Simon Cox Blog: Five Key Things About Church Revitalization That Most Leaders Miss, Part 1

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Five Key Things About Church Revitalization That Most Leaders Miss, Part 1

If you went into ministry for everyone to like you, this was a poor decision.

Many churches are stuck and stagnant. That doesn’t mean God isn’t working in and through them, but it can be frustrating for a church to be stuck in the same place for a long time. Sometimes it can feel like no matter what the leadership or the church community does, they can’t get moving and growing again.

I want to share five key things about church revitalization that most leaders miss, and how to address them. Below are the first two and tomorrow I’ll share the final three.

First, lead spiritually.

The first key to church revitalization is that you need to lead spiritually. Many pastors come into a revitalization situation and think that what they should do is intentionally lead to organizational change. But people don’t generally need organizational change first. They need to know that you are a leader who loves Jesus, that you are a leader who will challenge them to grow in their understanding of the gospel, and that you are a leader who will walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

One church I led through revitalization had a leadership team of elders who had been placed into their roles because they had won a vote in an election. They were primarily considered business leaders who might have some sense to lead the church.

But business leadership is not always spiritual leadership. So some of the elders were there on the board, but did not necessarily know why they were there.

Early on, we sat down and I challenged them to consider with me that we might all be spiritual leaders. I started to lead both the church and the elders spiritually.

In order to lead the elders spiritually and to guide them to become spiritual leaders themselves, I did a couple of things. I asked them to have read portions ...