Church Revitalization

A GUIDE TO CHURCH REVITALIZATION R. ALBERT MOHLER JR, EDITOR GUIDE BOOK NO. oo. 5 A GUIDE TO CHURCH REVITALIZATION A Guide to Church Revitalization: Guide Book No. 005 Copyright © 2015 by SBTS Press. SBTS Press c/o Communications 2825 Lexington Road Louisville, KY 40280 SBTS Press is a division of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States copyright law. Printed in the United States of America. ISBN 978-0-9903495-3-2 A GUIDE TO CHURCH REVITALIZATION R. ALBERT MOHLER JR, EDITOR GUIDE BOOK NO. oo. 5 A GUIDE TO CHURCH REVITALIZATION Table of Contents 6 / CHAPTER 1 Christ Will Build and Rebuild His Church: The Need for ‘Generation Replant' R. ALBERT MOHLER JR. 12 / CHAPTER 2 Breathing New Life into Dying Churches KEVIN EZELL 18 / CHAPTER 3 The Revitalizer: Who You Must Be DAN DUMAS 26 / CHAPTER 4 Clear the Runway: Preparing Your Church for Revitalization BRIAN CROFT 32 / CHAPTER 5 Lead from the Front: The Priority of Expository Preaching DAVID E. PRINCE 38 / CHAPTER 6 Renew in the Pew: Kindling Congregational Passion for Christ DONALD S. WHITNEY 46 / CHAPTER 7 A Road Map to Revitalization: Pursuing Faithfulness and Survival BRIAN CROFT WITH TIM BEOUGHER 56 / CHAPTER 8 Are We There Yet? Indicators of Success ERIC BANCROFT 64 / CHAPTER 9 The Revitalization of Capitol Hill Baptist Church Washington, D.C. AN INTERVIEW WITH MARK DEVER 72 / CHAPTER 10 The Revitalization of Auburndale Baptist Church Louisville, Kentucky AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN CROFT 78 / CHAPTER 11 The Revitalization of First Baptist Church Durham, North Carolina AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW DAVIS CHAPTER 1 CHRIST WILL BUILD AND REBUILD HIS CHURCH: The Need for ‘Generation Replant’ R. ALBERT MOHLER JR. 6 CHRIST WILL BUILD AND REBUILD HIS CHURCH ne stunning building city now representing one of the in Manchester, Eng- most secularized metropolitan Oland, is now a climbing areas in North America. Neigh- center. In Bristol, one is now a bors did not even notice that circus school, with trapezes one Methodist building no lon- hanging from the rafters. Oth- ger housed a congregation. They ers are now grocery stores, car found out when the large stone dealerships, libraries, and pubs. All over England, many are now Do we have Islamic mosques. What do these venerable build- the courage ings have in common? Until and conviction recently, all formerly housed Church of England congrega- necessary tions. The secularization of Britain is not a new development, to replant with church attendance falling churches? for decades. But a new tipping point has been reached: the building collapsed and no one Church of England now has an seemed to care. offcial “Closed Churches Team” The same will soon happen in that makes decisions about the United States of America. In what to do with abandoned downtown Louisville, Kentucky, church buildings. former church buildings now Between 1969 and 2011, the house doctors’ offces and other Church of England knocked businesses — but the problem down 500 churches and “decon- is no longer limited to the inner secrated” another 1,000. That cities. Churches are closing in pace is set to increase dramati- the suburbs as well. cally, and England is not alone. According to a report from The Montreal Gazette recently the Assemblies of God, 4,000 reported that 340 church build- congregations close their ings are now seeking “new doors in the United States vocations,” with that Canadian every year, while only about A GUIDE TO CHURCH REVITALIZATION 7 1,000 evangelical churches ing. Excitement and passion for are planted. We are falling church planting come right from further behind. the New Testament, which is a Add to this the fact that manifesto for planting rightly between 80 and 90 percent of ordered churches. A generation all evangelical churches in the of young evangelical pastors United States are not growing, have been righteously infected and a signifcant percentage are with the vision for church plant- in outright decline. We face a ing. Their heroes are church major turning point in the his- planters, their inspiration is tory of evangelical Christianity in church planting, and their mis- America, and the Southern Bap- siology is directed toward the tist Convention and its churches birth of new churches. That are at the center of a great and must continue. Church plant- unavoidable question: “Do we ing must remain at the forefront have the courage and conviction of our mission efforts. The necessary to replant churches?” only documentable evangelis- tic and congregational growth The idea experienced by evangelicals within America’s major urban of church areas directly traces back to replanting may newly planted churches — and replanted churches. be new, but this The idea of church replanting may be new, but this pattern is also as pattern is also as old as the old as the New New Testament. In Revelation 2:1-7, Christ Testament. warns the Ephesian church that they have “left [their] frst love” A New Direction and grown spiritually cold and For the past 30 years, evangeli- ineffective in ministry. Jesus cals have been learning anew told the church to “repent and the importance of church plant- do the deeds [they] did at frst.” 8 CHRIST WILL BUILD AND REBUILD HIS CHURCH In other words, that congrega- in these declining and decaying tion needed a reformation. At congregations. These Christians some point, declining churches represent a wealth of experience actually need to be replanted. and an army of workers. In many In one sense, this is just a mat- cases, what they most lack is ter of stewardship. All around us visionary, courageous, and con- are churches falling into patterns victional pastors and leaders. of decline and decay. Most of Then there is this obvious these churches started with a fact: if existing congregations do gospel vision and a “frst love” for not thrive, there will be no one to Christ that propelled them into plant, sustain, support, and lead existence. For some time, most of church planting. We cannot have these churches experienced years one without the other. of effective ministry, reaching their communities and reaching out to the world. Somehow, at some time, for some reason or combination of reasons, they lost that frst love and the ministry was endangered. Practical realities also play a role in understanding this stewardship. All over New York City, for example, young evangelical church plants are looking for places to meet. A hostile city government threatens to evict all churches from meeting in public school auditoriums and many will be homeless. At the same time, vacant or near-vacant church buildings dot the horizon. There is also the fact that millions of Christians remain A GUIDE TO CHURCH REVITALIZATION 9 May This Be Our Story in itself, and both should be cel- Consider also that many of the ebrated together. most exciting church ministry But one of our central tasks stories of this generation have in the present generation is to come from replanted churches. be bold in our vision of replant- We can look around the coun- ing churches — helping existing try and quickly find church churches to fnd new vision, new buildings, once empty, now strategic focus, new passion for flled with young families and the gospel, new hunger for the students, senior adults and preaching of the Word, new love business executives. for their communities, and new We need to tell the stories excitement about seeing people of these churches, even as we come to faith in Jesus. continue to tell the stories of Replanting churches requires both courage and leadership A passion for skills. A passion for replanting a church must be matched by skills replanting a in ministry and a heart for help- church must ing a church to regain a vision. Church replanting and church be matched planting are both frontlines of ministry and mission. And I am by skills in excited to see what God will do ministry and a in this age with a generation of young pastors ready to plant and heart for helping replant gospel churches with unbridled passion. a church to Of course, this will also regain a vision. require that churches in decline recognize the need for radical newly planted churches. Both change and reorientation in contexts of ministry require ministry. No young pastor wor- courage. Both require vision and thy of his call will be excited to conviction. Neither is the answer assume the pastorate of a church 10 CHRIST WILL BUILD AND REBUILD HIS CHURCH that simply wants to stem the to be known as “Generation losses or slow the decline by Replant.” If it is not, it might not doing slightly better than the be long before the Southern Bap- congregation at present. Sadly, tist Convention needs a “Closed many of these churches will Churches Team.” May that day die by congregational suicide. never come. Instead, may all of Unwilling to be replanted, they our churches, new and old and simply want a slower decline. in between, follow the prom- This is disobedience to Christ. ise of 1 Corinthians 3:6 — Paul Given the scale of our need, “planted, Apollos watered, but this rising generation needs God gave the growth.” A GUIDE TO CHURCH REVITALIZATION 11 CHAPTER 2 BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO DYING CHURCHES KEVIN EZELL 12 BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO DYING CHURCHES t the North American we have not started enough Mission Board (NAMB), churches — especially in and Aour mission is to help around cities where 83 percent Southern Baptists push back of North Americans live; second, lostness in North America.

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