What you are about to read just might be the ramblings of a mad man. I pray the words are received in the spirit in which they are given. At the end of the day I might not have a clue as to what I’m talking about. So just consider this a friendly observation from one who is still trying to work through solutions.
For the past few years church planting has received a good deal of attention, and rightly so. In fact, I’ve argued in the past that we might need to put a bit more focus on church revitalization. Though I’m certain having nothing to do with me personally, I’m happy to see that a renewed emphasis on church revitalization in struggling local churches. But I’m becoming a tad concerned with the way it is being emphasized—and here is where you can accuse me of just being a 33 year old curmudgeon.
A couple of questions.
1. Churches which are in dire need of revitalization are typically found where?
For the most part our dying and struggling churches are not in major population centers. Many of them are smaller churches under 100 who find themselves in rural areas. Many of these churches couldn’t grow to over 200 even if they wanted to. There simply aren’t much over 200 people within driving distance.
2. Who usually speaks at the conferences and leads the seminars are church revitalization?
Typically the folks leading these seminars and such are the ones who have had success (whatever that means). These guys are pastoring larger churches often in more densely populated communities.
Here is what I see happening as a result.
Mr. Revitalizer helped revitalize a dying church which was housed outside of a larger metro area. When he started his pastorate the church had fallen from its glory years and now only had about 200 discouraged attenders. They now have 1000 on Sunday morning and are still growing and reaching their community. The ship has been turned around.
So, Mr. Revitalizer is asked to speak to a group of fledgling pastors and share what worked for him. And just like the parable of the soils I see one of four things happening in response.
For one pastor, he’ll be immediately discouraged. As he looks at the age of his congregation and the sparse numbers he realizes that it is absolutely impossible to implement the new discipleship tool in his local church. Not to mention that the community he is ministering in is dying alongside the church. So he leaves the conference a bit discouraged and still feeling quite lonely.
For another pastor, he’ll get jazzed up about what worked in the great Metro area and bring these new fangled gadgets back to his local church. He’ll have a new energy and new resolve; Maybe this will be the thing which turns the church around. But he’ll soon realize that he’s putting a square block in a triangle hole. Metro ministry is not the same as rural ministry.
Yet another pastor, newly out of seminary, will go back to his local church and try to implement this plan to turn the church around. Truth be told he isn’t going to be in this church long because he has greener pastures on the horizon. But he knows that if he is going to get that pastorate he wants—in the big city—then he’ll have to grow this church. He’s got little time to make this happen and so he begins this process of change very quickly. And he gets chewed up and spit out. The local church gets blamed as just a bunch of curmudgeons and the new pastor wonders if he is even called to ministry.
And here is a little side note on this third scenario. Most of us younger pastors out of seminary are not going to get hired at the thriving church in a Metro area. We are either going to church plant or end up in a church which needs revitalization. The same thing goes for the church—when they are struggling and smaller they likely aren’t going to draw Mr. Revitalizer to pastor their church. They’ll get a young buck out of seminary. And if this young pastor views this church as just a stepping stone to greener pastoral ministry, then it is only going to perpetuate this stuff. He won’t bleed long enough. And each time this happens the church will only grow in its distrust of those who might have the energy and years left on their biological clock to turn the ship around.
Thankfully there is another pastor who will hear this talk, apply the concepts, go back to his local church and see the Lord use his efforts to turn the ship around. I’m sure it happens—but I’ve only met this guy a couple times. Most of the pastors I rub shoulders with fit into one of the other three categories.
What I’m suggesting.
We need to rethink our approach to church revitalization.
What I’ve personally found the most helpful are not seminars, conferences, or books on how to do things. Though they might work in some churches, 90% of the time those things don’t work in my local church. What has been most helpful to me are other local pastors who are in a similar environment. Men of whom I can pray with and for. Men who help me remember I’m not alone. Men who will talk me off the ledge when I feel like checking out. That has been more helpful than any guru visiting our church and telling us how to do stuff. Spend our energy on creating these types of networks.
When we do have seminars, conferences, and books focus on the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ. Encourage me with truth which is true no matter where my local church is. Remind me to drop anchor here. Encourage me to keep preaching the Word, to be faithful in the things which I can control. This is why I always try to go to the Together for the Gospel Conference. Because they don’t tell us how to do stuff. They just encourage us in Jesus—and every time I go back to my local church with more confidence in the Word and a greater love for Christ. That’ll sustain. Fads won’t.
We need less experts and more people who will give us a hug, pray with us, quietly listen, and when fitting redirect our minds and hearts to the Lord Jesus.
And when I say “pray with us” I don’t mean endlessly pray that God will bring revival and help our church become a mega church. I mean pray with us that we’ll be satisfied and content in Jesus. Pray with us that we’ll keep laboring and feeding the sheep no matter how many show up. Pray with us that we’ll have eyes to view our work and ministry the way Jesus does—and that we’ll measure success or failure accordingly.
That’s enough ramblings from this beggar…
Mike,
I agree with nearly all of your propositions in this article. I have been leading in the Revitalization Process for 20+ years. Most churches that engage our 36 month Process are in the 75-175 range of Sunday AM attendance. They have been declining for many years. They call for help just before they fall into the “Critical Mass” status beyond which there is little hope. Jim Collins in How The Might Fall poses 5 categories of decline. Once in category 5, there is almost never recovery.
The SBC is their own worst enemy. The Metric by which they measure effectiveness is ‘nickles and noses’, how many, how much, and how often. Attendance is the magic elixir. More is better and biggest is best. WRONG!!
The true measure of effectiveness is the TRANSFORMATION of God’s people into the image of Christ in character and conduct. Further, there is a large compliment of people in SBC churches that are simply unregenerate. They walked an aisle, signed a card, got baptized, know the answers to all the questions – BUT – there is not a shred of evidence of TRANSFORMATION in their lives. No transformation means no regeneration.
80% of church consulting fails because churches perpetuate denial. When you pull the curtain back on reality the mantra is ‘shoot the messenger’. My prayer is that soon the LORD will bring a sweeping and nation wide repentance in the SBC led by pastors with the courage to disclose the level of organizational dysfunction that is killing the churches. Join me in that prayer.
I am strongly in agreement here. Strongly.
I want to hear about revitalization from someone who has a church like mine. A lot of times the stuff I hear has nothing to do with our church.
This is something we need to hear more of. Thank you Mike.
Rob
I’m going to ramble a bit here (just like Mike) but I want to get these thoughts down quickly as they are fleeting.
I am in the church revitalization business; been in it now for fourteen months. I know God called me to it. I’m old (68) and inexperienced (first pastorate). Our church is in suburbia; once had a booming number (200+ I’ve been told); has split and splintered several times due to circumstances internal and external; has an aging congregation; and so on and so on.
So the bottom line is, from my observation, that everything Mike says is absolutely true – especially the part about needing spiritual revitalization and growth before numerical increase.
Here are a few of my observations from our church now that I’m an expert (book to follow). These are most likely growth retardants:
• Our folks want to grow numerically but find it hard to grow spiritually.
• Our folks want to move forward through the open door but can’t resist hanging on to the doorpost to look back one more time to the glory days.
• There is a resistant control click in the church.
• Church growth is accomplished by programs.
These are just a few; there’s a host of others.
Here are a couple of Spirit-led solutions I have settled on:
Just keep preaching the Word.
Just keep praying.
Just keep loving the people.
I’ve heard these same complaints about revitalization for at least a quarter century.
Now, state conventions are setting goals for church revitalization. The Tennessee Baptist SC has one of 500 in the next decade. I’ve never seen any SC define what constitute revitalization, how the SC may be seen as the revitalization agent, and what measures will be used to judge success or failure,
Maybe David W. is in the know on this stuff in his state.
It’s easy to have a conference on revitalization and then declare victory.
William – Revitalization is a Process not an Event. It requires that the entire assembly and all it’s ministry constructs be healthy and effective according to PURPOSE. The PURPOSE of every church is to Make Disciples (Matt. 28:18-20).
Go to http://www.igniteus.net, click on TOOLS, then Video Downloads. This takes you to 90 minutes of HD Video that walks you through the five (5) phase process. It begins with Leadership that has the Competence, Courage, and Perseverance to complete all that is called for with integrity.
Validation of Transformation is accomplished via a Likerd Scale of 1-7 and continuous accountability.
Happy to speak with anyone about this – 803 413 3509.
In Grace,
Tom Fillinger
OK, tried that website but received no response.
Dave, Just click on the link in the post above. I did and it took me to that site.
Tom
Researchers at New Orleans Seminary tell us that 80% of our SBC churches are plateaued or declining. So, this is an important topic. I’ve been teaching in the Memphis area and learned that a number of churches here have closed. Others are on life support. Why? The church’s neighborhood changed, but the church did not. That is, the neighborhood changed from predominantly Anglo to predominantly African-American or Hispanic. The congregation did not change and began to decline. In rural areas the problem is. as you wriite, a problem of depopulation. In urban areas the problem is transitioning neighborhoods. Revitalization requires change, but most congregations, especially ones with lots of older members, resist change. By the time the congregation becomes so desperate that they are willing to accept change, it is too late. Finding a pastor who is willing and able to facilitate change is difficult. Most capable pastors would rather go to a thriving church or plant a new church.
I’m a layman so I probably don’t see things regarding numerical decline in the number of people attending a local church through the same lens as most commenting here.
I believe that demographics plays the major role in the number of people who attend a church. My observations may be anecdotal but here is what I see:
(a) churches selling their property and moving to the suburbs. After this the old location of the church was torn down and the land was sold. I don’t know if this qualifies as a church growing or shrinking since the congregation at the old location shrunk to zero while the new location may or may not be in the process of increasing attendance. The particular church that I’m thinking of that did this stated that “most of our members moved to the suburbs so we need to move to where they are”
(b) There are a number of congregations that have stayed “downtown” even if many of their members live in the suburbs. First Baptist in Columbia SC comes to mind. Also FBC Jax. But many have pulled up stakes and moved to the suburbs — i.e. Bellevue in Memphis TN.
(c) Some churches are in flux right now. I think Travis Avenue in Ft. Worth is one such case. The neighborhood they are in the south side of Ft. Worth has changed drastically in the last couple of generations. Now it is heavily Hispanic. Some businessmen have recast the local shopping mall in the south side of Ft. Worth into a shopping plaza with a Hispanic theme. [The same developers that converted the mall in Ft. Worth to a Hispanic mall tried to replicate this in Oklahoma City but are not having much success.]
So the landscape is complex. But one thing is certain. Regardless of any good or bad points one constant thing is that churches are encountering a huge demographic tidal wave. Everything is in flux. Some near-in city neighborhoods are being transformed due to gentrification. Some city neighborhoods have become blighted ghettos. Some suburbs are growing by leaps and bounds fueled by affluent people moving out there. Many rural churches are in communities that have faced severe population decline. Here in Oklahoma, fully a third of our 77 counties have LOST population since the 1950s. On the other hand, Cleveland County has grown by a factor of 5.
All of this demographic stuff is having a huge effect on churches, school districts, business development, commercial construction and everything else. I believe demographics it is the number one determinant of a church growth / shrinkage. I don’t think the major problem is people who resist change. There have always been people who resist change. I don’t think it can be demonstrated that the only people who resist change are in a church that is in an area that has had radical demographic upheaval in the last several generations.
People in growing churches probably resist change too — the only difference is that change is not perceived as being required since the church is stable or growing; the church has not drifted out of sync with its environment.
New churches don’t have to “change” since they have nothing to change from. They model the current demographic situation around them organically. I guess stepping back at this and looking from 20,000 feet it may be that the “invisible hand” is at work causing churches to adjust / adapt / die / form as is required to stay in sync with their environment.
If new churches spring up organically then this provides some correction to fill the void left by those churches that go out of business. This sounds to me like the free enterprise system at work.
Roger Simpson Oklahoma City OK
Mike,
Elmer Towns often repeated a phrase when he wrote about Sunday School, church growth, or revitalization:
Methods are many, principles are few
Methods often change, principles never do.
Question: Do you think that there are universal principles that apply to church revitalization that would be true of any church in any setting? If so, can these principles be taught through a variety of means — i.e., both teaching the concepts to a wide audience (conference/training/tools/etc.) and also walking with a pastor as they apply the principles to their specific situation (mentoring/coaching/local partnership/etc.)?
In your opinion, is the problem the method/medium of instruction or the content of what is being taught or both?
Great questions. I think this is where something like 9Marks really shines. But where I see a hiccup there us with implementation on a local level. I also think philosophy of church plays into this. If you’ve got an attractional church model I see a ton of “here is what worked for us
..do this and get results.”
Great questions!