Renewal

Church revitalisation along the way of the cross

John James

• Publisher: 10Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781911272106
• eBook ISBN: 9781911272106
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

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'It is only a matter of time before declining churches will have closed their doors for good because no one sounded the alarm.' Our culture is becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity, and despite church planting becoming more popular; our churches are dying more quickly than we can plant new ones. We are struggling to reach our communities for Jesus. In this timely and much needed book, John James urges us to wake up to this crisis. John argues that if we are to build up existing church members and reach new ones for Jesus then we can't simply pull the plug on dying churches in favour of planting new ones. John honestly and warmly shares his own experiences of revitalisation and his passion to see churches transformed by the God who delights to resurrect the dead. This book is an essential read for those considering this kind of ministry, or for those who want to understand the role revitalisation can play in the re–evangelisation of our nation.

Whilst the recent upsurge in church planting is hugely encouraging, church revitalisation has all too often been neglected as a vital strategy for re–evangelising the nation. In this new book John James makes a compelling case for the importance of church revitalisation. Written with a pastor's heart, and drawing on his experience as a practitioner at Crossways Church in Birmingham, he explains the theological foundations for revitalising churches, presents an inspiring vision of the gospel potential of revitalisation and shares practical wisdom for those leading church revitalisations. Written in a lively, accessible and engaging style, and drawing on case–studies of successful church transformations from across the country, this book will challenge present and future church leaders to reconsider their attitudes towards declining and dying churches. I hope this book is a great success – it deserves to be. I look forward to promoting it.
John Stevens – National Director, FIEC

Wish I'd have had this 3 years ago. I'd have stuffed up considerably less! Excellent stuff from John James & @10ofthose pic.twitter.com/LavJw5k4G5

— Graham Thomson (@goldenpthomson) November 24, 2016

J ohn James' book is a passionate call to consider the option of Church revitalisation as part of our evangelism strategy. It is grounded in life experience but it contains much more than the story of a Church that was close to death and then experienced new life. Running through this book is a heart for the lost, a desire to reach out to our marginalised communities and a commitmentto work hard in tough unglamorous settings. John's book is full of practical hard learnt lessons which have application far beyond the situation he is describing, much of this was directly relevant to my own situation Church planting in Lancaster. At every point he directs our gaze at God, His word, His work and His strength. I thoroughly recommend anyone considering pioneering a new work to read this book.
Karen Soole – Chair of the Northern Women's Convention

John captures both the joys and pain of taking a church from sickness to health. This book born out of a personal faith in what God can do, will inspire and encourage you to see revitalisation as a God–given opportunity for the spread of the gospel in the UK. John is to be commended for his honest appraisal.
Phil Walter – Church Revitalisation Coordinator, FIEC

CHAPTER 1:

THE WAKE-UP CALL

‘In our culture Christianity is a bit like a bad dream, the details of which you cannot quite remember, but which has left you with a sense of unease that you want to be rid of.’¹

The spiritual climate in the UK was recently brought home starkly to me. I received a phone call from an Iranian lady who got my number from the church notice board. She had been reading the New Testament, had become convinced that Jesus was God, and wanted someone to confirm her suspicions for her. We talked together at length and her grasp of the gospel was breath-taking. All I did was show her, from the Scriptures she had already read, the truth of the conclusions she had already reached. It was an immense privilege.

I put down the phone, and went to see a young couple who had asked for a visit. They are born-and-bred Brummies, living on our estate, just a few doors down from our church building. They talked about a very serious life event they had been going through, and I began to tell them about Jesus. It was clear that they had never heard the gospel before. I shared the good news as best I could, and they both sat on the edge of the sofa, hanging on every word, jaws literally dropping.

It was a good day to be a church pastor, but it was also a wake-up call. This young couple had lived their whole lives in a supposedly ‘Christian country’ but had only ever heard the name of Jesus as a swearword, whilst the Iranian lady had grown up in an Islamic republic but had grasped the central aim of the gospel writers more deeply than some preachers I have heard.

Writing about the religiously unaffiliated in the United States, James Emery White speaks of a ’seismic shift in outreach that few church leaders are understanding.’² Evangelist Rico Tice detects a similar earthquake that has taken place in the UK over the last 70 years.

He explains that in 1954 Billy Graham packed out stadiums night after night. He preached the gospel and many became Christians because the basics were already in place. By 1994 there were barriers. Christianity was ‘weird, untrue and irrelevant’, and longer evangelistic courses like Alpha or Christianity Explored were needed to give the gospel a hearing. But today, ‘we’re such a long way from biblical Christianity that people don’t object to faith having engaged with it; they simply dismiss it. Jesus simply isn’t on the agenda; he isn’t even an option to be considered.’³ Our culture has changed. It is time we got real.

Our inability to wake up and smell the coffee is having an inevitable impact on the church. According to Al Mohler, in the US 4,000 congregations close their doors every year, while only 1,000 evangelical churches are planted.⁴ That may sound terminal, but Mohler uses the UK as a warning of the future. I am not sure this is an area in which we should be proud of leading the way. Between 2008 and 2013, 2,071 churches closed in the UK. In that same period 1,224 were planted.⁵ The alarm should be ringing. However, desperate to remain positive, we keep on hitting the snooze button.

First, in order to avoid the wake-up call, we find ways to inflate or hype church planting statistics. Church planting is vital and encouraging, but it can also be over-reported. I have noticed for example, that sometimes ‘Fresh Expressions’, the Church of England and Methodist initiative that encourages new ways of being church, is included wholesale in the statistics. When the 1,780 Fresh Expressions congregations are added to the church planting figure, it gives a perception of overall growth. Fresh Expressions is a creative initiative helping many face seriously the challenges of reaching our culture with the gospel, but simply adding the figures to the church planting statistics is unhelpful. 75% of Fresh Expressions groups are messy church groups. Almost half Fresh Expressions groups meet once a month, and half meet during the week. Most are not newly established, independent congregations, but part of the outreach of existing churches.

Secondly, in order to avoid the wake-up call, we fail to properly acknowledge where much of the growth is coming from. For example, a large number of migrant Christians have moved into the UK, joined or planted churches. They are doing an important job of slowing decline and strengthening witness. It is wonderful to see such ethnically diverse congregations emerge, but let us not pretend that this is growth because we have woken up to the reality of our cultural situation. It is usually not growth through conversion, but growth through a kind of global church transfer.

As with all statistical analysis, it all depends on how you tell the story. There are some who are surprisingly buoyant about current trends, and it is possible that we have turned a corner. Though in a measured manner, Bob Jackson, writing concerning the Church of England, concludes that there is ‘probable growth’ and ‘brighter prospects’. ⁶

However, as I write today, another article has been published in a national magazine, chronicling the fading impact of Christianity in Britain.⁷ As evangelicals, we assume that we must be the bit that is growing, and that the rest is in decline. We talk about how liberal and mixed denominations are in freefall, but between 2008 and 2013 many evangelical denominations experienced a net loss of churches.⁸ Although some denominations have experienced growth, their increases in numbers of churches are very small.⁹

Within my own church family, the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, we have experienced modest growth. There is a real desire to church plant. Yet a lot of the recent growth has been because existing churches have chosen to join the fellowship. The numbers themselves also fail to report life on the ground. Within the FIEC, as of 2013, 44% of churches had a membership of 25 or less. It is not a crime to be a small church – but, strikingly, since 2006, 75% of those churches have been static or in decline. For churches with a membership of 10-19, 82% have been static or in decline. For churches with a membership of under ten, that figure rises to 98%.¹⁰

The statistics suggest that many churches struggle to be effective in evangelism and discipleship. Or course this is not a problem that is unique to small churches. More important than your present size is the story of how you got to where you are. Many of our churches talk about struggling to reach their community with the gospel, of managing plateau and decline, even when they look strong numerically.

I recently bought a new alarm clock. It is the most basic model that Wilko’s sells. It cost £2, and does not look pretty. It is not digital, it does not light up in the dark, does not have a radio or make me a cup of tea. I got it because it does not have a snooze button. When the alarm goes off, snooze is not an option, and it is time to wake up.

As churches we are very good at hitting snooze, of telling the story in a way that gives us a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands. But now is the time to wake up. Early on in our church revitalisation, I sat down with an elderly gentleman who had resisted the proposed changes from the beginning. I asked him why he thought the church was at the point of closure. He replied, ‘It just is. Churches are planted, they grow, they shrink, and then they die.’

He had not engaged the real problem – the struggle to reach our communities for Jesus. This is not business as usual. Over the next decade or two these churches will close and their buildings will be sold on. The small flicker of witness will be snuffed out; the ground will lay fallow once more. Al Mohler, addressing the Southern Baptists, urges them to become ‘Generation Replant’.¹¹ We need to hear that call, recognising the unique window of opportunity we have in this generation.

If the statistics are right, then many churches are approaching an event horizon, a point of no return. The gravitational pull towards closure will soon become so great it will make escape impossible. Like a canoeist approaching the edge of the Niagara Falls, there is a clear window of opportunity where an about-turn can take place. But, if they are left to drift sleepily, it is only a matter of time before the current is too strong, and these declining churches will have closed their doors for good because no one sounded the alarm.

What Is Church Revitalisation?

As gospel-hearted people, who believe in the local church, there are many ways we must wake up to the cultural challenges around us. We need to plant new churches, raise up new leaders, learn how to evangelise confidently and effectively, pray, disciple, and train. Amongst all of that, the challenge of this book is that we wake up to the unique opportunities of a work that we easily overlook: church revitalisation.

Church revitalisation is a local church intentionally recovering its calling to make disciples of Jesus. It is a process of deliberate change in order to bring about a new beginning, with the goal of recovering a gospel frontier for mission, and re-establishing gospel growth within a church community.

Healthy church revitalisation has five important characteristics:

1. Healthy Church Revitalisation Seeks to Reach Lost People

The goal in church revitalisation is very similar to that of church planting: a freshly established gospel witness within a community. The goal is not saving face, retaining a building, maintaining the programmes of the church, and postponing the inevitable. It is driven by a desire to honour God, take seriously Jesus’ call to make disciples of all nations, and play a small but vital role in the re-evangelisation of our nation.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem he wept over the city unwilling to recognise God’s King, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace’ (Lk. 19:42). When was the last time we thought about our communities in those terms? ‘Britain, if you only knew Jesus, who brings true peace!’ Healthy church revitalisation is driven by broken-heartedness for lost people.

2. Healthy Church Revitalisation Recognises the Need to Change

For healthy church revitalisation to take place, a degree of self-awareness is required. The church family must admit together the reality of their situation, take ownership of the current decline, and intentionally seek change for the sake of the gospel. Not everyone will understand the problem, but amongst the leadership and key members revitalisation requires a conscious humbling, creating openness, allowing for help and real change.

Speaking to Christians scattered among the nations, James writes, ‘Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up’ (Jas. 4:10). Whilst we are busy arguing amongst ourselves about who is the greatest, and who will sit at the right hand of Jesus in glory, he is calling us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Revitalisation is not about self-preservation, but self-sacrifice.

3. Healthy Church Revitalisation Produces Healthy Churches

This may seem obvious, but church revitalisation is not something different to local church ministry. Church revitalisation is not needed because ‘church doesn’t work anymore’. Though there may be many reasons why a church is dying, it cannot be because the biblical marks of a church are no longer relevant. The most important question we can ask is: where has healthy local church ministry been lost, and where does it need to be recovered?

The Pastoral Epistles are packed full of the characteristics of healthy local church ministry. In his final charge to Timothy, Paul writes, ‘preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction’ (2 Tim. 4:2). Healthy church revitalisation listens to and submits to God’s word, patiently and carefully, letting it form us as a family.

4. Healthy Church Revitalisation is Tailored to its Context and People

Church revitalisation takes many forms. It might look like a small core team of believers being planted into an already existing congregation and the appointment of a new pastor. It might require the complete closure and re-launch of a church. It might be a much slower transition, with the implementation of new leadership with fresh vision. It may be abrupt, with a church intentionally dying, in order to generously leave its facilities for a new church plant to use.

The decision of where a particular revitalisation sits on the spectrum is not a purely pragmatic one. It should be driven by love. It is a love for God that will drive us to make brave, faith-fuelled decisions. It is a love for unbelievers that will drive us to be as radical as is needed in the changes that take place. It is a love for our brothers and sisters in the existing church that will drive us to act with patience, gentleness and compassion. All three dimensions of love will result in a unique process that fits its context and its people.

5. Healthy Church Revitalisation Partners with Others

It would be easy to suggest that the key to revitalisation is a particular methodology, particular theological emphasis, or a particular charismatic personality. In actual fact, for most healthy church revitalisations it is particular relationships that make all the difference. Relationships will be developed between a new core team and an existing church family, between new and old leadership teams, and between the church undergoing revitalisation and other local gospel-hearted churches. Coming into a context of revitalisation there are pre-existing relationships that need to be understood and honoured rightly, and there will be crucial new relationships that will need to be forged for the work to flourish.

Paul prays at the end of Romans, ‘May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 15:5–6). With that kind of generosity of spirit towards one another, anything is possible.

Putting it into Practice

A short while ago we marked a milestone as a church: we removed the old preacher’s platform from our building. The wooden stage dated back to 1937 when the hall was built, and was later extended. It was high and hefty, and ripping it out took serious brute strength. Surely a book on revitalisation begins with conversions, baptisms and the reviving power of the Spirit of God? The pr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. The Wake-up Call
• 2. Where Are We Going?
• 3. Is the Journey Worth It?
• 4. Filling the Tank
• 5. Releasing the Brakes
• 6. Getting in Gear
• 7. Setting Off
• 8. Along the Way
• 9. Potholes
• Conclusion: Are We Nearly There Yet?
• References