Eight Common Characteristics of Successful Church Revitalizations

While numbers often show revitalization progress, sometimes there are more subtle indicators that your church is revitalizing. Today, we cover eight of those markers.

Today’s Listener Question:

FROM JARED

I’m currently in the midst of a revitalization effort at the church I pastor here in Alabama. Is there any way to know if we’re making progress other than just looking at changes to the raw numbers?

Episode Highlights:

• Every church has key lay leaders who influence the people.
• Church revitalization is not a human-centric effort.
• The worship time is often a sacred cow in churches.
• You have to continually remind church members of the vision of a church—even to redundancy.
• If you want to lead real change in a church, you have to convey a sense of urgency.

The eight successful characteristics we cover are:

1. The pastor formed an alliance of key influencers in the church
2. The influencers made a commitment to pray daily for revitalization
3. The church made a commitment to look like the community
4. The church boldly confronted the issue of sacred cows
5. Leadership developed a clear and compelling vision
6. Leadership communicated a sense of urgency
7. The pastor was willing to endure a season of intense criticism
8. The leadership of the church was willing to let go of members

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• ChurchReplanters.com
• Church Answers
• Replanter Assessment
• Find more resources at the Revitalize & Replant page at ThomRainer.com

Revitalize & Replant is sponsored by the North American Mission Board and ChurchReplanters.com. More than 10% of churches in North America are at risk of closing and the North American Mission Board is committed to reversing this trend by decreasing the death rate of existing churches while simultaneously increasing the birth rate of new churches. To learn more about what it means to become a replanting pastor or to explore resources for replanting and revitalization in your own church, visit ChurchReplanters.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.