7 things that can STOP you from leading revitalization

After spending numerous years in church consultation with one of our SBC entities and as a denomination leader for a Baptist association, I am concluding that there are seven categories of things that can stop the work of church revitalization. I know these to be true, because I have listened to the stories of many church leaders, and there are commonalities with each one. I will quickly say that these are not exhaustive but rather are observations of broader subjects.

1. Spiritual discipline diversions: One of the first things to cause a revitalization effort to fail is rooted in a lack of spiritual awakening among the people. We must remember church revitalization is revitalizing church members! Any revitalization effort must be about people. If the people are not being renewed and transformed into the image of Christ a revitalization is destined to fail. Similarly, this also must include a renewal among the leaders and leadership.

2. Main Thing Diversions: Sometimes revitalization stops because the church has become too busy with other things that the church has lost the focus of the Main Thing. This can show up in a lot of forms. the church has a lot of internal events and has not paid attention to the community. Perhaps the church has sacrificed spiritual growth for programs. Churches can do a lot of good things but not the best thing. I believe it is a sin to be good when God has called us to be great. To avoid this the church must clarify what is most important to them, and then passionately go after the one thing.

3. Lack of Hope and Faith: This one is serious because among the leaders and members is the notion that their current situation has no hope of getting better. Maybe it is seeing decline in membership, or an aging congregation, whatever the reason, the congregation feels stuck. I'm reminded of the story of Haggai when he was given the command to build God's house, "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?"(1:4). The people had grown to a state of hopelessness that nothing could change, but God had to show them through obedience and faith that they would be restored.

I have found that there are several factors that keep a church in a mode of hopelessness and lack of faith. I have noted some of those factors here. (1) Pastor Life Cycle. Many churches never get any traction because they see too many pastor turn-overs in their church. And because things are restarting too frequently, churches are in this endless loop of start, stop, restart. A typical life cycle for a pastor is just over 3 and a half years. When there is no stability of leadership the church will suffer. Quickly I've outlined the cycle.

Honeymoon (Years 1-2)

Crisis (Years 3-5)

Fruit (Years 6-10)

Reset (Years 11+)

If you consider a pastor transition on average being 3 and a half years you will notice that usually comes at the first major crisis for the church with the leader. Then the cycle starts over again. I will say that the best years are in years 6-10. The church will have come through a trial and become stronger from it because they stuck together.

4. Not willing to Work or Execute: Sometimes the revitalization will not work because the leaders are not willing to work at it. They would rather do a hard reset by calling another leader and starting a life cycle over than do what is necessary to turn things around. This can happen from a leader who refuses to grow his leadership competencies or it can come in the form of lay leaders refusing to do whatever it takes to make a revitalization necessary.

   
   

5. Poor Relational Skills: The leader doesn't know how to communicate the vision and plan to the congregation or mis-communicates. Sometimes leaders can be awkward around others due to their personality or their introversion, and one on one conversations are hard for that person. Sometimes you may have a high extrovert leader that can appear fake or disingenuous when they speak to others. There are tools and techniques available to overcome this, but the damage can be done quickly, thus preventing a revitalization from taking off.

   
   

6. An attitude of blame: It should go without saying that not taking responsibility or not owning a decision can quickly stop a good work. If the leader is always saying it is someone else's fault and never owning their responsibility it can certainly stop a revitalization effort. Humility in leadership will help and valuing others opinion when things are not moving as they should shares the load of responsibility off one person.

   
   

7. Critics: The last category of what can stop revitalization is the constant voice of critics who are hostile toward a plan moving forward. Critics bring a spirit of negativity and often cause others to second guess the path forward.

Seldom does one of these things stop a revitalization process from happening on its own. But rather a combination of more than one thing. A warning for those leaders attempting a revitalization effort for a church, a short term perspectives are the death to a revitalization. Revitalization is often a three steps forward, two steps back, but it always is gaining ground. At times you will have to start things you have never done before, and other times you have to stop things you once did to make the turn around happen. Revitalization isn't easy, if it were then everyone would do it. Many people desire things to be different but lack the competencies to make change happen. This is where church consultation can be of value to your church to help the leadership navigate with you through the process of revitalization.