The Church Revitalizer Magazine June - July, 2016

THE

CHURCH

June/July 2016 Vol 2 Issue 3

Revitalizer

“A Revitalization Retreat in Every Issue”

Returning to the Basics of Church Revitalization!

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

RENOVATE National Church Revitalization Conference

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

November 1-3, 2016 Orlando, FL

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

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For pastors, associational leaders and church leaders with churches in need of revitalization.

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9am - 4pm

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Lance Crowell

Nathan Lino

Kenneth Priest

Worship Strategies, SBTC

Founder & Directional Leader Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference

Discipleship & Online Strategies, SBTC

Dean of Post-Graduate Studies

Senior Pastor, NE Houston BC

Executive Director, SBT Foundation

Director of Convention Strategies, SBTC

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Revitalizer FEATURES

June/July | Vol 2, No 3

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An Arrow of Holy Disturbance

By Chris Irving

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Facebook: Twitter

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Twenty Years a Pastor: Lessons I’ve Learned for All Kinds of Churches

Leadership 32 Change Strategies for Church

By Joel R. Breidenbaugh

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I Didn’t Know It Would Be This Hard To Lead Here!

By Ron Edmonson

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Leaders and Members

By Lee Kricher

Back to the Basics

By John Kimball

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

CHURCH IS COMMUNITY: WHAT ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS?

By Glenn Stewart

THE GRAND WORK OF REVITALIZATION IN THE LIFE OF A CHURCH

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By Ron Smith

THE LEADERSHIP LINK…

By Michael Atherton

THE BASICS OF REVITALIZATION – REMOVE THE BARRIERS

By Darwin Meighan

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“The only magazine dedicated to Church Revitalization.”

revitalizer

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Revitalization and Music

By Tracy Jaggers

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Revitalizing Our Ministry

By Rodney Harrison

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The Only Numbers You Should Be Counting in Student Ministry

By Drew Cheyney

22 The Critical Commitments of a Church Revitalizer

By Tom Cheyney 26

Blowing Your Church Off the Plateau

By Tracy Jaggers & Gary L. McIntosh

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Four Nursery & Preschool Basics

By Bill Hegedus

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Falling In Love Again

By Jim Grant

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Reaching Out to a New Culture 7 Marks of a Revitalized Church

By Bob Whitesel

49 Starting a Movement of Church Revitalizer’s

By Tom Cheyney 50

It’s More Bsic Than That

By Bill Tenny-Brittian

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A Mavericks View of Revitalization

By Bill Easum

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Enlarge the Organization (Part 2)

By Kenneth Priest

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Conducting a Community Needs Assessment for Church Revitalization

By Mark Weible

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Becoming The Professional Gleaner

By Rob Myers

LIBRARY BOOK REVIEWS

The Church Revitalizer Book Reviewer: Rob Hurtgen 57 The Church Revitalizer as Change Agent 57 For a New Generation: A Practical Guide for Revitalizing Your Church.

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

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THE

CHURCH

Revitalizer Volume 2, No. 3

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

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

ChurchRevitalizer.Guru

by Tom Cheyney

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

After a great inagurial year of having church members and revitalization pastors asking would the Renovate Publishing Group consider publishing a magazine exclusively on the subject of Church Revitalization and Renewal, we have launched a bi-monthly subscriber donation based magazine for the purpose of raising up the conversation regarding this critical need in the local church. Our goal every other month is to provide you with a Church Revitalization Retreat in every issue. During these issues we are assisting with a clearer understanding of revitalization terms. With the field of church revitalization and renewal expanding so quickly, here are a few of the key fundamental definitions to begin ones journey: Ground Zero: In order to get to where you want to go you must know first where you have come from.

You need to discover the churches ground zero!

Once you have discovered where the churches past have been you will be better able to move it forward into a better future. It is imperative that you take a realistic look at where your church stands in relation to health, present challenges as well as opportunities! Understanding your “Ground Zero” is the beginning of the journey and not the end.

Leader Dependent: When a church is dependent upon one single leader due to failure to train and equip the laity for ministry the church becomes leader dependent instead of people centered.

Stay connected, more is coming...

This issue is focused around:

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

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

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

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

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Returning to the Basics of Church Revitalization!

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

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

Visit Logos.com to get Logos 6 today.

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Revitalization and Music Before pastoring I served as a Music Leader for 23 years. I later pastored and continued to lead the music for another 3 years before training others to take up that role. I have always viewed the music portion of worship as preparation for the body to focus on and receive the movement of the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Word. Music is an art, and as such, it evokes emotion. Ever wonder why songs from our past bring up good memories and possibly even hurtful ones? Interesting how some of the old songs have been revived and renovated today. Things seem to come back if they are reinvented appropriately!

3. Art over Theology – Songs that

That being said, I hope you hear my experience and my love for the art as it pertains to both the benefits and barriers music may have on revitalization. I have been an avid reader of Dr. Robert Webber (author of Worship is a Verb), and have found great musical insights from men like him and Rick Muchow (former Music Pastor at Saddleback in CA.). Each give both practical and theological bases for the supportive role music can have on the health and renewal of the church.

4. Genre over Harmony – This point

I offer the following list and simple explanations to the benefits and barriers of music in revitalization. First, the barriers: 1. Style above Purpose – Rick Muchow said in a conference years ago – “style was not nearly as important as quality.” Across their campus are numerous musical genres, and all were helpful for evangelism and assimilation, because they demand quality. “We are always to offer the Lord our very best!”

2. Preferences above Culture – I

led a worship seminar at a large church that was split over music style. The Music Pastor loved the liturgical, “high-church” style, but his congregation was not supportive of his ministry; they wanted something more “contemporary” (just a side note – what do we mean by contemporary? Yep, as many definitions as definers). During the workshop, we determined that the majority of the church preferred Country and Western music on daily basis. Guess what genre they moved toward, without an argument?

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suggest that we can “come to some dewy garden alone, walking and talking with the Lord, while the moisture is still on the flowers,” does not incite a theological parallel to the life-changing majesty of God. Yes, I love the tune, but the theology is weak at best. Consider songs that help disciples memorize scripture. The Scripture in Song movement of the 80s did this. I’m not suggesting we go back and dig up those relics, but memorizing scripture is invaluable - hiding God’s Word in our heart gives us the resource to resist temptation (Ps. 119:11). Make certain the lyrics match biblical theology. has a slight variance to the barrier found in #2. In the church setting above, there were those who said they preferred the “old Southern gospel” style of music, but when it came to their actual responses, given during the workshop, it was revealed that they found daily enjoyment out of a genre that was quite different from their Sunday choice. In a facade of keeping the peace (really desiring to have what they grew up with), the respondents shared that they would love to hear Christian music set to a country or bluegrass style. Some would secretly slip over to the local Cowboy church, now and then, just to hear “the good old gospel songs” accompanied by the banjo, mandolin and washtub. Their reason for remaining in their former dissatisfying worship environment was they didn’t want to dishonor the memory of their ancestors or “cause any waves.” We often choose to stay in our ritual rather than enjoy the freedom of our unity in Christ.

It matters not what category of music you sing, as long as it comes from your heart and for His glory. Some of the most exciting worship experiences I ever heard were in a little church in Dacus, TX, where bluegrass Christian music was performed for the Lord with excellence. Those folks always seemed to be free and having fun!

And people WANTED to join them.

5. Position over Purpose – I never

considered myself “the Worship Pastor.”

According to the Old Testament, the priests were the Worship Pastors. My ministry role has always been to be a supportive team member alongside

by Tracy Jaggers the pastor. The role of all staff members should be to be a team member accomplishing Kingdom work in the local church, under the leadership of the shepherd who is called to that flock.

The one thing that was sorely missing in my music education was humility. We should humbly support the direction, vision and goals of the church. Only then can we truly lead the heavenly host in praise. We were trained that our gift, our talent and our abilities were of utmost importance. Being a team player was not taught in Music Theory, Vocal Pedagogy, or Sightsinging and Ear Training. Our Lord needs unified hearts, singleness of direction, and Holy Spirit focus.

Second, are benefits of a worship experience that is God-honoring, selfless, and unifying: 1. Music becomes therapeutic. It

leads listeners to focus on the One Who is healer, deliverer and savior. It can truly soothe the savage beast. We should plan to immerse the participants mind in the Word. Then, He can cut the bonds that strap us to worry, fear, hopelessness, etc.

Music can free the mind! Remember the results of David playing the harp for Saul?

(1 Samuel 16:14-23) It works today!

2. Word-centered music stirs the emotions toward the Author! When

we sing and play about the One who saved us, who delivered us and healed us, we cannot help but recount His blessings and forget about the petty differences that drain the power of God and plague church unity. Look at David’s response to Nathan’s convicting parable/ message (2 Samuel 12:1-14; Psalm 51).

Psalm 51 is David’s song of repentance, cleansing and forgiveness. What would our congregations be like if we consistently confessed sin, renewed the sacrifice of our lives daily, and begged God for His washing and restoration?

3. Music becomes the paintbrush of our heart – Spreading the paint of

our adoration on the canvas of the world so all may see His greatness. Art is one way we display what is in our soul. We sing in harmony and unite in symphony for the One Who is and was and is to come!

Continued on Page 13

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Church is Community: What are the Building Blocks?

When we began our church, we wrestled with whether or not to call it Faith Community Church. After all, a church is a community. It seemed redundant, like saying “Faith Church Church.” But tradition won out and now we are officially Faith Community Church. However, we usually just refer to ourselves as Faith Community, or better, a community of faith.

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

Three Realities of Community: 1 God exists in eternal community

God has eternally existed in the friendship of Himself. He is one God, but three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the Triune God who has never been alone or lonely. He exists in a perfect love relationship, in harmony of person and purpose.

And we are created in His image. We are made to relate to others.

2 Jesus modeled the need for community

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

One of the very first things He did after beginning His public ministry was to select twelve disciples from among the broader group that traveled with Him. Within that group of twelve, He was particularly close with three, and when life got really crazy He leaned into them. And when Jesus sent the disciples out, He never sent them out alone.

Our job as pastoral leaders is to build community. In our fast paced society and churches that are too busy for relationships, connecting doesn’t just happen. We have to be intentional about developing a community of faith followers of Jesus Christ. Churches are not just a collection of people, but a relational community.

3 Scripture instructs us to live in community

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

The New Testament has an abundance of passages that describe

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

by Glenn Stewart

The answer is to focus on building relationships.

Certainly you should build strong personal relationships within your church, but here we are talking about building mutual relationships among your people. They often need guidance, direction, and opportunity to connect with others beyond the surface, social level. We may call this the friendship factor.

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

You can always call them if you are in a crisis.

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

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

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

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

In a church I pastored many years ago, one of our men ran a business making handcrafted wood toys and country knick knacks all by hand (he used no power tools). One evening he took me to his shop to show me how he sanded all these rough wooden items. In the center of the room was a large drum with a handle attached. He put what he had made in the drum and then hand turned the handle so that the wooden objects collided against each other. Over and over again the items would crash into each other, and in the process the roughness rubbed away. When he stopped the objects were smooth.

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

Within the community of faith we bump and rub against each other creating friction that is designed to smooth out our sharp edges and

mold us more into the image of Christ. Community is the pruning process that enables us to bear more fruit - the fruit of the Spirit which is the life of Christ within us. Unfortunately, we don’t like the sanding process so we jump out of the “barrel.” We look for a solution that is easier and more appealing to our self-fulfillment. We never address the real issues going on in our soul.

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

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

It sounds like work. Yes, it is. But remember the Church is not a collection of individuals. It is a relational community of faith that mutually invests in one another with the goal of becoming more Christlike in the character and conduct of our lives.

Always keep facilitating connections and nurturing, because these are the blocks that build the Church (God’s community).

Glenn C. Stewart, is the pastor of Faith Community Church in DeBary, FL. and the founder of LifeEquip, Inc. (a coaching and consulting ministry for pastors and churches). You can reach him at glenn@lifeequip.com.

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We remind EVERYONE that He is coming again and victory will be His AND OURS forevermore. Painting the picture of His love for us will reveal the hope, the peace, and the love we have in Him and for others who receive Him. The Lord adds to the church that sacrifices their all for Him and for others (Acts 1:42-47).

4. Quality becomes the standard.

We will cease getting out of bed on Sunday morning and picking 4-5 songs we enjoy, and we will stop “filling” 20-30 minutes on a Sunday morning program.

We will be offering our best, our all, for the One Who gave His all (sounds like good lyrics). The church that practices praise with perfection offers a beautiful aroma to the Lord. We must tirelessly prepare so we honor and respect the One Who is the focus of the worship event. We must lift Him up so all people will be drawn to Him (John 12:32).

5. The Father is the Focus. The

ego-centric desire to entertain gives way to intimate communion. Revival and renewal flows from God’s throne when we glorify His name/character/ attributes and when we lovingly adhere to His commands. If we love Him, we will keep His commands, and if we keep His commands, we will love others properly (1 John 5:1-5). It is at His feet that we gain what is vital!

In summary, weekly reflect on the music ministry of your local congregation.

Make certain it is selflessly-anointed, culturally-relevant, emotionally-appropriate, therapeutically-beneficial, theologically-sound, God-focused, unifying, inclusive and stunning in quality.

May it be our strategy to utilize music to reinforce the Word, heal the soul and propel the believer toward repentance and daily renewal. What is your heart singing today?

Tracy W. Jaggers Associational Director of Missions Gateway Baptist Association

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Available on 15

Revitalizing Our Ministry A characteristic common to many churches in decline is a series of bad decisions over the years. Although most have heard (and quoted) the adage, “Experience is the best teacher,” fundamentally it is wiser to learn from the experience of others and the counsel gained from God’s Word.

The narrative passages of Scripture include life lessons designed to equip individuals and churches by learning from the success and failure of saints and sinners of old. If you, as a leader, are willing to learn from these examples, they will help you and your church avoid the heartache that comes from making bad decisions.

The narrative in the first chapters of Esther provide a case-study for comparing good decision-making leading to God’s plans being accomplished vs. bad decisions leading to destruction and heartache. I have included characteristics of both as illustrated by four individuals, King Ahasuerus, Haman, Mordecai and Esther. At the end, I will provide a list of questions for reflection.

1. Bad Decisions Result from Emotion Based or Knee-Jerk Reactions (Esther 1:12; 3:5). In both of these passages, anger and rage precipitated regrettable decisions of Ahasuerus and his second in command, Haman. Anytime emotions overrule faith and reason bad decisions will follow. It is not only the so-called negative emotions that can lead to poor decisions, feelings of “love” and “contentment” can also cloud ones’ ability to make wise decisions.

2. Bad Decisions Result from Bad Methods (1:10; 3:7). Just as the king resorted to wine and Haman the casting of pur, the predicable results

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were devastating for these leaders.

The casting of pur was a form of divination. The archeological team my wife serves on discovered such an artifact last summer in one of Solomon’s fortress temples, which is a reminder that God’s people are not exempt from resorting to bad methods. Today, many pastors turn to popular trends or misguided methods and wonder why the results are less than satisfying.

3. Bad Decisions Result from a Lack of Information (3:8). Haman failed to provide Ahasuerus the full story. In Esther 2:19-23, we read that Jews, Mordecai, saves the King by exposing a plot to assassinate him.

However, in chapter 3, Haman tells Ahasuerus, “it is not in the Kings interest to let these people live.” So much for giving the king the facts needed to make a good decision.

The bottom line is that if you don’t have the whole story, bad decisions, along with the pain and suffering they cause, are sure to follow.

4. Bad Decisions are Not Immediately Recognized by those who Make Them (3:15). Imagine waking up to a national edict proclaiming “All left handed people will be put to death on Labor Day.” Confusion would reign. And so it was in Susa.

Confusion reigned in the city when the decision was announced. However, the King and Haman were enjoying a drink, likely toasting to their ability to make unilateral decisions.

There are other Biblical examples of leaders whose poor decisions were not immediately recognized, including Jonah, King Saul and Peter.

It should be the desire of every leader to consistently make good decisions for the home and church.

By Rodney Harrison In contrast to the devastating (and often delayed) results arising from poor decisions, consider the decision making of Mordecai and Esther. The process used by this father-daughter team will serve the home and church today as it served the people of God people during the captivity.

1. Good Decisions Involve Godly Methods. More specifically, prayer and crying out to God (4:1); fasting (4:16); obedience to God’s Word (3:2); and Godly Counsel (4:15-16). These methods were utilized by Mordecai, Esther and the assembled Jews during time of great uncertainty. As leaders, using the right tool at the right time is essential. Prayer is always available to the leader. I often find myself breathing short prayers in the checkout line (Lord, is this purchase appropriate) as well for church members, family and staff throughout the day. However, if my wife asks, “Does this dress make me look fat?” the correct answer shouldn’t be, “Let me get back to you after I pray and fast.” The wise leader will use fasting in response to corporate mourning and repentance, the selection of leaders and times of affliction. In the same way, good decision makers know and do God’s Word, as when Mordecai obeys Exodus 20:2-4 rather than bowing down to Haman. Good decision-makers know the value of Godly Counsel (Prov. 15:22, Acts 15:5) when facing major decisions.

Of course, Godly counsel means seeking out those who will prayerfully tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.

Continued on Page 22

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

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“A Revitalization Retreat in Every Issue” RenovateConference.org/magazine 17

The Only Numbers You Should Be Counting in Student Ministry If you work/ lead anywhere in the hemisphere of the prototypical church, no matter what denomination that may be, then you have probably been conditioned to bring back a very rudimentary skill that every single person reading this has been taught from an early age: COUNTING. Ten, sixteen, thirty-four, forty-five, wait someone just walked through the doors, that makes forty-six, I think one person just went to the bathroom…. that makes forty-seven. Sound familiar? To tell the truth this is a normal thing we all do as leaders, I do this at times, but for a lot of us counting has consumed our ministries.

Are You a Counter?

Let’s take a second to test this out.

You will know you are a counter if one of the following applies to you: • You have stressed yourself out/ worried if people would actually show up for “your thing.”

• You lay in bed after checking other church’s social media and wish you had what they had.

• You feel your only as successful as your last large attendance and that was last August.

If we are not careful, we as leaders can get into a consuming rhythm of comparison and worry when it comes to what we count and that is a really unhealthy place for leaders to be when it comes to measuring success.

Now don’t get me wrong, healthy things grow and we count people because people count, but if we were to think about the things that really matter in the way we inspire and impact people, there are only a three specific categories that we as leaders should actually care about

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tracking when it comes to counting in our ministries.

First Time Guests are something you should count. You’ll know if your student ministry is healthy and heading in the right direction by the number of first time guests you have attending your program each week. Having students attend your program for the first time shows you how well you are reaching people who do not already attend your church. Each week attendance is going to fluctuate and go up and down all the time, but what matters is how many first time guests you have had. Part of leading a student ministry has everything to do with being around students in your community. It is great to hang out with the varsity Christian who has been attending your church since they were three, but the fact is, healthy Student Ministries have more to do with the ways we are reaching and impacting our community then they have to do with keeping the people who already attend. Now, do we want those who have been invested in our ministries to stay there until they graduate? Yes of course! But your ministry will always be more effective and community inspiring if you care about new people, not just your core attending. The goal I shoot for every week is I hope that out of whatever my attendance is at my Student Ministry Experience or event, that 10% of the rooms attendance are first time guests.

When that happens, it shows me how affective our Student Ministry has been at reaching students in our community and when first time guests enter your environments, it gives you the opportunity to tie them to more.

Another category worth tracking is Salvations & Baptisms. We do what we do because we as church leaders think that Jesus’s way is best

by Drew Cheyney

for everyone’s life. We want people to accept Christ into their lives.

We want Students to make better choices through Gods lens. That is a very real thing for all of us as pastors, but it is this number that will show you how effective you have been in impacting people who do not know Jesus. We do what we do because of this opportunity we are giving students to know Jesus and this needs to not only be something we track, but something that we make a big deal and celebrate. If no one comes to know Jesus, then all we are doing each week is having a mediocre to big party and our experiences should be more than that. The next step for our students after choosing salvation is Baptism.

This is an energizing decision that should be celebrated in your student ministry because it nails down for your students the publicness of their relationships with Jesus.

Warning, celebrate the Salvation & Baptism numbers more so then weeks you have crazy numbers.

Huge events are great because they energize and add momentum to your program, but make Salvations & Baptism something you count because that monthly number will truly tell you how you are measuring in the lives of people.

Lastly, there is only one other category worth tracking and it is Serving. One of the best ways for our students to act out their faith is to serve weekly and frequently in an area of our church/ community they are passionate about. Serving is a great indicator that can tell you if what you are doing is having an effect in your students’ lives. You see, what your ministry does will always change, but the way you inspire stu-

Continued on page 36

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An Arrow of Holy Disturbance One of the simplest, yet most profound acts of faith in the journey toward revitalization is prayer. Yet at times, especially in the battle for change and revitalization in the church, it may seem like your prayers are hitting the ceiling. When this happens, no matter how tempted you might become, I would not suggest trying a website like Newprayer.com. At one time, you could send prayers to God via this website. Newprayer.com said, “Simply click on the Pray button and transmit your prayer to the only known location of God.” The site claimed it could send prayers via a radio transmitter to God’s last known location: the star cluster M13, believed to be one of the oldest in the universe.

Crandall Stone, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, engineer and freelance consultant, set up the site after a winter’s night of sipping brandy and philosophizing with friends in Vermont. The conversation turned to Big Bang theories of creation. Someone suggested that if everything was in one place at the time of the explosion, God must have been there too.

“It’s the one place where we could be sure he was,” Stone said. “We thought that if we could find that location and had a radio transmitter, we could send a message to God.” After consulting with NASA scientists, the friends settled on M13 as the likely location. They chipped in about $20,000 to build a radio wave-transmitting website.

Newprayer.com transmitted about 50,000 prayers a week from seekers around the globe.

Note: Newprayer.com is no longer operational.1 Ok, let’s get real…God is not only there in M13, but He is very real and definitely present in your prayer time. Thom Rainer points out in his new book, Who Moved My Pulpit, “I have never seen successful and sustaining change take place in a church without prayer.”2 And he’s certainly not referring to radio-transmitted prayers!

During one of my own prayer times recently, I came across an Old Testament story that really focused my heart and mind on the nearness of God. I’m not just sending my prayers to a god that is distant, but rather to God who desires me and our church to be focused on His glory and intent on making Jesus known to our city.

1 Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof, 1001 Illustrations That Connect (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 305.

2 Thom Rainer, Who Moved My Pulpit (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2016), 41.

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By Chris Irving

In 2 Kings 13, Elisha laid dying and King Joash of Israel went to visit him. Joash was concerned that the “chariots of Israel and its horsemen” were dying and he needed some reassurance of victory against a difficult foe, the Syrians. Elisha instructed Joash to open a window to the east, take up his bow and arrow and shoot the arrow out as far as he could. Elisha called this arrow the “LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria!” The story continues when Elisha then instructs Joash to strike the ground with more arrows. Joash strikes three times, but Elisha was expecting him to strike five or six times. If Joash had struck more, then he surely would have defeated Syria completely, but because of his limited response, victory was assured only three times.

As pastors and church leaders, we find ourselves with a quiver full of arrows as we seek revitalization for our churches. I want your prayer life to be an “arrow of holy disturbance” for the Lord and His church. As you develop your prayer time for revitalization, consider how the concept of the arrow can guide your focused time of prayer for your church.

A – Ask

In Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus teaches us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who ask receives…” One function of prayer is approaching God in humility and awareness of our need. Our churches need revival, they need a work of the Holy Spirit. Yet we are not the Holy Spirit nor can we pretend to understand all of God’s ways of bringing revitalization, so we must ask Him out of our need Him. We need to ask God specifically for courage, strength, patience, perseverance, and wisdom. Perhaps Joash asked Elisha out of selfishness, but he no doubt knew of Elisha’s important role as a great prophet of God. God used Elisha, and Joash knew it to be true. You know God has called you to revitalize the church and you know Who to ask for guidance! Now do it!

R - Receive

As Joash sought counsel from Elisha, Elisha gave him insight and Joash received it. Jesus later said that if we “ask” anything in His name it will be given to us. The real question is “Are you willing to receive His answer?” As you study God’s Word, are your ears open to hearing God speak? Has He grown silent? If you’ve not heard from the Lord, did you accomplish what He asked of you last time? Nehemiah is a leader we often turn to when studying revitalization. In Nehemiah 7:5, Nehemiah remembers a time when “God put it into my heart” to take a specific action. Like Nehe-

miah, are you so in tune with God in your prayer time that you can say, “God has put it into my heart?” Are you willing to receive how He answers you?

R – Respond

As Elisha instructed him, Joash picked up his bow and arrow and shot the arrow out the window. One of the keys to prayer is the response. God is a God who brings change into our lives as we come to Jesus and then through the process of sanctification, He continues to work change in our lives to make us look more like Jesus. As we ask, seek, and knock, there comes a point when our prayer does not just seek to get something in return, but we understand that God is calling us to take action. To “seek” connects your prayer life with the responsibility to take action in pursing God’s will. How will you respond to what God will call you to accomplish?

O – Obey Heartily

Elisha tells Joash to strike the ground with the arrows.

It is difficult to know if he shot three more arrows from his bow or if he literally struck the ground with an arrow three times. The obedience is there for Joash, but he must have done so half-heartedly or simply thinking that three was enough. Elisha grabs his attention and says, “You should have struck five or six times…” Maybe it was the lack of passion in his response, or maybe the lack of unction, but Joash missed the mark here and fell short of God’s glory. We do the same thing when we do not prepare and cast the full vision of revitalization. When we do not communicate what it will take to revitalize, when we hold back what God has called us to do as pastors. You are called to love God with all your heart, mind, and strength.

This is not mental knowledge or a “feeling” of love, it is a call to offer your life as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to the Lord. So when you respond and obey, do so heartily! Strike the ground until God says stop!

W – Worship

When God makes Himself known in Scripture, worship always ensues. Whether it is Moses at the burning bush or Isaiah’s vision in the throne room of God, worship breaks out when God breaks out. As God works in and through revitalization, there are moments that must be celebrated because God is acting on your behalf. Perhaps it will occur in that key vote that is pending in the next business meeting. Maybe you are preparing to select key leaders in your church to form a strategic planning team. All these are important decisions that will fail without prayer. And as God shows Himself through these important moments, you respond with praise! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?” “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.”3 3 Romans 11:34-36 (ESV)

Will you turn your prayer time into Joash’s arrow of victory unto the Lord? I pray you will.

I leave you with a prayer I came across recently asking God to bring a holy disturbance. Perhaps this can be your arrow of victory for the Lord?

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

—Sir Francis Drake, 15774

4 Larson, Ibid, 307.

Chris Irving is the Lead Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Gonzales, TX.

Chris has served in ministry for 15 years in Texas. He led a small rural church to revitalization and is currently involved in the revitalization process of First Baptist Gonzales.

He earned his Masters of Divinity at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and his Doctorate of Ministry in leadership studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Dr. Irving aims to help pastors equip the lay leadership of the church to serve in ministry.

He and his wife, Amber have been married for 14 years and have six children.

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The Critical Commitments of a Church Revitalizer

Revitalizing Our Ministry CONTINUED...

By Rodney Harrison

2. Good Decisions Flow from Facts. Esther 4:7-8 uses phrases such as “everything that had happened,” “exact amount of money,” “gave him a copy of the written decree,” and “explain it to her.” Good decisions makers have all the facts that are available or required, and understand the implications of communicating the facts accurately. All too often, decisions are make without “counting the cost.” I once bought a car I thought I could afford. The payments fit my budget, but I failed to count the cost of insurance, service and maintenance (the car went through a set of tires every 12,000 miles!) and reliability. The car ended up costing $300/month more than I had in the budget, putting strain on our family and church, all because I failed to count the cost.

3. Good Decisions May Involve Risk (4:16). As a leader, it is imperative you know the hill(s) to die on and have a clear understanding of which issues are not worth the risk. Good leaders don’t make every issue a matter of life and death. However, if you want a ministry with no risks, you will find a ministry with no power, no joy and no results. Jesus asked the Rich Young Ruler to give up all he had. Trusting Jesus involves being willing to exercise faith. Staying with a difficult church that God has called you may involve risk, and a step of faith.

In closing, consider the following reflection questions: • Have you or a leader in your church ever made an emotion based, knee-jerk decision following a bad Sunday, a contentious business meeting or a fight with your spouse? Does the history of your church demonstrate emotion based decisions?

• Have you made decisions without having all the facts? Give thought to some of the decisions that have caused stress and strain on your marriage or your church. Did the trials arise from poor decisions?

• Have you made poor decisions that were not quickly recognized? What about other leaders in your church or family? Often, decisions to break covenant with the church are not recognized by those who make those decisions, but cause pain and confusion for the members.

•Which Godly methods have you used and taught recently? Are any of the methods listed being overlooked?

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By Tom Cheyney

Every church revitalizer must have a certain set of core commitments if he is to succeed in the work of church revitalization and renewal. If these focused four commitments are kept as a primary emphasis on the one who is called to revitalize the church, there is a greater chance that renewal or revitalization can be achieved. These four focused commitments are:

1. Personal growth through God’s Word.

Revitalization is difficult and without a daily walk with the Lord and a focus on His Word, it is impossible to become the change agent, which the dying church requires. Fresh manna must be received daily so as one works through the hard issues of revitalization there is a fresh step in the Church Revitalizers life.

2. Spiritual power through intercessory prayer.

People ask me all the time what is the key ingredient to church revitalization. Most want a magic pill that will fix their dying church with little or no effort. But without a doubt the single most important ingredient to renewal is the power, which comes from intercessory prayer.

3. Integrity through developing accountable relationships.

Relationships require a mutual accountability. Church Revitalizers must work at displaying spiritual integrity through the relationships they develop. Holding one another accountable is important in developing lasting relationships.

4. Strategic mission through God’s unique call.

God has called and gifted you in unique ways to be a Church Revitalizer. Just like not every minister can plant a church from scratch, not every one can take a declining church and breath life back into it. Part of that effort is God’s strategic mission and calling upon your life. Church Revitalizers must be able to make the hard calls relating to transitioning a church. Also they must have the strategic ability to be able to pull the trigger sooner than later. While revitalizers are highly relational, they are not one who takes it upon them to hold everyone’s hands. While many pastors in declining churches are holding the faithful few in their loving arms, they are just not willing Nor able to make the hard decisions, which will turnaround the church. They wait until few are left and the faithful ask them to leave.

If these focused four commitments must be kept as a primary emphasis on the one who is called to revitalize the church. If this is done, there is a greater chance that renewal or revitalization can be achieved. This leader seeks to address God’s mission call to a leader utilizing each of the other commitments. All four commitments are essential to a believer’s ability to abide in Christ, and become more effective in his service.

Live Life to the Fullest as You Pursue Your Personal Calling.

Church strategist and ministry activator Todd Wilson helps you find answers to three of the most important and profound questions we all ask – Who am I created to be?

What am I created to do?

Where am I to be best positioned to do it?

Get helps for you and your church: Visit personalcalling.org/more

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Twenty Years a Pastor: Lessons I’ve Learned for All Kinds of Churches

Recently, I moved beyond twenty years of pastoral ministry. I have served as a youth pastor, associate pastor, solo pastor, church planter, senior pastor and church revitalizer. I have served churches with worship average attendances of 28, 70, 88, 140, and 500+, but I didn’t serve them in that order. The church settings have been country community churches, a small town church, a church in a beach community and a major metro/suburban setting. Each successive church has provided me longer tenure than each previous church. I have been at my current church nearly 8 years.

I started in ministry as a single man, but I got married a few months later. We spent our first five years without children and now have five ranging from age 14 down to 5. By the grace of God we have made it both as a low-income and middle-income family and my wife has stayed at home with our children, but she worked and went to school the first few years of our marriage.

I don’t list these things to brag (who boasts about shepherding a church of 28!?) but to let you know I’ve experienced several different settings. I’ve probably been in a setting similar to yours and had to weather some of the same kinds of storms you’ve endured.

Because you may be on a similar road as what I’ve traveled, let me offer you a few lessons I’ve learned along the way.

Verify Your Call to Ministry

Many people and life’s circumstances will cause you to question what God is doing in your life and if you are really cut out for the difficult task of ministry. There is no such thing as an “easy church,” though some are less difficult than others. Some church people are mean-spirited and have made it their life mission to be a “thorn in the flesh” to the pastor, just to keep him humble. Because of these types of people, there will be times you want to quit your church and walk away from ministry all-together.

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by Joel R. Breidenbaugh

Don’t do it. You may need to take a few days off and get away, doing something which relieves stress in your life (more on this below). Think about the time you surrendered to God’s call on your life. You probably told Him you would go wherever He wanted you to go and do whatever He wanted you to do. I initially thought God would use me as a traveling evangelist, but after doing that awhile in college, I realized He was pushing me in another direction in ministry.

Think about your home church and other godly people who verified God’s call on your life for vocational ministry. Too many young men today experience only a subjective call to ministry, but most of us have both a subjective call (sensing God’s voice ourselves) and an objective call (where other church members validate God’s call on our lives). The Lord can use these remembrances to solidify your stance in serving Him.

Remember You Serve the Lord First God Is Your Audience.

When the Apostle Paul commended the Macedonian Christians, he noted how “they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then by the will of God to us” (2 Corinthians 8:5, ESV). That’s the proper perspective, because if we aren’t careful, we will think of ministry as something we offer to people—sinful, unhappy, always-complaining people. But such a perspective is wrong. We serve God first before anyone else. He called us into ministry before a church ever called us to serve. If we don’t please the Lord, it doesn’t matter how satisfied our congregation is with us—we have failed!

God’s Word Is Your Guide

As we serve the Lord, we obey His Word. Even when societal pressures seek to conform us from calling sin what it is or influencing us to adapt to our culture, we serve the Lord first and follow His Word. Should we ever depart from God’s Word in order to do that which seems right in our own eyes, as occurred in the days of the judges, we would do well either to repent or walk away from the ministry. The gospel message is too precious and the task of ministry is too serious for us to carry out our work without God’s directions.

Love the People God Has Called You to Serve

Yes, you serve the Lord first, but you also serve people in the pastorate. Some church members are model Christians, some are mediocre and many are far less than exemplary. If you want to be an effective pastor, you need to learn to love all the people God has called you to serve. Some will be easy to love, because they will pour out their love to you and/or follow your leadership. Others will be more challenging, but they, too, need your love.

Your love for them may positively affect their own commitment to the Lord and His church.

One way you can express love to others is through their family members. I had an active 95 year-old lady in our church who didn’t care for me no matter what I tried to do for her. She even spoke ill of me with a few other people. As I developed a close friendship with her 65 year-old son, her attitude towards me changed. She suddenly received my love for her and became one of my biggest fans!

Take a Break from the Action

The band Chicago sang, “Everybody needs a little time away.” While they placed it in a different context, this statement is true for pastors. Ministry can be a lot like a roller coaster with its ups and downs, sideways turns and break-neck speed. Because the pastorate can easily be a 24/7 job, planned breaks are necessary to avoid burnout and staleness. I advocate at least one day each week away from ministry and at least a couple of weeks each year.

Other important elements of taking a break include the following.

Time with Your (Grand)Kids

Ministry demands will often throw a monkey-wrench into family plans, and adjustments will sometimes need to be made. But there are certain planned activities—birthday parties, vacations, etc.—which should not be cancelled. You don’t want your children to grow up despising the church for always “stealing you away,” so stick to your guns on big events for them.

Time with Your Spouse

I’m a big advocate for weekly dates for couples.

While dinner-and-a-movie can be fun, you may have to squeeze in a breakfast or lunch date. You should also get away periodically for a few days

without the kids. Barring an early death, you made a commitment to your spouse that will last into your empty-nest years and beyond just about any church you serve. Your relationship as husband-and-wife is far more important than any other relationship, except Christ.

Time for Yourself

Some guys like to find some alone time by hunting, fishing or golfing. I like to play basketball or baseball or browse a bookstore. You need to unwind from the stress of ministry and give yourself some time so you can better minister to others. And don’t let your cell phone be a leash. Just because you get a call doesn’t mean you must answer it right then. If you always try to answer it to show you are always available, you will grow to regret it. Trust me.

You may be thinking, “But if I’m not available to my people at certain times, who will they turn to?” Hopefully, you have some elders or deacons who can help fill the gaps. And don’t worry about things falling apart if you miss a week. The church was there before you came and it won’t explode the week you are gone.

Be Faithful in All Things, Big & Small

As you serve your church, be faithful to those the Lord has entrusted to your care. Whether you serve a small, medium or large congregation, you must do what God has called you to do. Be prepared through the study to stand before your people and preach. That’s the big thing you do each week. But don’t neglect the small things of visiting the sick in the hospital or writing a card of bereavement or calling to encourage a ministry leader. The little things in ministry help make the big things have a greater impact.

Conclusion If space permitted it, I could come up with a few more lessons, but these five stand out. Once I was 20 years old and I tried to listen to others who gave me this kind of advice. Now that I’ve been 20 years a pastor, I’m glad I received this counsel. May the Lord use it to help you, too.

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

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BLOWING YOUR CHURCH OFF THE PLATEAU

by Tracy Jaggers and Gary L. McIntosh

Many churches in the US are listed as declining or stagnant (plateaued). The declining church is easy to recognize - the parking lot is empty and the pews or chairs are vacant. But how is plateaued defined and how does a church blow themselves off the plateaued status?

Plateaued is defined as: reaching a level, period, or condition of stability or maximum attainment. Should the body of Christ ever allow this definition to be used of a local church? Of course not! The church must never allow herself to be known as “plateaued;” if this is actually a real position. The church must always be growing, yet about 29.9% of the churches around us affirm that they are declining and another 44.3% say they are plateaued or stagnant *. This is alarming! Here are a few possible causes for churches plateauing and ways to blow your church off its plateaued status. *http://www.ronniefloyd.com/blog/8105/southern-baptist-convention/fewer-sbc-churches-growing-more-sbc-churches-declining/

REASONS FOR CHURCHES PLATEAUING:

1) Plateaued churches usually have high leadership turnover.

2) Plateaued churches normally emphasize fellowship over evangelism.

3) Plateaued churches rely on older programs and events, and lack creativity.

4) Plateaued churches are committee or congregation-driven rather than leadership-driven. Those with the vision should usually lead.

WAYS TO BLOW YOUR CHURCH OFF THE PLATEAU:

1) Churches must commit to trust and follow growth-minded leadership.

2) Think, act, react and live like you want to grow!

3) Start or do something new; think outside the box!

4) Publicize using various methods – websites, blogs, mailers, twitter, email…

5) Focus on those outside the church (on the lost); “for such were some of you.”

6) Get every member involved somewhere. No excuses!

7) Expand, remodel, put out more chairs – plan/prepare for/expect them to come.

8) Be a Great Commandment and Great Commission church.

9) Light the fuse and run with the explosion!

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The GRAND Work of Revitalization in the Life of a Church Gather

All the Words from God 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 our morning toast or the face of Mary appearing in a tree or other wild, image sightings of God. Revelation here is referring to the Word of God spoken by God’s mouthpiece – the prophets. If there is one thing that will reach people it is 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….

Resources about the Church and the Community Equally important as hearing from God is surrounding yourself with the culture you are ministering in and to. As pastor, gather stories about the times when God was alive in the church. Examine these stories. Ask what made this time and movement special.

Discuss these times among your leaders. Have them recall what it felt like to be a part of this and then ask, “Why would we want to rob anyone now and in the future of feeling what you felt and experiencing what you experienced?”

As you gather stories and resources about the times God moved, a greater understanding is gained of how God wants to work. Gather 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 the church needs to pursue.

Recall

God Moments in the Past “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” When God made these statements, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were dead. I know I struggle with the proper use of tenses when I am writing, but I don’t think God has that problem. We need to remind ourselves, and the church, that we serve a God, who 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, that does not mean that he cannot move in a new way in the present. If the language of the church only includes stories of God moving in the past, they are a dying church.

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by Ron Smith Feature Writer

The language of the dying church is, “I was.”

The language of the living church is, “I am.”

Recalling the times God moved is a very powerful tool in revitalization. I love talking to church members who can recall great days of provision, revivals, and worship services. I love having them take me back to the times when finances were tough, the need was huge, the people were being saved and the church was growing.

I love to watch their face. I love to observe body language. I love for them to go back and recall how they felt. I love it even more when I ask them this question: “Wouldn’t you love for others in the church to feel the way you felt that day? Wouldn’t it be great to experience that again?” Of course they say yes, and, of course, they try to say things like, “Yeah, then let’s bring the good ‘ole days.” To which I respond, “Well, we can’t bring back the good ‘ole days, and God never said to repeat the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What God wants is what he has always wanted for us: for us to experience Him fresh and new in our generation.”

Remind them that each generation needs to see God move or we will be like the lost generation found in Judges 2:10. Don’t be mistaken about the power or intent of the recall. Recalling is not meant to keep the church stuck in the past. A true recall is a challenge. The goal of recall is to remind them what God did and that He wants to do it again; however, we must choose this day. Today we must choose. We are not choosing yesterday. This day we are choosing right now 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: anytime and every time we need to put the church in front of a living God. Often in our systems and habits and comforts we, like the children of Israel, forget who delivers us, blesses us and prepares a table before us.

Acknowledge

Current Strengths… Don’t Build Off Weakness Don’t work on what you’re weak at! Why? You’re weak at it. Tom Rath says, “You cannot be anything you want to be — but you can be a lot more of who you already are” (Strengths Finder, Gallup Press, 2007). Often in the work of revitalization the work is focused on what is not working. It stands to reason that we will need to look at

the things that are contributing to decline. There will be things that every church does well. Every church is unique in some areas. It may be broad in description like friendly, artsy, caring, or even evangelical. It may be specific such as: styles of worship, life groups, or mid-week children’s ministry.

There are many factors that you can examine to determine your strengths. We will briefly look at some of these now, but there is more on this later. The examination of your strengths is designed to lead you as you discover the culture of the church. To determine the strengths of your church take a look at some of these areas: 1. Leadership: What are the strengths of the leaders?

What do they talk about?

2. Gifts: How is the church uniquely gifted?

3. The Past: Look at the patterns of growth and decline.

4. Values: If you listen long enough, you can figure out what the church values.

Current Resources Every church has resources. Every church probably longs for the resources of other churches. Yes, even churches are not immune to the greener grass syndrome, gazing over their own resources into the pastures of another. Take a look at things differently.

Drive up to your property with a new view. Try to see what the community sees that you do not. Clean out rooms. Look at Google Earth and discover ways to use your property. Re-assign rooms. 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 the box. Every church has resources. I’m sure Noah looked a gopher wood every day. Who knew it was going to build a boat!

Navigate

The Seasons/Body Cycles/Culture Each body has a rhythm. In your gathering notice the rhythm (this should coincide with the strengths). Map out the church culture: Who do we think we are? What do others say about us? Know the church’s ceremonies, celebrations and celebrities. Look for dis-ease.

Take a culture sample of the mouth of your leaders.

Develop a MAP: Ministry Action Plan

What is a Ministry Action Plan?

It is an intentional plan to accomplish the mission of the church, using the available resources given to the

local church, with the Bible as the context. It utilizes steps not programs. It thinks ministry not maintenance. A church has four things. No more, no less: People – Time – Space – Money Here’s how it works: Who are we trying to reach? (People) When will that happen? (Time) Where it will take place? (Space) What’s the cost? (Money) Our Ministry (the steps of moving people) determines our budget.

Think Steps not Programs.

Our job is to put people in front of Jesus. When this happens we experience the GRAND work of Revitalization.

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R eRoan Smdityh By Ron Smith is the Lead Pastor

of WaterStone Church in Longwood, FL. Ron serves as Co-Leader of Renovate One Day Training as well as serving on staff of the Renovate Coaching Network. Follow Ron at RonBSmithJr.com for leadership material and sporadic blogs. Ron is the author of Churches Gone Wild. He is the

Father of three girls, husband to Rana and pastor of a great church.

Follow Ron at RonBSmithjr.com for free leadership material and sporadic blogs.

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It Takes a Leader!

In this issue of the Leadership link, we are going to explore a basic tenet of revitalizing leadership.

Indeed, it can be said that leadership becomes a central topic when discussing revitalization. Without a strong leader, revitalization will likely not be achieved. But to be sure, leadership is not just critical to revitalization, but also to sustainability.

Leadership in any church is essential!

Corporate America is consumed with leadership competency and efficiency. Better leadership will inevitably render effective personnel management, clearer vision, more production, better time management, happier customers, and increased revenue. As increased revenue is what motivates corporate America, it makes sense to invest time and money in leadership development.

Yet, within the church there is a lethargic view concerning the value of developing and maintaining strong leadership. The reasons are many: there may be diminished funds for the church to advocate the training of its leaders, there may be a lack of desire on the part of the leader to be developed, and undoubtedly there is not enough accountability by all parties to ensure the maturation of leaders. Although Christian leadership in Western culture has taken on a hierarchical approach with people striving to make it to the “top,” scripture clearly indicates a different paradigm for the pastor. Let’s consider Jesus’ teaching in John 10.

Jesus uses this parable about shepherds because the people in his day knew the kind of life that a shepherd lived, it was a difficult life, a hard life. The life of a shepherd was a lonely life and difficult life.

Nevertheless, Jesus uses what the people would understand, a parable about shepherds to tell us something about himself and to challenge future leaders in the church.

John 10:1-18 (NIV) “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to

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by Michael Atherton his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep.

So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

It is appropriate to consider, for just a moment, the qualities of a good shepherd. In this passage, we see that the good shepherd…

1. The good shepherd (leader) knows his sheep. The shepherd calls the sheep by name and the sheep knows the shepherd’s voice. The shepherd knows the sheep’s needs. The shepherd and sheep are clearly in a relationship. The shepherd is not just a figure head who shows up from time to time to bark orders at the sheep.

The shepherd is with his sheep and there is mutual confidence in the relationship they share together.

2. The good shepherd (leader) guides and protects the sheep. The sheep will not follow a stranger, but instead stay with the shepherd

because they know that with the shepherd they have protection, rest, peace, and direction. That does not mean that the shepherd caves on every whim of the sheep. In fact, it means just the opposite. A good shepherd will not give the sheep what the sheep think they want at the expense of giving the sheep what the shepherd knows they need. Our love for the flock mandates that we are proactive in protecting the sheep, even if we must protect them from themselves.

3. The good shepherd (leader) is not a hired hand. When the going gets tough, the hired hand leaves to find greener pastures. A shepherd felt he had a calling from a young age to tend sheep, so he spent his whole young life learning how to care for the sheep, then the rest of his adult life tending the sheep, fighting off the animals that would eat the sheep, and sometimes fighting off robbers who would steal the sheep. The good shepherd leader stays for the long haul, regardless of how tough the prospects may be.

4. The good shepherd (leader) is faithful and sacrificial. The shepherd will stop at nothing to save the life of his flock; he loves his flock. Christ models this for us on the cross. What are you doing as a shepherd leader to show the flock the depths of your love for them?

Though this is clearly not an exhaustive list of shepherd leadership qualities, it is certainly a good start. Indeed, Christ calls us as pastors and particularly as revitalizing pastors, to have a shepherd’s heart. But, as is the case often in Scripture, there is the other side of the coin. Consider the narrative of the shepherd leader through the lens of the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 34: 1-10 (NIV) The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured.

You have not brought back the strays or searched for

Within the church there is a lethargic view concerning the value of developing and maintaining strong leadership. The reasons are many: there may be diminished funds for the church to advocate the training of its leaders, there may be a lack of desire on the part of the leader to be developed, and undoubtedly there is not enough accountability by all parties to ensure the maturation of leaders.

the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 10 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.

What a sobering word from Ezekiel! In verse 10, it says that the Lord is against the shepherd. Clearly, God is against the shepherd that was self-serving, abusive, destructive, and selfish. In the two passages we examined, we clearly see the example of a good shepherd vs. the bad shepherd. As you consider revitalizing leadership, which shepherd are you?

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

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Change Leadership Strategies for Church Leaders and Members

by Lee Kricher In 2003, the church at which I serve as pastor was an aging, dying church. After years of declining attendance, we were on the verge of closing our doors. The average age of our church attendees was over 50 years old - more than 15 years older than the average age of our community. I knew that prayer would provide the foundation of hope for our future as a church. As Tom Cheney writes, “Without a doubt the single most important ingredient to renewal is the power that comes from intercessory prayer.” I also knew that we had to change some things.

We did not have to change our core beliefs and values. They were not the problem. The problem was that our approach to church was stuck in the distant past. Our services, programs, ministries and practices were perfectly designed to reach the people we were reaching. While preserving our core beliefs and values, we had to find a way to make the kind of changes to our services, programs, ministries and practices that were needed to reach people we were not reaching – particularly the next generation.

I have had an interesting mix of experiences in my life. Starting in my early twenties, I spent thirteen years as a church planter. I spent my next thirteen years working for two of the premier change leadership firms in the world. I have spent the past thirteen years as a church revitalizer, prayerfully putting change leadership strategies into action. The combination of prayer and strategic change has resulted in a dramatic turnaround in our church.

Here are the five change leadership strategies that we put into place (along with relevant quotes from effective change leaders):

#1 - Adopt a New Mindset - Do whatever is needed to shift the mindset of the people of your church away from the statement “If it was good enough for me, it should be good enough for our children and grandchildren,” and replace it with the question – “What will it take to reach and continue to reach the next generation?”

The most pervasive and common thread of our autopsies was that the deceased churches lived for a long time with the past as hero. They held on more tightly with each progressive year. They often clung to things of the past with desperation and fear. And when any internal or external force tried to change the past, they responded with anger and resolution: “We will die before we change.” And they did.1 #2 - Identify the Essentials – Clarify the vision that you believe that God wants for your church and then identify your “vision essentials” - the handful of things that deserve your full time, attention, energy and resources because they are absolutely essential to achieving your vision.

Contrary to popular wisdom, the proper first response to a changing world is not to ask, “How should we change?” but rather to ask, “What do we stand for and why do we exist?” This should never change. And then feel free to change everything else.2 #3 - Reduce the Distractions – Identify and eliminate as many church programs, ministries and practices as possible that potentially distract members and visitors from your vision and divert your time, attention, energy and resources from the things that are essential to fulfilling your vision.

1Thom S. Rainer, Autopsy of a Deceased Church 2 Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras, Built to Last

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Your programs are not sacred… What is sacred is the mission of the church. You are called to shine a light and demonstrate God’s love and grace to those who need it. Our mission is not to preserve the local church as it presently exists in its various forms or models; our mission is to be the church… All along (God) has planned this thing called the church so we could send a collective message to a generation that needs to know Him.3 #4 – Elevate Your Standards - Close the gap between where you are as a church and where you have the potential to be regarding the excellence of your weekend services and other “vision essentials.”

Capable leaders are willing to set standards that scare them. Ask yourself the question, “Are you operating at good, better or best?” Good is doing what is expected of you. It is slightly above average and requires some focus and determination to get there, but it is relatively easy to achieve. Better is rising a little higher than good. It typically means you are comparing yourself to the next one in line. But best is where you want to live. It is greatness and doesn’t mean you are better than everyone else but that you’re working to your maximum capability.4 #5– Build a Mentoring Culture – Put into place systems that ensure that young leaders are prepared for and placed into visible leadership roles in the church and that the church will become and remain a church that is never disconnected from the next generation.

Just about anybody can make an organization look good for a moment – by launching a flashy new program or product, drawing crowds to a big event, or slashing the budget to boost the bottom line. But leaders who leave a legacy take a different approach. They lead with tomorrow as well as today in mind… When all is said and done, your ability as a leader will not be judged by what you achieved personally or 3Reggie Joiner, founder of The reThink Group 4Brad Lomenick, The Catalyst Leader

even by what your team accomplished during your tenure. You will be judged by how well your people and your organization did after you were gone.5 We did not approach our church revitalization with the short-term goal of just experiencing a season of increased attendance. Given the continuing changes in the world around us, we approached our church revitalization with a long-term goal – to put these strategies in place to ensure that our church would get connected to and stay connected to the next generation.

Change is never easy. About a third of the people who were attending our church left within the first two years because they did not resonate with the changes we made. But by the end of that two-year period, our church attendance doubled to approximately 400 people. Our current average weekend attendance has grown to over 1600 people. We are not a megachurch or even close to being the largest church in our city, but we are healthy again. Most importantly, the average age of our attendees is a close match to the average age of the community we serve.

Every generation is well represented for the first time in many, many years.

In our rapidly changing world, accepting the status quo is the greatest threat to your church’s core mission and, perhaps, to the very survival of your church. Even if you are not entirely comfortable with the idea of taking on the role of change leader as a pastor or church leader, it is critical to step out of your comfort zone for the good of your community and the long-term viability of your church. In our changing world, change leadership skills must become a part of every church leader’s skill set.

Change Leadership - Strategic Questions: #1 - Adopt a New Mindset - In what ways does the mindset of the people of your church need to change? What practical actions can be taken to inspire a positive shift in the mindset of the leaders and members of your church?

5 John Maxwell, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

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Capable leaders are willing to set standards that scare them.

Ask yourself the question, “Are you operating at good, better or best?” Good is doing what is expected of you. It is slightly above average and requires some focus and determination to get there, but it is relatively easy to achieve. Better is rising a little higher than good. It typically means you are comparing yourself to the next one in line.

But best is where you want to live.

#2 - Identify the Essentials - What is the core vision and mission of your church and the primary reason that you exist? What are the truly essential things on which your church should focus to make sure that your church’s core vision and mission continues into the next generation? #3 - Reduce the Distractions - Which first impressions, programs, ministries and/or practices in your church may be a minor or major distraction to fulfilling your vision and reaching the next generation? #4 – Elevate Your Standards - In what areas do you need to elevate your standards of excellence as a church in a way that would better fulfill your church vision and reach the next generation? #5– Build a Mentoring Culture - How can you create a strong and healthy mentoring culture to better reach young people and raise up young leaders in your church?

A PDF file of this article can be downloaded at foranewgeneration.com

Lee Kricher is the Senior Pastor of Amplify Church, Pittsburgh, PA - amplifychurch. com and author of For a New Generation – foranewgeneration.com

You can purchase the paperback or e-book version of For a New Generation: A Practical Guide for Revitalizing Your Church at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, LifeWay, CBD or ChurchSource.

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

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Rob Myers, Pastor, President, Revitalizer & Men’s Mentoring Leader http://pastorrobmyers.wordpress.com V.P. Dr. Franco (M.D.), Medical Missions

Our Motto is: If I can go, I will go…

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

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

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The Only Numbers You Should Be Counting in Student Ministry - Continued

The Revitalized Church shares Atherton’s eighteen-month journey merging two hurch communities with a common vision and discusses the challenges and the ctories they encountered. In addition, he examines the key biblical leadership rinciples that were used to help sustain the church. Atherton shows how these ractical principles canto be take successfully in any faith church by body, as he dents nextimplemented steps in their impacting utlines the foundational elements that must be woven into a church’s DNA.

others is consistent and you need to care about

therton communicates the lessons he learned order to assist other this number because it ties inyour students to not ongregations to connect with Christ and their communities. The Revitalized just consuming what is going on at your church, hurch provides guidance to help unleash the power of God in the life of our church. but it makes them owners of what is going on in

your ministry.

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

MICHAEL ATHERTON

®

N OF

MICHAEL earned a doctorate So there you haveATHERTON it, the only numbers that of ministry from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary should actually to Student Pastors. and is a nationallymatter certified church administrator throughThese the He has served as a pastor for the past thirteen years threeNACBA. categories are worth counting in your Stuin Missouri, Texas, and Colorado, while also teaching as an dentadjunct Ministry weekly. some seasons ministry professor on bothIn the undergraduate andof graduate Atherton is the senior at Cornerstone Church you levels. may be crushing thispastor list and all three of these in Lone Tree, Colorado. He and his wife, Sara, have six areaschildren.

(First Time Guests, Salvations & Baptisms, & They live in Parker, Colorado.

Serving) are happening at a high level, and then there are other seasons of ministry where they may not be happening as much; but the only numbers worth staying up late in bed for, the only numbers worth comparing and stressing out over, are the ones we have discussed in this article! If you fool yourself into thinking that success as a leader is 500 students who show up twice a year when you have big events is to trick yourself into counting the wrong numbers. You see, if you execute the three categories worth counting then not only will your ministry be successful in God’s eyes, but it will grow, and it will be healthy, and it may just be sustainable, and when it all comes down to it, those are the only reasons counting matters in ministry.

HE REVITALIZED CHURCH  Forfeiting Self to Follow God

T

he 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, today’s local churches are often in esperate need of renewal and revitalization themselves. In The Revitalized Church, astor Michael Atherton uses his firsthand experiences to show how a local church an once again become vibrant.

THE

Revitalized Church Forfeiting Self to Follow God MICHAEL ATHERTON

Drew Cheyney is one of the 35 Presentors leading over 70 Revitalization Workshops at RENOVATE: National Church Revitalization Conference,

November 1-3, 2016 in Orlando, FL.

Renovate Conference.org

Part of leading a student ministry has everything to do with being around students in your community. It is great to hang out with the varsity Christian who has been attending your church since they were three, but the fact is, healthy Student Ministries have more to do with the ways we are reaching and impacting our community then they have to do with keeping the people who already attend. Now, do we want those who have been invested in our ministries to stay there until they graduate? Yes of course!

But your ministry will always be more effective and community inspiring if you care about new people, not just your core attending ones.

- Drew Cheyney 36

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Four Nursery & Preschool Basics More and more young families are returning to the church today. Having a safe, worry free environment for their children is paramount for these young families when choosing a church home. A new family is more likely to return to the church for a second time if their kids are well cared for and are having a great experience. So, no matter how good of a pastor or communicator you or your Sr. Pastor may be, if your Children’s area is not safe, well-staffed or clean, these parents won’t return. This is especially the case in your nursery and preschool areas.

I want to give you some basics to providing stellar Nursery and Preschool ministries. (These basics can translate to the elementary areas as well.)

First things first, start with the right mindset. Remember to constantly communicate that the nursery and preschool areas are a ministry of the church, and not simply child care. (Child care should be considered a “bad word” in Children’s Ministry when referring to weekend services!) The Nursery & Preschool areas are often a child’s first impression of who God is.

It’s vital to their spiritual growth that theses areas are staffed with qualified, well-trained volunteers who make their first impressions positive, lasting ones. Leading out & setting the standard in this way will help you tremendously when recruiting new volunteers and leaders to serve in these areas.

People naturally want to be involved in something that makes

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an eternal difference. You will have a difficult time retaining, let alone recruiting new volunteers to be a “babysitter”. Simply proving childcare doesn’t communicate vision or value. Also, know that you will never arrive at having too many or just enough volunteers. You should always be recruiting, and empower your current leaders to recruit as well. Your circle of influence is only so big. By empowering your current leaders to recruit volunteers & share their stories of how they’re making an eternal difference in the lives of children, your circle of influence just grew to dozens, if not hundreds of new people. Making desperate pleas from the pulpit or through your weekly bulletin may seem like a great idea—people do sign up to volunteer, right? That tear-jerker video they showed really seem to touch people’s hearts! Taking this approach communicates a desperate need for help that a specific group of people tend to respond to—those with the gift of mercy.

What happens is you’ll get a good number of people to respond, go through your basics outlined in this article, and before you know it, those people who were so eager and passionate are no where to be found. (I learned this the hard way!) When recruiting new volunteers, be cautious of what you’re communicating. Are you communicating passion, vision & excitement, or are you communicating desperation, panic & a sinking ship? Show everyone what they’re missing by NOT being involved the Children’s Ministry!

by Bill Hegedus

Now that you have the mindset in place, it’s time to address the first thing on every parents mind-especially those with young children… safety. Parents want to know their child is in a safe place and being cared for by qualified people. The people you have working with kids can make or break a positive experience for new guests. So, please, please, do background checks on any volunteers you have working with kids. Do this BEFORE you ever place them in any children’s environment. This is not only for the safety of the children, but also for the church. This is a point I stress more than any other when I am consulting with other churches.

Taking a lax approach to performing background checks leaves your ministry wide-open for potential problems. The background check is just the first step to take when adding new volunteers.

Now, safety is not just about those you have in the room, but also the room itself. When talking to many mothers, I have learned that the appearance of the room is a big factor of whether they feel comfortable dropping off their little one. You can create a positive experience by taking a second look in each of your children’s ministry rooms. If you are connected with other local Children’s Teams, this is a great opportunity to ask them to come into your environment & give you honest feedback. Sometimes having a outside viewpoint allows for things to be seen that have become “white noise” to those in the rooms on a regular basis. Once you’ve taken an honest

assessment of the environments, ask yourself the following questions and make changes based on your answers.

Does this room appear clean? Not just picked up, but truly clean?

How are the toys sanitized before and after each service? Are any of the toys broken? Are the toys age appropriate? Just a side note here-a lot of toys get donated; be picky about what toys you put in your environments. You don’t want the room to look like the toys are from a leftover 1980’s yard sale.

You never know what products have recalls, so there’s definitely a safety factor. Is there an evacuation plan? If so, is it clearly visible?

Is there a secure check-in and check-out procedure? Does the room look cluttered? Are there any items or areas that could pose a hazard? Does the paint and/or decor need to be refreshed? The answers to these questions could be overwhelming, but stay strong!

Remember, you can’t eat an elephant all at once, just bite by bite.

Make a plan for what needs to be addressed immediately, and go from there. An example of what needs to be addressed immediately is anything that could pose a physical threat to a child—heavy furniture not tethered to the wall, push pins being used to hang up items in the rooms, broken toys or furniture or window blind cords.

The next ministry basic is all about training. Make sure a new volunteer is properly trained before placing them in a nursery or preschool environment. This will give them the confidence they need to do a great job. It will also give you the peace of mind that the standards you set are being followed.

We all want to feel like we’re set

up for success when trying something new. It’s our responsibility to make sure that we’ve done our part to make them a success. Not to mention that proper training helps you retain great volunteers and leaders. Once volunteers have been through the training process and are placed in an environment, make sure to hold regular, ongoing training/ministry meetings for your volunteers. A great time to have these meetings is immediately after your last weekend service. This would be a great opportunity to serve your volunteers a nice lunch.

(Let’s think outside of the pizza box!) Offer childcare for your volunteers children, and serve them lunch as well. By following this example, you show value & appreciation to your volunteers by serving them lunch, providing childcare, and not asking them to come back out to the church during a time that they wouldn’t already be there. You could easily incorporate awards or other volunteer recognition into this time. Make it a time that volunteers look forward to.

Make it a “get to” and not a “have to” type of meeting. Having a team gifted with hospitality to put on these meetings will alleviate the added stress from your plate!

The final basic is about curriculum. So you have kids that showed up—check. You have well-trained volunteers that showed up—check. So now what? Choosing the best type of curriculum for your ministry is so important. What they’ll be learning each week is why we do what we do—to teach them about Jesus. I’m sure you figured this out by now but there is no perfect curriculum. A great time to test out a new curriculum is during the summer months. During the first few weeks of summer you could

pilot the new curriculum and get feedback from some of your volunteers—what worked, what didn’t work? This not only affords you the opportunity to test out something new, but gives your volunteers the chance to feel ownership in the Children’s Ministry. Those who are a part of the process for choosing a new curriculum will be those who champion the new curriculum to other volunteers.

You’ll need those champions when making this change, because word on the street is that people don’t like change! If you decide the first few weeks of summer to make a change to the new curriculum, you’ll have the remaining weeks to communicate the transition to your volunteers.

The Children’s Ministry wouldn’t function week to week without the support of our amazing volunteers.

Make sure to continue to touch base and stay invested in the lives of those who serve alongside of you. A phone call, thank you card with a gift card or other treat goes a long way to show appreciation.

Meet them for lunch or coffee— and don’t talk about church the whole time! The next time you see them, ask them about something specific you spoke about to show that you really listened & care about them. Incorporating these basics into your Children’s Ministry will help you to grow lasting, invested volunteers & provide a safe, nurturing environment for children to learn more about God & how much He loves them!

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

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Falling In Love Again

By Jim Grant

The topic for this issue is “The Basics of Revitalization.” To answer the question I had to answer what is the basis for revitalization? Is it just trying to get the saints revived, or is it something much more.

We all know that our Country and the world for that matter, needs a great revival. By that I mean the Church has to come back to its first love in the Lord Jesus Christ and desire to live holy consecrated lives. If the Church will get right, then there is the possibility for the communities, countries and world to become awakened to the sovereignty and Kingdom of God Jehovah. I began to ponder, really, what is the basis of revitalization. I thought I might write about some of the tenets of how revitalization needs to be approached or possibly talk about the requirements that need to be in place before revitalization should be attempted. But neither of those resonated with me. I didn’t want to talk about the pragmatism or the philosophy of revitalization; there are already enough books and articles to cover those topics. Instead, I think the most basic issue in revitalization is the subject/object itself – the Church. This is what drives me in revitalization attempts - the Church. We find that scripture supports revitalization. When we investigate both Old and New Testaments, we find that the Father is brokenhearted about Israel, his people failing in their commission to bring glory to Him and the Gospel to the nations. The same is said

by Jesus when He gives John instructions to “write to the Churches” in Revelation. I will note two of the Churches and the message or ultimatum they are given later.

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Israel was the Bride of Jehovah in the Old Testament; albeit a very unfaithful one. The Church is the Bride of Christ; Ephesians 5:25-29 is clear about what Christ desires the Bride to look like. The Church is the body of Christ in the world, just as Israel was the “Bride” in allegory in the book of Hosea. The ministry of revitalization in its fundamental

Jesus isn’t the only one that is passionate about the Church, the Apostle Paul filled his epistles to the “churches” with instructions and admonitions to live and act rightly according to the holiness of God. It is the local church that needs revitalization. There are so many books and models that have been developed to try and bring the local churches back to life. But just as Jesus addressed different “I have this against you” issues; so each local church must come to a “new reality”. Obviously the local churches did not see, or rejected the problems in their church, or Jesus would not have had to address them. goal is to restore the Bride of Christ to a healthy loving Bride to the Bridegroom. Scripture informs us that the Church belongs to Jesus, the Bridegroom; and that he will build the Church. There are great examples in scripture where the Church was triumphant [Especially in Acts]. There are glorious stories of how the people of Israel

overcame great odds and enemies to win victory after victory through the power of God at work within their midst. When Yahweh is supremely worshiped by His people there is great wonder and power displayed. But – Oh that word, Israel did not remain true to the Father. It seems that mankind is always wandering and looking for some new adventure. Instead of being satisfied and content with the God of the universe, we look for cheap imitations or an easier way to being religious. It doesn’t take long for the Church to drift from God – Israel lasted only 40 days before they replaced God with a Golden Calf idol in Exodus 32-34. The book of Judges is a vicious cycle of faithful and unfaithfulness by God’s people. Surely, with Jesus the Son as the head of the Church; we New Testament Believers will learn from our Old Testament brethren, right? Wrong!

For we find in Revelation 2 and 3 that there is another message, Jesus will in fact snuff out the Lamp of a particular local church if it is not representative of Him. Jesus isn’t the only one that is passionate about the Church, the Apostle Paul filled his epistles to the “churches” with instructions and admonitions to live and act rightly according to the holiness of God. It is the local church that needs revitalization. There are so many books and models that have been developed to try and bring the local churches back to life. But just as Jesus addressed different “I have this against you” issues; so each local church must come to a “new reality”. Obviously the local churches did not see, or reject-

ed the problems in their church, or Jesus would not have had to address them. NOTE: by now many of you have begun to debate with me about possible interpretations of the Revelation 2-3 passage. You may take a different position on why and how Jesus wrote to the churches, even taking a “they are examples” of church issues. Whichever way you want to address the passage I have referenced, you must acknowledge that JESUS WROTE TO THE CHURCH! The Church represents Christ, when the Bride no longer “loves” her groom; the Groom has every right and responsibility to call the Bride to account.

So the basis of Revitalization is about the Church body or Bride whichever metaphor you like, becoming alive again and falling in love with the Bridegroom, Jesus the Son of God. Revitalization is about recognizing the drift and

Jim Grant is senior Pastor at Heartland Baptist Church in Alton, Illinois. He came to Heartland Baptist from Texas, where he served three churches. He is an Air Force veteran, retiring with 25 years of service. His extensive travels while in the military allowed him the unique ability to have served in the full gambit of churches styles and health. He has a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological seminary with a concentration on Church Revitalization. He has been married to his wife for 39 years; they have two daughters and four grandchildren. Blog: preachbetweenthelines.com Email: pastor@hbcalton.com

departure from the Word of God; admitting that it is not on task of pleasing the Master; that it has become internally driven rather than outwardly; seeks its own will rather than the Will of the Father.

In Church Revitalization, there are three different audiences – plateaued, declining or dying Churches. The difference is, only a matter of degree of departure and remaining “Life” left in the Body.

In Revelation we are given seven Churches with varying degrees of problems and tribulations. Some are under attack, but most have “settled” for their particular state of being. In addressing the Church at Ephesus, the problem was it had lost its first love. Now we must remember that this church was founded by the grand Apostle Paul, was pastored by the great missionary pastor Timothy, Paul’s protégé. It was also the home church of the Beloved Apostle John and I believe the final resting place for Mary; Jesus’ mother. One would think with all that notoriety and prestige, surely this would be a Church that would be steadfast in faithfulness. But Jesus says, “I have this against you, you have lost your first love.” In other words, you have forgotten Me. Something every Church has to be careful about is the purpose for their existence. I would call Ephesus an Orthodox Church. They believe right, are solid on doctrine and truth, but have become mechanical in their worship and love for the Lord. It’s almost like an old married couple that forgot what brought them together in the first place and have settled for an EXISTENCE instead of a RELATIONSHIP. Ephesus was in need of a second honeymoon.

Jesus spells it out this way – REMEMBER-REPENT-RETURN. The fire

had got out of the marriage with Jesus! Ephesus had to get back that “Lovin Feeling.”

In the second church I want to address the church at Sardis. It is the DEAD church according to Jesus.

But they think they are healthy and alive. This is a grave situation that needs a serious “Wake Up call.” The Church doesn’t even know they are dead, how sad a commentary! The Church had a Name in the community and among themselves that they were alive and healthy. An unreal reality had entrenched itself in the church. In Revitalization, the first order of business is KNOWING SOMETHING IS WRONG. A fresh, but honest assessment of the true condition must be diagnosed and embraced. Sardis is an “Unfinished Church.” It had been alive at one time, and there was still hope, but the cure is “Strengthen that which remains.” Usually in a Church there is a REMANANT that God can use to restore the Church, as was the case at Sardis. But in restoring the Church revitalization does not mean return it back to its heyday, but return it back to ministry for THE CURRENT DAY. Too many Churches live in the past. This is true of a lot of Brides. They remember their beauty and slim figures, but time has taken effect on their bodies. If you think about this a little, there is a great illustration here.

Churches that need revitalization are those “whose love have grown cold.” In both Churches, it was time for them to Repent – the first step after conviction of sin and departure. It takes humility and a willingness to swallow our pride. Most Churches can do Church, but then again Doing Church was never the task – the Bride was called to faithfulness to the Bridegroom – Be the Church, that all Our Savior wants.

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Back to the Basics For several years, my ministry operated out of our denominational offices in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

Sports are huge in that part of the country, but nothing is bigger than the twice-annual football “border battle” between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers.

While the rivalry is fun, there is one character for whom both sides have great respect – the late Vince Lombardi. Some would say that Lombardi is the greatest coach the game of American football has ever known.

One of the things that helped him to that greatness was his understanding that everything rises and falls on the basics of the game. In fact, tradition has it that at the beginning of every season, he would take his team out onto the field (rookies and veterans alike) and would give them the same speech, beginning with the words, “Gentlemen, this is a football…”

It doesn’t matter about what area of life you are speaking, understanding the basics of any sport, skill, process or trade is the foundation of success.

And the same is true for those who would help a local congregation turn back to full, healthy, reproducing ministry through church revitalization. One can read all the books that are written, attend all the seminars that are given, and sit under the tutelage of all the mentors available and still miss this point. In fact, it happens more often than most of us would like to admit. There are indeed foundations that Jesus taught us that create the right environment for the Holy Spirit to work through us.

We miss those foundations, and we miss the point altogether.

Aside from being a church planting pastor and denominational executive, I also do consulting and coaching through the Praxis Center for

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by John Kimball Church Development out of Manchester, New Hampshire (see www. praxiscenter.org for more information). As we work with pastors and churches in ministry development, we always lead people back to three emphases Jesus made, and on which he based all of his life, teaching and ministry. These are the “basics.” We call these the Irreducible Core of the Christian life, because we believe you can do more than these things and be a healthy, reproducing church, but you cannot do less than these things and be a healthy, reproducing church. In other words, if any of these three emphases are lessened or missing, it prevents a Christian, a pastor or a congregation from being what Jesus designed. Period.

Love God. The first of these three emphases is found in Matthew 22:37-38, where Jesus is being tested by an expert in the Law about which commandment is the greatest: 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

Jesus responds by using the words of Moses, the Lawgiver, from the Shema. The words have great authority and are a beautiful summation of the first four of the Ten Commandments, governing our relationship with God. In every way, with every fiber of our being, our relationship with God is to be one of love.

Churches today teach people about God. We are pretty good at teaching people to fear God, to worship God, to serve God and to obey God. But if we really assess how well our local churches are teaching men, women and children to truly love God and to love him deeply and fully, we’d have to admit that its not happening as

it should. And when we realize that everything else about the Christian life and witness stems from this love, it becomes clear that we’re missing something vital.

Love Others. The second of the three emphases comes from the same passage of scripture, Matthew 22:39-40.

Jesus continues his response to the legalist: 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Again, quoting from Moses the Lawgiver, Jesus recites from Leviticus 19:18. Here he summarizes the last six commandments, which govern our relationship with our fellow man.

He explains that this summation is like or of the same importance as the first one. Not only are we to love God with every fiber of our being, there is to be a love relationship with those around us as well. Finally, Jesus goes on to say that all of the “Law and the Prophets” (a designation for the whole of Scripture in that day, what we now call The Old Testament) hang on these two emphases or commands.

Over the last twenty-five years, our culture has slowly transitioned from a front porch culture to a back deck culture. The definition of “social” has gone from face-to-face conversations to a form of media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) that is actually not “social” at all. And these cultural shifts have also infiltrated the local church.

Genuine love for one another has slowly given way to simple affinity over activities and priorities we share. One of the truest tests of genuine love in any congregation today is difference of opinion on politics – while love can survive such hurdles,

affinity cannot and the divide is very noticeable. The church no longer is actively training people to extend genuine, self-sacrificing agape love to one another.

Make Disciples. The third and final emphasis comes from Jesus’ Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20: 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus conveys his authority to his followers (Paul would later refer to us as Christ’s ambassadors – see 2 Corinthians 5:17-21), and commissions them to make disciples as they go through life. He has discipled them, now they are to do the same – calling people to radical allegiance through baptism and to radical obedience to his teaching. Once again, the local church has fallen short. Today, any allegiance to Jesus is with the head and not the heart (love). As for teaching, if Jesus’ commission was to “teach everything I have commanded you…” we would be in better shape. We have books, commentaries and other resources galore

on the teaching of Jesus. But he clearly commissioned us to “teach them to obey everything I have commanded you…” On this count we have failed.

Love God. Love others. As you go, make disciples. “Gentlemen, this is a football…”

Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments and then based his entire life, ministry and teaching upon them. He showed his disciples what it looks like to love God fully and to love the people around them – even those who were hard to love. He demonstrated these things throughout his earthly ministry and then commissioned his followers down through the ages to continue making such disciples.

These are the foundations of the Christian life. They are the foundations of all ministry. And they are certainly the foundations of church health and development.

We can create all kinds of resources, seminars and experts to help the church in revitalization, but I submit to you that if we miss these “basics,” we have missed everything. We can certainly build upon these – and should. But we cannot re-

place them with something else.

We ignore them to our peril.

So lets just set everything else on the shelf for a moment and ask three simple questions: How are you actually leading your congregation to love God with every fiber of their being (heart, soul, mind and strength)? How are you actually leading your congregation to genuinely love each other and love the people God brings across their path each day? How are you actually leading your people to make modern disciples for Jesus that demonstrate radical allegiance to him over everyone and everything else, and who are literally learning to obey everything he has commanded? Your answers to these questions will give you indispensable insights into how you may need to get back to the basics in your own congregation.

Dr. John Kimball is Director of Church Development for the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.

He has nearly 30 years of pastoral experience, most of it in revitalization ministry, and coaches pastors and churches through development in his denomination and in partnership with the Praxis Center for Church Development. John serves as the Lead Pastor/Planter of Palmwood Church in Metropolitan Orlando.

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Reaching Out to a New Culture: 7 Marks of a Revitalized Church – Multicultural (2nd in the Series)

By Bob Whitesel

To revitalize a church, we must first understand what we are revitalizing it into.

This article is the second in the series investigating the marks of what a revitalized and healthy church looks like. These seven characteristics are drawn from the exhaustive research in Hartford Seminary’s: “American Congregations Study” (available free at www.FaithCommunitiesToday.org). While the survey is long, I have broken it down into seven categories of a healthy, revitalized church.

In the series’ first article we looked at “visibility.” Healthy churches are visible either through location or by making an impact in the community. In that Church Revitalizer magazine article you will find ideas to increase physical visibility, social media visibility and member visibility.

The Second Characteristic is “Reaching Out to a New Culture.”

This issue’s article will look at how to reach out to a new, but growing culture. That’s right, most revitalized churches have looked around them and seen what cultures are emerging in the community and they have reached out to them one at a time.

There are many different types of cultures. Most churches already have some experience reaching out to different age cultures. For example, many aging church have looked around and seen younger people moving into the area and reached out to them.

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But most churches are less experienced with reaching out to different ethnic cultures. For instance, congregations today are increasingly looking around and noticing that people who speak a different language are moving into the community. Most church do not (yet) have ideas about how to reach out to a ethnic culture. But read on, for this article will show you seven steps to reaching a new and different culture.

How to “Reach a Growing Culture.”

In the above scenarios, a church realizes that the culture that comprises the existing church is not the growing culture in the community.

And the church realizes in order to be healthy, it’s existing leaders must help the church transform into a church that represents the growing culture in the community.

This is done in seven field-tested steps first suggested by Harvard Business School professor John P. Kotter.

1. Communicate the urgency. The congregation must realize that it has to reach a growing culture or die with its existing culture. This must include studying the behaviors, ideas and traditions of the new culture. While some aspects of a culture can run counter to the Good News, other aspects may not. Leaders have to do what Eddie Gibbs calls “sift a culture.” He uses a colander metaphor to describe how mature leaders must sift out the impurities that run counter to the Good News, while retaining the good.

2. Create a guiding coalition. This means partnering with leaders from the emerging culture. One of the best ways to do this is to look for what the Bible calls “persons of peace” from the emerging culture (Luke 10:6). The biblical word for peace comes from the Greek “to join” and indicates a person who unites people from divergent cultures. So, look for people who are “peacemakers” with a demonstrated ability to bring different people together. They are usually recognized as a leader or at least an informal influencer in their culture. Begin by looking for them, then invite them to bring along several of their colleagues to help you understand and plan ministry to this culture.

3. Create a vision. This coalition creates a vision to help people visualize what the church will look in five years. This can be a descriptive paragraph depicting what a revitalized and intercultural church might look like.

4. Communicate the vision. You can’t just make a vision statement, you need to regularly in sermons and then Bible studies, stress what the church will look like in the future. Painting the picture over and over again is critical. Research also shows that you are almost three times more likely to change if you attach a story (such as a biblical story) to the change.

5. Empower others to act on the vision. This means beginning to give people from the other culture permission to lead. It also means experimenting with and support-

ing new ideas from that culture.

Because the vision has already been cast and promoted, people are more willing to experiment and try new ideas.

6. Celebrate small wins. After you experiment (in step 5) you will then want to celebrate small wins.

Perhaps opening up your facility for use by another culture or if you can afford it hiring a person of peace from that culture to be a minister to that culture. Churches customarily do this by hiring a youth minister to reach out to younger generations or a Hispanic Spanish-speaking minister to reach out to the Hispanic community. When fruit results, no matter how small, you must celebrate it.

This gives people an opportunity to see progress.

7. Create bigger and better wins.

Don’t be satisfied with small wins, but use them as a stepping stone to more progress. Here is a key most churches overlook, because once they have some success they stop. Church revitalization will stall unless you keep a church moving forward. So, keep pushing ahead for bigger and bigger wins … but have tact and don’t go too fast. Too often churches are satisfied with small changes, but longterm health requires a continued expansion of bigger and better changes.

8. Institutionalize the change in your structure. Here you begin to

change the organizational structure of the church, by voting people of the new culture into leadership and decision-making committees. The church now begins to become intercultural in all of its committees, teams and structures. Leaders often baulk at this last element, but to bring about intercultural understanding and partnership for the cause of Christ requires partnering with new, emerging cultures (c.f. Acts, 17:26-28, 1 Corinthians 9:20, Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 4:2-5, Colossians 3:11, Revelation 7:9-10.)

What are the next 5 marks of a revitalized church? To find out more, subscribe to the next issue of Church Revitalizer magazine and attend my “Annual 1-Day Church Consultant Training” where I will cover this in-depth at a Renovate Pre-Conference in Orlando on Nov. 1, 2016.

Founding professor of Wesley Seminary at IWU, he will hold his “Annual 1-Day Church Consultant Training” Nov. 1, 2016 in a Pre-Conference at Renovate ‘16 in Orlando including: • Credit available for Society of Church Consulting Training Levels 1 & 2 • Credit available for continuing education or 3-graduate credits through Wesley Seminary.

• Sign up at http://conta.cc/222G0tR

Maintain a Singular Focus on Revitalization There are a lot of things, which could be done with ones life, but I believe the most important challenge in today’s climate is the revitalization of churches.

Even our church planting efforts are hurt if we do not develop healthy renewed churches that could serve as new church sponsors.

Church revitalizers must be extremely focused on the declining church and make every effort to be part of the turn around. Stay and sticking to the work at hand is critical if a church is to be revitalized. Do not allow outside issues to deflate the chief focus of the revitalization of churches.

Many groups want to run parallel to revitalization tracks because they have no experience or expertise in the field so they offer other ideas which have to do more with other concerns which are not renewal focused.

- Tom Cheyney

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

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THE BASICS OF REVITALIZATION – REMOVE THE BARRIERS Ever find yourself driving down the road in a hurry trying to get from one place to the next, only to find yourself suddenly stuck in traffic? How many times has this happened and you look up realizing what has brought every car to a screeching halt is road construction? Been there, done that? And to further test your patience, there’s this long line of orange construction barrels set up that stretch endlessly for miles. Those orange barrels are a barrier, blocking off the flow of traffic, many times narrowing the cars to only one lane. Inching forward. Stop and go. Ugh!!!

Just as those dreaded orange barrels serve as barriers to drivers, there are also certain barriers which slow down or keep churches stuck from effectively fulfilling God’s mission. There are several barriers church revitalizers must be aware of and willing to address as they lead their churches in the journey of renewal and hope.

Heart Barriers Often in plateaued, declining and dying churches sin has gone undetected and unchallenged - many times sadly it has even been accepted and embraced. As a result, spiritual strongholds develop and have become deeply entrenched. In John’s revelation, Jesus pointed out several barriers which needed to be dealt with and removed. One church had lost its first love. Another was

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lukewarm. Another had hearts filled with idolatry. If Jesus were to write a letter to your church right now, which barriers of the heart would he point to? If spiritual leaders of the church – through ignorance, discouragement or fear – do not address the real issues, these barriers over time can become even more difficult to overcome.

So what can you do about heart barriers in the church? First, in humility come before God in prayer and through a search of the Scriptures, ask him to reveal to you an accurate assessment concerning the spiritual health of your church. It would be wise to gather other key leaders to join you as you discern the spiritual condition of your church. You may also consider bringing in an outside revitalization coach or consultant to help you assess with fresh eyes the reality of your church’s current situation. Second, lovingly but boldly teach the truth of God’s Word. Nothing cuts through barriers of the heart like the Sword of the Spirit. Hebrews 4:12-13 says, For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

One of the responsibilities of a revitalizer is to rightly divide the

By Darwin Meighan Word of truth and in doing so allowing it to cut through hearts like a sword, revealing what is carnal from what is spiritual.

Third, you must address the issues and barriers which are holding the church back. Strongholds must be confronted head-on. As you take this step be encouraged.

God has given us supernatural weapons to pull down these barriers. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 6:10-18). Remember as you lead your church spiritually to remove heart barriers this is God at work cleansing, revitalizing, bringing hope and renewal to his church.

Systems and Structural Barriers Sometimes the barriers that keep churches stuck, to the point where they are unable to attain forward movement year after year, are barriers that come as a result of antiquated systems, ministries and structures. Jesus addressed the reality of this barrier in Luke 5:37-38. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

Wineskins could be programs, ministries, personnel, systems, buildings and structure – basically the way the church does things. The wine is the Spirit, power and presence of Jesus Christ. For the revitalizing church, new wine being poured into new wineskins is essential for God’s

Starting a Movement of Church Revitalizer’s If a movement is going to be started, we must build an army of church revitalizers who want earnestly to see God rain down once more on the hurting, declining, and unresponsive church around the world.

As God calls individuals to the work of church revitalization and renewal it will begin to emerge through his power upon the work and the cause. It is not God’s desire that churches close so if we can get in on what God is doing and where He is at work, we have an excellent opportunity to see such a movement begin. I was in one of my previous ministries part of an organization, which planted churches.

During my tenure in that organization I

people to experience a fresh wind of his Spirit. New wine must be put into new wineskins to allow for fermenting and expansion. If the wineskins are not elastic in nature, they will burst – wasting both the wine and the wineskin. Jesus is telling us that every church’s wineskins must be flexible and adaptable to allow for growth. Therefore, the wineskins likely will vary based on a church’s unique ministry context.

This means a core value of every church must be a willingness to change – to adapt, to be open to the Spirit’s leading. Sometimes this involves doing away with those ministries which have outlived their effectiveness, and beginning afresh with something new. Wineskins are not sacred.

Wine is.

was part of planting over 22,000 churches.

I was not the lead planter but had my hand in helping all of these many church planters launch a new church. Today those numbers have decreased by that organization and the potential movement, which was about to happen, has been stalled. Will God allow you today to be part of a new movement to see the revitalization of more than 140,000 churches, which are either plateaued, or in decline in North America? I pray so. Will you join the movement and be part of this ever-growing army of church revitalizers? I hope so.

Until Jesus Comes, Tom Cheyney, Colossians 4:6

The wineskins in our churches not only need to be flexible, they must also be functional. There is only one purpose for a wineskin: to hold and release the wine! The wineskins of our churches are simply a tool. This is how we must see every system and ministry of the church. This means you must regularly evaluate every wineskin’s effectiveness as it relates to fulfilling the Great Commission.

In other words, questions to ask are: Is a particular ministry still accomplishing its purpose? What adjustments need to be made to do it better? A wise vineyard owner regularly checks his wineskins, then replaces or repairs any ineffective ones. He understands the value of the wine. In the same way, a wise revitalizer regularly examines the systems, structure and ministries of the church to

make sure they are fully functioning, releasing the wine which is Jesus Christ!

Thirdly, unless wineskins are filled, they are worthless. In Bible times, wineskins were normally made from goatskins. What a waste it would be for a goat to give his life, only for his skin to be placed on a shelf and never filled with wine. As a revitalizer and the spiritual leader of God’s flock, make sure your systems and ministries are fully functioning - filled with Christ’s life, presence and his power.

Finally, wineskins are designed to be poured out, flowing abundantly with the fruit of satisfying wine. In Jesus’ day wine was proContinued on Page 56 49

It’s More Basic Than That I was just starting my fourth year of my undergraduate studies when my District Superintendent asked if I was willing to be appointed to a struggling rural church in Florida’s panhandle. To be honest, I was flattered. I already had my first church plant under my belt and here I was being asked to lead a church turnaround. I mean … after starting a church, a turnaround seemed like a walk in the park. How could I lose? The church already had a core of faithful followers. Right?

When I arrived on site, I proceeded to implement some quick changes so the church would immediately start to see growth. And grow we did. In less than six months we’d doubled our attendance and we were quickly filling up with young families.

I was pretty pleased with myself and the work we’d done. Probably because of my self-congratulatory attitude and my inexperience, what happened next took me by complete surprise. A few of the key leaders suddenly turned on me and created a conflict that infected the congregation faster than a runny nose spreads in a preschool. Within three weeks the church lost 100 percent of the new members, and a couple of the original members who were upset by the sitting leaders.

Far too often we get carried away with the technical changes of leading a revitalization that we forget what the real basics are. I’d changed hospitality practices, the order of service, the music, introduced overhead projection (this was in the pre-projector era), and I brought the church into the twentieth century with contemporary preaching.

And every one of these changes is what I call a “technical” change.

If you’re going to lead a successful revitalization, you’ll need to start with the basics. Before you can effectively tackle the “way” the church does things, you’ll have to start with the heart. Without a base foundation of spirituality, at least with your leaders, any revitalization you

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might make is going to backfire … just like the first turnaround I tried.

1. Stop Teaching Discipleship

I don’t know how to put this delicately, so let me just say it. Christian education is killing the church. Let me go one step further. Christian education is largely responsible for the deplorable state of the North American church. Today’s average church member knows way more about Jesus than they are obedient to his teachings. They’ve studied the Bible, read their Uniform Lesson Series quarterlies, and heard sermons based on the lectionary. They “know” a lot about what it takes to be a faithful follower of Jesus.

But most “Christians” aren’t actually living faithful lives. In fact, most “Christians” rarely attend church at all, and those that do are mostly disengaged from anything that looks like a serious spiritual discipline in their personal lives.

It’s time to move from “teaching” to mentoring. Mentoring doesn’t demand a written curriculum, it demands a mentor who’s willing to pour their life into the one they’re mentoring, also known as their apprentice. Of course, this takes a commitment on the part of the mentor to actively intervene in someone’s life and to encourage them to put faith into practice by holding the apprentice accountable for their behavior and practices.

I recommend the Discipleship Development Questions for more casual mentoring.

• What have you read in scripture this week that intrigued you?

• What have you heard from God in your listening prayers this week and what are you going to do about it?

• Who have you encouraged in the faith this week?

• What good deed have you done for another in the name of Jesus this week?

• How have you shared your faith with a non-Christian this week? What was the result?

You can introduce the Discipleship Development questions in your Sunday

by Bill Tenny-Brittian school, small groups, and even in your leadership meetings (see below). They don’t have to replace your teaching, but if you’re going to launch a revitalization in your church, you’re going to have to raise your membership’s spiritual practice quotient. Asking at least the the Bible reading question every single week will get your members reading scripture … and when a church is filled with members reading the Bible, all sorts of awesome things begin to happen.

For more formal one-on-one mentoring, I suggest using the accountability questions from Neil Cole’s book Cultivating a Life for God. They’re much more intense, but they bring about real life change.

2. Get Your Members On Board

Let’s be honest. If church members acted like Christians, you wouldn’t need this article and no one would need Church Revitalizer Magazine. The fact is, church members tend to act more like their unchurched and unredeemed neighbors. One would think your members would know how to “love one another,” but clearly most don’t. To cure this malady, get your members on board the spiritual development train by creating, adopting, and implementing a Membership Covenant.

A Membership Covenant contains a list of eight to ten behaviors that a church’s membership adopts and commits to implementing. The behavior list is a covenant of how we’ll treat one another in the church, but especially when we have a disagreement. (To be honest, when we’re not disagreeing disagreeably, we don’t really need covenants because we all “love” each other when no one’s angry.)

The Membership Covenant is based on the One-Anothers of the New Testament. There are over sixty of one-anothers that instruct the church how to treat each other. They include commands such as loving one another, being kind to one another, encouraging one another, and so on.

There is one other component of the Membership Covenant that must be included – if you bow to pressure of not including it, you’ll have wasted your time. Yes, it’s that important. In fact, if you’re not willing to embrace and implement this one component, don’t bother creating covenants at all because they won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on.

The critical component of the Membership Covenant is what I call “Jesus’ plan for reconciliation” and it’s found in Matthew 18:15–17. In a nutshell, it instructs the church that if someone continually misbehaves, then we’re to throw them out of the fellowship until they repent and can be reconciled. (You don’t have to like it, but if you check you’ll see this passage isn’t my idea … it’s in RED letters.)

You can find out more about how to create a Membership Covenant by doing a search on the EffectiveChurch.com website and we have a video on the process at ChurchTalk.tv.

3. Hold Leaders Accountable

Members are members. But leaders are leaders and they’re supposed to be held to a higher level of accountability … something about more that’s given, more is expected.

To hold your leaders accountable, I recommend doing two things. First, start every meeting you have by asking each of your leaders one-by-one the first Bible reading Discipleship Question (and add the others later). Expect your leaders to be reading and praying and encouraging and serving and sharing.

The second practice I recommend is developing and implementing a Leadership Covenant. The process is similar to creating a Membership Covenant, except in this case you’ll need to look at the behaviors Jesus expected out his leaders, what behaviors the early church expected, and add what your church expects out of their leaders.

I suggest the list includes at least these covenants: • A commitment to model the Membership Covenants.

• A commitment to the church’s mission and vision.

• A commitment to attending the meetings and tending to the duties required of their leadership position.

• A commitment to support the church with their time, talent, treasure, and testimony.

• A commitment to being a team player … so that when a decision is made, they will support the decision 100 percent; they won’t engage in parking lot or email or phone meetings to disparage the decision; and they won’t complain about it.

I also tend to get a final clause that covenants them to voluntarily resign if they can’t keep the covenants for any reason in any season.

Again, we have resources on EffectiveChurch.com and ChurchTalk.tv that will help you get your leadership covenants into place.

4. Only Put Acts 6 Leaders into Positions Most churches seem to choose leaders based on whether or not they have a pulse and if they can be cajoled into taking a position. When we do this, we get the leaders we deserve.

their work, they gave instructions to the wider church: “Choose seven from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.”

Notice there are three qualifications for these leadership positions: 1. The leader must be a spiritual practitioner; 2. The leader must be wise; 3. The leader must practice their spirituality and wisdom in ways that were noted by the larger body.

I call the last qualification “conspicuous” spirituality. No “prayer closet only” practitioners allowed in leadership.

If someone isn’t practicing their faith conspicuously enough for others to notice, then they’re not qualified to lead in the church. Of course, we’re not talking about show-offs or ego maniacs.

We’re talking about men and women whose lives reflect the membership and leadership covenants – even before they were written. They have integrity in their faith. And those who don’t, well, they don’t get to serve. In fact, they don’t deserve to serve.

If you want to lead a successful revitalization, then you’ll need to start with the basics … the basics of faith practices.

Get the above four in place and you’ll be ready to start making technical changes.

Church leaders aren’t business leaders.

They’re supposed to be spiritual leaders.

But too often we put the willing and the skilled into positions as if either of those are biblical qualifications for leadership (hint: they’re not). And so I suggest only nominating or placing Acts 6 Leaders into positions.

Acts 6 Leadership is based on the selection of the “deacons.” You may remember that the church was faced with a crisis in their food bank. The Greek widows weren’t getting their fair share and the complaint department referred the matter to the apostles. But instead of the church leadership team diverting

Bill Tenny-Brittian is the Managing Partner of the Effective Church Group.

Bill does only one thing… help churches grow.

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A Mavericks View of Revitalization For the life of me I don’t understand why anyone would try to turn around a church. But I did and I’m glad I did. Still, when I consider that the vast majority of pastors who try either fail or lose their job, I have to wonder why they would try, or why I tried? I guess we all have a lose screw…. or maybe, just maybe, God calls us to not give up on a Church, even when they don’t want help. And believe me, most of members don’t want help no matter how bad the situation. So if you’re one of those folks with a lose screw like me and you want to take a stab at revitalization, read on.

Make Sure It’s a God Thing

Before you attempt turn around let me repeat – the vast majority of pastors who try it fail or lose their job for a variety of reasons: People don’t like any kind of change; the pastor isn’t totally committed; the pastor takes the wrong steps; the pastor doesn’t handle conflict well; or the pastor blinks when the bullies try to derail the turnaround.

Anyone of these five issues are reason enough for a turn around to fail. So make sure it’s not about you but it’s about what God wants you to do.

So before you begin the turn around consider the following: • Are you willing to deal with conflict head on?

• Are you prepared to lose some friends because you will?

• Are you willing to stay ten years because that’s how long it takes?

Keep in mind that in 25 years of consulting I’ve never seen a church

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turn around without losing some members.

Sounds sinister, doesn’t it. But let me assure you if you pull it off nothing compares to the fulfillment you’ll experience when you turn a dying church around. So let’s take a look at how turnaround normally happens. And by the way, I’ll be speaking on Giving Life To Stuck Churches at Renovate this November.

Step 1: Cast a God-sized vision.

People need something to believe that is stronger than what they are experiencing at the moment.

I remember my first Sunday of turnaround. There were 37 people in worship and I cast a vision of a church of thousands of people who would change the face of San Antonio. I could see the disbelief in their eyes. I spent the next twenty minutes painting that vision for them by using Acts 1:8 which I called the Ever widening Circle. By the end of the service I could tell the vision had captivated some of them.

Step 2: Gather Your Allies And Apprentice Them

At the end of that first sermon, I issued an invitation. I told them if they resonated with God’s vision join me tonight at the parsonage to talk about. Twelve people showed up and we were on our way.

Right away I began apprenticing those who showed up. We met every Friday for 8-9 months and studied the Book of Acts and prayed for each other. This formed

By Bill Easum a bond that would help us survive the coming conflict. They became my support as well as a wedge between the bullies and me. Please don’t attempt turnaround alone. If you can’t find a healthy remnant in the church, get out of dodge.

So what is your vision? Craft it and start living it before you start the turn around.

Step 3: Define the Reality

People tend to change in direct proportion to their discontent. So fan their discontent by showing them how bad it really is. Most denominational officials will tell you to spend the first few months getting to know the people and nothing else. Bull. That is the worse advice a turnaround pastor could be given. The longer you wait the less chance of turnaround.

In my consulting ministry, I’ve found there are three types of churches, and each one requires a different turnaround strategy.

There are dead, almost dead, and in need of a tune up type churches. Deciding where you church falls on this continuum is one of the keys to bringing new life to your church. Let me explain.

If a church is dead, you can’t revitalize it. Can you revitalize a corpse? I don’t think so. I wrote a book a few years ago titled, The Second Resurrection, in which I said revitalization isn’t the answer to what ails many churches in the U.S. Instead the hope for many churches in the U.S. is resurrection.

By that I mean they are so dead that it will take a totally new direction and set of leaders to bring about new life.

A church that is almost dead is harder to turn around because the decline has been slow and steady.

Like the frog in the kettle, most people know the church is smaller but they have no idea it is on its way out in a few years.

A church that is in need of fine-tuning is a piece of cake with the right pastor at the helm. Usually either the introduction of a new form or worship or the tweaking of the present worship will jump start the process.

Step 4: Reach Out to the Unchurched of the Area

Never underestimate the power of twelve committed lay people.

Those twelve that met in my home that first Sunday knocked on 2000 doors over the next eight or nine months. Our goal was to create visibility for the church and to discover what a key need was in the area. We accomplished both.

People in the area now knew who we were and we found the key to unlocking the area- one out of six people we interviewed needed quality weekday childcare. We borrowed the money to start the preschool and over one-half of the members left the church the next month. But twenty-four years later nine hundred kids populated our weekday childcare system every day.

• Every city has a key that unlocks a way into the homes. Find it, tile it, and harvest it and turnaround begins.

• Turn around takes 70—80 percent of the pastor’s time visiting in the community and strategizing how to reach the community.

Step 5: Initiate Change

Introducing change is dependent on the type of church. The goal in any turnaround is to unfreeze and destabilize the underlying systems long enough to cause change.

In a totally dead church, everything they have been doing needs to be totally stopped because it obviously isn’t working and totally new systems need to be put in place including a new form of worship. Incremental change will not work in a dead church.

All the leadership needs to be changed including the pastor.

Now take a deep breath. There are two ways to change pastors- figuratively and literally. I consulted with one church where the pastor had been there over 20 years and watched it decline all that time and the pastor had an Aldersgate experience and the next ten years the church grew like a weed.

In an almost dead church, change must be incremental so that you don’t lose your church. The place you begin is with a few key leaders who understand the problem.

Spend time with them helping them to see both the problems and the solutions. Then prepare them for the inevitable conflict.

Use graphs and charts to show how over the past decade the church has declined and what will happen if it continues. When you are ready institute change, destabilize the systems and make change before the bullies can respond.

In a church that is in need of fine-tuning the fastest route to turnaround is a totally new worship service designed to reach the “Nones” and “Dones,” accompanied

by a strong marketing program and faith sharing training for the membership.

When Should I Start

Every study I’ve seen on the subject of when to start a turnaround says that the vast majority starts in the first year of a pastor’s tenure.

The longer a pastor waits in his or her tenure the harder it will be to turn a church around. Authentic leaders will lose confidence in you while the bullies will think they have you under their finger. And put this tidbit on your frig – if you succeed in starting turnaround, you can count on years three and four being filled with conflict unless you are blessed to be in a church that only needs fine-tuning.

So How Did My Turn Around Go Using These Steps

Twenty-four years later I left a church of over 2200 that had changed the face of San Antonio on the West side of town as well as the racial make up of the City Council. These steps worked for me and they will for you.

Bill Easum is the Founding Partner of The Effective Church Group Bill has had the privilege of helping over 1000 churches grow around the world.

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I Didn’t Know It Would Be This Hard To Lead Here!

Mark is a sharp young pastor.

He had gone to the church just six months earlier. He was excited about some of the things he had learned while serving in another, larger church. He had great energy, vision, and enthusiasm. Now six months later, Mark called me frantically one day wondering if it were time to look elsewhere. Nothing the search team had told him came true.

People weren’t ready for change.

They resisted everything he tried to do. The new of his arrival - getting great Sunday lunch invitations soon turned into few invitations and more anonymous emails written in ALL CAPS. This young, big-hearted pastor said to me as we neared the end of our conversation, “I didn’t know it was going to be this hard to lead here.” He had apparently entered the position with a lot of preconceived ideas about revitalization.

And, I wish he was the only one who came to mind when I tell his story.

As one who has planted a couple churches and been involved in two successful revitalization efforts, I know the challenges are unique between the two. One thing I’ve noticed is the number of pastors who enter revitalization thinking the church simply needs new leadership. Or better sermons. Or - the church simply needs them. If they were the pastor - things would be different - the church would grow, every54

one would be excited about the vision, and there would be unity again in the church.

If only it were as easy as bringing in a new pastor. I’ve learned there is so much more.

In fact, there are some secrets - or at least they appear to be secrets - to experiencing revitalization in a church. Without these, regardless of the pastor, success will be limited.

Here are 5 secrets of church revitalization:

1. Have a clear vision.

By Ron Edmonson

will likely need to have a strong missional aspect.

2. Honor the history.

Hopefully this theme is clear from the previous point, because it’s paramount. I’m convinced you simply cannot be successful if you don’t at least attempt to honor the past. I frequently say rediscover don’t reinvent.

Unfortunately I hear so many pastors who go into a church as the champion of everything new. They alienate people who have given their heart and life to the church — making them think everything they have ever done is wrong.

These pastors can never seem to get traction.

You have to clearly know where you are heading. What does a revitalized church look like?

Specifically what does this church One of the single biggest days in look like? the life of the church since we’ve been in revitalization was the day In my experience, unless you are we had a “homecoming” type of starting over completely, people day and invited the two former need to be able to “connect the pastors to attend. It seemed to raldots”. It must make sense where ly all aspects of the church. If there you are going. That means what- were “sides” they seem to come toever is next will likely have some gether this day. I knew we needed similarity to the past. You can’t this to occur if we had any hopes take people too far from the root of moving forward successfully.

DNA. Keep in mind, vision doesn’t change frequently — if ever. For a church, a vision might be “to make disciples”. The next season after revitalization will still be to make disciples. There may have been some time since people experienced that in the church, but it’s likely still what can motivate them. If the church has a deep heritage in missions, the future

3. Innovate.

What can you do new which will reach new people — without hijacking the church?

How can you build momentum?

Whatever you do it will almost always involves change. In fact, I’m not sure you can define revitalization without some form of change.

The end goal should be to create a healthy environment for sustained change and growth.

Ask questions such as: What are we doing which requires more effort than the results produced? (Eliminating things gives you margin to do better things?)

What are people no longer excited about doing? (These usually zap energy from other things.)

What is something everyone gets excited about at this church? (You can usually build upon these. For example, our church gets excited about big events.)

What is one thing we can try next?

(Keep a list and try several of them — not all at the same time.)

If money was no option, what would we do? (This question can often help build momentum for something you can do.)

This is where you get the best minds in the room and brainstorm.

These people may or may not be the current leaders. I wouldn’t even be shy about inviting people from outside the church. They could be from other churches — in the community or outside the community.

(We visit with another church every year to learn from them.) Or, what if you asked people in the community what they would look for in a church? You don’t have to implement their ideas, but you might just learn something. (I spent a lot of time the first year talking to community leaders.)

4. Attack your fears.

It can seem daunting to revitalize a church — especially once you actually start making hard decisions. People can be intimidating.

In fact, when you change some things, you’ll find people can be mean. You will likely have to face some direct confrontations. People you thought were the sweetest Christians may smile at you on Sunday and give send you the nastiest email Monday morning.

Some may grandstand at business meetings. Others will work behind your back. (All true for me — and more.)

You have to love the calling you have to revive a church more than you love popularity — or an absence of conflict. And, you have to have patience and tenacity.

It will take longer to realize change than in a church plant.

Much longer. Usually the longer the church has needed revitalization the longer it will take to see improvement.

But, know this. There are usually those in the church desperate for change and solidly behind you.

You have to look past the loud negative voices to find them. That requires faith and perseverance.

(In my experience, God rewards those who faithfully serve.)

5. Forgiveness and repentance.

If things were done wrong in the past — lead people to recognize and admit them.

I felt the need to preach on forgiveness and unity — a lot — in the early days of church revitalization. And, I challenged people when I heard bitterness or anger. You can’t go forward in health if you are holding on to the pain of the past.

And, these aren’t “secrets”, even though I used the word in the title. Yet, they aren’t always our natural reactions in church revitalization. We tend to want to do all new things. We ignore conflicts, rather than address them. We back away when things get too difficult. And, mostly, we underestimate just how difficult it will be.

Church revitalization is hard.

But it is so needed. And, there are so many Kingdom opportunities out there. Let’s revitalize the church!

Ron Edmonson is lead pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church, a church leader and the planter of two churches, I am passionate about planting churches, but also helping established churches thrive.

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THE BASICS OF REVITALIZATION – REMOVE THE BARRIERS (continued)

By Darwin Meighan duced to many times quench the thirst of a weary traveler. With this in mind, think carefully about the systems, structure and ministries of your church. Is the Spirit of Jesus Christ flowing through those containers (wineskins) to help meet the needs of the spiritually thirsty and weary people of your community, culture and world? If not, you need to lead your church to pray, assess and remove the barriers. Revitalizers must deal with, in God’s time and in his way, those barriers which have been keeping your church from being all God has called her to be.

So the next time God puts you smack dab in the middle of a construction zone, may those orange barrels serve as a reminder for you to regularly assess the spiritual health and condition of your church. And as God leads you in the process of revitalizing your church, just know this: one of the basics of revitalization - you gotta’ remove the barriers.

Darwin serves as State Director of Church Revitalization/Evangelism for the Nevada Baptist Convention. As a coach and practitioner, he encourages pastors and churches toward the process of renewal and hope – guiding them in the journey of rediscovering their God-given purpose and mission of making disciples which embraces an outward focus of engaging their community, culture and world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You may reach Darwin at dmeighan@nevadabaptistconvention.org

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Stop Repackaging 1980’s Bigger Is Better Growth Theory When it comes to the area of church revitalization, there are individuals all across this land that are feeling a heart felt urging form the one on high to consider a ministry of church revitalization and renewal through the turning around of dying or declining churches. Today is a call for church revitalizer’s to move past yesterday’s regulations, which promote status quo and embrace a regulation-less call to help these hurting stagnant churches. There is sensitivity towards kingdom work replacing the program minded work of previous decades and centuries. In fact much of the 1980’s church growth theory, which is being repackaged by those proponents, which are still in ministry, simply does not work.

I am not sure it worked back then either, but the bigger is better influence of these earlier decades still surfaces from time to time in a church revitalization rewrap.

-Tom Cheyney

revitalizer

LIBRARY

Cheyney, Tom. The Church Revitalizer as Change Agent.

Orlando: Renovate Publishing Group, 2016.

Tom Cheyney is one of, if not the, leading voice in Church Revitalization. His latest book The Church Revitalizer As Change Agent is another excellent resource for the Revitalizers Library. In The Revitalizer As Change Agent Cheyney not only builds a case for the Revitalizer to be the instrument of change in the local church but also outlines specific principles by which the Revitalizer becomes the change agent. An excellent addition to the Revitalizers Library.

Kricher, Lee. For a New Generation: A Practical Guide for Revitalizing Your Church. Harper Collins, 2016.

(To be released August 02, 2016) The best books on Church Revitalization are from practitioners sharing their story. Lee Kricher does exactly this and more. In For a New Generation: A Practical Guide for Revitalizing Your Church Lee Kricher draws from his own story of revitalization at Amplify Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the two-year strategy that was implemented to bring about perpetual church revitalization. One unique aspect of the revitalization story at Amplify is that Kricher founded the church in 1976, left in 1990 and returned in 2003. Yet even with this unique relationship revitalization was just as hard and just as costly as it in other established churches. Kricher

Cheyney covers a wide variety key issues the revitalizer must wrestle with to become the agent of change the church needs. Within the pages the reader navigates between principles to become a change agent and practical solutions such as “Helping the Elderly Learn to Love What They Hate.” Each section and chapter is full of practical principles and coaching for the revitalizer to become the agent of change he has been called to be.

It is vital for revitalizers to remember that the work of revitalization is the merging of spiritual work with organizational and missional leadership. Being spiritual in its foundation it is critical that prayer be one of the key principles in the work of a revitalizer. Cheyney writes, “Prayer is the single ingredient that can launch efforts towards church revitalization” (2). The foundational principles of prayer are outlined and expressed leaving the reader with the ability to build from them. An excellent addition for this reviewer would be to have some detailed case studies of

brings to the revitalization conversation at least three unique perspectives that cause For a New Generation to be a must addition to the Revitalizers Library.

First, Kricher stresses that Revitalization is not a one-time event but rather a perpetual mission. Often revitalizers and church leadership think too shallowly in terms of revitalization.

Their goal may be simply keeping the church from dying and closing the doors. Keeping the doors from closing may on the surface sound like a good goal but dig deeper and you will quickly discover that this is not revitalization. The philosophy of perpetual revitalization serves as a continual reminder that even churches who successfully turn around can within three to five years from that point may be in need of revitalization again.

Kricher’s stress on perpetual revitalization serves as a reminder that the church must continually draw its

practices of prayer in church revitalization work.

If you read this work cover to cover you will do well. If you read it chapter-by-chapter you will do really well.

If you read and discuss the sections of the revitalization principles with other revitalizers the church will do extremely well. The sections within each chapter flush out the chapters theme but can also stand on their own. By reading a section or two at a time and processing what is gained the reader receives coaching needed to become a change agent.

The research, the categories, and the principles are stellar. The national data on church decline and renewal is disheartening to read but should resound the challenge and calling for revitalization. A revitalizer who struggles with the mechanics of leading change can take these principles, pray through and work through them to develop a localized strategy to apply them within the context they lead. Overall, an excellent read and must addition to the Revitalizers Library.

attention to not only to reaching the culture they are in with the gospel but organizing themselves in a manner that will touch a generation they may never see. Grasping the mindset of seeing Perpetual Church Revitalization will demand praying and thinking far beyond the simple goal of preventing the church from dying.

The idea of perpetual revitalization raises the bar on the conversation of Church Revitalization.

Second, the title For A New Generation sets philosophical tone for the revitalization strategy implemented.

Kricher and Amplify church created a laser like focus on becoming a church where the average age was at least as young as the average age in the community in which they existed. This transferable strategy focuses on both the church’s identity and mission. Identity in whom they will be verses what they will do. Mission in understanding the immediate Continued on Page 58 Book Reviews by Rob Hurtgen

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BOOK REVIEWS CONTINUED...

context they have been called to and developing a strategy of being a church whose average age corresponds to the average age of their community. A church set in the context of a retirement community will use a different approach than one in the Village of New York City. For a New Generation takes the applied principles and equips the reader to develop a strategy unique to their own church

and context working towards the goal of having the average age in the church correspond to be the mission field it exists in.

Third, Kricher presents a two-year strategy that was used at Advance that can be learned from. This example strategy is extremely helpful in praying and thinking through the necessary principles and approach for the revitalization work the reader

Enlarge the Organization This article is part 2 of a 5 part series As a pastor begins to think about enlarging the organization, it once again comes around to the issue of need. A portion of your role as the senior leader is to strategize on the “what’s next” list. A pastor must continually look to what is going to be happening next in the church in order to address. As an example, if the church is going to host a fall festival and have a strong follow-up process to their festival, they can expect some additional families to begin attending the church. The pastor must look to the preschool and children’s area to insure they are prepared for what may come.

Are the rooms ready? And, are there enough volunteers equipped? These are just two of the initial questions.

Whatever the event or program, it will drive an outcome when implemented correctly, therefore the church must be prepared.

Why start new groups? Bottom line is to reach new people for Christ.

Even in a declining church, starting a new group is the best way to reach new people.

In a survey conducted cooperatively with the Center for Missional Research with the North American Mission Board and LifeWay Research, the respondents identified the following:

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Willing to be in a small group Bible study if a friend invited them: 61% age 20-29 42% age 30+ Willing to listen to someone tell them about Christianity: 89% age 20-29 75% age 30+ Would attend a church that presents the truth to them in an understandable way: 63% age 20-29 47% age 30+ Would be likely to attend a church if the people there cared about them as a person: 58% age 20-29 38% age 30+ So how does one enlarge the organization? We will address the issue of key leaders for these positions in Part 4 of this series, this article’s thought is short, but necessary. First, a church must decide what Bible study model is needed to be used in their respective context; on-campus Sunday morning, on-campus small groups, off-campus small groups, or a hybrid.

DEFINITIONS:

On-campus Sunday morning: traditionally referred to as a Sunday

is involved in. Kricher stresses that no one strategy works in every location, and no one should do exactly what they did at Advance, but principles are transferable everywhere.

For a New Generation: A Practical Guide for Revitalizing Your Church is an excellent read and a must resource for the Revitalizers Library. Order it now so it is on your desk the moment it is released on August 02, 2016.

by Kenneth Priest school model or Bible Fellowship model. This decision typically uses age-graded or life-stage Bible study classes which meet around the worship hour of the church. A challenge for this model is not enough time for biblical community to be experienced.

On-campus small groups: this model is a small group model which still uses the church campus.

Typically, this model would meet at a different time from the primary worship time, utilizing age-graded and life-stage classes. A challenge for this model is getting people back on campus an additional time during the week.

Off-campus small groups: this model typically has the groups meetings when it is most convenient for the persons engaged in that particular group. These groups may be set-up by age-grade, life-stage, proximity, or even felt need/hot topic based. A challenge for this model is ministry for the children and students while the parents are meeting.

Hybrid: This model brings options for all the above. A church can meet the needs of those who will only give you one day a week by providing on-campus groups around

the worship time. As well as providing small groups which may meet on campus later, or meet at a home during the week. Though the challenges might be amplified in that instead of only dealing with one challenge you are dealing with each of the challenges above, the solution to those challenges is also provided through programming weekday activities for the children and students providing a window for the off-campus groups to meet if they so choose.

Once you have determined which model is best for your context, you can then focus on expanding the organization; referring back to the possibilities which were developed in Article 1 of this series. You must also decide what the make-up of the groups will be; specific age group, specific gender, specific life-stage, or some other focus.

Who is our target? The target helps us focus our outreach, better connects guests who visit to specific groupings, allows you to better equip the leaders who are focusing on that group, maximizes your resources, plus much more.

The best way to determine your target is to see what needs you have in your church, some of this work should have been done during your look into the possibilities for your church.

Often in revitalization work, the missing generations are under the age of 50. Therefore we encourage pastors to target young adults; typically young couples, however

䔀一 䔀匀倀䄀턀伀䰀℀ David Lema Strategical Leader in RENOVATE EN ESPAÑOL

not to the extent you are neglecting the other generations. When we discuss target, this is not so much a singular bullseye of a group, the church should reflect its community context. With that understanding, you can focus on beginning to reach those who previously had drifted away from the church. Start a weekday marriage enrichment class for young couples. This new group is then specifically geared to reaching a missing group from the church. We also do not push them to start coming on Sundays immediately. They were not there before, so we want to slowly walk them into the fellowship on Sunday. Once we have the relationship through our weekday study, we then have the right to come back and invite them to Sunday services.

This brief time is just the beginning

of enlarging the organization. You can find a copy of “Be a Catalyst: Start New Groups” on the State Sunday School Director’s website sundayschooldirector.com; this resource was compiled by a group of the State Convention Sunday School leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The encouragement for this article; be strategic, be intentional, and be prepared to meet the needs of the community by reaching the lost generations around your church.

New groups typically enroll 23 new people in twelve months, and 50% of them will be actively involved if effective assimilation occurs.

Kenneth Priest serves as the Director of Convention Strategies for the Southern Baptists of

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

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Conducting a Community Needs Assessment for Church Revitalization We’ve all heard the statement, “The community changed, but the church did not.” But, what does that really mean? Ok, we know the community changed, but how did it change and how do we respond to the changes?”

One way to discover and understand community change is to look at demographic trends over the past several years. But, demographics only tell part of the story. We need to get into the community and talk to people to learn the new values and needs of the community. Then we need to develop a response plan and take actions that will have a positive impact on the community and the church.

When I was in my twenties, I was called to pastor a church in desperate need of revitalization.

The church had been in a state of decline for over 30 years. During that time, weekly attendance had dropped from over 300 to less than 30. The first thing I did, as the new pastor, was to try to understand the lay of the land. I had several conversations with church members and leaders about the church’s past and present. I remember my first meeting with the deacons when I asked them, “Why is the church no longer reaching the community?” The answers pointed to just one thing – the community changed and the church did not know how to reach the people that are currently living there.

They used all of their tried and true techniques for outreach and evangelism to no avail and now they had given up. I was told that the remaining members no longer wanted to do outreach, because they were burned out on methods that no longer worked for them.

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I enlisted the help of a denomination consultant for “churches in transition” (revitalization). One of the things the consultant did was to lead us through a process of discovering and responding to community needs. The process was fairly simple, but highly effective. It involved sending church members into the community to meet with government service providers and private social agency leaders to ask at least three basic questions: 1. What does your organization/ agency do?

2. What are your greatest challenges?

3. What could a church do to help you?

The community needs assessment had two major purposes: gathering data, and connecting the heart of the church with the heart of the community. Appointments were made over the phone with leaders of various service providers. Each team was given sheets of paper (this was before iPads) to gather data on each agency that they had visited. The data was collected and collated into a single document, which became a useful tool for future ministry and service opportunities in the community.

The teams were to report back to the church on their findings and to consider possible responses.

Before we had even started the assessment process, several of the team members and even the team leaders were skeptical.

Some of them thought that the community service leaders would not even give them the time of day, much less receive help from the church. But, when the as-

by Mark Weible

sessment teams reported back to the church, each individual was overwhelmed by the hospitality of the agency leaders and the opportunities that they afforded the church to get involved in community service partnerships.

Most of the agency representatives had never been approached by a church before, but they had already compiled lists of things that churches could do should they ever ask.

As each team presented their data to the church, they had already discovered possible connection points. The service opportunities were prioritized based on urgency and available resources. We developed a short list of projects that we could accomplish right away with existing recourses. Sometimes, it was as simple as connecting a need with a member of the church who had the skills and available time to meet that need. Some service opportunities were placed on a list for future involvement and others were moved to a list of unlikely engagements.

The long-term impact was that the community needs assessment helped the church to become more outwardly focused and to change its reputation in the community. In our research, we had discovered that very few people in our own neighborhoods knew anything at all about our church. We surmised that, if the church were to cease to exist, the community wouldn’t know or wouldn’t care. Because, we had such little involvement in the community, we would not be missed if we shut our doors forever. But, all of that was about to change.

Building a Movement of Church Revitalizers for North America Not only did the community needs assessment help us to discover service projects that we could immediately and directly engage in, it changed the outlook of the church toward the community all together. We found other opportunities to partner with service agencies that went beyond the initial assessment and beyond our own abilities as a church. Our response as a church to the community needs assessment resulted in the church having a more positive reputation in the community, which eventually led to, renewed growth and vitality in the church.

In less than a year after the assessment, we found ourselves partnering with our denominational children’s home to provide parenting classes and Christian counseling to the community.

We partnered with our local association in church planting, multi-housing ministries, and in job training. We also started offering English as a Second Language classes to immigrant families. We used free public service announcements in local media to help get the word out and we were also featured on the front page of our local newspaper for our work in the community.

As the church became more outwardly focused, we saw an increase in evangelism and discipleship. We were baptizing more people and we were connecting better with younger adults.

We saw a three-fold increase in Sunday morning attendance as the reputation of church began to change. We became known as “the church that cares” and in addition to reaching non-believ-

ers, we started connecting more with the de-churched – people who had given up on church because they thought it had become irrelevant.

Often churches are reluctant to start community-based ministries because they are perceived as a drain on church resources with little to no immediate results. One of the surprising insights gleaned from our newfound focus on the community was that rarely did we get to see the results of our work in the lives of the people that we were ministering to. However, the results came primarily from the people who heard about our community service and wanted to be a part of it. So, in a sense, what some would perceive as a drain on the church’s resources without a direct, measurable return on investment actually helped to energize the church and bring a new sense of life and vitality. It all started with a simple assessment and a small dose of willingness to serve others.

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

One thing I know for sure today in the field of church revitalization and renewal and that is change is headed your way and you can either embrace the changes or you can run from the changes which will be required for you and your church to begin the renewal journey to revitalize your church. You really only have two choices when it comes to the change required in church revitalization.

You only have to choices and in reality the first one does not even count. You can run from God and the changes required to bring about revitalization or you can walk with God through the necessary changes. You can embrace it or you can bury your head in the sand and try to avoid it. But if you wait too long, which many churches do, by the time your are ready to change the opportunity for change has come and gone and you are left with your hands in the air wondering why you waited too long.

-Tom Cheyney

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Becoming The Professional Gleaner There are so many pastors that are deemed successful because their churches have become massive. There is a natural tendency for pastors of smaller churches to look to these men for clues as to their success and to apply these factors to their own ministries. One of the keys of growth, is to always strive to learn what others are doing right. Frankly, there is nothing wrong with this. In fact I think that pastors ought to study other ministries regularly to see what works and what doesn’t. In this article, I am going to discuss some key pointers and guidelines for gleaning from other ministries.

First of all there are two initial things to look at when you are gleaning from large churches. The first should be obvious; you have to find out what they did to get from your churches size to their current size; and the second is connected to this and is also obvious: there is nothing to glean that applies to your church from a pastor who has taken the helm of an already large church. Many pastors of large churches have stair stepped their way up to larger churches by continually transferring from one church to another that is larger. So, are they the pastor that really grew the church, or are they the pastor that inherited what someone else grew? Don’t get me wrong there are things that can be learned from these gentlemen as well, but that’s a whole other article.

Next, do your best to get a few minutes of time with the pastor and his staff and have a list of questions on hand that you can ask them about their church growth. I would recommend that you write down the list and put some thought into it before you meet the person or the staff. That way you won’t just ramble or talk to much about yourself, but you will get

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them right to the point. Busy pastors will respect you if you are prepared and they know the meeting won’t ramble on too much. Remember, your job is to get them to talk about themselves at the stage you are currently in. Be sure and ask them for what they think were their main priorities at your stage; what was their staffing, and what obstacles did they have to overcome. Furthermore, see where they adjusted their goals and approaches. Most of these men will be able to share with you their mistakes and setbacks. Be sure and ask them what they would do different. John Maxwell, as a young pastor went to various famous pastors and asked them for a few minutes of their time by offering to buy them lunch.

Another important thing to note is the demographics of the church and it’s position in the community, again, at your stage. Are they in the same area as they started? Rick Warren’s Saddleback started in Sea Ridge High School, 18 miles and 83 school moves to it’s current and final location. Rick was literally able to ride the surf wave of new housing development by staying on the edge of growth for almost 15 years.

What can you glean from this?: The principle of working the easy to the difficult. If you have a choice, always pick a location on the edge of new growth. People in these sections are naturally in transition and will be looking for a church to attend.

The opposite factoid is this: growth principles based on churches surfing the burbs wave, don’t work in established communities. In revitalization it is important to understand your demographic. Once a family is entrenched in a community they are harder to reach. They can be reached, however, but the work is

by Rob Myers going to be so hard that you will have to have the endurance of a Jehovah’s witness. The question here is: Based on your own demographic does the pastor I am gleaning from have relevant material?

Some other great questions to ask the pastors and staff are as follows: Who is the pastor’s church reaching? Did he deliberately target a specific demographic or age group? What role did music play in their growth? How does your staff mirror the community?

What were the priorities and stages of your staff expansion. What is the polity and leadership structure you had at my stage in growth? Did you have a plan for creating leaders or did you recruit them from the outside?

What kind of budget did you have at my stage? Are there any resources that you can recommend?

Remember to get out of your denominational box. You are not there to adopt their theology, just glean from them their approach to growth.

Gleaning is about your own personal learning process. Gleaning does not mean that you will try everything, but that you will sort through the information to find what may work for your situation.

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

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RENOVATE National Church Revitalization Conference

Speakers Include

November 1-3, 2016 Orlando, FL

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

RenovateConference.org Aloma Church

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4

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1500+

Church Revitalization Workshops

National Church Revitalization Speakers

Breakout Session Opportunities

Main Sessions by Revitalization Practitioners

Pre-Conference Intensive Subjects

Fellow Church Revitalizers Working Together

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