8 Reasons Pastors Resist Church Revitalization

BY: DR. TREY JONES | HGM CHURCHES

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Just saying “pastors resist church revitalization” sounds odd because we're resurrection people. We believe in the power of God to raise up dead things and restore and make things new. We know Romans 8 tells us “The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us”. We carry resurrection life and power.

With that being true, then why do we resist revitalization? This list of 8 reasons is borrowed from Tom Rainer.

1. It requires a long-term vision of the church

Long term doesn’t happen over-night. We resist revitalization because it requires a lot of planning, a lot of financial planning. It's easier to just plan for next year, or in many cases just operate week to week. 

It also means the pastor must stick around and stay. Revitalization is a long-term commitment on the part of the pastor and the family. There must be a willingness to stick it out through thick and thin, good and bad.

What's does a long-term vision look like. An example could be to reach 10% of your community. So, if you're in a small town or rural context with 2000 people, then the long-term vision could be to reach 10% - 200 people. Reaching 10% of a community is an incredible impact.

So, how do I lead with a long-term vision? Connect with HGM's one-on-one coaching system and learn from your personal coach how to do just that. Pastors who revitalize with long-term vison must be humble enough to learn from others.

2. It requires facing reality

Denial in church revitalization can be a dangerous thing.  

It reminds me when we pastored most of my cars were hand me downs. And had bad tires. I would ride those tires bald. My attitude was, “I think I can get more out of them” even though the steel threads were showing. I’d go to a discount tire place to fix one tire, and they’d point the others and I’d say, “They’re ok, they have more in them.” My denial was dangerous. I was in denial thinking, “It's really not that bad.”

Sometimes it's easier to live in denial because I don’t have to make any changes that are costly.

This is what denial looks like: We don’t have any children in the children's area. We haven't seen anyone saved and baptized in three years. We have very few people under the age of 40 in any form of leadership. There’s no one on the church council in their 30's.

If that's the case and you’re trying to ride it out on bald tires, there's probably some denial going on.

3. Revitalization requires patience

Revitalization does not happen overnight. The problem is most of us aren't very patient. We want a quick fix. A fast turnaround. Rainer coins the term tactical patience. That's a key to leading a church through revitalization.  

What is tactical patience? Tactical patience is recognizing there may be some things you don’t like but are going to have to do for a while. You don’t have to do them forever, but those things will help you turn the corner. Things like the structure of the building, governance issues, and maybe the structure of worship services are all things that may require tactical patience.  

When I was pastoring, I would communicate vision and strategy over and over. Over time, I’d get tired of it and would be tempted to change. Boredom was setting in. What I realized is by the time I was tired of it and my patience was running out, was about the time the people were starting to get it.

Church revitalization takes time which demands patience.

4. Church revitalization requires prayer

Church revitalization is both spiritual and strategic. It requires prayer.  

Why do we resist revitalization because of prayer? 

Too often we want to pray and then go do the work of the Lord. We must understand, prayer is the work of the Lord. Our work is the prayer and obedience. Revitalization requires a deeper partnership with God in His resurrection plan for your church.  

Here's the thing - real prayer is work. It requires confession, it requires brokenness, and it demands discipline. Our humanity is not a big fan of any of those.

Pastors is we're honest, many of us struggle with consistent focused prayer. When we increase our prayer life and invite others to pray with us, we make more room for God’s presence and resurrection power in our church.

5. It may require asking for help

Revitalization will require asking for help which means I have to be humble and teachable.  

Over the last 8 years of HGM, our team has sat down with countless numbers of pastors whose churches are in decline and struggling. So often the conversation revolved around the pastor proving how they’re still a good pastor. That they still know what they were doing and never really acknowledging, "Hey, I need help".

It’s hard to get help when I’m wanting confirmation. Receiving help means I stop talking and I listen. 

Helping pastors is why HGM exists. We'd love to connect you with our new one-on-one coaching system.

6. It requires stick-to-it-iveness

Revitalization demands persistence, perseverance, and pain tolerance. A pastor cannot revitalize a church with an eye on the next church that comes open in the conference. Revitalization is impossible with a leader who is looking for greener grass constantly. Revitalization happens best when a pastor knows they are called to the community and develops a heart for that community without a desire to look around.  

7. Church revitalization is hard, and it can be hard on people we love - our families.

The ups and downs, conflict, challenges, stress of revitalization can be hard on the pastor’s family. You may be pastoring a church that your children can’t connect at all in because there are no young people their age. Find another youth group in town they can attend until your church gets one going.  

Revitalization can be tough depending on the context. Many guys resist revitalization because they don’t want their family to be the martyrs for the revitalization. Find other ministry options and places in town for your family to connect in the until things start to turn around. An example could be the pastor, and his spouse may need to plug until a Bible study at different church in the community, so she's ministered to. It's ok to find ministry options for your family in different places to fill the gaps.  

8. Revitalization requires taking a risk.

If you're not a risk taker, then revitalization is probably not for you, because it demands risks. I've had many guys say to me they're called to revitalization and not church planting implying those are different risk levels.

They really aren’t. Church planting and church revitalization are really the same thing. You just start at different places. Doing anything for God that is bigger than ourselves comes with risks. God never calls us to a life that doesn’t require faith.

Article Submitted By: Jonathan Hill

Director of Evangelism Ministries

Cornerstone Conference IPHC