Patience is required in church revitalization because when you’re dealing with long-term members, change doesn’t happen overnight and neither does growth. Today, we discuss six principles of patience needed in revitalization.
Episode Highlights:
- Successful revitalizations often require pastors to preach, pray, love, and stay.
- Some of the victories in church revitalization are incremental and need to be celebrated.
- Long term church staff members sometimes struggle with an entitlement mentality.
- If you don’t have support of leadership, moving out a long-time staff member can be difficult and costly.
The six principles we discuss are:
- Trust of pastors typically takes around five years.
- Moving from defeatism to victories is incremental.
- Leadership must wait on some of the healthy members to move forward.
- Leadership must wait on some of the less healthy members to move out.
- It can take a few years to deal with toxic members.
- It takes years to learn true celebration.
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
- Revitalizer Profile
- ChurchAnswers.com
- 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.
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