November/

December 2014

Vol 1 Issue 1

THE CHURCHRevitalizer

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

“A Revitalization Retreat in Every Issue”

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RENOVATENational Church Revitalization Conference

March 9-11, 2015Kansas City, MO

RenovateConference.orgSpurgeon Center @ Midwestern

Baptist Th eological Seminary

Speakers

Include

Tom Cheyney

Jasen Allen

Rodney

Harrison

Micah Fries

Paul Borden

Neil Franks

Ron Smith

Bruce Raley

Lee Kricher

Terry Rials

RENOVATETh e Church Revitalizer

Subscribe to our week-ly blog post focused around the revitalization of Churches in North America.

Th e RENOVATERevitalization PodcastSubscribe to our weekly podcast focused around the revitalization of Churches in North America.To subscribe go to:renovateconference.org/resources

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FEATURES Nov / Dec 2014 | Vol 1, No 1

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38

The Pastor’s Personal

Life and Leadership

Capacity By Greg Kappas

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42

Better Preaching Can

Turn Around Pastors and

Their Churches

By Joel R. Breidenbaugh

The Characteristics of Successful Church

Revitalizers

By Tom Cheyney & Michael Atherton

32 Building TrustBy Neal Franks2 Minute Pastor

THE CHURCHRevitalizer

The Sevnen Pillars of Church

Revitalization and RenewalBy Tom Cheyney

Follow

RENOVATE National Church

Revitalization Conference

on social media via:

Facebook:RenovateConference

Twitter #RenovateConference

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

12

28

30

54

Surviving the First Five Years Without

Getting Fired By Glenn A. Miller

Six Steps In Starting A New Work In

An Existing Church By Ron Smith

The Leadership Link…By Michael Atherton

Multiplication or Division?

By Mark Weible

10 Things Every Church Revitalizer

Should Do in the New Year!

By Tom Cheyney

16 Setting New Goals

18 Get Your Hands Dirty

36 Create a “User-Friendly” Ministry

Environment

48 Become Less Isolated and Be

More Integrated with Your

Volunteers

49 Remember Your Calling

58 Leading Churches Back to

Vitality and Life: The Task of

Church Revitalization

by Terry Rials

60 The Biblical Qualifi cation of

a Revitalization Leader

by Terry Rials

62 Four Convictions about Student

Ministry

by Drew Cheyney

BOOK REVIEWS

56 Turnaround Pastor, by Donald Ross 57 The Bridges of God: A Study in the Strategy of Missions By Donald McGavran

revitalizerLIBRARY

“The only magazine dedicated to Church Revitalization.”

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“This is a must-have book placed on your study desk so you can learn from it daily.” Tom Cheyney — Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference

“Read these pages to your benefit and to the blessing of those you will serve.” Jim Draper — President Emeritus LifeWay

““Pastor Helmsmanship is chock-full of practical advice that every pastor needs.” Dr. Jason Allen — President, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle

Pastoral Helmsmanship is much more than a book about church administration: it is about effectively navigating

in the increasingly complex world of ministry

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Welcome to the Primere Edition of the Church

Revitalizer Magazine!

After a year of having church members and revitalization pastors asking me would the Renovate Publishing Group consider publishibng a quarterly magazine exclusively on the subject of Church Revitalization and Renewal, we have launched a bi-monthly subscriber based magazine for the purpose of raising up the conversation regarding this critical need in the local church. This new and exciting endeavor is the only periodical available on the subject. Our goal every other month is to provide you with a Church Revitalization retreat in every issue. This is for the sole purpose of assisting renewal pastors and laity in their eff orts towards turning around their church.

Every place I go people ask me for a defi nition of church re-vitalization. Church Revitalization is a movement within prot-estant evangelicalism, which emphasizes the missional work of turning a plateau or rapidly declining church around and moving it back towards growth. It is lead through a Church Revitalization Initiative, which is when a local church be-gins to work on the renewal of the church with a concerted eff ort to see the ministry revitalized and the church become healthy. Church Revitalization means that the local church knew how, at one time previously, to renew, revitalize, and reestablish the health and vitality of the ministry. One of the challenges for the laity in the day in which we live is that they have lost the knowledge of church renewal and no longer want to cultivate the skill sets necessary to see their church experience revitalization. Even sadder is when a con-gregation does not have the corporate memory that there was a day when the local church was reaching people for Christ Jesus and active as evangelistic witnesses into their community. Stay connected, mre is coming...

ChurchRevitalizer.Guru by Tom Cheyney

Volume 1, No. 1The Church Revitalizer

is published monthly byRenovate Publishing Group

1906 West Lee RoadOrlando, 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

Executive Director of Advertizing

Linda Goans

Web Ad Traffi c Director

Mark Weible

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

Subscriptions donatins 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 2014

Renovate Publishing GroupDr. Tom Cheyney is the founder and directional leader of Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference and Executive Editor of the Church Revitalizer.

THE CHURCHRevitalizer

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Thirty-Eight Church

Revitalization ModelsFor The Twenty First Century

Authored by

Tom Cheyney

Renovate Publishing Group

ISBN-13:978-0990781608ISBN-10: 0990781607

List Price: $19.95

Purchase Online at: RenovateConference.org/Bookstore

While some church revitalizers see church revitalization models as mere fable, others see the validity of having examples and samples to study in the eff ort to get a glimpse of what God might be saying about how to bring church renewal to their present work! Regardless of the debate regarding myths for models or strategies for the revitalization churches, there appears to be at least six areas and thirty eight strategies that a church seeking re-newal could consider.

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The beginning of a new year allows individual churches and individual Church Revitalizers the opportunity to rethink the pre-vious years work and begin on a new note with renewed vigor and ample time of refl ection. New Year’s day has always served me as a day of refl ection and anticipation. One of the things I do each new years day is look over my very fi rst sermon I ever preached and sense the hum-bling and appreciation that I did not stay at that level. A moment of humbly thanking God for His blessings is a great way to begin the New Year. A day of antici-pation for the upcoming year of ministry opportunity is also a good way to spend the day. In a few days, right after an early morning work out, I will begin my new year and I am so excited about the opportunities it brings for ministry and my individual growth. I could go on, but the emphasis of this blog series is to share some specifi c things every-one working within the area of church revitalization and renewal should do early in the New Year.

New years are a time for newness and the passage in Revelation 21:5, which says: “Behold, I make all things new,” is a strong remind-er of whom we serve and follow. Yet, beginning early tomorrow I will start seeing lots of people wearing the new clothes they have received as Christmas gifts. Some will have a new coat;

others will have ipads or laptops. Things are new in the New Year. Perhaps the greatest opportu-nity for you is that the New Year off ers a chance for a new you as a Church Revitalizer. So here are some things every Church Revi-talizer should do in the New Year:

An Opportunity for a New

Beginning

New things give us an occasion to start over. Wise revitalizers challenge their churches early in the New Year to see a compelling vision of what the church could become if everyone decided and committed to work together for the cause of revitalization and renewal. Could there be some things you as the minister could do better than last year? The New Year provides all of us second chances to do something better. Starting anew with a hope of a new beginning. Clean the slates, start over a few things, and learn from previous mistakes.

I heard about a son who called his parents to wish them a hap-py New Year. The dad answered the phone was asked, “Well dad, what’s your New Year’s resolu-tion?” He answered proudly, “To make your mother as happy as I can all year”. Then his mom got on the phone and he asked her the same question, “What’s you resolution, Mom?” She replied, “To see that your dad keeps his New Year’s resolution.

Our Lord gives all of us when we enter into a personal relation-ship with Him a new beginning. Though the passage speaks of the great gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Even those outside of Christ are off ered new beginnings and at one time in our lives as believers we were given the greatest gift of salvation through Christ Jesus. But I believe this verse to be an encouragement to all of us as Church Revitalizers of the special blessings we are given through new beginnings.

Create a Sense of Urgency

Our communities all around us are changing and as the Church Revitalizer you can ill aff ord to grow complacent. We are living in a time of rapid change and only the church, which keeps pace with, its ever-changing cultural environment will advance. As a church revitalizer you must have a sense of urgency to assure that your God given vision stays ahead of the demands of com-

Continued on page 16

Things Every Church Revitalizer Should Do

in the New Year!by Tom Cheyney

11“Without revelation people run wild.” Proverbs 29:18 HSCB

Available in print and digital editions everywhere books are sold.

It’s More than a book,

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CHALLENGING

ENCOURAGING

Surviving the First Five Years by Glenn A. Miller, MBA, CFE

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Surviving the First Five Years

Without Getting Fired

The meeting was a fair-ly normal one. The pastor of a medium size church came to our fi rm to inquire about our accounting services. The church was running about 250 people on Sunday mornings, they were approximately 10 years old, and they felt a bit uneasy about how their fi nancial reporting was be-ing handled. We reviewed their needs, gave them a quote, and they signed up for our service. Easy enough! As the weeks and then months went by, I would get calls from the Senior Pastor, “Hey, what is the status of your fi rm taking over our books?” My answer each time was the same, “Well Pastor, I have called your treasurer many times and left messages, but he never returns my calls.” A few more months went by, and the church treasurer nev-er called. Then, after six months, I received a call from the Senior Pastor. “We’re shutting down the church, we are fi nancially bank-rupt.” He went on to explain that the treasurer had been embez-zling money and shipping tens of thousands of dollars to his favor-ite missions’ agency. The church could not meet its obligations, and when the events became known to the congregation, people lost faith in leadership, in God, and started leaving in droves. This is just one, among hundreds of examples, that lead the Professor, the Pastor and the

Practitioner to partner together to write this important book, Pas-toral Helmsmanship – A Pastor’s Guide to Church Administration. Having lead pastor’s conferences across the USA and around the world over the past 25 years, and having worked with over 1,000 ministries, one notice-able trend has become painfully clear to me: a lack of good ad-ministrative practices are slowing some churches down, holding some churches back from grow-ing, and is the cause of some churches closing their doors. This does not have to be! I regularly sit in on church board meetings and the pastors sit on one side and the business people sit on the other side, physically and in their understanding. “The church is not a business! We are family, this is a ministry!” cry the pastors. “We have buildings, grounds, computers, phones, bank ac-counts, 500k in revenue and expenses, we need to be more businesslike!” cry the business folks. They are both correct. Perhaps businesses can learn a lot from the church, and so also the church can learn a lot from business! I often ask church leaders in workshops “Is the church the fi nancial integrity leader in your community?” If not, why? Are churches known for doing business well? Are they known for being well organized, good communicators, good to work with as customers? Sadly, most of the time, the answer is no, and we must examine why. A builder friend of mine, who

builds churches and businesses, told me that his worst clients were churches! This should not be. I have worked with literal-ly dozens of fallen treasurers, pas-tors, and lay leaders and viewed fi rsthand the carnage that tran-spires by poor administration that led to fraud. The individual and their family suff er immeasur-able shame and despondence. Church members struggle in disbelief that something like this could happen to their church, by one of their own. Church leaders are strapped with the inevitable blame for allowing it to happen, and the community looks in and says with great pleasure, “See, they are no better than us!” This does not have to be. One of the co-authors of our book, Rodney, puts it this way - “As a pastor, denomination-al leader, professor and seminary administrator, I regularly meet with former students who are facing a crisis. It is my experi-ence that the majority of church administration books lack the theological foundation that good administrative practices should be built upon. Many pastors desire to focus on the “outward-ly” manifested ministries such as preaching, teaching and pastoral care. When administrative issues arise, they hope that someone will take care of the problem, not recognizing the theological crisis that is being presented. As a re-sult, many pastors and churches have unresolved administrative issues that have festered, and are

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When to know it is time to leave!

So you think about leaving, but then you begin to feel guilty. Here is how you can respond to the frustration you feel:

• Pay attention to your yearnings. • Diff erentiate between leaving church and leaving God. • Diff erentiate between looking for more and nursing wounds. • Consider whether or not you’ve grown out of the church’s message. • Consider whether or not you’re able to ask questions. Do the people at your church welcome honest inquiry? • Consider whether or not your church is relevant to your real life. • Consider whether or not you have something meaningful to do. • Consider whether your money is used well. • Commit to God, not just practices. • Dream of more. If you do decide to leave your church, don’t settle for less spiritual growth than you experienced before. • If you decide to stay, fi nd new hope and joy in the process. • If you decide to leave, do it well. • Stay connected to God and others after leaving.

now infecting relationships and processes.” On average, 1-2% of seminary curriculum and training is in the area of church management and administration, and yet the average church pastor will spend 40-60% of their time doing administrative functions. Where does a pastor gain the necessary training in all facets of church administration? The authors’ combined vision is that this text will serve as a practical refer-ence guide to bring awareness, hope and actual solutions to an increasingly complex world of church administration. Wait, hold on! We are not going to try to make you into an accountant, fi nancial wizard, physical plant engineer or hu-man resource specialist. We will however give you the practical tools, knowledge and awareness that the pastor and church noted earlier in the article should have had to avoid devastating and unnecessary calamities in your ministry. The book is divided into four key sections. Section one deals with the pastor and all that they must manage person-ally in order to be more eff ec-tive. Section two deals with the Pastor and what they need to understand regarding basic church administration. Section three deals with the Pastor as the leader, manager, or as we say the “Helmsman.” And fi nally section four is a treasure chest of useful, practical church administration resources that actually help! Every pastor will face personal trials, personnel issues,

risks, budgets, meetings, and changes. Are you prepared? Would you like to know how to make your meetings more productive and help eliminate arguments? How about learning how to deal with troublemakers in your midst, or how to lead the church through the stormy waters of change and perhaps learn how to actually enjoy the budgeting process? Pastoral Helmsmanship is written to help every pastor lead and protect their church. Written as both a handbook and textbook, the goal is to help pastors pastor.

Just as an oil change is con-sidered normal maintenance, reviewing and enhancing ones administrative awareness should be considered normal mainte-nance for the pastor and church leader. The authors want you to succeed, thus this resource is grounded scripturally, and fi lled with insights gained from 100 years of combined experience in the area of churchmanship and administration. learn from it daily.”

Glenn Mille, MBA, CFE

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Integrating Doctrine and Expository Preaching in a Postmodern World

15

Things Every Church Revitalizer Should Do

in the New Year! - Continued on page 18by Tom Cheyney

16

munity. Far too many pastors working in churches that need to be revitalized believe that busi-ness is equivalent to urgency. Creating a sense of urgency is more about activating volunteers and lay leadership into the cause of revitalization and its tasks. Strategies must move forward. Objectives must be advanced. Methodologies must be always evolving and executed in a timely manner. Simply, Church Revital-izers must begin the New Year keeping themselves and their followers on their toes by train-ing the church to look for God’s unexpected and then act upon His opportunities. You as the leader will have much to learn in the New Year and your people will need to embrace the attitude of daring so your renewal eff orts might be accomplished.

Take the Occasion to Set New

Goals

Healthy churches and healthy pastors set goals, which will provide barometers for how the church is doing in the new year. Church Revitalizers understand that individual drive and a list of goals are key to the renewal innovation. It was the late great Zig Ziglar that said, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” At the beginning of my fi rst calendar year here in Central Florida, I asked my staff to turn in individual goals for the upcom-ing year for their area of ministry.

You would have thought I had tortured them. It was like pulling teeth. I scratched my head in disbelief. Have they never been held accountable for their area of work? Had a laze fare been al-lowed with no accountability? We work for our network of churches and don’t they deserve goals set and worked towards reaching. Every one working in areas of ministry should set goals for his or her ministry area and then be willing to share them with the rest of the team. I have learned a wonderful lesson, which is that I am (and you are) more likely to accomplish my goals, if I can see other people also working on their individual goals. As a Church Revitalizer, if you have 10 volunteers working in ministry areas, make a goal to get to 20 volunteers. If you are poor with communication, make it a goal to communicate better this New Year. Remember what people are not up on they are usually down on. If you are bad with member follow up and prospect assimi-lation, make it a goal to make a certain number of visits, send out letters, send emails, and make phone calls this new year each and every week. Set new goals to grow spiritually and profession-ally.

Carry a Journal Everywhere You

Go

I usually have a journal with me where ever I go and if not I have

one in my ipad. The reason I jour-nal and write things down is be-cause I am often bombarded with not one good idea but many and if you do not write them down they will be lost. Great ideas of-ten are pushed to the surface by a series of really good ideas but not great ones. Ideas are fragile, and our memory does not always work. So I write them down. Poor writers are seldom journal writ-ers. Jess Moody, former pastor of First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach gave me the best advice when I was a young freshman in college at Palm Beach Atlan-tic University. His advice to an 18-year-old ministerial student was to put aside two hours every week, even while in college, and write. He said, “Write good ser-mons and bad ones. Write articles and ideas because if you begin to do this while you are young, it will pay off in great dividends as you mature in the work of the ministry!” He was so right. I have discovered in my journaling journey that great ideas come in the strangest places, and if you do not write them down, you will lose the idea that could transform your church or ministry. Learn to write down your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and beliefs. Failure to do so just might cause you to regret it later.

This was made so clear to me when the space shuttle exploded on re-entry that horrible Saturday morning. I had just left my house

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after having breakfast with my wife and children before driving 310 miles to preach in Savannah, Georgia the next day. My Bible was in the front set along with my sermon notes and my jour-nal, as I was prepared for what I thought was a typical Sunday of preaching. Not ten minutes out of my garage as I was listening to the shuttles landing on the radio, I heard from the reporter of the horrible crash. Journaling my thoughts, over the past year had many things useable to allow the Lord to change my message and provide incredible insight and comfort to those church members I would preach to the next day. For the next fi ve plus hours of driving while listening to the tragic event I was able to add to my journal thoughts from the various reporters and when I arrived at my hotel later that day in a few short hours I was able to develop two timely messages for morning and evening of the following day.

Had I not carried a journal with me everywhere I go I would not have had the tools and ideas God had given me over the past months to fashion such timely messages.

Get Your Hands Dirty by Touch-

ing the Ministry

Every Church Revitalizer must see the importance of getting ones hands dirty by touching the

ministry. Pastors must touch the work of the Lord in a local church as much as they are to lead it. Many declining church pastors admit that they are uncomfort-able with getting their hands dirty in the work of ministry. It is sad because this allows them to appear to be unfamiliar about the changing demands and re-quirements for their local church to be locally relevant as well as globally relevant. Some pastors of declining or plateaued church-es enjoy roaming the sidelines and observing the performance of others, rather than getting in the game and taking a more active role. As a church revitalizer do you immerse yourself in the things, which keep you in the offi ce over the things that get you out with your people and prospects? Church Revitalizers much like church planters must be more entrepreneurial than ever before. As the leader of the fl ock one must touch the ministry enough so they are better able to anticipate crisis and manage change before circumstances force their hand. Leadership is all about people and if leaders begin to lose touch with those they lead, they will become detached and disengaged with the require-ments of the community and church in which they serve.

Avoid the Tyranny of the Ur-

gent at the Cost of the Vital.

There are always things, which

can pull you away from the im-portant work of the Lord. Some it is actually very good but not the best. Are you known as one who can count noses, nickel, and numbers yet lacks the time required to connect with those who long for your presence? Would you rather go to a com-mittee meeting and enlist others or do the work yourself? Every church revitalizer worth his or her salt knows how to eliminate the distractions so they can concentrate on the true priorities of ministry. I like the little ditty I heard some time ago: “Whoever invented the open door policy for leaders never accomplished much.” There are times you must speak to the urgent, yet far too many pastors allow the seem-ingly urgent to push away the actually urgent and vital to the cause of Christ.

Know and Understand Who

your Church is Called to Reach.

International missionaries learned long ago that to reach a people group for Christ, they would need to understand their culture. By understanding the group’s beliefs, traditions, and values, they could eat, drink, and talk like them. Then missionaries could more eff ectively share the love of Christ within the context of the group’s culture. So whom

Continued on page 36

Things Every Church Revitalizer Should Do

in the New Year! - Continuedby Tom Cheyney

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“I do not know Greg. I am not so sure that I am cut out for long term pastoring. So much criticism. So many problems with people who often do not act on the Word of God and The Spirit of God to see trans-formation. I love to study, to read. I like to think outside the lines. I enjoy the ac-ademic arena and think that maybe that is where I should be. I am considering moving to get my doctorate. I have been thinking about a few schools, cities and praying through which one might be the best for me, my wife who wants to contin-ue her education, and our children.”

I sat with the young pastor, relaxing by a har-bor side in Southwest Florida. I knew he had to stay the course and hang in there with his pastoral ministry. The Lord made it so obvi-ous that he would be the future team leader at this Florida church. He had already been serving on the staff for several years, having a fruitful ministry. The Lead and Founding Pas-tor, a trusted brother and board member with Grace Global Network had done a great job of nurturing this young man, sharing leadership and even opening the pulpit regularly to him so that he could someday hand it over to my friend.

The young man is bright. Like extremely bright. Like mucho smarto. He is humble.

The Pastor’s Personal Life and Leadership Capacity by Greg Kappas

He follows Jesus and listens to Jesus. Since taking the Lead Pastorate he too has contin-ued a team emphasis where he is the point leader and a few of his fellow leaders share in the preaching/teaching load and other key infl uential ministries that impact many. The church in just a few years has doubled and the Founding Pastor continues on the staff in a major communication and leadership level, including local missional ministry (now that is novel, but continues to feel right before the Lord, as the Founding and former Lead Pastor and current Pastor are both secure and rela-tional).

Under his leadership there are hundreds of new believers. There are many who have seen Biblical healing emotionally, mentally, physically and most importantly spiritually during the last few years. There is an out-door park with beautiful water shoots and a coff ee house setting that the people from Cape Christian Fellowship (CCF) gave nearly 2 million dollars to build, to be a light for their community. This was all for the sake of the Gospel, the Name of Jesus and to say that We will make a diff erence in our city. There is a genuine vision, passion and tenacity to help reach every man, woman and child with Jesus and to give them repeated opportunities to respond to our Lord. In fact, a new person comes to Jesus Christ on average every day at CCF.

So, what happened? Why put this in a church revitalization piece? Because it POINTS TO STRUGGLE. My colleague and dear friend was struggling to fi nd his perfect fi t…just LIKE MANY OF YOU ARE STRUGGLING. He was in anguish because his multiple God given gifts and his passion for scholarship seemed jux-taposed to him, but was perfectly designed

for what God wanted for him and his local church…so it is with many of you. With you, the gift mix may be similar or diff erent, the passion may be opposite or united…yet the real sense of struggle is felt many times a day. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL!

I have found that many of you young, mid age and older pastors are really called into ministry by the Lord. However, a signifi cant portion of you are called to serve Jesus in a diff erent role than where you are rooted. Some of you are simply misplaced. You are essential to the Lord and His Kingdom, your God given role is imperative for your local body to function in a healthy manner. But, some of you have been called by your moth-ers’ into a role that is not your Spirit empow-ered ministry. You do have the capacity from Jesus to excel in your work, but stop listening to your mother’s or father’s plan for your life and lean on His design for you. Lay aside your ambitions, dreams and the plans of oth-ers and connect to Christ.

For some of you, your struggle and frustration has led to deep depression…joy and freedom may be right next to you in another seat on the bus. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL! The place for you may just be very nearby. My friend, Wes, had the gifts, calling and passion of the pastorate, including leading CCF as Dennis was transitioning to a diff erent role at CCF. Dennis had functioned well as the Lead Pas-tor and he sensed from the Lord it was time to hand the baton over to Wes. Wes simply had lots of interests and was intrigued by many of these interests. He needed time to explore and connect with Christ. He needed to be given the freedom to struggle with con-fl icting messages in his mind and spirit.

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In time, over the three year transition, Wes’ answer from Jesus was to stay. Your answer may be to stay. Your answer may be to switch roles within the team, or transition to a new Kingdom work. Hold onto Jesus and His voice…let go of your dreams that do not cen-ter back into Jesus Christ. His peace lives for a reason. His peace desires to enrapture your heart even more than your plans or the plans of others…a holy discontentment stirs up the heart to fi nd His holy contentment.

Some of us are like Jacob. The Lord brings roadblocks in our lives and we just keep knocking them over to persevere in the min-istry. He brings pain, He allows us to experi-ence hard hits after hard hits. Instead of seek-ing Him in prayer we just keep thanking God that we are soldiers for Him and it is an honor to be blown to pieces emotionally, spiritual-ly, mentally and physically…because “that’s what soldiers do”. We never stop to check the strategy with the Commander and see if the troops moved north. In fact, we are not even sure the troops are with us. Jacob, in Genesis 32 wrestled with the Preincarnate Christ. His Struggle was very real! He was blessed by the Son of God and in Genesis 35 picks up a perfect placement blessing from the Lord.

1. Take extended time away from

the noise and hear God…read

His Word and listen to His voice. You may need to sleep for a day or so before you can block out the noise and static. Ex-haustion causes us to lose perspective.

2. Repent of your conniving and

scheming. Rest in the Lord and live in His peace. Be blessed by His Word. Listen to His new calling for a new day.

3. Act on what Jesus says to you. It may just be to stay…or it may be some-thing else. Do not fear, but faith.

Healthy Leaders Reproduce and Multiply…and the same is true for healthy churches. Let’s make progress through OUR struggles!

Greg Kappas is the President of the Grace

Global Network and Vice President of TTI

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Sooner or later it will happen to you. You may be at home or out in public with a friend or behind a closed door with one or two others, but it will come. I’m warn-ing you now because I don’t want it to catch you by surprise. “What is it?” you ask. The it I’m talking about is your health or lack thereof. Whether you step on a bathroom scale or look in the mirror, you will begin to notice it. If neither of those things gets your attention, hopefully an honest friend or your own doctor will lovingly and carefully tell you what needs to change in your daily habits so you can become healthy (or healthier).

You may be thinking, “I have the body of a world-class athlete!” Me, too, but my body looks like the world-class athlete hasn’t hit the gym in 15 years!

But I’m not writing this piece to address your physical shape. I’m writing to speak about your spiritual health, specifi cally, your preaching. Factors involved in your spiritual health and sermon preparation include pray, meditation, proper rest and spiritual food. The last area is what I want to cover, because food and diet has much to do with overall health. I believe preachers who train better spiritually will not only add to their own spiritual health, but also the health of the church, the body of Christ.

Reality Check

Let’s face it: we all need to become better preachers and teachers of God’s Word. Even the best preachers cannot coast into eternity, but they must continue to study and prepare well to stay at their best. “Okay,” you say, “I know I need to improve my preaching. But how can I do so?” I’m glad you asked! Let me share with you a few helpful practices to deepen your preaching and strengthen your congrega-tion.

Exercising Your Spiritual

Muscles

I don’t know if a study has been done on what percentage of pastors continue to read theology after their seminary and Bible college days, but my experience tells me the percentage is quite low. I have in-teracted with a few thousand pastors over the last 20+ years and very few of them do anything to grow deeper, develop their preaching and lead their church in spiritual growth.

Please do not get me wrong. I’m not try-ing to beat up on you. I’m not questioning

Better Preaching Can Turn Around Pastors and Their Churches

by Joel R. Breidenbaugh

25

how hard you work. I know most pastors are working 50+ hours each week, visit-ing homes and hospitals and counseling and preparing to preach and teach. But, I also know these same pastors will almost invariably burnout and quit the minis-try. Those who persevere tend to accept sameness and routine in their ministry. It’s no wonder some 75-85% of churches are plateaued or declining when their pastor-leaders aren’t growing as individ-uals.

So what can help you avoid an unhealthy routine? For starters, pick out a good theology book and read a chapter each day or week to challenge your thinking and help you understand the big picture of God’s Word.

Toning Your Muscles—Using

Biblical Theology

As one who likes theology, it is easy for me to run to a systematic theology book. But I know better. I need to grow in bibli-cal theology fi rst. Why is that?

Biblical theology focuses on the subjects taught by the human authors of Scripture (Paul, John, Peter, Moses, etc.). While the entire Bible is God’s Word, biblical theolo-gy forces students to wrestle with John’s view of regeneration, for instance, rather than automatically seeing what Paul has to say about it.

Think of biblical theology this way: imag-ine fi ve blind men are led to feel an el-ephant for the very fi rst time. One man

touches the ear, another takes hold of the trunk, another feels the tusk, the fourth man touches the tail and the last man puts his hands against the side. If you were to ask each man to describe what an ele-phant is like, you would get fi ve diff erent views. But each of those views would be part of the total picture. In much the same way, biblical theology gathers pieces of the whole truth of God’s Word.

Building Muscle Mass—Using

Systematic Theology

Systematic theology, on the other hand, gathers the data from biblical theology and church history (how church leaders have wrestled with various doctrines over time) to off er an organized system of all the Bible teaches—on God, Christ, sin, salvation, the church, etc. Integrating the fi ve blind men’s accounts of the elephant along with similar perspectives through-out history will present you with the entire picture. In terms of a workout analogy, biblical theology is like push-ups while systematic theology is like bench-press-ing. Both are necessary to a well-rounded upper-body workout.

Training Others to Become

Body-Builders

Once the pastor pours into his own life so he can grow deeper and stronger, he will inevitably grow deeper in his preaching,

26

helping his congregation grow. Not only is this assertion true in modern times, but we see its truth played out in the Scrip-tures at diff erent times. While complete coverage of the biblical models is well beyond the scope of this article, consider an example from each of the testaments.

In the Old Testament, spiritual revival came to Jerusalem whenever Ezra read from God’s Law and gave clear expla-nation and application (Nehemiah 8:8). While some may argue the revival came because they hadn’t heard God’s Word for several years, the text says they celebrated “because they had understood the words that were declared to them” (v. 12). They grew spiritually because their spiritual leader knew the depths of God’s Word well enough to share it with them on their level.

When you turn to the New Testament and look at the churches, it doesn’t take long to realize the better and deeper the preaching was the better off the church was. Whether the church of Corinth un-der Paul, then Apollos or Ephesus under Paul, then Timothy, these churches were stronger and didn’t face signifi cant prob-lems until strong preaching was no longer present week-by-week. That is to say, solid preaching and teaching led to a spiritu-ally healthy congregation, but when the solid preaching was removed, so was the church’s health (see 1-2 Corinthians and Revelation 2:1-7).

Just as the best physical fi t individuals challenge others to exercise regularly, so growing pastors will positively infl uence congregants to get stronger. And a spiritu-ally stronger church body is a key ingredi-ent to church revitalization.

Time to Workout

I don’t mean to imply the only thing you should do to revitalize your church is strengthen your preaching. Just like sev-eral things may be needed to return one’s physical body to health, including proper diet, exercise, vitamins, supplements, new habits and the like, so it is with helping a church move toward health. One way is through your preaching habits and your preparation. Ask the Lord to teach you and deepen you, so you can in turn be used by God to strengthen others. And while you’re at it, enjoy your workout!

Joel Breidenbaugh is the lead pastor of FBC Sweet-water where he has led the church in revitalization and renewal.

Church Revitalization in Church Revitalization in

Rural AmericaRural AmericaBy Tom Cheyney & John KimballBy Tom Cheyney & John Kimball

Book & Book &

DVD DVD

Resource Resource

SetSet

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Feature Writer

Six Steps In Starting A New Work

In An Existing Church

Talk about a case study in the work of renovation, Joshua following Moses is a good study. Every reno-vating pastor serves in the shadow of a former pastor. Unless you are a church planter, you will not be the fi rst guy on the scene.

We, like Joshua, follow the work of someone before us.

From Joshua we learn timeless principles that can help us all kick-start a new work in an existing church.

From the words of God to Joshua, we learn how to navigate the process of turning people around and focusing them back on their mission.

Six Steps to Starting a New Work

1. Face Reality Joshua 1:1-2a

God was saying, ‘Moses is dead; I Am not!’ This is a critical fi rst understanding. The fi rst action you must take as a leader is to understand what is dead in the church. Don’t announce these fi ndings right away − that time will come. Chances are they know it and don’t want to hear it, or they don’t know it and still don’t want to hear it. As a leader, you need to know it, but wait for the time to share it. The fi rst thing you need to communicate is the overwhelming evidence that God is not dead. Preach, teach, remind, lead, communicate that God is alive. Preach on the power of God. Communicate over and over that as long as God is alive we will be too. Preach hard, preach long, and preach faithfully on the power of God in their lives. In other words, do the work of a revival preach-er.

Let them know that life changes, but God doesn’t. Let them know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob − and the church − is not dead. The time will come when you will present a plan of action to

address what is dead. Until your plan is ready to be initiated, the church needs to develop a rock solid conviction that they are following the living God.

A pastor is like a medical doctor that must diagnose and prescribe a remedy. While you are praying, studying and meeting with leaders, you can begin to slowly diagnose and prescribe where the church needs life.

Diagnose the body. Discover the symptoms of sick-ness. Defi ne what is healthy.

Preach the powerful truths of God’s faithfulness. Prepare the people to go on an incredible journey of working with God.

2. Move On Joshua 1:2b

Prayer, planning and preparation are necessary; but there comes a time for action. Do you recall Joshua 1:3? The promise was activated as steps of faith were taken. Steps of faith are steps of action. This is when you begin to call for action. The fi rst step is always the hardest. Decide what the fi rst step will be. None-theless, take a step.

3. Don’t Be Afraid Joshua 1:5

Leadership takes courage. The hardest thing I have ever done is the work of renovation. Facing reality and taking steps of faith in a church body that be-lieves they are okay is a tough work. There have been many weeks where I have wanted to run and hide. In Joshua 1:5, God guarantees three things: (1) His Per-son – “I will be with you,” (2) His Power – “I will not fail you,” and (3) His Presence – “I will not forsake you.”

Joshua’s success was not based on his resume, but on God’s guarantee!

Leadership takes courage. Paul encouraged Timo-thy not to be timid. Timidity is a disease. Timidity is contagious. Fight the battles in prayer. Enable and empower the people through worship. Equip them in preaching and in small group teaching.

It’s Monday, Let’s Get Ready for Sunday by Ron Smith

29

4. Stand Tall Joshua 1:6,7,9

If God says something once, it’s important. If He says it twice, it’s signifi cant.If He says it three times in a mere three verses, it’s indispensable!

Always take a stand on the Word of God. Never stand on your own opinion.

I can always be challenged as a leader if I share my opinion; but when I share the truth of God’s Word, it silences the critics. Now, they will still criticize you as a leader, but they do not have a leg to stand on when you are rooted in the convicting principles of the Word of God.

5. Stay Focused Joshua 1:7b

Notice God calls us to be strong, be courageous, be obedient – all the things we are not. Here’s the mes-sage: Don’t get sidetracked! If there is one encour-agement I can give you that will make a huge diff er-ence in the work of renovation it is this: Stay Focused.

None of us like to follow a distracted leader. There is one powerful way to stay focused: develop an annu-al plan. As a leader you should know the strengths and weaknesses of your church. Develop a theme, a preaching plan, mission trips, and local outreach events aimed at moving your church in one direction. The benefi t of an annual plan is it keeps you on track. An annual plan has a goal; it defi nes what needs to be done and what should not be done.

Focus is most needed when it comes to vision, direc-tion and health.

6. Enjoy This Joshua 1:8

ssion and celebration: they go hand in hand. The work will be tough. We will need courage. We will have tough business meetings and hard counseling sessions; but there is no reason why we cannot fi nd moments of joy, provision and blessing. I love Joshua 1:16. It sounds selfi sh and self-absorbing to state that I like that verse, but here is the truth: when we pray, study, preach and give our everything towards bring-ing life to a church, it is a blessing when the people

“get it” and agree to join you and help you! That feels good!

Know this: each person chooses his or her own level of spiritual experience. Not everyone will follow. Everyone will not worship, pray, and see God move. Most of the New Testament contains letters from Paul to churches who did not “get it.” Yours is not the job of making everyone happy. When God blesses you with people who get it, celebrate and step out to start a new work.

Ron is a husband to Rana, father to three girls and

Pastor of FBC Altamonte Springs. Ron is the author

of Churches Gone Wild. You can follow Ron and

receive free resources at RonBSmithJr.com. Ron

serves as CO-Leader of Renovate Podcasts as well

as serving on staff of the Renovate Coaching Net-

work.

Ron Smith is the lead pastor of FBC Altemonte Springs a church working towards revitaliztion and renewal.

30

Feature Writer

Dr. Michael Atherton, Senior Pastor

Cornerstone Church, Lone Tree, Colora-

do

Over a decade ago, George Barna made the comment concerning the importance of church leadership: “I have reached several con-clusions regarding the future of the Christian Church in America. The central conclusion is that the American church is dying due to a lack of strong leadership. In this time of unprecedented opportunity and plentiful resources, the church is actually losing infl uence. The primary reason is the lack of leadership. Nothing is more important than leadership (C.f. George Barna, Leaders on Leader-ship (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1997), 18).

Though it may be inaccurate to suggest that noth-ing is more important than leadership, Barna’s correlation of church leadership to church health and church growth is reasonable. The church will experience her success or lack thereof through the hands of capable, godly, and God-fearing leaders.. As we begin to explore revitalization leadership, there is something we must know up front. Revi-talization is not a program. Rather, revitalization is a process that involves distinct elements. At its simplest level, revitalization requires a deconstruc-tion of your current situation and an eventual re-construction of the church to refl ect the glory that God intended for her. I like to think of it in terms of auto mechanics.

If I were to take my car down to the local shop and tell them that my engine is sputtering, a number of scenarios could unfold. Let’s consider a few. First, the mechanic could say, “There is too much damage here, and I am not going to attempt to fi x it.” Before he even opens the hood, he would be rendering a judgment that says he is not interest-

ed in doing the diagnostic work necessary to fi x the problem. How frustrating must it be as a car owner to know that someone is not even willing to try?

Yet the same thing happens in the church. How many people, pastors, leaders, and deacons have just given up on the local church? It is frustrating to think how many church plants begin be-cause people have been unwilling to deal with established churches’ traditions. That is not at all an indictment on church planting; we need more churches. However, we do not need more churches at the expense of helping to heal hurt-ing churches or straightening out sinful church-es. When revitalization is needed, don’t run away.

Another option is this: the mechanic opens the hood and misdiagnoses the problem. Instead of fi xing the engine, he replaces the tires. Maybe you were sputtering in your car because your tires were balding. That’s clearly not the case. Even as a layperson, you could fi gure that one out. Pastors, how many times have we taken the real issues that are major to God and relegated them to something of lesser importance, all the while deciding that God will turn a blind eye so long as we have a wonderful children’s program? Friends, I have learned over the years that if you want God’s blessing to be on you and your church, you must care about the things that God cares about! Let me encourage you not to walk the road that has hurt so many churches, while it has baffl ed so many church leaders. Address sin! I know it is uncomfortable, but God honors it.

A third option includes the following: the me-chanic opens the hood, realizes the engine is a problem, and takes it all apart. However, while the engine is in a hundred pieces, he decides to take a new job at a diff erent mechanic shop and tells you to put the pieces back together.

The Leadership Link… by Michael Atherton

31

Absurd … or is it? Here is a simple reality concern-ing leadership: it does not take a great leader to take something that is whole and break it into a hundred pieces. Trust me, I am a father of six, and each one of my kids has demonstrated how easily things can be broken! But pastor, deacon body, elder board, I have a question for you: we all know that we can deconstruct the church, but can you reconstruct the church according to God’s blue-print? That is the real test of leadership.

When I was in seminary, I served at New Hope, a church with major issues. I came to the church six months after the former pastor had a moral break-down with his secretary, who was the wife of the chairman of deacons. The church was fragmented, unity was an afterthought, there was no mission, vision, or purpose, and attendance was dropping weekly. The Sunday school teachers were fi ghting for the best rooms, never mind that nobody was coming to the class. The baptistery was all but wasted space in the church. We were going no-where and getting there quickly.

Yet, despite all of the issues, I was convinced I could do something to help turn the church around. Four months later, my enthusiasm had dissipated to the point that I called my wife while she was at work and told her I was updating my resume. I could not take it anymore. I was lov-ing people, preaching my heart out, working diligently, and adding programs. We were even having major church cleanup days and painting all the walls inside the dark hallways to add a little bounce in our step. Why was God not bringing about the desired results?

Simply put, this ship was not going to be fi xed

with four months of good intentions. We had fresh paint on our walls and new innovative programs, but we failed to rid ourselves of the real issues. We were just masking problems. The pride, hatred, and sin were all still there. We wanted God’s blessing, but we did not care about the things He cared about. What we had to do was regroup, identify the problem, dedi-cate ourselves to opening the problem, and stay long enough to actually fi x it. Then God’s power came in the church. What an experience it was to watch God work!

This leads to the fourth and best option: the me-chanic opens the hood, identifi es the problem, fi xes the problem, and then puts all the pieces back together the way they were designed. You come back to the shop and pay your bill, and everybody walks away satisfi ed, happy, and fulfi lled. Why? Because the mechanic did his job and did it correctly.

Therein lays the secret to church revitalization. As a pastor or church leader, you must be willing to see the potential in the church, identify the problem area, deconstruct it, fi x it, and recon-struct it, allowing God to bring vitality back to the part or whole of the church, which was otherwise dying on the vine. It is a process, not a program!

Much of this article taken from: Atherton, Mi-chael. The Revitalized Church: Forfeiting Self to Follow God. Bloomington, IN: Cross Books, 2012.

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

32

Building Trust

(Part One)by Neal Franks

“Trust me!” Ever hear yourself say these words to those you lead? We live in a world that is skeptical of trusting any-one! A recent Gallup poll1 stated that Americans don’t trust everything from used car salesmen to Supreme Court justices. The poll also included banks, television news reports, police, pub-lic schools and just about everything

you can imagine. Probably for good reasons, 56% of those surveyed don’t trust church leaders either. In 1973, “the church or organized religion” was the most highly rated institution in Gallup’s Confi dence in Institutions2 measure, and it continued to rank fi rst in most years through 1985. Since then the number is at its lowest ever.

33

Most leaders have no idea how critical trust is to the health of their church’s future. In the introduction to the book The One Thing that Changes Every-thing3, author Stephen Covey writes:

“There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, econo-my, and civilization throughout the world—one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful gov-ernment, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most infl uential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love.That one thing is trust….”

Not that long ago I was on a trip to a church conference. I spoke the street address into my smartphone and re-laxed as the phone told me where to go. When I arrived I realized that I was not only at the wrong church but on the opposite side of town. I then called to get the accurate directions and of course, arrived late! I put my trust in the technology of the phone. Much like taking a trip, I automatically know I have to lay out a map that gets me to the destination. Without proper plan-ning, anyone would get lost! The road-map to growth in any ministry begins with building trust with the people you serve. Every leader probably knows

that trust is important but may not know it is imperative! If you were build-ing a new house, think of trust as the foundation.

First and foremost it begins with trust-ing God for the growth that He desires! Most pastors struggle with maintaining a personal walk with God. Your eff ec-tiveness as a leader lives and dies on your walk with God! (Matthew 6:33: “But seek fi rst His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”)

Trust is both vertical with God and horizontal with people. Trust begins with relationship. Dictionary.com de-fi nes trust: to have confi dence or faith in; reliance on the integrity, strength and ability of others based on past experience. “Trust” is related to the Old English word “treowe”—from which we get the word “true.”

Creating A Culture of High

Trust & Low Fear

These fi rst few principles in part one are the foundations for trust. First, it begins with creating a culture of high trust & low fear. A pastor can be gifted at preaching, a good manager of de-tails and great at growing the church, but not maintaining high trust weak-ens the fi rst three! When church mem-bers trust their pastor, amazing things

34

can happen. But, a lack of trust can ruin everything and kill the ability of the pastor to lead. High trust may not help a poor plan, but low trust will crush a good one!

When a pastor wants to make a change at church, considering the eff ect the change will have on individuals is often forgotten! I have noticed that at least half of all people hate change. The other half are lying. Change causes all sorts of emotional reactions. Lots of pastors just decide to make a change and assume it will work out later. This is where high trust is critical. High trust begins with the character of the leader. Someone is “trustworthy” when living an honest lifestyle. Trustworthy peo-ple tell the truth. Integrity is revealed by the action taken to carry out the values, ethics and morals the person believes. It also involves being faithful. People must know they can rely their leaders.

High trust comes from showing others that character counts from the words we say and our actions. Pastors are often guilty of saying one thing and then changing their mind. People are caught off -guard and surprised by the new “change”. Over time this creates a “belief” that your leadership cannot be trusted. That is the defi nition of high fear! If you cannot be trusted, you have just created an environment of high fear. So above all, you must build a

foundation of high trust and low fear among your staff and your church!

Capable and Consistent

The next principle is being capable and consistent. Great character is im-pressive but your skills to produce are also very important to build trust. People have to know you are the right person for your role and they must witness the results over and over. Con-sistency builds the best kind of trust. People rely on your strength and hab-it of follow-through. Doing the next “right thing” over and over again builds a bank account of trust. Every deposit adds confi dence in the leader. Keep leading in the right direction and there is a great chance people will follow your plan.

Communication

The fi nal principle in part one of build-ing trust is communication. Here are some practical suggestions to com-municating change. Begin with doing your homework on “why” you are go-ing to change something. You need to cover every detail. Is the need really valid in your “why statement”? Next, craft the way you will share “what you want to do”. Communicate the why and what to your key leaders fi rst. Share your concerns about your ideas. You need to be transparent. Then, if

Dr. Neil Franks serves as Lead Pastor of First Baptist Church of Branson, Missouri and launched the fi rst daily video de-votional App called, 2-Minute Pastor for smartphone users.

35

you believe you have a green light to move forward, communicate at least 3 times to your people! Communicate it in various settings whether in the hall, in a small group, or in a large meeting. When the change happens, commu-nicate that it happened and how it is going. When the change is over, com-municate how it went and the results it produced. Although exhausting, this is probably the most powerful commu-nication method you have to improve and grow your church.

The gospel will save people but ef-fective communication will unify your body of believers. Trust creates a healthy group of believers who can love and serve both God and each other.

For a continuation of trust

building principles, be sure to

see Building Trust (Part Two).

1 Jones, Jeff rey M. “Confi dence in Congress: Lowest Ever for Any U.S. Institution.” Confi dence in Congress: Lowest Ever for Any U.S. Institution. Gallup, Inc., 20 June 2008. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.2 Saad, Lydia. “U.S. Confi dence in Organized Religion at Low Point.” U.S. Confi dence in Organized Religion at Low Point. Gallup, Inc., 12 July 2012. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.3 Covey, Stephen M. R., and Rebecca R. Merrill. The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Every-

thing. New York: Free, 2006. Print.

Things Every Church Revitalizer Should Do

in the New Year! - Continuedby Tom Cheyney

36

are you called to reach? Is it a specifi c people group, cultural pocket, or geographic area? First, defi ne the target group that God has placed on your heart for your church to love and reach. Once you have defi ned the target group, create a profi le describing them. Gather all the information available through community demographic studies, community his-tory, and people group statistics. Evaluate the com-munity to determine the fl ow of people’s lives, what they do on a week-to-week basis, what activities they are involved in, their priorities, musical preferences, values, and beliefs. Learn to understand how the average family thinks, their life issues, challenges, and goals. Then determine what questions people are asking that the gospel can answer. There are many resources and activities you can utilize to help you understand your community. As you understand your churches surrounding culture and become experts on your community, then you can develop a ministry plan that fi ts within the context of your target group’s culture. By doing so, you can increase the eff ectiveness of your ministry.

Become Impassioned Pioneers of New Possibili-

ties

Church Revitalizers must become impassioned pio-neers of new possibilities. One needs to release their passionate quest of excellence in order to challenge the status quo and seize previously unseen ministry opportunities to build sustainable momentum within the ministry area. Impassioned revitalizers are the real explorers of new potentials and possibilities. The impassioned pioneer of new possibilities is more often able to outperform those who are just trying to get it done but lack the zeal of the other leader. Your leadership as a Church Revitalizer is more about standing for something and transitioning your beliefs into action, and then taking it all the way through to the completed and envisioned end. When pastors are not exploring and pressing forward, they are playing it safe and can over time become complacent in their role as the shepherd. I have discovered that you will learn more from a pastor that explores than

from one who merely fl oats along. When a renew-al pastor explores they challenge everyone on the churches leadership team to get out of their comfort zones and step up their games.

Create a Moment-in-Time with as Many Church

Members as Possible

Your presence with your fl ock is so vitally important and wise Church Revitalizers develop the ability to create individual moments with church members that express your interest in them. The more your church grows the better you will need to be at this ability. Your interest in them even for the moment in time often will ignite their interest in your and your cause of revitalization. Moments-in-time are mas-tered over time. This ability and presence requires self-trust, confi dence, self-awareness and the ability to navigate the needs of other people. When you are with others your time is focused on them and not on the next thing. Creating a moment-in-time with as many church members as possible requires becom-ing a good listener and the ability to quickly connect the individuals patterns of conversation in order to detect one’s personal interests, leadership style and personal needs. Moments-in-time is not about you but all about others. These Moments-in-time are about having impactful, long-lasting moments with members and prospects that inspires others to want to know more.

Create a “User-Friendly” Ministry Environment.

There are many barriers that obstruct an unchurched person from hearing and receiving the gospel mes-sage. Many of these are due to negative perceptions; others are spiritual issues of the heart. Here are four barriers that an unchurched person must cross to become a Christian:

The Image Barrier—Many perceive church as being irrelevant, boring, judgmental, and disingenuous.

Continued on page 48

37

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The Seven Pillars

of Church

Revitalization

and Renewal

Our Lord loves the local New Testament Church and it is His desire to see it grow! The need for Church Revitalization has never been greater in North America! An estimated 340,000 Protestant churches in America have an average attendance of less than one hundred. Research data tells us that in the United States more than 80% of the churches have plateaued or are declining. Each and every week we are currently seeing somewhere between fi fty and seventy-fi ve local church-es closing their doors and not opening them again. Everything that must be done in the area of church revitalization cannot be accomplished in a few hours on the Lord’s Day!

The most recent research data released in January of 2012 by the Leavell Center for Evange-lism and Church Health, has said that within my own Southern Baptist Convention we are at a critical juncture regarding church plateau and decline. The most recent series of studies have been conducted by Bill Day; Associate

Director of the Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Health, who serves the New Orleans Bap-tist Theological Seminary as the Gurney Professor of Evangelism and Church Health in his sequen-tial studies on church health and growth of 2003, 2007, and 2010. In January of 2012 Bill Day report-ed, that currently there are less than seven percent (6.8) of our SBC churches that are healthy growing churches. That means 3,087 of our 45,727 SBC churches are healthy. Even the number of SBC churches is in decline and we need to address the needs for church revitalization immediate-ly.

Thinking About

the Seven Pillars of

Church Revitaliza-

tion

Working in the area of Church Revitalization will lead you eventually to consider the Seven Pillars of Church Revitalization. A Church Revitalizer will not be working in all of these areas at the same time, but you will eventually fi nd yourself working in most of them at one time or another. Take a moment to refl ect upon the Seven Pillars graph as we discuss these areas of renewal and revitalization.

Revitalization and

RealignmentPerhaps the easiest pillar to ad-dress is revitalization and realign-ment. Some observers of church revitalization and renewal argue that the era of small churches is over and that the future belongs to the arising mega churches across North America. Granted mega is an amazing phenome-non of the past thirty years which seems to have arisen with the concept of the massive campus church. But to ignore the 340,000 plus churches in North America that average less than 100 weekly in church attendance would be ill advised! Those who serve and those who attend these churches are an enormously signifi cant network of Christian infl uence. Even the mega church fi nds itself struggling to avoid plateau and decline.

A church in need of Revitalization is described as one where: there is the plateauing or declining after a phase of recent or ini-tial expansion; then the church experiences the beginning of a high turn-over of lay leaders; there becomes a shorter duration of stay of fully assimilated people within the work; the church mo-rale and momentum level drops; the church coasts for a brief time

The Seven Pillars of Church Revitalization and Renewal:

Foundational for Declining Churches

by Tom Cheyney

39

and then drops again, only to see the cycle of decline repeated again and again. The result is the church hits a new low! This new normal is the fi rst sign of a church in need.

Refocusing Refocusing is the second pillar and it helps churches that are growing, but still need to set new challenges and look for new opportunities to expand their gospel witness into their target area. Questions such as what is your biblical purpose and why do we exist as a congregation must be addressed. Looking at how God showed up in the past is a good way to get the church un-stuck by addressing where it has been, how God has worked and

what does He have for its future. Addressing the church’s focus, vi-sion, and leading them to discov-er God’s new direction is just the beginning of helping a congrega-tion to begin refocusing towards the Lord’s new calling plan for the church! Many a pastor today has never been taught how to grow a church and they feel quite stuck and in need of someone to come along side of them and challenge them to refocus one’s self and the church!

Re-visioningA little bit harder certainly, but not as hard, as the descending order of decline that will eventu-ally lead to the Restarting pillar of revitalization. Have you ever seen a church that once was alive

and vital begin to lose its focus and drive for the cause of Christ? That is a church that needs to work on its Re-visioning strat-egy! Any Re-visioning strategy works to help churches dream new dreams and accomplish new goals that lead towards re-growing a healthy church! This strategy is designed for a weekend retreat tailored fi t to foster a sense of ownership and team ship related to discovering a shared vision for the church. Understanding the critical mile-stones necessary for a new vision will help foster healthy church practices that might have been lost. Something as simple as achieving a great goal of some sort can begin to launch a church back into a Re-visioning strategy. Something as simple and danger-ous as the Lord’s children taking

40

an ill advised rest that resulted in a slowing or stalling of the momentum into a maintenance mentality can cause a church to become stuck.

RenewingChurch Renewal is the forth pillar of the seven pillars of Church Revitalization process. Often the church simply needs to get back to that which was working and get back on track. When that is needed a careful renewal strate-gy needs to be planned and car-ried out. Renewing a congrega-tion becomes much harder than the refocusing, re-visioning and revitalization process. Not every-one who works in church renewal is wired the exact same way and it is important to understand each congregation’s individual needs and not try to make a one size fi ts all! There is no magic pill in church revitalization. Far too much writing on church growth of the 1980’s was designed in a one size fi ts all “bigger is better” model and while it may not have been the only cause for declining numbers in our churches, but it certainly contributed! It is vital that you prepare the laity for the work of church renewal as well as yourself. Communicate early and often with the church how the renewal process will take place and how it will be implemented. Prepare yourself spiritually and then prepare your leaders spiri-tually. Then begin preparing your church spiritually for renewal! A Church Renewal Weekend is a great way to start! Church renew-

al is not about fi nding the magic medication or treatment to get growing. It is more about discov-ering God’s vision for the church and practicing it for the long haul. The utilization of a Church Renewal weekend works well to draw God’s people back towards health and vitality.

Reinvention This fi fth pillar of Church Revi-talization deals with tools and techniques to assist the church

when it is necessary to reinvent itself to a changing community. When a church experiences a shift in the community makeup, often there will be to various degrees, the need to redevelop a new experience for those who make up the new church context! New experiences must replace old experiences. New practices likewise will replace old practic-es. A church that is experiencing the need for reinvention must take seriously the need and make the commitment for reinventing itself, revaluing itself, reforming itself, and reinvigorating itself to fi t the new context.

Restoration This sixth area of Church Revital-ization deals with things a church and a minister must go through when circumstances necessi-tate that a restoration process is called for! Things such as:Gaining a new and fresh under-standing of the new future for the church is vital if success is in the church’s future.

Inspiring new prospects with a vision that is both compelling and motivational. Prospects seek to be inspired and not dragged down in the world in which we live in.

Meet new needs in order to give you a restored place among the community in which you seek to further minister.

Become prospect driven during these days of transition. Look

The restart church

revitalization mod-

el is being used all

across North Amer-

ica. Changing the

mindset of the resid-

ual membership can

often be very diffi cult.

Senior adults occupy

most of these restart

candidate churches

for which change is

often hard to come

by. Until the church is

ready to make drastic

changes, it is useless

to become involved.

41

for new and yet to be reached opportunities to minister.

Remember if you try to do every-thing you will end up doing noth-ing. Therefore pick your greatest opportunities fi rst and let the rest follow along later.

Craft something that comes out of a community in fl ux and look for ways to reconnect to the community where you once were fi rmly entrenched. Keep in mind you have been given a second chance so don’t blow it. Prayer-fully seek the new things because it might be something you will be doing for a long long time!

RestartingThe fi nal Pillar of Church Revital-ization is the hardest and often only happens once the church’s patriarchs and matriarchs have tried everything else they could think of to grow the church with no success! The challenge here is that most churches wait too long to enter into this area of revital-ization and by the time they are willing to utilize this strategy, they have sucked out all of the life within the church and it is no longer a viable candidate for this eff ort. When a sick church no longer has the courage to work through the various issues that led to its poor health, it is usually identifi ed as being on life support and in need of a restart. This type of church has been fl at-lined and just holding on by means of its legacy and the faithful few who attend. The Restarting Strategy (also known as a Repotting strat-

egy) is for an unhealthy church to once again begin growing and to engage in a renewed vision that is demonstrated through suffi -cient evidences of hope.

The restart based church revital-ization model is being used all across North America. Any group planting churches or working in the area of Church Revitalization should have a restart strategy if it is going to be a wise steward. One critical point from the start is a complete change of leadership and direction is a must for this revitalization model to be suc-cessful. Lyle Schaller reminds us that 85,000 evangelical churches are running fewer than 50 on Sunday. Being aware of their “critical” condition, however, is not enough. They have got to become convinced they need “major” surgical treatment. One church I have worked with still believes that they have more to off er, though their decline has been meteoritic and yet they

refuse to allow a restart to take place.

Changing the mindset of the residual membership can often be very diffi cult. Senior adults occupy most of these restart candidate churches for which change is often hard to come by. Until the church is ready to make drastic changes, it is useless to become involved. There are thou-sands of churches like this all over America: Some are Baptists, oth-ers are Methodists, even in the Assemblies you can fi nd them, Presbyterians, the Lutherans have them, Congregational, Christian, and many others, waiting for a mission-minded congregation to get involved in off ering “new life.” One startling phenomena is there are churches today that as the la-ity begin to depart this life often see nothing wrong with taking the church to the grave as well. That was never part of God’s plan for the very thing He gave up His life.

Dr. Tom Cheyney is the founder and directional leader of Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference and Executive Editor of the Church Revitalizer.

42

The Characteristics of Successful

Church Revitalizers by Michael Atherton & Tom Cheyney

You ask most practioners working in the fi eld of revi-talization what are some of the most important charac-teristics for a church revital-izer and many of these will be off ered. Not everyone will have all of these but granted there is a need to possess more than a few in order to have the stuff necessary to turnaround a church stuck in decline and in need of renewal. Here are the fol-lowing skill sets we deemed necessary:

1. Possess brokenness before the Lord over the situation of the church.

2. Need an active, eff ective and consistent prayer life.

3. Seek God and get their vision from Him.

4. Need to be completely honest with themselves and with God about their sins and the sins of the people they lead.

5. Are patient plodders who seek counsel, and who also understand the importance of timing-Eccl 8:5

6. Make very informed deci-sions and stick with them.

7. Are passionate people who are completely commit-ted to their Lord, the church, and the revitalization pro-cess.

8. Are hopeful, and not just optimistic.

9. Inspire more than they motivate.

10. Are able to take ex-traordinary risks in order to achieve their objectives.

11. Are able to handle con-fl ict, opposition, and per-sonal attacks by keeping the objectives in view.

12. Work at eff ective and honest communication.

13. Have a bias for action.

14. Encourage creativity and are willing to risk failure.

15. Understand the needs of their target community.

16. Have a genuine interest in meeting the needs of people.

17. Keep prospects close and seek to minister to them.

18. Practice freedom and entrepreneurship. There is freedom from bureaucratic policies and red tape.

19. Work diligently to utilize the creativity of small minis-try groups.

20. Do the work of ministry through the gifts of its laity.

21. Have high expectations for ministry and give very generous affi rmation for achievement.

22. Deliver and express qual-ity programs that provide a perceived value that par-ticipants are seeking. These

43

churches are contagious and stimulating.

23. Generate energy rather than deplete it.

24. Keep the main thing the main thing!

25. Focus on what they do best and avoid launching programs that take away from the vision and spread workers too thin.

26. Keep the staff lean and utilize volunteers over hired staff preferably. These lead-ers keep the church fl exible and stable by practicing lean simple forms.

27. Practice creative chaos while adhering to the core values for the vision.

28. Understand the tension between the creative chaos necessary to do something new while still remaining faithful to the core values of the church.

29. Often referred to as builders. They are individu-als that seek to make things better within the church. They believe deep down they can make a lasting dif-ference.

30. Take the time to honor the past so they can move productively into the future.

31. Seek to develop as much knowledge and Biblical training from experienced leaders in church revital-ization so when they are deployed into the work of ministry they will know how to lead a church that must rise from its deathbed vigil and get it growing spiritually and numerically once again!

32. Must possess a sin-gle-mindedness that seeks out life and fosters the abili-ty for others to sense life.

33. Sense God’s call as a leader to develop growing spiritual churches.

34. Refuse to simply go through the motions as a pastor and play church.

35. Seek regeneration over stagnation.

36. Choose life over death.

37. Choose to be reaching out into the community over isolation behind fortress walls.

38. Expend their time on ministries that will grow a church over ministries that are detached from the con-gregation’s life and ministry.

39. Choose making minis-try fun again over one that snoozes on.

40. Choose bold advance-ment over mild mainte-nance.

41. Choose to be pioneers over patio sitters.

42. Choose to move forward now over tomorrow!

43. Function more as an apostle than a lethargic leader.

44. Their spiritual experience is living and fresh.

45. They know they are cho-sen and sent.

46. They are not afraid to get help from others in the endeavor.

47. They repel those who are caretakers and managers of the status quo and choose those of life and vitality.

44

48. They are committed to the mission of revitalization.

49. They have a clear deter-mination to clear new paths and lead the church to new places and reach new peo-ple.

50. They grow bored over unchanging routines and maintenance chores.

51. They get their energy from short term challenges and sprints rather than from marathons.

52. They can easily persuade others to jump on the band-wagon.

53. They are personal evan-gelists and actively partici-pate in reaching individuals for Christ as a soul winner.

54. They joyfully reproduce disciples.

55. They are not afraid of taking risks for the advance-ment of the Gospel.

56. They reach out to pock-ets of people not currently being reached in one’s com-munity.

57. They change from pas-torate to pastorate so the adjustment is more in line with that which the church needs over a bag of tricks and tracks.

58. They care more about everyone coming to know Jesus Christ than they care about keeping their church-es small enough so that they can know everyone.

59. They have the right atti-tude.

60. They possess the right skill sets for turning a church around.

61. They have the ability to motivate others to follow their leadership.

62. They focus to keep the church moving towards its goals.

63. They always want the “ball” in the critical minutes of the game.

64. They realize that most churches do not grow under the leadership of the “nice” leader! A renewal pastor must be open, honest, fi rm, straight forward, be able to

confront problems, manage confl ict and love everyone.

65. They have the courage to do the things necessary in the face of opposition, criti-cism and emotional pain.

66. They understand that people are the conduit nec-essary to get things done in the church.

67. They wait to receive the “go” word from God and then they are laser focused on fulfi lling God’s plan.

68. They keep the focus off of “non-essential” matters.

69. They control the commu-nication narrative and the communication pipeline.

70. They understand the value of prioritizing

71. They are forever learners, always seeking new informa-tion that helps them lead in the revitalization process.

72. They are not afraid of new ways of working, new people, or new systems.

73. They know how to change the storyline/narra-tive

45

74. They are committed to the long haul

75. They accept much of the work needs to be done through the stakeholders

76. They are okay not receiv-ing credit when they de-serve it and criticism when they don’t deserve it.

The list is complete for sure and yet there are some which rise up to the top as kill skill sets necessary to revitalize a church. While no barometer is complete these are what hundreds of participants have sid were critical skill sets for a church revitalizer.

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

Dr. Tom Cheyney is the founder and directional leader of Ren-ovate National Church Revitalization Conference and Executive Editor of the Church Revitalizer.

Do Something in Church

Revitalization! Fix the Hole! The plateaued and declining church needs to do something. Church and denominational leaders need to do something. We have spent enough time ringing the bell, shouting that there is a hole in the boat. It’s time to fi x the hole. The more I study the existing church, the more convinced I am that the people in the pews want to see their churches turn around too. There is some disagreement on what must happen, but I would say that most are ready for some positive change. Here is some sage advice:

First and foremost, pray about church revitalization and seek God’s face for this undertaking.

Second, affi rm your pastor and his leadership in the church.

Third, get to the point that you and your pastor can speak about your circumstances openly and at length with the church. Nothing is worse than attempting to eff ect change without the help and support of the congregation. I

Fourth, don’t be afraid to ask for outside help. One danger-ous consequence of pride is the inability to ask for help from others. Fifth, address the opposition that comes from revitalization biblically and immediately.

Terry Rials

46

Multiplying Churches TrainingDeveloping Church Planting Centers in the Local Church

April 30 - May 1, 2015Immediately Following Exponential 2015

$25 Per Person

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Register:

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Willow Bend Community

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47

Exponential multiplication of Disci-

ples, Leaders and Churches happens

when church leaders are committed

to evangelism that results in disciples,

disciple making that results in leaders

and leadership development that re-

sults in church planters who multiply.

You will hear from practioners who are

leading, developing and multiplying

church planting centers.

48

Things Every Church Revitalizer Should Do

in the New Year! - Continued

The Cultural Barrier—For the unchurched, church culture can sometimes be as scary as it would be for some of us if we walked into a biker bar at 1 a.m. on Saturday night. Culture aff ects terminology/language, musical preferences, dress code, social traditions, and so forth. Some who are unchurched may not relate to church culture and may quickly decide that church is not for them.

The Gospel Barrier—The Holy Spirit must convict them of their sin, so that they repent and confess faith in the resurrected Christ.

The Total Commitment Barrier— Accepting that a commitment to Christ is a lordship decision involving total commitment and surrender to God. Although many churches say that they care about reaching the unchurched or lost in their communities, they are hindered by inwardly focused ministry practices, which serve as barri-ers to reaching the unchurched. Everything from signage, service fl ow, dress code, and musical style is determined based on the needs of those who are already members. Members normally are familiar with the church facilities and ministries (so they don’t need greeters or good signage), have established strong relation-ships with other members, and are comfortable with the cur-

rent culture of the church. New families often fi nd the church experience to be uncomfortable, awkward, and confusing. They ask themselves, “Where do I go? Where do I take my kids? What do I wear? Will they ask me to pray?” They enter the church doors with hearts racing and sweaty palms hoping to fi nd someone, anyone with whom they can identify. When creating a “user-friend-ly” environment, remember to remove the barriers that may hinder a person from hearing and responding to the gospel.

Many times, people are not willing to give church a try. The barriers, for them, are too large to maneuver, people within a church have hurt them, or they do not see the relevance in attending a church service. So why not go to them? Jesus did it—and so should we. Try volun-teering for community events, coaching Little League, or taking a part-time job at Starbucks. In-vest in relationships with people in the community, and show them that your love is genuine and unconditional.

Become Less Isolated and Be

More Integrated with Your Vol-

unteers

Church Revitalizers work towards increasing collaboration with volunteers. Successful revitalizers know that their success is highly dependent upon collaboration

with others. They know they must always improve their ability to mentor, inspire and motivate others. Church renewal and teamwork is recognizing that leadership success comes most to those who are surrounded by people who want their success to continue. Strive to create an environment where everyone has each other’s back. Lack of this ingredient makes the chance for successful revitalization very low. If you as a pastor are a leader who has made the decision to go at it alone, this is often a no-win situation for everyone involved. It is through increased collab-oration that church revitalizers get the opportunity to know and engage with their volunteers well enough to detect and enable their talent potential.

Investigate the Internet and

Social Media.

The latest study indicates the average American family watches TV and surfs the Internet an aver-age of 10 hours each day. Com-pared to your time in the pulpit of a couple of hours each week, who has the most infl uence? Un-less pastors and ministry leaders learn the power of the Internet and social media and how to use it eff ectively, we will continue our Churches not so slow slide into extinction. Discuss movies and TV programs with your congre-gation, and teach them how to properly prioritize the Internet

49

by Tom Cheyney

and social media. And think more about your Internet social media outreach where even the smallest church can create an eff ective Web site. The battle for infl uence in your congregation’s life has begun, and you had bet-ter get into the fi ght.

Begin Something Highly Signif-

icant for Your Personal Ministry

I talk to ministers and pastors all the time. Many share with me of something big they want to do and achieve. I am often com-pelled to ask of their dream its status only to fi nd that nothing besides a thought has been ac-complished. Stop dreaming and start producing. Begin right now the endeavor you have always dreamed of beginning. Tic Tock stop watching the clock because the clock is ticking, and you are not getting any younger. Some preachers have a book they want to write but lack the commitment and discipline (yes writing is a discipline) to get moving. How about that ministry you have wanted to create? What is keep-ing you from accomplishing that dream? Stop dreaming and start doing. There is no better time than now.

Read More Books, Blogs, and

Magazines

It is interesting that many young-er ministers no longer like to read. Yet for all of us who pro-

claim the Word of God each week lack of reading often eliminates our ability to see the power of drama. When we become avid readers and life long learners we experience the power of drama in our reading, which often is carried over, into our preaching. Read blogs (you can go to our web site and see ones we think are important) books, and other publications. Novels provide you the ability to utilize narrative in ones preaching. Storytelling is an art which when well learned will compel others to listen closely.

Remember Your Calling

Do you remember why you were called into the ministry? It is so easy to get caught up in advanc-ing technology, paying the bills, preparing sermons, and the daily grind, we often forget the reason we were called into the ministry in the fi rst place. Chances are you had a dream and calling back then. Was that vision ever accomplished? Cut through the clutter, and get back to the heart and soul of why you do this for a living. The most precious asset you have right now is not mon-ey or even knowledge it is time. Time is the currency of the most successful people in the world, and you can always identify infl u-ential leaders by how they value their time. As a church revitalizer use this coming year to reconsid-er your priorities, cut away the litter, and get back to the heart of your ministry.

Wrapping It Up!

Our communities are fi lled with people who have a need in their lives that only Jesus can fi ll. Deep down, most people want to connect with their heavenly Father, be forgiven for their sins, and they desire the same for their children. The stakes are high, and the need is urgent. As you plan for 2014, prayerfully consider how you can reposition your church for greater impact for lov-ing and reaching your commu-nity for Christ. As you head into the New Year, you should have great anticipations for your fellow ministry leaders and play a more active role in holding them ac-countable to step-up their game. As a church revitalizer do not wait for your ministry leaders infl u-ence your future more than you may know and you do not want to be the one that regrets not do-ing anything about it in the long run. You will never have another chance to relive this year, so let us invest this year in what could potentially change the world for the cause of Christ Jesus.

Tom Cheyney

Founder & Directional LeaderRenovate National Church Revitalization Conference

50

51

52

53

54

The church exists to make disci-ples. Or, you may say the church exists to glorify God by making disciples. However, if the church is not making disciples, is it glo-rifying God? Real disciples make more disciples, which is a strat-egy for multiplication. Having a concise vision and strategy for multiplication can dispel division. When you have a diversity of visions, you have “di-vision”.

“But the seed falling on good

soil refers to someone who

hears the word and understands

it. This is the one who produces

a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty

or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

Developing and delivering a compelling vision begins with God’s Word and ends with a men-tal picture of what God intends to accomplish in the future. God called Moses to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt (an un-desirable situation indeed!) to a preferred future - a land of their own. The vision originated with God, was given to Moses and was delivered to the leaders of the Israelites. Moses’ job was not to create the vision, but to sell it to the leaders of the people. Notice how God used vivid imagery in Genesis 3:17 of a land fl owing with milk and honey to help Moses to sell the vision to the elders of the Israelites. A vision is by defi nition, visual. So, a com-pelling biblical vision will require some creativity to help non-vi-

sionaries to ”see” what God has planned.

Overcoming

Resistance

God promised Moses that the elders would get on board with the vision and follow his leader-ship, but not without a consider-able amount of resistance. As you prepare to communicate God’s vision for becoming a multiplying church, be prepared to encoun-ter some resistance. At this point it is important for the church to understand that multiplication is both commanded in scripture and expected by God. Failure to comply would put the church in confl ict with God’s agenda. Even though the church at Ephesus had fulfi lled the mission of mul-tiplication in the early part of the First Century, Jesus threatened to shut the church down near the latter part of that century because they had “forsaken

your fi rst love…” (Revelation 2: 4). An entirely new generation of people had come to adulthood in Asia Minor and they needed to hear the gospel too. The church could not rest on their past suc-cess!

Reaching Is Not

Optional

Multiplying churches understand that reaching the next genera-

tion is not optional. Multiplica-tion is intrinsically woven into the mission of the church. Christ commanded it in the Great Commission and New Testament churches modeled a culture of multiplication. We simply can’t be a church that glorifi es God if we don’t passionately pursue lost people, disciple them, and train them to plant more churches.

Reach People Who

Will Reach Others

Multiplying churches focus on reaching people who reach others. The moment a person becomes a follower of Christ, he or she is asked to share Jesus with friends and family. They go back into their network of relationships and simply tell the good news of how they became a follower of Jesus and how oth-ers can come to know him too. They don’t have to wait until they fi nish a discipleship class or to be trained to share their faith. They are witnesses.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus is more than learning about Jesus. In the Great Commission, Jesus taught his disciples to make disci-ples by going to and sharing the gospel with lost people, baptiz-ing them, and teaching them to obey His commands. Jesus both taught and modeled disciple making by directly involving his new disciples in hands-on minis-try. Discipleship training in mul-

Multiplication or Division: What is your Church

Revitalization Strategy?by Mark Weible

55

tiplying churches is the practical application of the commands of Christ that results in more people coming to Christ and obeying his commands. Multiplying church-es have a systems in place that move people from disciple to leaer.

Leaders are

Infl uencers

Leaders are people who infl uence others. Making disciples also involves developing leaders. The Bible makes it clear that the pri-mary role of leaders in the church is to develop more leaders (Eph 2:12, II Tim. 2:2).

If your church does not have enough qualifi ed leaders to carry on your current ministry and to start more churches, then the church is not following the bib-lical commands to develop new leaders. Multiplying churches allow new leaders to lead. That means that current leaders need to give their leadership away to the next generation.

The indispensable leader is not the one who has obtained special knowledge or experience that the church cannot live without. It is the goal of every great leader to give away all of their leader-ship know-how to people that they are leading. In other words, there should be nothing that only one person knows how or is authorized to do in the church. Jesus modeled this by turning over the leadership of His global movement to His followers. He

even said, “...whoever believes

in me will do the works I have

been doing, and they will do

even greater things than these,

because I am going to the Fa-

ther.” (John 14:12). Great leaders expect those that they lead to surpass them.

Catch God’s Vision

for Your Church

With a God-given vision clearly presented by the lead pastor and accepted by the church, a church in decline can move from division to multiplication. Multi-plying churches celebrate when leaders leave to go to the mission fi eld or to plant another church, because there are plenty of other leaders to fi ll the gap. The church at Antioch, at the direction of the Holy Spirit, sent off their top two leaders to do the work that God had called them to do. When Barnabas and Saul left Antioch, they did not leave behind a lead-ership void because there were plenty of others who could step up and lead. The church did not mourn the loss of their two best leaders. Instead, they celebrated! They prayed for Barnabas and Saul and laid hands on them as a sign of being offi cially sent. That is a beautiful picture of unity an multiplication.

Mark Weible is Strategic Director of RenovateConference.org

and Directional Leader of ReprodcuingChurches.com.

Mark also serves as Director of Church Planting for Greater

Orlando Baptist Association in Orlando Florida.

He is a Search Engine Optimization master trainer and Google

Adwords professional marketer.

If your church does

not have enough

qualifi ed leaders to

carry on your cur-

rent ministry and to

start more churches,

then the church is

not following the

biblical commands

to develop new

leaders. Multiplying

churches allow new

leaders to lead. That

means that current

leaders need to give

their leadership

away to the next

generation.

Author Quote

56

Bibliography Citing:

Ross, Donald, Turnaround Pastor, Montlake Terrace, WA, Turnaround Church Coaching Network, 2013, 196 pages.

Donald Ross tells his stories of successes and failures as he led churches through-out his ministry, particularly in the turnaround process of Creekside Church. Ross shares of his painful jour-ney in leading of churches, which lead him to begin his own personal revital-ization journey. Creekside Church was a church that was spiraling downward in attendance, giving, and infl uence. The author gives the reader an opportunity to hear many critical decisions, along with the consequenc-es that follow, as he led the church further into decline and ultimately to a large, multi-campus mega-church. Ross clearly articulates the cost of leading a turnaround church and makes no guar-antees about success. The book is grounded in reality and written by someone who has paid the price.

Donald Ross teaches the nine phases (induction, in-troduction, obstructions, de-struction, construction, de-construction, reconstruction, production, and reproduc-tion) a pastor will endure in a turnaround process. This is a book full of wisdom about remaining alert and focused allowing the unexpected to rise to the top. The author demonstrates that we can allow people to leave our church without harboring a grudge against them and even maintain a friendship with them. He concludes his work by encouraging the pastor to carefully investi-gate his calling to determine if he is truly called to lead a turnaround process. If so, he coaches the pastor to be courageous and do not give up. This is an honest look at mistakes made in the jour-ney and their outcomes. If you are a pastor or member of a declining church, Turn-around Pastor is a must read. It is a great guide and must read for anyone wanting to revive a rapidly dying church including the staff leader-ship team, lay leadership, and those members who want to see their church revitalized .

Donald Ross is the lead pas-tor of the Creekside Church in Seattle, where he has served since 1995. This 60-year old church once, 2000 in attendance, declined over fi fteen years to painful 150. Don fi rst served as a con-sultant to the church, and then became pastor. Over the next ten years many of the issues the caused the decline were addressed and in 2004 the four acre, 80,000 square foot campus in Seat-tle was sold and Creekside Church relocated north sev-en miles to a ten acre parcel in Mountlake Terrace.

revitalizerLIBRARY

57

Bibliography Citing:

McGavran, Donald An-derson, The Bridges of God: A Study in the Strategy of Missions, Eugene, Oregon, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1955, 158 pages.

Donald McGavran has written a classic for anyone who desires to be productive, eff ec-tive and more effi cient with the resources for which God has blessed him or her. This book was a hard read, but it was so worth it! McGavran makes the case for the need of mission organiza-tions to reconsider its current methods that have reached their pinnacle and have become stagnant, and to consider the shift from the Mission Station Approach to People Movements. He off ers revolutionary ideas that stir the fi re of evangelism. The author’s discussion on the “meth-od replacing the message” was not only accurate, but also timely. There is continuing debate as to the various styles and methods utilized in mission and ministry work. People tend to become defensive over personal agendas that may be challenged, while missing the ultimate goal of get-ting the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to a world that desperately needs to hear it.

He begins his discussion by stating that the question that really needs to be answered is, “How are people converted to Christianity?” He identifi es the problem with the Western mind-

set, which is primarily centered on individual spirituality. The overall concept of building “bridges” to reach people to be prepared for the Gospel is biblical and the author demonstrates this well. He considers the journeys of Paul, noting the success Paul had with the idea of making connec-tions through family and friends so the doors to discipleship would open. The author’s interest in a “Christward” movement is inspiring and uplifting.

He recognizes the mission work in Acts to be the example of building bridges through the connections of families and friends in other places, thus reaching whole groups in the process. The author wants readers to review their practic-es and develop a better system of appropriating workers and resources for better eff ectiveness. The fi ve distinct advantages of People Movement are stated well and worthy of serious con-sideration. The fact that such a method would allow for indepen-dence from Western Missions for the church to be fi rmly rooted in its own soil is important. These churches would be naturally indigenous where converts are not simply rescued out of their current context. There is room for spontaneous expansion or multiplication of the church. The possibility for growth is good as strategic doors are opened for reaching people, and there is an emphasis on inner change of character, rather than simply on one’s standard of living. This is a classic book and while most rea this book for the purpose of missions, it has a

place in church reitalization due to the heritage it had within the church growth movement. some will love this book while others will not. It is worthy for both par-ties to read this book. You will be better for it.

revitalizerLIBRARY

58

Leading Churches Back to Vitality and Life: The Task of

Church Revitalizationby Terry Rials

Leading Churches Back to Vitality and Life: The Task of Church Revital-ization

In some upcoming posts, I would like to explore the journey of leading churches back to vitality and life. We will explore how to set the sails and wait for the wind of God to blow.

The church is like a sailboat, but sailboats are powerless. It has been said that without the wind, a sailboat can only claim the title of organized driftwood. They have no engine, no motor, and no oarsmen. The sailboat is completely dependent upon the wind; in fact, it is designed to harness the wind. The church is powerless without the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. The church was designed to catch the wind of revival. The upper room disciples felt the mighty rushing wind and in a matter of hours they changed the world.

The church is fl oundering be-cause it has no power in it. Most churches can function in their normal program and ministry for an indefi nite period of time without the work of the Holy Spirit because most churches are not dependent upon Him. To be sure, a few churches have had their lamp removed, which Jesus threatened to do in Rev-elation 2:5. These churches will

surely die. Sadly, when God’s presence leaves, it is possible to be completely unaware of it. For example, Samson did not realize that the Lord had left him after his hair was cut (Judges 16:20). Could the church be unaware that His glory has departed?

Shouldn’t we just shut down some of these weak or sick churches that are going to die anyway? Some argue that revi-talization is a futile eff ort because as Bill Easum puts it, “The only solution for spiritually dead con-gregations is resurrection. You cannot revitalize something that is dead. They must be brought to life again!” You already know that Southern Baptists have no authority over any local church. Some Baptist leaders suggest that these churches close their doors or give their property away to another church or mission, which is honorable, or fi nd some other way to continue in ministry. In numerous conversations with pastors, I sense that pastors and churches are seeking permission to die, but we’re on a slippery slope - once we start scuttling churches in trouble, your church may be next.

God can revive, refresh, and renew the church any time He chooses to do so. We are praying that He does just that and soon. Revival is the extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit producing ex-traordinary results…the re-entry of Christ’s manifest presence, ac-cording to Richard Owen Roberts. It overthrows the status quo and refreshes His kingdom purposes on earth. Revitalization is the work we do to ensure that the conditions of God are met for re-vival and in order that the people of God are prepared when the Sovereign God begins to move.

Terry Rials Pastor of Crestview Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. He is Senior Pastor of Crestview Baptist Church (for 21 years), and Church Revitalization Team Leader for Capital Baptist Association. You can contact Terry at terry@cbcokc.org.

59

Multiplying Churches TrainingDeveloping Church Planting Centers in the Local Church

April 30 - May 1, 2015Immediately Following Exponential 2015

$25 Per Person

or Two for $30

Register:

ReproducingChurches.com

Exponential multiplication of Disciples, Leaders and Churches

happens when church leaders are committed to evangelism that

results in disciples, disciple making that results in leaders and

leadership development that results in church planters who

multiply. You will hear from practioners who are leading,

developing and multiplying church planting centers.

Willow Bend Community

Church

2541 Henley Road

Lutz, FL 33558

(TAMPA, FL)

60

The Biblical Qualifi cation of a Revitalization Leader

Shortly after I began to work in the fi eld in church revitalization, a pastor friend and I went to lunch together to discuss this important work. He asked me one of the most probing questions that I have ever been asked, “Why should anyone listen to you about church revitalization?”

I was not off ended by the question because I know my friend’s heart. It was a direct and honest question. I gave him this earnest answer, “Hon-estly, I am not the best person to lead this eff ort, but I’m like the guy who sees a child drowning in a pool. In that situation, you don’t seek out the most qualifi ed lifeguard; you just jump into the pool and save the child.” There are more qualifi ed peo-ple out there, to be sure, but here is the need and here I am.

The qualifi cations to lead something like church revitalization are im-portant – I truly believe that, but it has been said that God qualifi es the called, he doesn’t call the qualifi ed. This aphorism sounds correct to our spiritual ears as we consider how God uses key individuals in scripture. Think about it, what qualifi cations did Noah have to build an enormous ark? What qualifi cations did Moses have to lead God’s people out of bondage in Egypt? What qualifi ca-tions did the farmer-shepherd Amos have to preach against the wicked-ness of Israel? What qualifi cations did the cup-bearer Nehemiah have in leading wall construction? The answer is quite simple – each of these leaders was commissioned by God for a great work that could only be accomplished as he trusted in the Lord.

Please do not hear me say that quali-fi cations are unimportant because they are. Each of the examples just mentioned possessed remarkable qualities of character, skill, wisdom, and faith. As we consider some qual-

ities that are found in church revital-izers, see if these qualities are in you or can be developed in you. Here are a few, less-well-known qualities that are found in revitalizers that are substantiated by the revitalization leadership of Nehemiah:

Revitalization Leaders possess bro-kenness over the situation before them. Hanani, Nehemiah’s brother, brought news that Jerusalem was still in distress because the walls were still torn down and the gates were burned with fi re. The people there were suff ering and appar-ently nobody was helping them. This news broke Nehemiah’s heart. This news should not have been a surprise to Nehemiah; the walls were destroyed and the gates burned some fi fty years earlier. Ezra men-tions a previous attempt to repair the wall (Ezra 4:12-23). Perhaps, Nehemiah was surprised because he had expected to hear about the wall’s completion, instead he heard of its destruction. The news caused Nehemiah great despair, causing him to weep and mourn for days (Neh 1:4).Revitalization starts with brokenness.

Revitalization Leaders seek God and get their vision from Him. Nehemiah was deeply moved when he heard the sad report about Jerusalem. For many days he mourned and prayed over the situation caused by the people’s sins, including his own. Out of his awareness of the need and his immersion in prayer, Nehemiah developed the conviction that God’s people, now returned to the holy land, must honor God and rebuild the city walls. As the vision formed, Nehemiah realized that he himself had been called to carry it out. Frequently those who form such a vision will be called by God to fulfi ll it. His calling came out of his vision! Awareness of need + Intense Prayer + Conviction + Vision = Calling

Revitalization Leaders need an active, eff ective and consistent prayer life. Nine individual prayers of Nehemiah are recorded in the book that bears his name. Nehemiah is well known as a man of action. He got things done – he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in only fi fty-two days. He is known for cursing those who intermarried (against God’s commands), slapping them and pulling their hair out for it, and making them swear never to do it again. He was a man of action, but do not overlook the quality of his prayer life. He prayed for God’s forgiveness for the sins of Israel, his family, and especially his own sins. He never prayed for his enemies, but he prayed for God to fi ght for him when his enemies tried to interfere with his anointed purpose. Nehemi-ah prayed for success, strength, and that God would remember him for the good that he tried to do.

Revitalization Leaders are com-pletely honest about their situation. Nehemiah was honest with God about sin, about the corruption of his people, and about their failure to keep God’s commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances. Nehe-miah was honest with himself – he allowed his sadness to show to the king and even confessed that he was “…very much afraid” to do so. Nehemiah was honest with the King and asked permission to go and to rebuild the city, giving King Artax-erxes a defi nite date that he would return, which he kept. Nehemiah was honest with the people. He told them what a bad situation they were in and how the hand of the Lord had been upon him. Nehemiah was even honest with his enemies (Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem). He reminds them that the God of Heaven would give them success, and that these enemies of God would have no por-tion, right, or memorial in Jerusalem.

61

by Terry Rials

In other words, “God will help us to rebuild the wall, and you won’t be invited to the party!”

Revitalization Leaders are patient plodders who understand the im-portance of timing. Nehemiah never enjoyed much fanfare during his life, nor was he ever accused of having a charismatic personality, but over time, he got big things done. He wasn’t a show pony, he was a plow horse! Nehemiah’s lasting legacy was not the rebuilt walls because the Romans tore them down again and nothing of them remains. His legacy was the hope that he gave to his people and the hope subsequent readers of his namesake book still receive when they use it as a model for revitalization. Perhaps Nehemi-ah knew Ecclesiastes 5:8, “He who keeps a royal command experiences no trouble, for a wise heart knows the proper time and procedure.”

Revitalization Leaders are passionate people who are completely com-mitted to their Lord, the church, and the revitalization process. What Nehemiah lacked in construction expertise, he made up for in passion. This passion found expression in two forms. First, we know that Nehemiah traveled 900 miles to lead the peo-ple of Jerusalem in the arduous task of rebuilding the walls around the city and repairing its gates. Nehemi-ah executed his plan was to raise the entire wall simultaneously at for-ty-fi ve diff erent sites, including ten gates. Nehemiah planned his work, worked his plan, and trusted the results to God. Second, Nehemiah addressed another serious problem, one that his brother reported at the beginning of the book – that the people of Jerusalem were in distress and were a reproach. The word re-proach in Hebrew describes spiritual taunting. The enemies of Israel were taunting the people that their God was weak and uncaring, and that

they were a disgrace to the name of their God. When the walls went up, so did the people. Nehemiah stood up to the enemies and the people of Jerusalem were never threatened by their enemies again in the book.

Church revitalizers are hopeful, and not just optimistic; there is a diff er-ence. Rabbi Jonathon Sacks says, “Optimism is the belief that things will get better. Hope is the faith that, together, we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope.” Nehe-miah was a hope dealer! God gave him hope in the midst of despair after hearing the awful news when he discovered that God’s hand was upon him. He gave hope back to the distressed people of Jerusalem as he led them to rebuild their walls.

Church revitalizers inspire more than they motivate. Nehemiah never intended to rebuild the wall as a monument to his own accomplish-ment, but rather to inspire and lead a dispirited and faithless people to accomplish something great. Nehemiah inspired them by relating how God had been at work in his own life. He knew the people would follow someone who had been with God. Perhaps the reproach of today’s church will inspire someone to lead the church to greatness once again.

Church revitalizers are able to take extraordinary risks in order to achieve their objectives. Nehemi-ah had the passion and personal commitment to respond to his life’s calling, despite numerous threats to his well-being. Nehemiah’s life was in jeopardy when he asked leave from the king to rebuild the walls. During the construction of the wall, Nehemiah endured confl ict in the form of mockery, slander, threats, taunts, attacks, ridicule, intimidation,

temptation, attempts at discrediting him, and false accusations against him. Nehemiah refused to be intim-idated; he armed the people and kept them working. He even dealt with dissent among his own people, as well as a shortage of food that threatened everything. Nehemiah overcame each of these threats by keeping the objective in view.

The qualifi cations in Nehemiah that made his work successful centered on his ability to put his trust in the Lord. He allowed his life to be broken in order that it could be used. Nehemiah was a broken man for a broken city. He listened to the heart of his God and resolutely went about his work, inspiring others to join in this noble work. In the same way, churches today need selfl ess, broken, passionate leaders who love the Lord’s church to take on this great need in our day, so God’s peo-ple will no longer be a disgrace.

Terry Rials Pastor of Crestview Bap-tist Church in Oklahoma City. He is Senior Pastor of Crestview Baptist Church (for 21 years), and Church Revitalization Team Leader for Capital Baptist Association. You can contact Terry at terry@cbcokc.org.

62

Four Convictions About Student Ministry by Drew Cheyney

Every church nowadays seems to have so many tools, orb charts, di-agrams, and even sca er plots (no re-ally I’ve seen this) that describe how they can have the church of their dreams. And while “some” of that sounds great and has the poten al to make you ask several promp ng ques ons here’s a simple ques on to ask you right now: Is what you are doing right now, what is BEST, or are we just doing….?

You see I have a theory about church; those we target are of the age of 25-50 for the majority of our churches, not saying there’s anything wrong with the older crowd because God knows they have more wisdom than half of us, and I’m not saying that we don’t care about young people ei-ther, I’m just calling it like it is…. Our average major focus is 20-50’s.

And its because of this I would bring up 4 Convic ons that I have when it comes to your younger genera ons meaning Students/.

1. Out of all the ministries you currently have, Student Ministry (meaning from children’s on up to high school) has the most POTEN-TIAL than any other ministry in your church. No ce I didn’t say most important, I said POTENTIAL. Why? Because in todays world, mom & dad come to church not because a pastor beated on their door with a bible, instead its mostly out of the curious-ity of their children or student. See when kids have fun, get rela onships, and don’t have Jesus force fed down their mouths, it gives THEM the opportunity to choose for them-selves. See you have 18 years with many of the students who are in your church’s, so guess what, you have the opportunity to defi ne what cool is, what normal is, what hip is on the front end. And because of that, if you set them up well to start, with you won’t always have to playing catch up each Wednesday or Sunday you meet. My ques on would be though are we really taking care, shepherd-

ing, & discipling this genera on of students if all we do is what we’ve always “done?”

2. I believe a healthy student ministry must be FULLY SUPPORTED by the Senior Pastor. See there is a dis nct diff erence between a Senior Pastor who says there all about students, and a Senior Pastor who actually champions there student ministries. Now I’m not just talking about vision cas ng on a Sunday for Summer Camp or your latest and brightest idea. I’m talking about how your Lead Pastor shepherds you the student leader or pastor; Has he ever clarifi ed the win for you and your ministry; Do you spend me with each other discussing your dreams and desires for the ministry, and I’ll push in even more…. Are you fully supported fi nancially as well? Lets be honest we all know breaking up the budgets is complicated, but you do need to be supported for more reasons than just to pull of your wild and crazy ideas. You being supported shows you are trusted & believed in! And lastly, your Senior Pastor needs to realize he is not the student pastor & get over it. You have been called to this seat as a student pastor for a reason, meaning that your pastor needs to trust that he’s hired the right guy and should now get out of the way and let God work through your heart, vision, & passion. See I believe when you are given “limited control” you can’t truly unleash the crea vity, passion, or heart that God blessed you with in the fi rst place.

3. The right people need to be put in the right places! Please pastors, don’t force someone to do some-thing there not passionate about. For example, we had a guy at the church I previously worked for who was very temperamental and yelled at stu-dents a lot. He was a great guy and a great heart, but he just didn’t know how to communicate that heart well so we realeased him from the role he was in and placed him somewhere he could us the gi s God made him

passionate about. Here’s the messy parts of leadership, some mes you have to stop worrying about losing volunteers & shepherd people. You see your leaders need to be In areas where there strengths can fl ourish, but if they are not, never be afraid to have the conversa on that “this just isn’t working out” and guide & direct them to another area that they can serve eff ec vely. Why? Ministries will not grow if the right people are not in place!

4. Environments Ma er! Let me say that again: Environments Ma er! You might not be able to have a building like North Points, New Springs, of The Village Church, but that is no excuse for dirty, nasty, and unkept. As student pastors, we need to provide environments that students enjoy; NOT the kind of environment that we blew our budgets on to create, but the kind that doesn’t make them wonder is a cock roach going to come out and eat me during service. So here are 4 things that ma er in this vein: Clean, Safe, Fun, & Simple.

Students are amazing, and when they get it it gives you that extra bit of energy, hope, and passion you need…. BUT, don’t just se le for what you know and hope it works, think outside the box, take risks, and don’t be afraid to push back back when students aren’t being fought for at your loca on.

Want to know how do this, then check out this breakout session at RENOVATE 2014!

Drew serves as the Student Pastor of TrueNorth Church in North Augus-ta in South Carolina. He has served as Youth Pastor at Mountain Lake Community Church before coming to TrueNorth.

63

Multiplying Churches TrainingDeveloping Church Planting Centers in the Local Church

April 30 - May 1, 2015Immediately Following Exponential 2015

$25 Per Person

or Two for $30

Register:

ReproducingChurches.com

Exponential multiplication of Disciples, Leaders and Churches

happens when church leaders are committed to evangelism that

results in disciples, disciple making that results in leaders and

leadership development that results in church planters who

multiply. You will hear from practioners who are leading,

developing and multiplying church planting centers.

Willow Bend Community

Church

2541 Henley Road

Lutz, FL 33558

(TAMPA, FL)

64