostly on volunteers and small staffs. They have leaner budgets and usually cannot afford a hiring solution. The lean-staff and “keep it simple” alternative has been immortalized in Jesus’ instructions to his disciples in Luke 9:1-6 (MSG): Jesus now called the Twelve and gave them authority and power to deal with all the demons and cure diseases. He commissioned them to preach the news of God’s kingdom and heal the sick. He said, “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment. And no luxury inns—get a modest place and be content there until you leave. If you’re not welcomed, leave town. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and move on.” Commissioned, they left. They traveled from town to town telling the latest news of God, the Message, and curing people everywhere they went.

Do this instead: Mentor & delegate. This is may be hard for trained church leaders, because they feel they have been hired to be the experts. Thus, they customarily attempt to do most of the work themselves. However, this usually leads to burnout. Instead, church shepherds should model Jesus’ example of giving his disciples responsibilities and then sending them out to minister to others (Luke 9:1-2). Mentoring is characterized by a back-and-forth dialogue with the mentee regarding how the process is going. We see such examples in Jesus’ dialogues with his disciples, for instance Matt. 17:18-20 (MSG): He (Jesus) ordered the afflicting demon out—and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well. When the disciples had Jesus off to themselves, they asked, “Why couldn’t we throw it out?” “Because you’re not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus. “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.” Delegating is slightly different from mentoring. It means giving others something you could do yourself, but allowing them to learn as they fumble their way through. Jesus, as the omniscient Son of God, knew his disciples would be unable to cast out demons (Luke 17:19). But still he let them try. In His omniscience, Jesus knew an important lesson would be driven home if the disciples first had a chance to

flounder and then learn from that experience. TRAP 2: Giving (and requiring) 110% effort. Why this trap occurs: People usually feel that if they overwork themselves (e.g. give 110%) they will succeed. This manifests when a leader works more hours during the week than for which one is paid. Such leaders may expect volunteers to increase their hours too. A trap occurs when burnout, neglected families and leadership turnover result. Billy Graham stated similar regrets: “Although I have much to be grateful for as I look back over my life, I also have many regrets. I have failed many times, and I would do many things differently. For one thing, I would speak less and study more, and I would spend more time with my family.” (billygraham.org) Do this instead: Adjust everyone’s duties

TRAP 3: Promising big changes too soon. Why this trap occurs: Plateaued and dying churches have been dreaming about health for so long, that they often expect it to take place too fast. In addition, models they see of healthy churches are usually many years in the making. My experience and research has let me to believe that healthy church change is slow, but deliberate. In fact, one of the most knowledgeable researchers on organizational change, Harvard University’s John Kotter (Leading Change, Harvard Press), found that “celebrating small-term wins” leads to more change, more quickly.

“Plateaued and dying churches have been dreaming about health for so long, that they often expect it to take place too fast.”

Remind them that the church is going to need to do different things and that there are two ways to do this. One way is to ask everybody to give extra, e.g. 110%. But, you recognize this only leads to burnout. Remind them you don’t want to see them or yourself burned-out or families neglected.

The second, and more rewarding way, is to ask them to purge from their duties 20% of what they are currently doing. Ask them to use that 20% to become involved in new activities, e.g. involved in a new service or a new community outreach. The principle is that this requires, for the sake of spiritual health, to pull back and reduce their current volunteer efforts by 20% to open up 20% involvement in new activities. Exemplify this yourself. Acknowledge that you are unable to continue to do everything the previous pastor did while at the same time reaching out to new generations and cultures. Remind them that you don’t want them, or you, to sacrifice family or spiritual well being. Show them you have too much respect for your and their spiritual health. As you ask them to readjustment their volunteer activities, suggest they write this down and submit their “readjustment” to the person overseeing their work.

Do this instead: Plan for & celebrate short-term wins

Meet with the church leaders and discuss what the church should look like in five years. Then ask them to describe what would it should look like in 2.5 years, one year and six months. Map out several goals for the next six months, asking yourselves which are most likely to be attained. Write these six month goals down and begin to create tactics to reach them.

As soon as you reach any of your short-term goals, celebrate! The key is for people to see and celebrate progress. For effective change, people don’t have to see enormous changes, but they do need to see movement. Bob Whitesel DMIN PhD. teaches Fuller Theo. Seminary’s DMin course on Church Revitalization, which can be audited this fall (see the ad in this issue).

Bob Whitesel is an award-winning author/consultant on church health and growth. He has been called “the key spokesperson on change theory in the church today” by a national magazine, co-founded an accredited seminary (Wesley Seminary at IWU) and created one of the nation’s most respected church health and growth consulting firms: ChurchHealth.net

Attend or Audit

a Doctor of Ministry Course at Fuller Theological Seminary

LEADING TURNAROUND CHURCHES Instructor:

Bob Whitesel (DMin, PhD) More than 85% of Christian congregations in America are either plateaued in their membership or are actively declining. This course will be attending to some of the greatest barriers to renewing congregations and the forces that control change today. Audit the course for $580 or apply to the DMin program.* *Applicants must hold a theological Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree to qualify as either an audit or program student.

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Contact the Doctor of Ministry Office at: (626) 584-5315 or dmin@fuller.edu or visit www.fuller.edu/dmin

DOCTOR OF MINISTRY

The local church is the only organization that can facilitate eternal hope, lasting change, and total transformation in the lives of people and communities everywhere. Even so, todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s local churches are often in desperate need of renewal and revitalization themselves. In The Revitalized Church, Pastor Michael Atherton uses his firsthand experiences to show how a local church community can once again become vibrant. The Revitalized Church shares Athertonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eighteen-month journey merging two church communities with a common vision and discusses the challenges and the victories he encountered. In addition, he examines the key biblical leadership principles that were used to help sustain the church community.

The Best Laid Plans By Jim Grant As the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. Church Revitalization is a difficult task at best. In our current revitalization movement there are many models, principles, and processes being advocated to bring a declining and dying church back to health and productivity. The struggle with the nature of revitalization is that often models, and processes, can become so strategic in implementation that they skip the “spiritual dynamic” partially or all together. Church revitalization, like Church planting, has stories of success and failure. How can we as revitalizers create an environment that will increase our likelihood of success for the churches we engage? Church revitalization must begin somewhere; obviously revitalization can’t use a cookie-cutter mindset any more that church planting can. The success of a journey begins with the right first step. Again, the adage I began with lead me to start at the beginning of revitalization. There are specific points that must be addressed before any action is taken to change the church because the word change causes a lot of fear and trepidation in the life of the people. If we want to have a reasonable opportunity for success, then we must work through the following five points. In each of these points there is much work that must be laid down in order to create a solid foundation for launching a revitalization work.

Communication

In pastoral ministry, there were times that I felt we had over-communicated an event or work; only to discover that many in the Church didn’t get the information. Communication is crucial in revitalization, for it explains the what exactly is going to happen, when it will happen, and by who. There needs to be town hall meetings, distributed information, and question and answer time for the church. Revitalization is too critical to just launch into without having fully clarified what is going to happen. The passage in Luke 14:28 depicts the need to think all the way through something before starting, lest the work be left unfinished. Communication isn’t something that will happen just at the start, but must be maintained throughout the work; thus, keeping the church informed and engaged in the effort.

Clarity

This point goes beyond just telling people what is going to happen. Clarity ensures that people understand what is going to happen and how it will affect them. Churches in need of revitalization are quick to jump in and say yes to almost anything. They know the Church is in trouble, they have tried to fix it themselves, and have come to a point of desperation. Clarity enables everyone to exactly weigh the work to be done before launching. In revitalization, too many times after an increase in attendance or the current crisis has been averted, churches will want to stop the process and resume control of the situation. This cannot be allowed to happen, for it circumvents the whole revitalization work. The purpose of revitalization is not to get the church out of a current bind/crisis but to bring them fully out of the spiritual sickness that has pervaded over the congregation and instill a new vision and hope for the expansion of the gospel. Clarity must be accompanied with documentation. Revitalization cannot be done by talking about it. Which leads to knowing what each person and agency will be held accountable for in the process.

Covenant

Before any work of revitalization is attempted, the obligations and responsibilities of those involved must be delineated. All throughout the scripture we find where covenants were used to spell out conditions of the participants. There are unequal partners such as God and Abra-

only say they want people, so they can continue in their “way” of doing church. Commitment to change must be unwavering in the hearts of the church. A church or revitalizer must be fully committed to doing what needs to be done – all they way through the journey with its ups and downs, set-backs, and failures.

Conviction

If a church is going to make it through the initial stages of revitalization it must also have conviction. Conviction that this is the best and God-given answer for their church and no waffling on why they are going through the revitalization process. Usually, this becomes mute because a church usually will not be willing to go through the process unless it has tried everything else and a sense of desperation has set in that the Church might actually die. If a church is not fully convinced about what they are embarking on, it will fail and this conviction leads to my last point.

Consecration

ham; but then there are “If and Then” covenants such as Noahic, Davidic and the passage 2 Chronicles 7:14; where each party has responsibilities to uphold in the agreement. Each equal partnered covenant is only as good as the participants accountability to uphold their part of the covenant. The reason covenants need to be implemented goes back to what I mentioned earlier – sometimes churches will balk at finishing the revitalization work because they have seen some growth. Whether the parties are churches working with a consultant, a revitalizationist, an Association or state agency; all parties need to know what is being asked of them and if there is a failure on their part what the expected ramifications will be. I say this more for Churches, because they need to know the scope of the work and how much they are asked to participate.

Commitment

Commitment is closely tied to covenant but relates to the when of the process. Just as the covenant spells out the responsibilities for the church and the agencies, there must be commitment to see the process through. I have talked with all kinds of churches; they tell me that they want to grow and to reach young people. However, when I start describing what that statement really means, often the answer comes back, “Well, I don’t want that or those people here.” I struggle with churches that are dying and they make statements about wanting people, when all they want is money and numbers without any regard for their salvation. Too often churches in dying situation

Revitalization is more than a strategy to try and restore attendance levels; it is about breathing new life into a dying body of believers. The breath needed is the breathing on from the Holy Spirit. Revitalization is a spiritual work done by the Holy Spirit in the life of believers and the Church. I explain it this way – if all that happens is the implementation of a strategy [regardless of how good it is] without the Holy Spirit of God consuming and restoring the joy of salvation in dry weary people, then all we are doing is rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic – it other words, the ship is still going down! I know I have put consecration last, but it mostly likely should be first. If the people have not prayed and sought God about this revitalization work – it’s a failure already. Some things come only by prayer and fasting. Revitalization is a spiritual work of God. For success in revitalization work, these five C’s must be foundational before any changes begin.

Jim Grant is the Executive Director of the Galveston Baptist Association. He is an Air Force veteran, retiring with twenty-five years of service. His extensive travels allowed him the unique opportunity to serve in a full spectrum of churches with various styles and ranges of spiritual health. He has a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological seminary with a concentration on Church Revitalization.

Here Am I, Please, Send Somebody Else! By Walter Jackson

ou cannot start a strong church revitalization effort until you stop saying, Here am I, please, send somebody else!1 You can start a strong church revitalization effort when you can move on and say, Here am I, Lord, send me. Church revitalizing pastors are dealers in hope. They are humble-high-performing-laser-focused-multitaskers that will simultaneously revitalize a church and city. Are you that pastor? Do you revitalize because you can? What can start a strong church revitalization? CALL Every pastor wants to say, “God, call me if I can be a packed house communicator, a team leader, a big baptizer, a bestselling author, a family rescuer, a global helper, a church builder and a city impactor.” But what happens, when attendance is disappearing? Teams are fighting? Baptisms are dropping? Offerings are shrinking? Writing is nonexistent? Families are on their own? The city is clueless that you are a church? What happens? God calls YOU. When the country is in chaos, everybody has a plan to fix it, but it takes a leader of real understanding to straighten things out-Prov 28: 2 (MSG). God alone can call you and make revitalization work. Here is a tool to help analyze your call: The Church Revitalizer Top Performance Profile Assessment.2 Also, remember to hang on to God’s call; you are going to need it. CHURCH Before you accept a call to lead any church, establish with the elder team or pastor search team that they can have you “25/8,” but that your family is off limits. Establish with them that your family, like their families will only do what is healthy for them in the church. Always take care of your family first-1 Tim 5: 8. Before you accept a call to lead any church, ask the elder or search team to respond to three questions: What do you sense God wants to do next with your church? Why do you sense that I am the person God is calling to lead? Is there anything behind the scenes that needs to be adjusted for church health? 1 Jill Briscoe, Here I Am- Send Aaron, Victor Books, 6th Printing 1980, pg. 32. 2 Tom Cheyney, Michael Sharp and Brian Rutherford, RevitalizerAssesment.com

Listen intently to each of the elders or search team leaders. Then simply tell them who you are and where you will lead if they call you. Here is an example: Establish that you will lead them to do big group worship, small group discipleship and go get more groups with citywide outreach. Agree on God’s new direction so that when the bumpy turbulence of revitalizing begins to take off, the elders or search team leaders can help the church and city progress. CITY Equip the church to share the gospel with the city-Eph 4:12. Kevin Palau in his book Unlikely says, “A successful gospel movement [is] gospel-centered, church-driven, disciple-led and city-focused. [It is] the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole city that collaborates with city leaders of all sorts to discern the city’s needs and works collaboratively to meet them. People seldom see visible unity, humble leadership and sustained gospel effort [from] a church.”3 Unity is the number one way to reach the city-Jn 13:35. So go. 3 Kevin Palau unlikely, Howard Books, 2015, pgs.143-151.

Coach your team to love one another. Coach them to reach the city with the gospel-Jn 3:16. COMMITMENT When a church accommodates to the truth of secular culture, it will die and the city will never know. Be the church that is committed to the authority of God’s Word and it will be easier for the city to see Jesus-2 Tim 3:16-17. COLLECTIONS People have a subliminal sense about how carefully or carelessly your church accounts for the offerings -1 Jn 4: 1-2. Tell the gospel truth about the offerings and cheerful givers will multiply. You can’t revitalize without trust.. CALM The energy to revitalize does not come from a triple shot of espresso. But God’s Word can be like Coffee For Your Heart that exchanges high church stress with calm:5 Pray without ceasing-1 Thess 5:17. Love and lead without fearing-Ex 14: 14. Rest, workout and celebrate without regretting-3 Jn 2. Revitalizer, God has called you to take care of yourself. Do it. CELEBRATION When God starts sending you that revitalizing feeling, when you sense you have dealt some hope, laser-focused some multitasking, or humbly performed at some high level, CELEBRATE WITH GOD.

COMPASSION My grandmother had been a pastor’s wife for over forty years. One day after I surrendered to God’s call, I went over to her house. As she stood over the stove cooking me some bacon and sunny-side-up eggs, she said one of the most amazing things. With her eyes fixed on the skillet she said, “Love your people, but keep your eyes on the Lord.” She never looked up from that skillet to comment. It would not have mattered. Only after answering God’s call for a few years can you understand every word she said-Prov 31. COACHING Revitalization is a team sport. Let God show you the laity and staffers that are coachable. Coach Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers were behind at halftime in the 2016 National Championship Game. He told his football team in the locker room, We are going to win this game because we love each other.4 4 Clemson won. 4 Dabo Swinney, ESPN National Championship on field postgame interview, University of Phoenix, 2016.

When your team is seeing God’s Spirit moving, people worshipping, baptisms happening, books selling, families uniting, the church revitalizing, or the city changing, CELEBRATE WITH YOUR TEAM. Know your strong start in church revitalization is a blessing to the church and city. And because God called you and your team to move on and say, Here we are Lord, send us, and CELEBRATE WITH YOUR CHURCH AND CITY. 5 Holley Gerth, Coffee For Your Heart, Harvest House Publisher, 2011, pg. 101. Walter Jackson has been pastoring for thirty-three years. As a pastor he has seen God use His people to turn around four churches in Tennessee, Alabama and Florida. His favorite thing about pastoring is that he gets to hang out with people in all kinds of communities and love on all kinds of people. Walter loves speaking the creativity and love of God’s Word into people’s lives. It is his hope that people can feel free to laugh a lot, cry some, and walk out of the church feeling loved by God.

Where to Start? By Rob Hurtgen

tepping into a church revitalization situation can be, well, daunting. Where do you start? What is the first thing you do? The temptation is to put some new paint on the walls, pull out the stained carpet, update the signage and step back and say, “This church is beginning to be revitalized.” That is what I did in my first revitalization work long before I even knew what “church revitalization” was. While those physical changes were needed the church, the ecclesia, the calledout ones, were no more renewed than before we removed the threadbare carpet. Some people were excited that something, anything, was happening. Some were not happy changes were being made at all. However, building changes alone did not bring about the spiritual renewal revitalization requires. My experience forced me to step back and ask the question, “What was necessary for a church to be revitalized?” Through that experience, the Lord opened some opportunities to network with others who were working through the same questions. I was able to receive some formal and informal training and become exposed to some great resources. Allow me to share five insights that I wish I would have known years ago. First, realize that revitalization work must first change the church’s culture. Many churches do not even realize they have a culture. They operate the way they do and assume that every other church does church the same way that they do. The first challenge the revitalizer is going to face is exposing the existing culture and then identifying what must be removed, received, and reformed.

While each church is unique in the way in which God brings renewal as the lead revitalizer you need a strategy for your church revitalization effort. However, as Peter Drucker is attributed to saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Meaning that no matter how great your revitalization strategy is, culture always wins. As the lead revitalizer your first mission, before any strategic plan for growth, discipleship, and great commission engagement is expressed, is to align the culture of your church with God’s culture for his church. Secondly, to start a church revitalization effort out strong, commit to prayer. As often as we pray for meals, at worship services, in our private devotions, and at public events, prayer is often in last place when it should be in first. If our revitalization efforts are to be healthy, we must commit to fervent prayer. Prayer undergirds everything that revitalizers and church leaders do. Prayer is the spiritual discipline that enables us to abide with Jesus. Prayer is what girds the congregation and at the same time aids in bringing conviction. John Onwuchekwa writes, “Prayer is oxygen for the Christian. It sustains us. So it follows that prayer must be a source of life for any community of Christians. It is to the church what it is to individuals— breathing.” 1 Prayer is critical to change the culture and see the 1 Matt Smethurst, “20 Quotes from John Onwuchekwa on (Corporate) Prayer,” The Gospel Coalition, September 9, 2018, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/20-quotes-corporate-prayer/

church renew.

from an objective perspective.

There are four critical areas of prayer the revitalizer must keep.

Informally study them as well. Sit down over coffee. Listen to their stories. Find out what brought them to the church. How did they come to know Christ and what ministries are they passionate about? Ask them about their families. Tell them about your own. Proverbs 27:23 says, “Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds.” Start your revitalization strategy off strong by knowing your people.

First, the revitalizer must be on guard to maintain their personal prayer life. The temptation to neglect the discipline of prayer is subtle. Rescheduling time of morning prayer for the afternoon quickly becomes a day of prayer missed. A day missed becomes two. Before long a week, month and prayer become something you talk about but do not do. Schedule a time of prayer and keep the appointment. Second, the revitalizer needs to pray with leaders so that they are seeking the heart of God together. Nothing says more about how much a church loves the Lord than how often its leaders gather together for prayer. Third, regularly pray with the church body. Pray in your worship service for renewal. Gather for prayer meetings and pray. Avoid the temptation to talk about what you want to pray for and get busy and pray. Again Onwuchekwa writes, “[A prayer meeting] is different from praying during corporate worship, but it’s just as necessary. Prayer during corporate worship is the potatoes to the steak of the preached Word. In the prayer meeting, the roles are reversed. Now our prayer with one another becomes the main dish. We care for each other best as we lean on God together.”2 Gather together, dependence upon each other and upon God and pray. Fourth, call for times of prayer during special occasions if you have a particular outreach emphasis, set aside a time of prayer. Call for a session of prayer before your Easter services. Organize the time of prayer around specific categories accompanied with appropriate scripture readings. E.M. Bounds challenges us in writing, “Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still. He will never talk well and with real success to men for God who has not learned well how to talk to God for men.”3 Pray and pray well. Third, start your revitalization effort out strong by being personal. Spend time formally and informally getting to know your people. Formally know your people by studying them. Informally know your people by spending time with them. Formally study your people by gathering the data about them. Research the census data of your mission field. Know the profile of the people that live in the immediate community around your church. If your congregation members do not live in the same neighborhood where your church building is located, find out why. Take time to dig deep into the history of your church. In doing so, you may find that there is a reason in the church’s past, a hidden sin that must be confessed that may be the root cause of their decline. Formally study your people

2 Ibid. 3 E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/942850.E_M_Bounds

Fourth, start your revitalization strategy off strong with preaching. The same charge that Paul delivered to Timothy still stands to all who lead in the church, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim 4:1-2). Devote yourself to the preaching of the word. Commit yourself to the regular preaching of God’s word. In season and out of season. However, do not commit the sin of being boring in preaching. When Nehemiah gathered the people together to rebuild the walls once they completed their work they gathered together to hear from the law as presented by Ezra and the scribes. The first gathered the people together, the second the people before God. The first built a structure the second restored a people. Preach the word. Finally, start your revitalization strategy off strong by committing to having gospel conversations every chance you can. Pray for opportunities to have gospel conversations. Not every gospel conversation will lead someone to Christ but one of them might. Make a personal commitment to have gospel conversations every opportunity you can. The first revitalization effort I was involved with did not start off strong. At least not as strong as I thought as it could have. Thankfully these practices mentioned above were not wholly absent from the work. There were not fully present either. They were fully engaged before the Lord called my family and me away to another ministry. When we left the church was in a better position for the next season of life and ministry than when we arrived. Strength was gained. These five practices can help your church revitalization start off and continue strong.

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.

The Leadership Link:

The Revitalization Starting Line By Michael Atherton Recently, I attended a track meet of my two youngest boys. They are in first and third grade. It was enjoyable to watch these young kids compete with one another. One of the more humorous elements of our night at the track was to watch them get lined up at the beginning of the race. The little first graders all seemed to get ready just a bit differently. Some got down in a position you expect to see with an Olympic runner, while others walked nonchalantly up to the line as if they were unaware that a race was about to start. I remember back to my days in high school; when we participated in our “track and field” unit in PE class, our teacher would tell us one of the most crucial parts of a successful race is the starting block. You have to get off to a good start if you hope to have a successful end.

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ (Revelation 2:1-7 ESV)

“I find it ironic how much of the Christian life involves change, and yet, so many of us despise the very notion”

Much like a runner, a church revitalization leader would do well to acknowledge that the way one starts a revitalization effort will often give a pretty clear indication of how that effort will end. Given the fact that I teach church revitalization in the seminary classroom, I am often asked by students how they might go about launching a church revitalization effort (or discussion) within their congregation. I almost always start that discussion by turning to Revelation 2:1-7, which reads:

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

This passage of Scripture gives us three very beneficial disciplines that must be practiced on the outset of any church revitalization effort. The disciplines can be identified by using three simple words.

1. Remember In this passage, Jesus is found speaking to the church in Ephesus, reminding them of the height from which they have fallen. We must be careful to acknowledge that though it was a part of John’s vision, he is merely serving as a secondary author, as Christ is the primary. Ephesus is the first of seven churches that receive a word from the Lord. There are four churches (Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, and Sardis) that are commended and rebuked for their actions. Smyrna and Philadelphia are both

praised, while the remaining church, Laodicea, receives a stern reprimand. Ephesus was a prominent city in Asia Minor. Acts 19 testifies of the incredible manifestations and profound impact of God’s movement among the people of that region. Specifically, God was using Paul in effective ways. Miraculous healings, baptisms, and exorcisms were taking place. The result of this widespread movement was that all of the Greeks and Jews throughout the province of Asia heard the Word of the Lord (Acts 19:4–12). As is often the case, when God is moving among His people, the Adversary is not far behind. In Ephesus, this was manifested through some Jewish pseudo-believers driving out evil spirits under a pretense. When the demon-possessed individual turned on the imposters, beating and humiliating them, fear swept through Ephesus, seizing the believers. All the while, the name of the Lord was magnified. As a result, Ephesus found itself in the midst of revival. People were confessing sin. What is the point of this brief biographical sketch? Despite the vast influence of pagan worship, Ephesus experienced the hand of God in dynamic and dramatic ways. In fact, Scripture testifies that the “word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power” during those days (Acts 19:20). Now, after four decades, the Lord has a message for the same people who years before experienced this remarkable movement of God. However, the Ephesian believers were practicing a fatal flaw. Even though they held themselves to a high standard of doctrinal orthodoxy, the expression of that orthodoxy had become mechanical. The flame that once burned bright within their hearts for the Lord had become but a glowing ember. Jesus said, “You have forsaken your first love” (Revelation 2:4). The honeymoon was over, and the excitement that once burned within them had been traded for a rote expression of obedience with no conviction or emotion. The problem with this is that it opened the door to spiritual indifference, compromising beliefs systems, and tolerance toward worldly views and practices. What were they to do? They were to take time to remember back to when their hearts were set ablaze with passion for following the commands and precepts of God; not because they had to, but because they wanted to. There are times in life when we can all be lulled into a passionless expression of devotion, producing within us spiritual or Biblical apathy which can have devastating results. We want to avoid this type of calloused approach to Christian living. 2. Repent The Lord starts by acknowledging Ephesus’ good deeds, evidenced by their hard work, perseverance, and lack of tolerance for wicked men and their actions. They held

themselves to a high and holy standard in which they denounced sin by both word and deed. But, when apathy and passionless devotion take over, Christ calls the Church to repent. When you remember the height from which you have fallen, you see the need for repentance. Recognizing that at one time the Ephesians had a brilliant radiance to their spiritual life, their subsequent halfhearted attempt at devotion left a great deal to be desired by God. The Old Testament prophets speak to this principle often and in a variety of ways. We see times in which an Old Testament prophet tells the Israelites that God does not delight in their sacrifices (works-related expression of love) at the expense of their obedience (heart-related expression of love). God does not want to be a facet of our life. He wants to be our life. Anything less will not do. Therefore, repent. 3. Repeat Finally, you must repeat. Remember to repent and then repeat the things that you once did. In short, the Ephesians needed to change the actions which brought them to this crossroads in which their spiritual fervor had dissipated. You see, Scripture testifies that the fruit of repentance is change. It may be a change in your thought process, belief system, values, actions, or your whole life. I find it ironic how much of the Christian life involves change, and yet, so many of us despise the very notion. We spend much of our lives fighting change. We cannot even call ourselves Christians if we will not embrace change to some degree. Repentance demands it. So, if we are truly repentant, we must repeat those actions, embody those values, and express our hearts in a way that characterizes what our relationship with Christ once was. Remember that you must repent … and repeat! In Conclusion… The principle learned from Revelation 2:1–7 is that revitalization is brought about by a humbling recognition that we have forsaken our first love and we eagerly desire to once again love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. There is no better place to start revitalization.

Michael Atherton has served as the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, O’Fallon, MO 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 past President of the Colorado Baptist Convention.

Know Your Destination By Chad McCarthy

Steven Covey has famously stated, “Begin with the end in mind.”1 Covey’s principle applies to most every conceivable initiative, including that of church revitalization. Start your church revitalization effort strong by knowing your destination. Just as it would not make sense to set out on a trip to Disney World without knowing the roads you will travel in order to arrive at your destination, so successful church revitalization begins with a clear understanding of church health. What is a healthy church? What changes would need to occur for your congregation to show signs of improved health? What changes need to occur in your context? Perhaps you have already begun your revitalization effort and are only now realizing you did not start this journey with a clear destination in mind. If you are still in the game, it’s not too late. Grab a pencil and think with me through the revitalization process.

Plan for Change as a Long-Term Process Recently, a wise pastor noted that most young leaders overestimate what can be accomplished in the short term. These same leaders tend to underestimate what can be accomplished in the long-term. Church revitalization efforts generally move slowly. Changing church culture looks more like piloting a barge than speedboat. Commit to long-term culture change. 1 Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004), 104.

Knowing that culture change generally occurs slowly, work at gaining momentum by finding low hanging fruit. Begin with the easy wins where small changes offer a disproportionate payout. Use momentum from these wins to set a course towards more significant change. It took years for your church culture to develop. It will take time for that culture to change. Exercise patience as you set out on your church revitalization journey. Commit to long-term change.

Shift from an Inward Focus to an Outward Focus Plateaued or declining churches nearly always focus on themselves. What do we want? What meets our needs? While not all growing churches are healthy, virtually all healthy churches possess an other-centered focus. Healthy churches understand their mission. Healthy Christianity begins with a commitment to personally following Jesus while leading others to do the same. Loving Jesus necessarily includes loving the lost. Loving the lost necessarily includes proclaiming the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Changing a congregation’s focus from inward to outward begins with a clear vision as to the church’s mission. Jesus unpacks this vision in Matthew 28:18-20 where He commands the eleven to make disciples. Making disciples is the one big task to which Jesus calls his followers. A critical means by which Jesus’ followers bring him glory is by making disciples who do the same. If we are not careful, we frame success in

pure mathematical terms. Are the number of people in seats increasing month by month or year by year? If our numbers are growing, if the number of baptisms are increasing, if we are running out of space, then our revitalization must be a success? Not necessarily. If a church is not clear on its destination, the revitalization may grow the institution without actually revitalizing the people who are the church. Healthy church revitalization begins with a commitment to making disciples who make disciples. While we can grow the institutional church without making disciples, we cannot make disciples without growing the church. Commit to multiplying disciples who follow Jesus and lead others to do the same as your church revitalization destination.

Great Commission Destination Following Jesus and leading others to do the same is the church revitalization destination. Consider the following question, “What is the primary command Jesus gives his disciples in Matthew 28:18-20?” Are there four main ideas: make disciples, go and make disciples through the whole world, baptize these disciples, and teach these disciples all Jesus commanded? How many imperative statements does Jesus give in these verses? A cursory reading of English translations could easily lead a person to conclude Jesus issues four commands. An examination of the text in the original languages shows this conclusion fails to do justice to the text. The Great Commission contains only one command— make disciples! Three participles modify this command to make disciples. Most of us have long since forgotten the function of participles— if we ever learned! In simple terms, participles are words formed from verbs that function as adjectives. Going, baptizing, and teaching modify Jesus’ one primary command to make disciples. Jesus instructed the eleven to make disciples. The three participles modify this command. Obeying the Great Commission requires Jesus’ disciples be “going disciple-makers.” They are to be “baptizing disciple-makers.” They are to “train these disciples to obey.” Each successive generation of Jesus followers carries on this task of multiplying disciples. Fulfilling Jesus’ disciple-making imperative is the destination for every church revitalization journey.

Making the Right Emphasis Ephesians 4:12 describes a primary reason we gather as believers. We gather for the purpose of equipping believers for the work of the ministry. Hebrews 10:24-25 sheds additional light on why we gather. We gather so that we may encourage one another and challenge one another to love and good works. Ideally, this equipping and challenging occurs in a context of moving the church towards the destination of multiplying disciples who make disciples. Unpacking

the Great Commission’s last verse sheds light on how we go about multiplying disciple-makers. Matthew records Jesus saying, “Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:20 ESV). Too often we put the emphasis on the wrong part of the verse. We emphasize teach rather than obey. Look closely at this verse. Jesus instructs the eleven to teach these new disciples to obey all Jesus’ commands. The end goal is more than knowing Jesus’ commands. The goal is a transformed life. The goal of disciple-making is that the disciple follows Jesus. According to Jesus, the goal of teaching is obedience. Knowledge without application is of little value. We make disciples by training believers to apply God’s word to all areas of life. Be clear in your Great Commission destination to equip believers by training disciples to follow Jesus. Train your people to personally apply God’s word to all areas of life while leading others to do the same.

Personally Model Evangelism and Discipleship Don’t think you can delegate discipleship by giving this responsibility to another leader. Set the tone in your congregation by personally modeling evangelism and discipleship. Don’t merely preach on evangelism. Both preach on and model evangelism. Don’t merely teach on connecting with others. Be hospitable. Regularly share your home with believers and unbelievers. Regularly find appropriate ways to share with your congregation how God is working in your life to reach the lost. If the destination of church revitalization is making disciples who follow Jesus and lead others to do the same, then begin with this end in mind. Don’t announce the revolution. Don’t begin with a sermon series on your destination. Start mentoring leaders and influencers. Lead these believers to invest in others who will in turn invest in others. Some things are better caught than taught. Organic church revitalization tends to move across congregations like ripples across a pond. Change begins small and increases in ever widening moves. Begin with the end in mind. Commit to revitalization that moves the church towards making disciples who make disciples. Chad McCarthy has spent a decade and a half church planting in Iowa and Arkansas. He has served as lead pastor in Wisconsin and Oklahoma. He currently leads Heritage Church in Shawnee, OK while finishing his Ph.D. through Midwestern in Kansas City. He is particularly interested in helping churches better understand how to more effectively obey Jesus’ Great Commission command to multiply disciple-makers.

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Getting Off To An Effective Start By J. David Jackson “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way.” (Hebrews 12:2, MSG) I’ll just say it: I’m not a runner. When I was younger and in school, I tried. I made the track team and ran the 400 meters and some relay races, but I was mediocre, at best. And while I participated in many sports over the years where I have run as needed, it has never been an experience I have relished or greatly enjoyed. I have great admiration for runners, though. I spent enough time in their field to know it takes intense and dedicated preparation. There are hours upon hours of training for strength and endurance. There are mechanics and techniques that must be mastered to maximize velocity and stamina. There are strategies developed that capitalize on one’s capacity and skill set. And even with all of this training for months and years, there is the need for flexibility stretching and warming up before a race to enhance ability. All of this is done to ensure you get off to an effective start and hopefully, finish well, too. The same is true in revitalization. It takes a lot of preparation to get off to an effective start. Intentionality is a key that enables you to lead well. A good start in the process builds credibility, and credibility builds trust. Both are essential to lead people somewhere new. Change is required for any turnaround to take place.

So what are the intentional, preparatory steps needed to get off to an effective start in revitalization? I’ve found them to be four in number. LISTEN. The people in your church need to be heard. And they need to know you want to hear them. Schedule times when you can sit with them and just listen. To do this well, you must be a master at asking good questions. Questions beyond the “yes” or “no” garden-variety reveal the hearts of people. This is a huge gain for you to unpack over the coming months. Listen to them in group settings such as church-wide family meetings, small groups, teams, or committees. Make time for them to meet with you one-on-one as well, whether by appointment at the office, out in the field at their workplace, or in a coffee shop. This allows them the freedom and comfort to share what is on their heart. Spend more time on this with your leaders than the rest of the congregation. John Maxwell likes to say pastors should spend 80% of their time with 20% of their people. He’s talking about your leaders! So, determine who they are. A reminder: they are not always evident simply by the title or role they have in the congregation. With the majority of your congregation, trust and credibility are earned simply by listening to them, even if you don’t implement or do the things they may suggest. They simply need to be heard. This one action can make them willing to embrace change down the road, even if it is uncomfortable for them. It

tells them that you care. LEARN. As you ask questions, you are not only earning trust and credibility, you are also gleaning important information that you may need in the future. In essence, you are getting feedback from them on lots of things that may be keeping the church from moving forward, or from the sharer being an enthusiastic supporter of your initiatives. Listen for their concerns and the issues or obstacles that confound them. Listen for the pain or hurt they are carrying from the past. Listen to the assumptions and expectations they harbor, perhaps from previous pastors who served there, or from a previous time in your own tenure. Listen for ideas and suggestions that could help the church make progress. If you are new to the church, study its past. Read its history and talk to long-time members. They will have key insights about the heritage of the church and why the church does what it does. These insights will enable you to understand better why the church may have difficulty embracing your plans and suggestions. If they previously attempted something you are proposing and it was an unmitigated disaster, you will know how to approach the issue in a more intelligent way. Don’t neglect the community; it needs to be studied, too. Many churches have plateaued or are in decline because they have lost an awareness of what’s happening in the community around them. Here’s a hint: the community around the church has changed over time; it’s not the same as when the church began, or as it was in the church’s past. As a result, the church must also change to remain relevant and connected to the community where God has placed it to serve. Learn from town officials what makes the community unique, what makes it significant, and what challenges it faces in the future. Churches that build bridges to their community always have the ability to reach people, because they are meeting felt needs. ENCOURAGE. Find ways to create a positive, optimistic, upbeat attitude about the church and its future. For some of us, this will be more difficult, as it is not the natural way we may look at life. For others of us, it will be challenging because we’ve been with the church as it’s gone through some difficult times. There has been discouragement; there has been heartache. And the future may be hard to see. Here is where intentionality is vitally important. You are creating a culture that is produced more by your visible example than can be taught in a classroom, or even from the pulpit. If you’re not hopeful, no one will be hopeful. If you’re not anticipating the future with excitement, then the church will not, either. Theology becomes important here. The importance you place on God’s promises and His provision, as taught in Scripture, are huge. The value recognized in God’s faithfulness to the church (It’s still here!) acknowledges God still has a plan and a place for the church in the future, and this needs to be communicat-

ed regularly. The role of hope in the life of God’s people, starting with you, needs to be fanned into flame. Encouragement shows itself as a “love language” for many people. A compliment, an act of kindness, a contribution to their effort: these are all seen by congregants as support and love. It rallies people, and builds an ethos of grace, joy, and anticipation for what is yet to come. POINT. You constantly have to remind the people that Jesus is Head of the church (not you, or them). He is in control. He cares more than anyone else in the church, about its condition, its needs, its future. He cares more, because He gave more. The Church is His idea. So, remind them that through the process, one thing God is doing is seeking to get our attention. We can’t do this without Him. His active participation is critical to our progress. Pray often and always. Teach the people to do the same. Stay before God for wisdom and strength; both will be needed in this process. Open the Word of God for insights and applications to your ongoing needs. Be discerning and inspiring as you make Jesus more present, more visible, more applicable to your situation. Nothing will build your church’s confidence and security more than pointing the congregation constantly to Jesus. This takes the pressure off you, and hopefully helps us all remember that it’s not formulas that lead to our success. It’s only Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith! You don’t have to have the answer for all the concerns the church will face; Jesus does. You don’t have to carry the weight of mistakes or the stress of the moment; Jesus will. You don’t have to solve the problems necessary to transform lives or impact a community; Jesus can. For nothing is impossible with God! This applies to the revitalization of your church. These four simple intangible steps don’t cost you anything but time and effort. Yet, when applied in preparation for what’s ahead in the process, they can make all the difference in the outcome. You know, my running “career” never appeared to be very successful. Third place was the best finish I ever experienced. But I always finished; I always completed the race. And I never suffered an injury, or pulled a muscle in the process. I suppose the preparation really did pay off. It can for you and your church, too. J. David Jackson serves in New England and is the author of the book ReNEW: Traveling the Forgotten Path, which addresses the elements necessary for credible pastoral leadership in revitalizing a church. It can be found at amazon.com. Jackson can be reached at drjdavidjackson@gmail.com.

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The Necessity of a Clear God-Given Vision By Steve Sells

eorge Barna offers this definition of vision: “Vision for ministry is a clear mental image of a preferable future imparted by God to His chosen servants and is based upon an accurate understanding of God, self and circumstances.” Every vision should answer the question, “What would our church look like if we were really fulfilling our mission?” Proverbs 29:18 says “without vision the people perish but blessed is he who keeps the law.” A good paraphrase would read something like this: “If people can’t see what God is doing, they will stumble all over themselves; but when they attend to what He reveals, they will be most blessed.” A clear, God given vision for the church is an absolute necessity before beginning a church revitalization effort! Helen Keller was once asked, “What could be worse than blindness?” She quickly replied, “To have sight with no Vision!” A God given vision is not merely a good idea, but a spiritual insight into the purposes of God for a local church.

In 1982 the construction of the Epcot Center was completed. Walt Disney had already passed away. When the executives of Disney planned the ribbon cutting, and grand opening of the center, Disney’s wife was asked to cut the ribbon. As she came to the podium, one of the executives said, “Mrs. Disney, I wish Walt could have seen this.” To which she replied, “He did, or it would not have become a reality.” For something great to happen, whether it be in the business world or the church world, vision is essential. The big question that the church must ask, and answer is, “Do we have a vision for the future of the church?” Sad to say, most do not and that is why they end in a process of slow death. When a church realizes that it is at death’s door it must re-vision itself or it will surely die. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” There are several questions that any visionary pastor must ask. First, he must ask what has God called my church to be? Second, what is the clear, understood

purpose of any New Testament Church? Third, why did God establish and ordain your church? These questions must be answered before any real understanding of a visioning process can be understood. The pastor is key to the church visioning process. If the pastor’s vision is too small most people will not follow. A real God sized vision requires extreme faith. A God given vision is not a product of “positive thinking” but is of “God sized thinking.” There is a clear Biblical visioning process that should be followed. This process includes God, the pastor, the congregation and the lost world. Any visionary leader will attest to this process. First, we must acknowledge that GOD possesses the vision. He alone knows what He wants a church to do or become. The leader must seek the face of God in order to receive and grasp that vision. Second, God imparts His vision to the Man of God (Pastor). This requires the pastor to focus his efforts on hearing and understanding Gods will and plan for the church. Third, The Man of God (Pastor) conveys Gods vision to the people of God. The number one task of any pastor/leader is to lead the people of God into the will of God for the church. This demands that the pastor have a personal, clear understanding of the vision himself. Fourth and finally, the people of God speak and live out the vision to a lost world. The entire success of the ministry of any church is based on the presence and acceptance of a God given vision and a willingness to work toward the accomplishment of that vision in the congregation and the world. The pastor is key to the success of the vision. He is the leader to whom God initially imparts the vision. He is the cultivator of that vision, first in his own heart and then in the hearts of Gods people who make up the congregation. He conveys that vision to the people of God in detail and leads the congregation to understand the content of the vision. He is somewhat of a promoter of the vision for the vision to have effect, not only in the present but in the future of the church. Clearly stated, the pastor must take responsibility for the success of the vision. A clear vision will always be rooted in the one objective of the church…to win the lost to Christ. It is to help the church accomplish God’s purpose in the culture in which the church is located. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He laid out his plan (vision) for his disciples as well as His church. Acts 1:8 reveals the beginning stage of that plan. It says, “But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses.” Then in Matthew 28:19-20 a similar description of His plan is given when Jesus commands His Disciples to, “Go and make disciples

of all nations.” What God calls the church to do today is found in these passages. However, He calls each church to understand a clear vision for how this will be accomplished. The pastor must be the catalyst for understanding and doing that vision. Nehemiah gives us a perfect picture of visionary leadership and what a God given vision can accomplish. God called Nehemiah to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem but that is not where the story ends. God then gave him a clear vision as to how to accomplish the task. God told him where to get the material, protection, and the manpower to accomplish the task. God gave him the ability to defeat the opposition to the wall. Nehemiah 4 records the opposition that he faced. As the leader of this task, his friends and enemies opposed him, but he knew that it was God’s call to accomplish the vision and he was determined to be obedient. Being a visionary leader is never easy. There will always be opposition, frustration, fatigue and fear of failure. But, when God gives a vision, He always gives the leader the ability to accomplish that vision as well. Any visionary leader would do well to remember Nehemiah and his struggle to build the wall. He knew how to lead. He knew how to concentrate on the vision God had given. He would not be deterred or denied. He understood what it meant to pray through the difficult circumstances as a visionary leader. He knew how to build a team and delegate the work as well as being well informed about the resources he needed and how to use those resources. He knew how to “keep on keeping on!” The reward was unbelievable. Nehemiah 6:15-16 says, “So the wall was completed in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this and all the surrounding nations saw it, our enemies lost their confidence because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” Nehemiah has given us a clear and graphic illustration of visionary leadership and shown us that a clear vision is necessary before beginning a revitalization process.

Steve Sells is the president and CEO of Operation Transformation church revitalization ministry in Salisbury, North Carolina. Steve has served in ministry for 43 years in North Carolina and Georgia. Dr. Sells is the co-author of the book With Greater Power. He seeks to help churches of all sizes experience new health and growth.

DYNAMIC Small Groups

Three kinds of Leaders:

Only One Leads Small Groups That Grow and Make Disciples By Fred Boone The pastor is the key to Small Groups that make a difference. However, most don’t understand their impact or influence. I understand there are many forces seeking to take precedence in the pastor’s leadership. However, the pastor must make a commitment to a few key principles that will directly result in building the church and growing disciples. Clarity of vision and mission will cause a pastor to have such passion that will affect those he is leading in a significant way. The passion I am talking about is the kind that comes from convictions from scripture that result in a philosophy of ministry that will not be compromised. In other words this leader is a BELIEVER. Over the years I have observed three kinds of leaders: BELIEVERS, BABBELERS and BUFFOONS, let me share with what I mean. BELIEVERS - Webster’s Dictionary definition: to consider to be true or honest, to accept the word or evidence of, to accept something as true, genuine, or real, to have a firm or wholehearted conviction or persuasion. This type of leader has such deep convictions and is so certain about what he believes no one is going to talk him out of his beliefs.

PsychTests.com, a leading online testing company, recently analyzed the personality profiles of 7,379 leaders who took the Leadership Style Test. After studying the responses, individuals are assessed as excellent or poor leaders. When comparing excellent to poor leaders, there are two differences that support the BELIEVER leader: 1. 84% of the excellent leaders have a clear vision in mind of what they want to achieve as a leader. They also know how to communicate that vision in a way that inspires employees and gets them on board. Only 46% of the poor leaders do this.   2. 72% of the excellent leaders make sure that every decision made is done with the company’s mission statement in mind. They adopt and stick to the company’s values. Only 58% of the poor leaders do this.1 These are key elements of the Believer Leader that I am talking about. But the Believer Leader has other at1 Psychtests.com/14charactisticsofexcellentleadership

tributes that make them stand out from other leaders that are best understood if you know John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Law 14 is the Law of Buy-In: People Buy into the Leader, then the Vision. People don’t at first follow worthy causes; they follow worthy leaders who promote worthwhile causes. People buy in to the leaders first, then the leader’s vision. Maxwell said there are seven assets followers want in a leader. He said people ask, “Why should I follow you?” he goes on to say these are the qualities that attract people to a leader: 1. Calling – they are clear, 2. Insight – wisdom to the issues, 3. Charisma – People flock to leaders who make them feel good about themselves, 4. Talent – follower’s swarm around talent, 5. Ability – You can get things done, 6. Communication Skills – When he speaks the people understand and eagerly follow, 7. Character – It takes character to win and maintain trust. Law 2 is the Law of Influence: The nature of Leadership: 1. Leadership is influence - The true measure of leadership is influence – Nothing more, nothing less. 2. Leaders do not possess influence in every area – they depend on other leaders around them. 3. Our influence is either positive or negative – It depends on how you want to exercise your influence. 4. Faithful leaders use their influence to add value – they motivate their people to do what would benefit everyone – always the agenda of great leaders. 5. With influence comes responsibility – your decisions can affect others for decades.2 The Believer develops these qualities as he grows in his knowledge of scripture and as he continues to learn more about Small Groups or Sunday School. In other words he is a student. He is constantly reading about Small Groups and availing himself to conferences and other training opportunities. The goal is to become an expert in the field. You may say this is too much. But I submit to you what could be more important than learning how to develop your church into on mission disciples with an evangelistic heart. The Believer is consumed with being the best. They are also practitioners that not only talk about Small Groups and Sunday School but they attend a group weekly. Because they are involved they are more likely to talk about what is happening in their group. They will mention groups every time they preach and will always bring it up in a conversation with new members. They are committed to seeing that everyone is plugged into a Small Group or Sunday School class because of the value of being connected. They understand that for every three lost people involved in a group that meets weekly, at least one will be saved. Also, they know that of those that are baptized 80% 2 Maxwell Leadership Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2007

will still be in the church five years later if they are active in a Small Group or Sunday School class. Believers are sold-out and committed to Small Groups. BABBLERS - Webster’s Dictionary definition: to talk enthusiastically or excessively, to utter meaningless or unintelligible sounds. Babblers know about small groups and may have grown up from childhood going to Sunday School. They probably never saw a growing church and never really understood the vital part a dynamic Small Group or Sunday School ministry plays in the life of a vibrant growing church. If they went to seminary there was no requirement to study or take a class on Small Groups or Sunday School. Most pastors know very little about this very important strategy to grow their church. They become babblers when a zealous Sunday School teacher or Director says something to them about the lack of emphasis on small groups or when they hear from someone in their state leadership who encourages them to talk about Small groups or Sunday School. They will get before their people and extol the benefits of small groups but without conviction and passion. I like to say: “they have enough knowledge to be dangerous”. Babblers don’t know how groups really work and they don’t attend a group. They can sound very excited about groups for an announcement about training, but then they don’t attend the training. The difference is a Babbler talks about the trench and the Believer is in the trench. BUFFOONS – Webster’s Dictionary definition: is a ludicrous figure clown, a gross and usually ill-educated person. This leader knows the least about small groups. They likely didn’t grow up going to Sunday School and have never seen a properly organized and equipped Small Group Ministry. The result is they never say anything about small groups. If pushed about the subject they make fun of Sunday School and Small Groups. They will blow off the notion that a dynamic church needs small groups and they will never expend the energy necessary to build a small group ministry. Personally I think these leaders are lazy at the core. So what kind of leader are you? A BELIEVER, BABBLER or BUFFOON – you must decide if you your going to build a church that makes a difference.

Fred Boone is the Executive Pastor and LIFE Groups Pastor of First Baptist Church of Mount Dora, Florida.

WHY SMALL GROUPS?

From the Old Testament to the New Testament small groups are used in very significant ways. Small Groups have always been part of God’s plan to develop and grow believers. In modern times from Sunday School to the contemporary Small Group movement the churches that embraced small groups in a significant way experienced the most growth in evangelism and discipleship. Small Groups should be a fundamental strategy for every church that seeks to be a Biblically complete church.

OUR VISION – Why We Exist

To see every church develop significant small groups that are healthy and growing.

OUR MISSION – What We Do We come to the church and partner with the pastor and staff to evaluate the current condition of their Small Group Ministry and then develop a custom plan to renovate and reinvigorate their groups. Our plan includes developing comprehensive goals and strategies. We also provide training and custom resources for the churches we serve.

www.DynamicSmallGroups.org

407-965-9515

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The

Revitalizer LIBRARY

Bill Hull, Conversion & Discipleship: You Can’t Have One Without the Other. Zondervan; Grand Rapids, MI. 2016. Conversion & Discipleship: You Can’t Have One Without the Other by Bill Hull is a theological treatise of the subject. Hull writes, “This book proposes that all who are called to salvation are also called to discipleship, and that there are no exceptions to this” (19). He then, as an attorney, proposes his argument that no one who claims the name of Jesus cannot also pick up the mantle of discipleship. He chastises those who distinguish conversion from discipleship noting the harm that is done to both. Hull’s argument is not of his own. He proposes his case from the Bible. Conversion & Discipleship: You Can’t Have One Without the Other is an excellent read that should not be perused quickly, but digested slowly and with others. Conversion & Discipleship: You Can’t Have One Without the Other offers several valuable insights for church revitalizers. First, this reviewer believes Hull would argue that the main reason churches require revitalization is because they have neglected their principle ministry of discipleship. Because they were no longer actively discipling men and women they ceased to engage in evangelism efforts leading to the conversion of new believers. Unhealthy churches, church decline, and eventually church death, can be traced back to a primary symptom of poor personal and corporate discipleship practices. Secondly, a work centered on discipleship is valuable to church revitalizers due to the call to the ministry lifestyle of discipleship that Hull issues. Hull writes in his chapter describing the role the pastor takes in disciple-making, “Discipleship is not a program we launch. It is a lifestyle we embrace” (203). Church revitalizers are being called to live a lifestyle of renewal. Within that lifestyle is the practice of making disciples who will, in turn, make disciples.

Third, Hull gives an insightful historical analysis of the approaches to four of the most common methods to evangelical spiritual formation (pages 110 – 114). These few pages were incredibly insightful to gain a sense of how one’s viewpoint of spiritual formation had been framed perhaps unaware. Additionally, Hull’s analysis and division of Jesus’ earthy ministry into a discipleship timeline (pages 150 – 172) offers incredible insight into how Jesus made “fishers of men.” However, some of Hull’s work grew pedantic. This reviewer found himself skimming several sections as Hull overemphasized his point. Addressing Jesus’ ministry Hull was very broad lacking specificity. Hull broadly provides Jesus’ approach to disciple-making – which is helpful – but does not speak in further detail as to specific actions or case studies that could be applicable in a discipleship relationship. The reader is left enthused by Jesus’ model and methodology but uncertain as to what first step to take. Likened to having a road map with only the highway system on it and no indication as to what roadways to use to approach the highway with. Great to have the highway, but how do you get there? Conversion & Discipleship: You Can’t Have One Without the Other is a slow read. A thoughtful read. A read that you do not want to rush through. Hull’s premise is that the church has made a mistake by not emphasizing the priority of disciple-making alongside conversion. Church revitalizers live with this reality daily. This book is an excellent resource for the revitalizers library.

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

Sometimes You Have to Hurt Their Feelings By Mark Weible And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:18) Let’s face it, some people just don’t like change and they will resist it all the way. There can be a number of reasons for this – personality, temperament, behavioral style, values, traditionalism, sentimentality, a desire for power or family heritage. But, you can’t revitalize a church without change. Yes, we worship a God who never changes, but everything and everyone that He touches changes. Resisting change is resisting God – not a sign of spiritual maturity. The church revitalizer should be patient and persuasive when dealing with people who are resistant to change. Most of the time, given the right information and inspiration, you can convince them to move forward for the good of the church and the sake of the Kingdom. But sometimes, you just have to hurt their feelings. There is an unwritten rule in American culture that no one should ever be offended. One place where that is not written is in the Bible. Jesus offended people everywhere He went, especially religious people who resisted change. And, I am sure that He hurt some feelings along the way. Jesus simply told the Truth and often the message of the Truth is that, “You need to change!” One church that resisted revitalization was the church at Ephesus. In her heyday, this church was the darling of the New Testament. There is more information in the NT about Ephesus than any other church. Luke dedicated two chapters of the Acts of the Apostles to Ephesus. Paul spent 3 ½ years in Ephesus and wrote two epis-

tles to them. John may have written his gospel while in Ephesus and he wrote I, II, and III John to the Church at Ephesus and Ephesus is the first church mentioned in The Revelation. However, In His instructions to the Church at Ephesus, Jesus threatened to shut the church down if she did not… “Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4). I am sure there were some hurt feelings in Ephesus when the members of the church got the news that Jesus was not pleased with them. But the message for the church was clear – change or get shut down. No one should take pleasure in hurting another person’s feelings, but If you find it necessary to do so, just remember that you are in good company. Karl Vaters has some advice for pastors who struggle with doing the right thing when it might hurt someone’s feelings: Don’t let their feelings dictate your actions. If you do, you give them more power. Whether you’re doing what they want or pushing back against it, you’re in reactive

mode and they’re calling the shots. Instead, ask yourself, “if I wasn’t aware of them and their feelings, what would I be doing in this situation?” Then do that.1 The feelings that you have to hurt may belong to a church matriarch who has four generations of her family in that church. They have given tens of thousands of dollars over the years for the continual operation of the church. She can probably point out certain pieces of furniture, or perhaps entire buildings that were dedicated in memory of one of her relatives. This is one person whom the church has informally declared who cannot ever be offended. However, some choices may come down to obeying Jesus or defending the matriarch. Granted, she needs to be honored and respected, but that does not mean that her feelings trump obedience to scripture and the church’s very survival. So, if you have to – you must choose to hurt her feelings and possibly others who look up to her. 1 https://www.christianitytoday.com/karl-vaters/2018/ september/church-members-second-guessing-pastoral-decisions.html?paging=off

Can you imagine standing before Jesus some day and Him asking you to give an account of your time at that church. Jesus says, “I sent you on a mission to revitalize a church in a community that was dark and hopeless. They needed to see my light, but the church shut down under your watch, what happened?” They you would say, “Yes Lord I know, but at least we didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.” That is kind of like burying your one talent, don’t you think? Now, get out there and hurt some feelings in Jesus’ name!

Mark Weible serves as the Church Planting Director of 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.

Teamwork: Essential For Revitalization By William T. Chaney Jr. Great pastoral leaders strive to equip their ministry teams to be successful. Defining the outcomes that signal success for each ministry team can be a challenge. Desired outcomes vary based on the ministry context, but the need for a ministry team to function effectively and consistently deliver ministry excellence is undeniable. What is also undeniable is that collaborative leadership has many advantages to solo leadership. Jesus knew that to change the world he would need a team of disciples who were all clear about their function, their mission, and their ability to reproduce. As we observe the disciples we also learn that it takes most teams a while before they learn to function effectively as a team. Many pastors who are leading mission driven, highly effective, and highly engaged ministry teams will tell you that outside of preaching, the most time consuming task they have is developing leaders to build ministry teams; and working to keep the teams aligned with the mission and ministry of the church. With this in mind, clarifying what makes the team function best will increase your leadership capacity as the pastor. In this article I will highlight a clear definition of a ministry, a set of expectations of a team and eight characteristics that encourage team leadership and effectiveness. Having spent twenty-five years in fulltime ministry, I have found that in addition to everyone on the team having a clear definition and expectation, it is essential that the ministry design is repeatable. There are several good definitions of a team. Here are two that can guide our conversation for this article. “A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other.” -Simon Sinek “Good things happen to a team when a player takes the place were he or she add the most value. Great things happen when all the players on the team take the role that maximizes their strengths – their talents, skill and experience. Having the right people in the right places is essential to team building” -John Maxwell Although I have shared two good definitions of a team, I would like to share a set of expectations for a team that can be used in various ministry contexts. C Gene Wilkes in his book Jesus on Leadership, shares this helpful expectations of a team:

• Teams involve more people thus affording more resources, ideas, and energy than would an individual. • Teams maximize a leader’s potential and minimize their weakness. Strengths and weaknesses are more exposed in individuals. • Teams provide multiple perspectives on how to meet a need or reach a goal. Thus devising several alternatives for each situation. Individual insight is seldom as broad and deep as a group’s when it takes a problem. • Teams share the credit for victories and the blame for loses. This fosters genuine humility and authentic community. Individuals take credit and blame alone. This foster’s pride and sometimes a sense of failure. • Teams keep leaders accountable for the goal. Individuals connected to no one can change the goal without accountability. • Teams can simply do more than an individual. As a leadership coach and pastor I have found these characteristics to be essential in building a healthy ministry team:

7 C’s of Team Building Character – When People are genuinely growing in their discipleship it is easier to teach scriptural principles and coach them into applying the principles to their ministry

The best way to communicate to the entire team about mission and expectations is to make sure that everyone is included in the communication. This can be a video chat, email, or team huddle. External communication that lets the congregation know the activities of the ministry team. Make good use of the church bulletin boards, Sunday worship bulletin, handouts, bathroom advertising space, and the churches social media feeds. Caring Community – The difference between a team and a committee is the community that is developed. A committee has no expectations of the members to also build a caring community. Taking time weekly to pray for the team members, to have an accountability partner on the team, and responding to a team member in crisis, provides many opportunities to model the Beloved Community that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr describes as his vision for the people of God. The beloved community is a direct reflection of the ecclesia described throughout the New Testament. Consistency – One of the paths to excellence is consistency of the systems that are necessary to make the ministry team effective. When the team can rely on several people to fill a position it changes the dynamic of the team in its ability to produce excellence in the absence of specific team members.

context. As we grow through discipleship our willingness to participate in the team covenant and commitment increase. This is also the foundation for developing good communication and being coachable as a team member. Commitment – This is the covenant that is made with each new ministry team member. Commitment and covenant helps each team member to take ownership of the ministry and to develop in their role so that the whole team succeeds. In my experience this is often the most overlooked step in developing a highly effective ministry team. Contagious Energy – The culmination of a group of committed people growing in their Christian character is contagious energy. This is internal motivation not to let the team members down and external motivation for the team to success at their assigned task. There is authentic enthusiasm and encouragement as the team moves forward. Communication – Every great team has phenomenal communication. There is the internal communication that keeps all of the team members engaged and informed. Effective communication is formal and informal. Informal communication is acceptable for quick responses from individuals especially about tasks and responsibilities.

Coaching – The coach approach to building a ministry team starts from the perspective that each team member has the potential to be the best team member ever. Through the process of incremental growth, each team member can improve in their execution of certain tasks necessary to accomplish the team’s mission. Consistency builds the team’s systems that are necessary to succeed and coaching develops the individual team members’ skills.

William T. Chaney Jr. has been coaching senior pastors, pastoral staff, new church pastors, and lay leaders since 2005. William is an International Coach Federation Associate Certified Coach, a CliftonStrengths Certified Coach, CliftonStrengths Discovery Course Trainer, Employee Engagement Consultant and a DISC facilitator. Before serving in ministry William served as an Account Executive in an information systems company, area director for a national youth development organization and grant writer for health education nonprofit. William started an organizational development consulting firm, was co-founder of the Atlanta Divinity Center and founding pastor of two new churches. William has served in full time ministry for 25 years.

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RENOVATE ENOVATE Regional Church Revitalization Conference Regional Church Revitalization Conference Hel ping Churches Today Succeed Tomorrow!

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Chris Irving Kenneth Priest Steve Holt Claude King Mark Dance and others

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Starting a Church Revitalization Effort Out Strong

Articles inside

Church Revitalization Without Hurting Feelings.