There is a type of shrewdness that is pastoral. There is another type of shrewdness that is Satanic. Knowing the difference is key to church revitalization.
Pastor Jim normally threw away all the ads that piled on his desk on Monday morning. Most of them frustrate him. He’s been pastoring this little church for a few years now. The initial growth which came from the “new pastor” is long gone and his hope is deteriorating every Sunday. They’ve plateaued and he knows it. So all those invitations to conferences about pastoring an awesome church serve as daggers to his weary soul.
But one catches his attention. He goes to the conference. He is on cloud nine as he believes he has been given the silver cattle prod to wake up his dying church. One of the conference speakers explained how his church grew from 125 people to 750 because they changed their music style, shape of their pulpit, color of their sanctuary, and the way they welcomed people.
Jim knew that such changes would be difficult for him to institute. He also knew that it would cost him a ton of relational capital to do things like change carpet colors and put in a projection system. He wasn’t sure his pastorate would survive the changes.
Thankfully, Jim had a buddy who was a seasoned worship leader with thick skin who needed a job. Together they devised a plan. Jim’s buddy would push hard for all of the changes that Jim wanted. He’d gather a paycheck for about a year, make everybody mad at him, and keep the pastor out of it. At the end of a year, Pastor Jim would have his projection system and colors changed in the sanctuary. Then he’d also receive the added relational capital of firing the music guy that everybody now hated.
Shrewd.
Also Satanic.
Jim hasn’t pastored his church toward revitalization, he’s just planted seeds of discontent and established a pattern that is going to bite him in the end. You cannot get holy results through unholy methods. It just doesn’t work. Ask the Israelites in Hosea’s day. You sow the wind you reap the whirlwind.
One could look at this and rightly accuse Jim of having a wrong focus. We could say, “Silly boy, the church isn’t changed by carpet colors and projection screens”. But what if we change carpet colors and project screens to, “hiring gospel-centered staff, moving towards a more biblical leadership structure, and healthier models of discipleship”. Is it okay for us to engage in deceptive practices and maneuverings in order to see more biblical things happen in our local church?
Listen, any unholy seed you plant is going to come back and bite you. It is true that God uses crooked sticks to accomplish his purposes. But those who are intentionally engaging in crooked practices (even in attempts to “be more biblical”) aren’t engaging in the right type of shrewdness or wisdom.
When we engage in church politics instead of faithful and holy proclamation of the Word what is really happening is that we’ve stopped trusting in the Lord. I’ve never once regretted time I spent in prayer or faithful proclamation. But I’ve regretted plenty of “wise” decisions that I’ve made. Charles Bridges is correct when he says, “Be in the habit of going to him in the first place—before self-will, self-pleasing, self-wisdom, human friends, convenience, expediency.” Trust in God’s methods.
Revitalization is a long and hard road. But it’s a straight and holy road. I’m not sure what you’d call the church replanted at the end of a crooked road—but it isn’t revitalized.
Be holy, first. Then you’ll be the right kind of shrewd.
Thoughts from the pew: the one essential mark of church vitalization I’ve always wondered about is repentance. (I hope this isn’t a topic change, it’s only sort of related to your post). Has anyone ever led their Baptist church through a time of thoughtful reflection & listening, confession (e.g. we have become complacent, we are discouraged, we have turned to our own ways & worldly ways rather than yours, we have lacked courage to do hard things, we have been partial, etc.) and repentance? Or what about a month of Praise & Glorify God Sundays? All praise, prayer, hope, worship & celebrating His promises? Both approaches would be open-ended; that is, no particular outcome would be planned. 🙂
Our church went through the study Returning to Holiness by Gregory R. Frizzell. Highly recommended.
Mike,
You said:
“Pastor Jim normally threw away all the ads that piled on his desk on Monday morning. Most of them frustrate him. He’s been pastoring this little church for a few years now. The initial growth which came from the “new pastor” is long gone and his hope is deteriorating every Sunday. They’ve plateaued and he knows it. So all those invitations to conferences about pastoring an awesome church serve as daggers to his weary soul.”
It seems like you are talking about numerical growth. If so, its really a poor way to speak about church growth, is it not? As you noted, there are ways to make a church grow numerically that are not good and proper but as you say: Satanic.
Does numerical growth equal church revitalization? Maybe so and maybe not.
Too many times I have seen comments [I don’t remember who] here on voices and other places that do equate the two. The idea goes on from an individual choice to the whole of sec: our numbers are down. And then on to: what can we do. Its like a business where the goal is to increase and grow and if one strategy fails, lets try another one. Ot lets move money from this department to that department.
Church revitalization, is as you say, a long hard road. It is also a road that has no foreseeable finish. For we are a people that need to be a repenting people. And as we add new members we need to continue on that road of repentance for that is the road to revitalization. And when we think we have arrived, as an individual or as a congregation, we are fooling ourselves.
Thankfully there are many good under shepherds like yourself willing to preach the Word and lead the flock and thus to lead the church in its maturing as we grow closer to being Christ-like.
I sometimes wonder if a lot of the strategies and programs are human substitutes for the renewing work of the Spirit. A church in a rut (or a death spiral) needs spiritual renewal – repentance and return to fidelity and to the fullness of the Spirit.
Sometimes, I think we (I) have been looking for strategic solutions to spiritual problems.
I think the couple of commenters so far have a good idea of the shape of true church revitalization. I’ll add my two cents in with theirs with an observation about the revitalization of the church body.
We know that there is a difference between the current membership of a church growing spiritually and the number of people in the pews growing numerically. You don’t want the latter without the former. This phrase caught my eye:
“He also knew that it would cost him a ton of relational capital to do things like change carpet colors and put in a projection system.”
That’s an unfortunate reality in most churches. It shouldn’t be a reality at all among professing believers. If a pastor revitalizes the church by losing the current members it has and replacing them with other members, he has only killed one church to plant another in the same building.
However, church revitalization in some respects means precisely that. A church tomorrow shouldn’t be the same church it was yesterday, even if the people are the same. Spiritual growth means repentance. It means dying to self and being replaced by the power of Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It means stopping being complacent about anything except making sure that newcomers don’t change anything. If a congregation is proclaiming the Gospel, ideally they would have new people joining the church. Every person who joins the church changes it. If a pastor starts with 50 people and wins 200 people to Christ who subsequently joined the church, that church is a far different church than when it started. The 50 that it started with need to be okay with it and that takes spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity means preaching and teaching the truth to them. It means that a pastor must live it out himself in front of them and direct them to the Scriptures that should inform their hearts and lives. Changing the church shouldn’t cause a pastor to lose any relational capital at all if the congregation is spiritually mature enough to grow numerically and can blossom with the changes that ensue rather than becoming bitter.
“If a pastor starts with 50 people and wins 200 people to Christ who subsequently joined the church, that church is a far different church than when it started. The 50 that it started with need to be okay with it and that takes spiritual maturity.”
Awesome! And maybe the more of the 50 who brought new people, the more okay with it they will be.