When revitalization takes place in a church, a church changes. Those changes create pain points in the church and sometimes people want to go back. Today, we explore this and discuss how to combat it and move forward.
This Week’s Question:
FROM TERRY — I have pastored my church for 8 yrs. When I took the church the congregation acknowledged its need for revitalization having only 6 attending members. We now have between 25 and 40 depending on time of year. Some now regret the revitalization and want to scale back services by cancelling one or both evening services a week. Their reason is the workload is too much but they reject any offer of assistance. Any suggestions?
Episode Highlights:
- As churches grow, sometimes they need to remove things from the schedule rather than adding them to keep the focus on reaching others with the gospel.
- When it comes to paring down programs in churches, choose to keep the ones that are truly making disciples.
- A church mission statement should be actionable and inspirational.
- Church membership classes need to focus on information, expectations, and assimilation.
The six keys that we cover are:
- Evaluate the “why” behind their attitudes
- Evaluate the “why” behind your current schedule
- See if your have a true and clear process of discipleship
- Conduct a church health survey
- Review your new members’ class
- Conduct a ministry survey
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
- ChurchAnswers.com
- Simple Church
- Church Health Report
- RevitalizeBundle.com
- ChurchReplanters.com
- Replanter Assessment
- Find more resources at the Revitalize & Replant page at ThomRainer.com
Submit Your Question:
Do you have a question about church revitalization or replanting for us to use on the podcast? Visit the podcast page to submit your question. If we use it on the show, you’ll get a copy of Autopsy of a Deceased Church and Reclaiming Glory.
