Newsletter #144
On Myths and Realities about Church Revitalization
Today’s post is adapted from an article which originally appeared in the 2020 edition of Connections, a journal produced by contributors to the Helwys Society Forum.
Introduction
Evangelicals have been having an extensive conversation about church health and renewal for nearly 20 years. This conversation occurs under the banner of many names, but none more common than revitalization. Search online and you’ll be inundated with book titles, seminars, courses and more containing words like revitalize, renew, reclaim, restore, and even resuscitate. My own church body has also joined the fray through investing in revitalization ministries like Rekindle and other events and resources.[1]
Reform or renewal movements have existed throughout Christian history. Even Scripture indicates that the apostles visited established churches regularly, presumably to help them become healthier and stay healthy (Acts 15:36, 41; 18:23). But what precisely is revitalization? What is required of those leading this effort? Is revitalization needed more now than it was previously, or is our awareness of widespread church decline simply greater? Is revitalization a fad or the future?
In this essay I will focus on the first two of those questions. If we want revitalization to be a reality for churches, we need a clear definition of what we are describing, and then we need to embrace the essential elements that can increase our effectiveness now and in the future.
Toward a Definition
Church revitalization is an effort to renew and reform a local church. It presupposes that (1) a church has previously experienced a recognizable period of sustained vitality and growth; and that (2) this church has since experienced a sustained period of decline in spiritual commitment, growth, and/or effectiveness, such that attendance, conversions, and/or membership have decreased. To put it simply, a church must have once been healthy or “vital” (from the Latin vita for life) in order to say that it needs re-vitalization. A church may not be spiritually healthy or vibrant, but if it never has been, then a more fundamental problem exists.[2] So the prefix “re” simultaneously relates to a church’s past, present, and future.
But renewal isn’t possible without intentional effort. Effort is hard to measure since, in many respects, it’s a spiritual matter. Yet spiritual problems manifest themselves in tangible ways, whether dysfunctional attitudes, confused polity, or waning commitment. These types of challenges help to explain why reform must accompany renewal. Praying for God to breathe new life into a church on life support cannot be disconnected from a deliberate effort to lead a congregation to embrace and implement healthy, biblically based changes.
Revitalization, then, is a ministry for churches experiencing a discernible, sustained pattern of spiritual decline, demonstrated numerically, attitudinally, and organizationally. Revitalization attempts not simply to replicate a previous era of the church or to reinvent the church so that it appears vibrant. Church revitalization requires biblical wisdom to assess the actual condition of a church and humblely trusting that God will use His means to revitalize a church.
With these foundations in mind, I’ll identify four essentials for successful revitalization ministry and the corresponding myths that they expose.
(1) People Don’t Exceed Their Examples: Commitment to Personal Spiritual Formation
Stagnant pastors cannot lead churches out of stagnation. It defies biblical logic. The New Testament requires pastors to be competent, but it emphasizes their character even more. For example, those who don’t love and lead their families well cannot hope to love and lead a church well (1 Tim. 3:4–5).[3]
The problem is that character and virtue aren’t best learned in a seminar but through experience. They’re acquired over an extended life of discipleship. As Eugene Peterson memorably wrote, this is a long obedience in the same direction.[4] Walking with God over a long period of time teaches us things about God and ourselves that are otherwise difficult to learn.
Those who are best suited to lead revitalization ministries are probably those who have had time to experience setbacks and cultivate a strong devotional life. While revitalization may be a young man’s work in terms of the physical energy it requires, don’t discount the emotional and spiritual energy required. The future of successful revitalization will require more seasoned pastors who are willing to leave established ministries to embrace this task. Regardless of age or experience, the leader must take his own discipleship and family’s discipleship seriously before leading a church to do the same. People don’t exceed their examples.
(2) Any Well-intentioned Leader Won’t Do: Leadership Prowess
New Testament elders perform three essential tasks: teaching, shepherding, and leading.[5] Preaching and teaching get the most attention. They’re highly visible. After all, people listen to sermons on podcasts, not board meetings! Shepherding closely follows preaching in visibility. It means embodied presence, often at the most crucial times in a member’s life.
Leadership, then, draws the short straw in terms of intentional development. Unfortunately, sub-par leadership always catches up to a church. The stakes are even higher in revitalization. Healthy churches are on a positive spiritual trajectory due to faithful lay leadership, as well as pastoral investment. Unhealthy churches, on the other hand, lack this reservoir from which to draw, especially during dry seasons.
The authors of Pastor Unique examine what they call “turnaround leaders.”[6] One implication of their findings is that pastors must leverage their unique personality, gifts, and background to be effective. Pastors often begin revitalization ministry, however, without this level of self-evaluation or awareness.
Unfortunately, the margin for error is slim. In a recent podcast, Danny Dwyer indicates that as many as eighty-five percent of American churches are plateaued or declining, and as many as forty percent of those churches are within five years of closure.[7] This trend presents several challenges. In a typical established church, a pastor has time to build trust and credibility with the congregation before leading the boldest, most extensive changes. In most revitalization ministries, the church doesn’t have five to seven years to wait.
Effective leaders ask the right questions and make reasonable stipulations during the interview process. They prayerfully examine the context and listen carefully. They identify the right priorities and work to foster a sense of urgency. Courage and compassion then converge to initiate change. Even when progress seems to happen, leaders are slow to declare victory. Changing the culture of a church takes time. We should start thinking in terms of a decade, not four or five years. Changing the church’s mood is not changing its culture. Good leaders discern the difference.
(3) How You “Do Church” Does Matter: A Functional Ecclesiology
Nothing is more American than the microwave. It can make a hot meal in seconds. In most cases you can heat the same food in any microwave and get the same result. We’ve often attempted the same with ministry models. We think we can plug and play. Then, presto: results. We adopt a one-size-fits-all approach, right down to aesthetics and program names.
This erroneous thinking works in reverse, too. We can adopt a lowest-common-denominator ecclesiology that turns us into relativists: “Everyone should just do what works for them.” This mindset presupposes that the Bible hasn’t given anyone a clear word on church life and polity.
We all have to answer practical questions of what to do and how to do it. It’s why many revitalization books are branded as practical guides, manuals, or strategies.[8] However, our obsession with these questions obscures a larger truth: You can’t lay generic revitalization principles on top of any ecclesiology and expect them to work.
I don’t mean to wade into differences between Baptists and others, but Scripture best supports an pastor-led, congregationally governed approach to polity. What does an approach like this look like? And what’s an elder? What’s a deacon? What is the role of the congregation? What of membership and discipline? Are they practiced? Strategies that attempt an end-run around basic questions like these may generate short-term excitement, but they won’t produce long-term change. We can’t pluck off dead leaves while ignoring the roots or branches of a ministry.
(4) You Can’t Do It Alone: A Network of Community and Support
The frontiersman uniquely occupies the American imagination. We love a man with a gun going to explore unsettled land. Others admire the college dropout who ignores the critics and creates a billion-dollar corporation. Let’s face it: Going alone and succeeding appeals to our fallen attraction to self-exaltation and achievement. Yet that is precisely the mindset that brings revitalization grinding to a halt. It crushes leaders. Rugged individualism isn’t admirable. It’s deadly.
The robust emphasis on gospel partnerships that we see in the books of the Acts and the epistles should dispel the myth that says that a person’s spouse, loyal church members, fellow pastors, and denomination are non-essential. We were made for community. How can we lead well if we cut ourselves off from the people and institutions that God has provided to help us thrive? Revitalization requires self-conscious awareness and effort among people, covenanted together, to see renewal and reform come to a church. A gifted, well-intentioned pastor cannot do it alone.
Moreover, the associations between churches that we see in the New Testament also remind us of the role of other churches in revitalization. In recent years many have written about our “post-denominational world.” Ironically, virtually everyone who says that denominations are passé tend to belong to networks. Networks consist of shared resources, wisdom, accountability, activities—much like a denomination! As Bruno and Dirks point out, we are called to gospel partnerships, kingdom partnerships.[9] These are a reservoir for struggling pastors who are tempted repeatedly to quit and leave revitalization ministries prematurely. The outcome for pastors who stay, as a result of mutual support and encouragement from other pastors, churches, and denominational agencies, isn’t just a greater chance at success. God is glorified! When all of Christ’s body rallies together, He gets the glory, not any one individual.
Conclusion
We may think that a greater margin of error exists in a healthy church. However, even if that were true, minimizing these four areas will catch up to any pastor and church. In fact, not confronting these myths in any church will create a new revitalization need! Only by focusing on Scripture’s picture of church health will all churches have a clear, unmoving target at which to keep aiming.
[1]Rekindle has been adapted partially from Harry Reeder’s Fanning the Flame ministry.
[2]Probably such a church is a better candidate for a complete replant, but I will limit my focus to revitalization.
[3]This point is one reason why I appreciate Andrew Davis’s book Revitalize: Biblical Keys to Helping Your Church Come Alive Again (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2017). Unlike many books, it emphasizes the moral virtues needed in a pastor’s life, especially for those engaged in this type of ministry.
[4]Cf. Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2000).
[5]I mean to mirror the New Testament’s usage of “elder,” which is to say that it is a synonym for pastor.
[6]Lavern E. Brown, Gordon E. Penfold, and Gary J. Westra, Pastor Unique: Becoming a Turnaround Leader (Bloomington: WestBow, 2016).
[7]“How Healthy Is Your Church?” Better Together Podcast (National Association of Free Will Baptists), by Edward E. Moody; https://nafwb.org/site/episode-10-danny-dwyer-how-healthy-is-your-church/; accessed on April 5, 2020.
[8]Cf. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., A Guide to Church Revitalization (Louisville: SBTS Press, 2015); and Bill Henard, Can These Bones Live? A Practical Guide to Church Revitalization (Grand Rapids: B&H, 2015).
[9]Chris Bruno and Matt Dirks, Churches Partnering Together: Biblical Strategies for Fellowship, Evangelism, and Compassion (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014).
Follow Up:
In Newsletter #143, I noted that Donald Trump’s reelection raised a number of question in my mind, several of which I shared. (Of course, the election of anyone for President will always cause us to ask numerous questions about what the next presidency will entail.)
In the last week a series of names have been announced as nominees for various Cabinet and other government positions. So far, I’ll simply say: “Good choice on Rubio for Secretary of State, and what in the world are you doing nominating Matt Gaetz for Attorney General?”
Quotes of the Week:
“…as we travel through church history, we see that whenever times and locations change, effective apologetics adjust to meet new challenges . . . Second, we will see that the longevity of any apologetic methodology depends on its grounding in the cross. Throughout church history, there have been apologists and theologians who have so thoroughly conformed the gospel to the assumptions of their day that they lost its most essential tenets . . . If taken too far, apologetics can negotiate away the very soul of the church, the very heart of Christianity. For this reason, an apologist must be vigilant that the cross never be sacrificed in order to make Christianity palatable to the reigning ethos of a certain place or time.”
Joshua Chatraw and Mark Allen, Apologetics at the Cross.
"Your homeschooled kids need socialization."
Re: "They have 5 siblings and 17 cousins they hang out with a lot."
"Not like that."
Re: "We go to church twice a week and they talk with all sorts of people."
"Not like that."
Re: "They do intramural sports and play with all sorts of other kids."
"Not like that."
Re: "There are lots of kids in the neighborhood and at the local park they interact with."
“Not like that."
Re: "Our homeschool co-op meets once per week, with parents rotating as teachers."
"No like that."
Re: "Ok. So...what do you mean by socialization then?"
"You need to send them away every single day to sit with children their own age for 6 hours. And let me teach them with no supervision from you."
Re: "Oh. No thanks."
Books I’m Reading Now/Still/Again:
Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein, The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality.
Paul Gould, Cultural Apologetics: Renewing the Christian Voice, Conscience, and Imagination in a Disenchanted World.
Timothy Keller, Making Sense of God: Finding God in the Modern World.
Ronald Nash, Faith and Reason: Searching for a Rational Faith.
Parting Shot:
As Thanksgiving draws nearer, I’m increasingly reminded of how good God has been, despite the very difficult year that has been. Among the many points of appreciation, I appreciate the people who have read and benefited from Churchatopia. That anyone takes the time to read anything I write is a great encouragement and blessing.
I hope you’ll continue to let me be a distant conversation partner through this site/newsletter, and perhaps share it with others as well.