Four Big Mistakes in Church Revitalization

The Great Ministry Transition

We are witnessing today one of the most remarkable ministry developments in church history. It began with the introduction of the American Mega Church in the 20^th Century. Many of these ministries grew up under the leadership of remarkably faithful men who preached with bold conviction and led with great effectiveness and integrity.

As those leaders move off the scene, a generation of younger pastors is inheriting the leadership of their massive congregations. That is The Great Ministry Transition. That Great Transition comes with many blessings.

The blessings are mostly connected to the remarkable fruit of gospel preaching that still exists today in the changed lives of countless people. While not every ministry was characterized by fidelity to Scripture, that is not the problem I’m addressing here. I am discussing a generation of preachers who faithfully expanded the Kingdom of Christ. All of us serving in ministry today are beneficiaries of these faithful preachers.

But The Great Ministry Transition also comes with challenges. Those challenges are mostly related to the systems and methods created to assist the faithful preaching of that earlier generation. The necessity of contextualization means that timeless Gospel preaching always requires time-bound methods and systems. Gospel preaching never expires, but systems and methods always do. The work of church revitalization is the challenging task of replacing changing systems and methods while preserving unchanging biblical content.

This is difficult work, and anyone who does it will make mistakes. I shared a number of my mistakes in the single longest episode of What Happened at First Baptist Church. Since that recording, I have had hundreds of conversations with revitalizers across the country and have heard some of their mistakes. Here are four common mistakes along with guidance to help avoid them.

Mistaking Conviction for Leadership

Conviction is our understanding of the truth and our firm commitment to live it out. It is absolutely crucial in ministry revitalization. It is conviction—biblically informed and fully embraced—that will keep you devoted to gospel ministry when a secular culture pressures you to abandon it. It is that same conviction that will inform your willingness to part with antiquated systems and ineffective methods when power brokers in your church insist that the way their church has done it in the past is the only way to do it now. Ministers involved in revitalization cannot have too much conviction.

But ministry transitions require more than conviction. They also require leadership. Leadership is a spiritual gift equipping leaders to guide others toward increased faithfulness and effectiveness (Romans 12:6-8). The Holy Spirit gifts leaders with the supernatural ability to discern where a ministry is, where it needs to go, and the strategy required to make progress. Revitalization requires the gift of leadership every bit as much as the presence of conviction.

The importance of this combination is seen in a classic situation that many face.

Imagine your church adopted a method of governance before you got there that you believe is unbiblical. Maybe the church has a single-pastor model, and you think they need a plurality of elders. Perhaps, the deacons have roles that look more like governance than service. It could be that your lay leaders are serving in places unsuited to their giftedness. Whatever it is, conviction tells you that something needs to change.

The presence of that conviction leads many self-styled revitalizers to a crucial mistake. They believe that the presence of their conviction requires urgent action to bring the practice of the church into immediate alignment with their convictions. Several errors exist in this thinking. Just one of them is the error that conviction alone is enough to make this transition effectively.

Effective revitalization requires men of great conviction also to possess the wisdom and skill necessary to implement change. The presence of conviction without the skill to implement it will never lead to revitalization.

John 16:12 says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” This is a remarkable insight from the world’s best convictional leader. Jesus tells his followers that it is not yet time for him to share all he knows. He never says the things they need to know are unimportant, but, in wisdom, he budgets conviction. He takes time—actually, a lot of time—before he tells them all the things they eventually need to do.

If you want to be an effective revitalizer, you must heed the words of Jesus. After you have discerned where you need to go, you still need to take time to formulate a plan. Pray and ask God to give you wisdom and to move the hearts of your people. Talk about what needs to change slowly and over time. Prioritize various efforts. Make friends and develop allies. Be patient. Move forward only after you have a plan you think can work. Forcing change that tears apart the church doesn’t prove that you’re a man of conviction. It may only prove you’re an ineffective leader.

Mistaking The Trellis and The Vine

Over 15 years ago, Colin Marshall and Tony Payne made a big splash in the ministry world with their book, The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift that Changes Everything. They used the metaphor of a vine to talk about the ministry of the Word and the metaphor of a trellis that upholds a vine to communicate the tangible structures that support that ministry of the Word.

That metaphor illustrates a mistake of many potential church revitalizers. The mistake is to spend the early days and years of your labor focused on systems and structures like constitutions and bylaws. To be clear, those sorts of things are just as important to our churches as a trellis is to a vine. Such documents form the legal and doctrinal “rules of the game” for our ministries, and, in most contexts, we can’t effectively operate without them. We should take them seriously, follow them as best we can, and amend them when necessary.

The mistake of many is in placing too much emphasis on these documents too early. An early focus on changing guiding documents sets off alarm bells. People know by instinct that these documents form those rules of the game, and messing with them will make people wonder what you’re up to. In most situations, a premature focus on these matters creates an environment of suspicion and conflict that derails progress and destroys ministries.

Constitutions and bylaws are important. They need attention. But the wisdom the Apostle Paul gave to Timothy was not, “Update your guiding documents,” but, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).

If you want to see your church change from the inside out, spend a long season focusing on faithful Bible ministry. Preach compelling sermons that are true and engaging. Disciple key people in your church into a vibrant relationship with Jesus. Equip leaders to do ministry. Show your people how to share the gospel boldly and effectively. Lead your congregation to pray and then celebrate God’s answers. Your biggest concern should not be formal documents, but spiritual growth. Let your folks experience the expansion of ministry, let them feel their hearts burn as you preach, let them see unbelievers coming to faith and Christians growing in holiness. When your people are excited about the vibrant growth of the vine, they will ask you to help them create the trellis-like structures that support it.

The necessary trellis work of amending your ministry’s guiding documents requires the trust you can only earn as someone who has faithfully ministered the Word of God. When you prove to your people that you know how to care for the vine, it will create the trust you need to work on the trellis. On the other hand, allowing the vine to whither while obsessing over the trellis risks a permanent breach of trust. A potential revitalizer who has not yet proven that he can grow the vine has not yet earned the right to tinker with the trellis.

Mistaking Role and Relationship

One of the easiest mistakes a pastor can make in his position is to emphasize his role over relationships. The mistake is an easy one because he is the pastor, he was hired to do a job, and he will be held accountable by God and the church for how he functions in that role.

The mistake is in believing that your role as the pastor will be the primary reality that drives change. It will not be. The vast majority of people will not be motivated to change based on the role you fill, but on the relationships you have with them. To say it another way, some people will follow you because you are the pastor, but more people will follow you for longer when they know you love them. That means you should always prioritize relationships over roles.

Jesus’s words in John 13:35 are crucial here: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” When people see that your life is defined by the kind of love that should characterize all Christians, it will be easier for them follow you in your unique role as leader.

The people in your church will react poorly if they sense you do not truly love them but only view them as a job. You must not let this happen. You must pray that Jesus will motivate you by the same love that motivates him, and then prove to your people that you really care about them. Most churches simply want to know that their pastor loves them and doesn’t view them as a pet project or mere task to accomplish. All the good changes in revitalization will be downstream from a relationship of love between pastor and people.

Mistaking Your Ministry for Another Ministry

Most ministers of the gospel enter ministry after witnessing the faithfulness of another leader. It might be a famous preacher whose established ministry they admire, it could be a mentor whose respect they want to earn, or it may even be a seminary professor whose teaching they want to emulate. We all have such influences. It is one thing to be thankful for faithful ministry role models. It is another thing to seek to force the people God has called you to serve into the ministry mold designed by someone in a completely separate context whose gifts and callings are different than your own.

You might admire the preaching style of MacArthur. You may be drawn to the online engagement of Wilson. Perhaps you admire the structure of Nine Marks. So be it! But never forget that while faithful ministry role models deserve our honor and respect, they cannot sustain rote repetition. In Colossians 4:17, the Apostle Paul teaches, “Say to Archippus, ‘See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received from the Lord.’”

In all of Scripture and in all church history, God never does the same exact work with two separate people. Whoever your mentor is, God has already used them and given them a calling. Now he has given one to you. That calling is guaranteed to be different than that received by anyone else. Be thankful for every good influence and learn from them. But do not be lazy and try to cut and paste another ministry in your specific context. Do the hard work of studying Scripture and paying attention to your people. Your congregation will not like it if they sense you are using them to impress someone else or to turn their ministry into a copy of another one you admire.

Revitalization and Grace

No man can revitalize a dying church. It is God who gives life, blessing, and fruitfulness. That means all of us who want to be involved in turning around a flagging church need grace. When God intends to lavish grace and restore a dying church, he empowers the means to reach the end. God usually restores a church through a gifted pastor who pairs bold conviction with wise leadership, who effectively prioritizes ministry of the Word over systems, who is willing to prove his love for the flock over the long haul, and who is willing to serve the people he has rather than longing for ones he does not.