{"id":32584,"date":"2022-09-10T16:15:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/church-revitalization-new-life-for-dying-churches\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:15:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:15:17","slug":"church-revitalization-new-life-for-dying-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/church-revitalization-new-life-for-dying-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"Church Revitalization: New Life for Dying Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Bob Smietana<\/p>\n

For years, Galilee Baptist Church was a vibrant evangelical presence on Chicago\u2019s North Side. The 500-member strong congregation had one of the largest Sunday schools in the city and a thriving missionary program overseas.<\/p>\n

Then, a little at a time, the church slowly declined. New people stopped showing up. Old members died off or moved away.<\/p>\n

By the late 1990s, Galilee was a church full of empty pews, with a handful of people hanging on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to reach the neighborhood,\u201d says longtime member Chuck McWherter, \u201cand we just couldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then the church merged in 2000 with New Life Community Church, a multisite congregation that specializes in church restarts, and the people started coming back.<\/p>\n

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Today, about 200 people worship at the church on Sundays, including young families and a stream of visitors. The music is different\u2014an eclectic mix of guitar, drum, and cello that McWherter describes as \u201clively\u201d\u2014and the name has changed, to New Life West Lakeview. But the mission remains the same.<\/p>\n

McWherter spends Sundays as a greeter, shaking hands with newcomers. It\u2019s the best job in the world, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thrilled to see what God is doing,\u201d says McWherter.<\/p>\n

New Life West Lakeview is one of a small but growing number of churches around the country that have experienced new life after years of decline.<\/p>\n

Some are joining up with church plants or with larger congregations. Some have found new life after rediscovering the stories of past ministry. Others have been jump-started by denominational revitalization programs.<\/p>\n

All, says Mark Jobe, senior pastor of New Life, have discovered that God loves to breathe new life into old things.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod has a fondness for restoring things He has used in the past,\u201d says Jobe.<\/p>\n

Finding New Life<\/p>\n

Jobe didn\u2019t always feel that way. Although he\u2019d helped New Life grow from a small, struggling congregation into a megachurch, Jobe was skeptical about the future of struggling churches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always said I didn\u2019t want to get into the politics of an old church,\u201d Jobe says.<\/p>\n

But seeing the relaunch of New Life West Lakeview changed his mind. He began to believe God could do something new in the life of that congregation.<\/p>\n

Still, restarting the church wasn\u2019t easy. Along with a new name and different music, the church also hired a new pastor and adopted a new culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have 25 older people and one young pastor, you haven\u2019t changed the culture,\u201d says Jobe. So New Life sent out a core of 30 people who joined the two dozen or so Galilee members when the church relaunched.<\/p>\n

That created a new culture for the congregation and added some momentum to the relaunch. New Life West Lakeview is still going strong 15 years after the relaunch.<\/p>\n

Where once they were cut off from the community, now church members volunteer at a local school. In the summer, they hand out free popcorn during outdoor movie nights at nearby Hamlin Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a neighborhood church,\u201d says McWherter. \u201cThat\u2019s all we ever wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remember the Mission<\/p>\n

Leading a congregation to embrace a new vision and new culture isn\u2019t easy, says Bob Whitesel, professor of Christian ministry and missional leadership at Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University.<\/p>\n

Whitesel, who often consults with struggling congregations, says many declining churches often focus on survival, rather than mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a church is simply trying to survive,\u201d he says, \u201cnewcomers can tell. They will flee. We have to get the mission right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting the mission right starts with regaining a sense of urgency about the gospel.<\/p>\n

When he meets with churches, Whitesel reminds them to worry first about the spiritual needs of their neighbors, who are often far from God and in need of the good news Jesus offers.<\/p>\n

Whitesel also recommends pastors in struggling churches try to find as many allies as possible. Those allies should include gatekeepers in the congregation who oppose changes, as well as those who want to make changes. And these influential people should be empowered to help shape the church\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

The revitalization process has helped First Covenant Church in Everett, Washington, see their community as a mission field. Photo by Paul Lopez<\/div>\n

\u201cOften pastors get ahead of this,\u201d says Whitesel. \u201cThey create vision and want people to follow. But other leaders in the church are smart people too\u2014they are used to making decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along the way, he says churches should look for short-term wins\u2014small signs the church is making some progress.<\/p>\n

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See also  3 Practical Steps for Reaching the Mission Field in Your Neighborhood<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For some churches, a win has come when someone is baptized, or when a few young families show up, or an outreach project is a success.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to see this new direction is working,\u201d Whitesel says.<\/p>\n

For New Community Church in Mesquite, Texas, one of their first small wins came when the church started a community outreach called \u201cFamFest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Church members and other volunteers handed out backpacks for schoolkids, gave haircuts, conducted health screenings, and hosted a meal for low-income neighbors.<\/p>\n

The event was a boon for families in Mesquite, a formerly well-off suburb that had struggled for a number of years. It also helped the church reconnect with their community.<\/p>\n

As new people came to church, some gave their lives to Christ and were baptized. That, too, gave the church, which had shrunk to about two dozen people, hope for their future.<\/p>\n

Bill Henard, author of Can These Bones Live?, cautions pastors that new methodologies or programs don\u2019t guarantee success. \u201cHealthy churches are ones that experience growth through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit\u2019s presence and movement are evident, not only in the preaching, but in the lives of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

We Have Done This Before <\/p>\n

John Wenrich, director of congregational vitality for the Evangelical Covenant Church, says churches often find hope for the future by looking to the past. He recommends churches practice \u201cnarrative archeology,\u201d by digging through their archives to see how God worked in their past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are radical, life-giving stories locked up in your church archives,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At First Covenant Church in Everett, Washington, pastor Jason Mohn discovered the congregation of about 100 people had a long history of innovation.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1903, First Covenant has recently been working their way through their denomination\u2019s congregational vitality program. As part of that process, the church called Mohn as their pastor in 2011.<\/p>\n

Early on, he visited longtime members of the church and explored the church\u2019s archives. There he discovered a number of times the church had made big changes in order to become more effective in ministry.<\/p>\n

In the 1930s, for instance, the church, which was founded by Swedish immigrants, began holding services in English for the first time. Around the same time, the church\u2019s young people started a Sunday night radio program that ran for 14 years.<\/p>\n

At the time, radio was the latest in modern technology, says Mohn.<\/p>\n

Now, if he hears the familiar phrase, \u201cWe\u2019ve never done this before,\u201d Mohn has an answer from the church\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have done this before,\u201d he says. \u201cWe can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

First Covenant has also been inspired by its connection to missions. In the past, missionaries have visited the church to report back their work.<\/p>\n

Now those missionaries give feedback on how the church is doing in reaching its own backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have woken up to is that we have missionary work to do here in Everett,\u201d says Mohn.<\/p>\n

Road to Recovery<\/p>\n

There is a real need in today\u2019s landscape for healthy and vibrant churches. Years ago the church was the social hub of most communities. Today, that is no longer the case. Many churches have either stalled out or are in decline.<\/p>\n

Whitesel says pastors have a vital role to play in revitalizing churches. They can provide vision for the future and inspire people in the pew to reach out to their neighbors.<\/p>\n

But church members must help drive the revitalization process because the average churchgoer will still be in a church long after the pastor is gone.<\/p>\n

Whitesel encourages pastors and lay people alike to find a Bible story\u2014like the story of Joshua and the people of Israel entering the Promised Land\u2014that the congregation can rally around during a revitalization process. And he reminds churches to keep an eye on what God is doing in their midst.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is writing a new chapter for your church,\u201d he says. \u201cTell that story.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bob Smietana<\/h2>\n

@bobsmietana<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Bob is the former senior writer for Lifeway Research. In September 2018, he joined Religion News Service, where he currently serves as a national writer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n