Revitalize

Biblical Keys to Helping Your Church Come Alive Again

Andrew M. Davis

• Publisher: Baker Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781493405473
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Church health is measured by more than just numbers, but declining membership is often a key symptom of a church in crisis. The pastor of a dying church doesn't need to be told it is dying; he needs to find the way forward--and he needs hope.Author and pastor Andrew Davis offers readers the lessons he's learned in his own journey of leading church transformation, including- keeping Christ's ownership of the church central- being humble- choosing your battles wisely- empowering godly men to join in leadership- making prayer a priority- focusing on the Word- and moreChurch decline is not inevitable. Revitalize gives pastors the spiritual support they long for and the practical advice they need to turn their churches around and position them for greater health in the future.

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Eyes of Blazing Fire

The Zeal of Christ to Revitalize His Church

In the first chapter of Revelation, the apostle John has an awesome vision of the resurrected Christ walking among seven golden lampstands with eyes like blazing fire and his feet like burnished bronze. Christ is dressed in a priestly robe reaching down to his feet, with a golden sash around his chest. Perhaps most striking of all, Christ has a sharp double-edged sword coming from his mouth, and his voice is like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he holds seven stars. The seven golden lampstands represent the seven churches in Asia Minor: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The seven stars in his right hand represent the “angels” of these seven churches.

In Revelation 2–3, Christ speaks to each of these seven churches through their respective angels. His messages are powerful, personal, and specific, addressing the strengths and weaknesses of each local church and giving both warnings and encouragements about the future. These seven churches were real local churches that existed during John’s time in Asia Minor, near the island of Patmos, where John was in exile. However, there is also a clear sense that they represent Christ’s intimate knowledge of and concern for each local church around the world throughout every era of church history. That the churches are depicted as golden lampstands shows their immense worth coupled with their role as lights shining in a dark place. Christ’s walking in the midst of these seven golden lampstands illustrates his active concern for the churches, as well as his vigilant and dynamic ministry among them. The seven angels in Christ’s right hand illustrate his sovereign power over the pastors of these churches.1

How awesome, then, to see the resurrected Christ moving actively through these seven lampstands—tending them, dealing with their pastors, speaking words of comfort or rebuke to them. I submit that this vision, as well as the subsequent letters to the seven churches, represents Christ’s ongoing work of church reformation. To some, Christ speaks words of commendation for their tireless labor, doctrinal accuracy, faithfulness in persecution, discernment of error, and hatred of compromise. To others, Christ speaks words of rebuke for their forsaking of their first love, doctrinal compromise, toleration of sinning members, worldliness, spiritual deadness, self-confidence in wealth, and lukewarmness. To all, Christ gives words of exhortation to continue in courageous progress in the gospel, to look to the sweet eternal rewards, and to hear the words God speaks to the churches by the Spirit.

Careful study of the letters to the seven churches provides powerful insight into Christ’s zeal for the ongoing revitalization of the church in every age. Revelation 1–3 clearly indicates that the slide of local churches from health toward death has been an ongoing issue for twenty centuries. The church at Ephesus had forsaken its first love, and the Lord threatened to remove its lampstand if they refused to repent (Rev. 2:4–5). The removal of the lampstand is Christ’s judgment on any church that, through sin, slides from life to death; Christ sovereignly removes them from the community, and they are gone. He has done this consistently throughout church history. Indeed, history indicates that by the third century, the church at Ephesus had possibly been removed. In any case, it was certainly gone by the time Islam had come to dominate that region of the world in the seventh century. False teachers infiltrated the church at Pergamum, and Christ threatened to come and wage war against them with the sword of his mouth (Rev. 2:14–16). The church at Thyatira was guilty of tolerating sexual immorality, and Christ threatened to throw any who sinned in this way on a sickbed resulting in death (Rev. 2:20–23). The church at Sardis was clearly in need of revitalization. Christ said, “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” And he warned them, “Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die” (Rev. 3:1–2). Perhaps no church of the seven so clearly fits into the pattern of revitalization as that one. The church at Laodicea was lukewarm, and Christ threatened to spew them out of his mouth (Rev. 3:15–16). Local churches have stood in need of revitalization from the beginning of church history.

Truly in the matter of church reformation, the Father is always at his work, even to this very day, while Christ too is working.

Revitalization in Our Generation

The timeless message of Revelation 1–3 must be applied to churches in our generation. Every local church must listen carefully to what the Spirit says to each of these seven churches (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Christ is still walking among the seven golden lampstands with eyes of fire and a sword coming out of his mouth. His zeal for the holiness and fruitfulness of every local church is undiminished. This book is intended to be an instrument in his holy hands for the revitalization of churches all across America, and perhaps even around the world. My desire is to be an encouragement to brothers and sisters, and especially to elders (pastors), who are called to churches needing revitalization. I want to give them some of the insights and convictions the Lord has laid on my heart as I have traveled a journey of revitalization at First Baptist Church (FBC) in Durham, North Carolina. I yearn to root these insights and convictions in passages of Scripture. I also desire to illustrate them with real-life circumstances, both successes and failures, from my own experience. A clear connection between eternal Scripture and temporal circumstances can be a potent prescription for Christians who may be tempted to grow weary in their own journeys of revitalization.

The most powerful weapon in the hands of our Almighty Lord for the destruction of Satan’s dark kingdom is a healthy local church. No one knows this better than Satan, and therefore it is expected that he will be vigorously active in fighting reform efforts made in specific local churches. The battle lines are drawn, the enemy is active, and the war is on! As I will discuss later, one of Satan’s most powerful weapons is discouragement. He wants to deceive us into thinking that the slow descent of a local church into coldness, doctrinal error, lifeless fellowship, and nonexistent witness in the world is inevitable. He has planted his double agents in dying churches, and these wolves in sheep’s clothing are some of the bitterest and most subtle enemies of the gospel. We must expect a fight and not grow weary as it becomes shockingly ugly. Christ is greater, and his Word is sufficient. The goal of a healthy, fruitful Great Commission church is well worth the suffering. This book is written from a deep yearning to equip you for that fight, strengthen your hearts with solid food from God’s Word, and guide you with wisdom and clear strategies for victory.

The church scene of the West in the twenty-first century is not encouraging. Christianity is in a decaying orbit in its formerly positive relationship with surrounding culture. Christian views on salvation, the exclusivity of Christ, sexual morality, the sanctity of human life, the nature and permanence of marriage, and the like, are less and less accepted. The steep decline in the health and fruitfulness of many local churches is both a cause and an effect of this decaying orbit. Church health cannot be reduced to baptism, attendance, and budget statistics; however, such numbers can be important indicators of health or disease. The Barna Group has shown that, while the US adult population has grown 15 percent over the last fifteen years, the number of unchurched adults has grown by 92 percent.2 Mainline denominations (e.g., the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church, the American Baptist Churches, the United Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, et al.) have been seriously in decline in these areas for decades—an aggregate picture of the death of many previously flourishing local churches. Even denominations that have many healthy local churches (like the one our church is affiliated with, the Southern Baptist Convention or SBC) still show a general decline in these areas, and many historically influential churches are in serious need of revitalization. Thom Rainer asserts that somewhere between eight thousand and ten thousand churches close every year.3 The only remedies to this trend are church planting and church revitalization.

Revitalization vs. Normal Pastoral Ministry

What is “revitalization”? How is it different from normal pastoral ministry in a healthy church? These are key questions. It is not true that every church needs revitalization, for if that were so, the word would lose its distinctive meaning and cease to be helpful. No church is perfect, and every church could grow in faithfulness to Christ. When later I list elements of a healthy church, every true believer in Christ will acknowledge that they long for growth in each of those elements in their local church. Conversely, when I list elements of a church that needs revitalization, it is possible that many healthy churches see some of these reflected in their church life. But there is a composite level of church decline discernible from the elements enumerated below that indicates when a church is in need of revitalization.

One of the easiest ways to measure church vitality is by counting heads—membership and baptisms/conversions. If those numbers are flat (plateaued) or declining each year, that church may well be unhealthy, sliding toward eventual death. Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research based his book on revitalization, Comeback Churches, on studies of three hundred churches that (1) had plateaued and/or declined for five years (worship attendance grew less than 10 percent in a five-year period); and (2) had followed that plateau/decline with significant numerical growth over two to five years, including a membership to baptism (conversion) ratio of 35:1 or lower each year and at least a 10 percent increase in attendance each year.4 Stetzer grounds the rest of his book on lessons learned by those three hundred churches. Much of the focus for the entire study centers around evangelistic fruit—what he calls being “missional.”

However, numerical growth alone cannot be a measure of spiritual health. Some of the unhealthiest churches in the nation are characterized by the false doctrine of the prosperity gospel, but they are huge and growing numerically.5 Conversely, some churches may be quite healthy in many respects and seeing steady fruit in evangelism but are actually shrinking in number because the godly leadership is culling bloated rolls of past members who, by their chronic failure to attend worship, are displaying in their lives that they most likely were not born again. Other churches might have a good number of people attending and might see some baptisms, but they are toxic in their daily life because of long-standing church politics and unhealthy attitudes and practices. Thus, applying the term revitalization requires wisdom and an array of factors must be taken into consideration.

In this book, we will use the word revitalization to describe the effort to restore by biblical means a once healthy church from a present level of disease to a state of spiritual health, as defined by the Word of God. I will establish an array of characteristics that define both a healthy church and an unhealthy church, by which church leaders can evaluate their local church. Churches in need of revitalization differ from healthy churches that simply need maturing in that toxic forces are at work that will make ministry there a particular challenge, and if left unchecked, will finally result in the death of the church.

FBC: A Church in Need of Revitalization

One unforgettable Sunday morning at FBC—August 19, 2001—I began corporate worship by calling on the members of the church to repent. The church had elected a female deacon for the first time in its history, which would not be nearly as significant were it not for the fact that our polity at that time saw deacons as lay leaders with shepherding responsibility for the flock alongside the ministerial staff. Despite my church-wide teaching on the topic of gender and authority, and my efforts at the personal level to forestall this result, the church voted in a woman as a spiritual leader.

So I began worship by calling on all the people of FBC to repent—including myself. In the spirit of Daniel 9:7, I felt that all of us must take responsibility for FBC violating God’s clear guidance that men should lead in a local church. My call for repentance was an object of horror to many of the members of the church—they were outraged. In their minds, repentance is something you do only at the beginning of the Christian life and then never need to do again (a perversion of the “decisionism”/walk the aisle technique coupled with “once saved, always saved” doctrine). For them, it was as if I were saying, “Because you voted for a woman as a deacon, you are not Christians.” But I did not believe that at all. Rather, I know that because of the power of indwelling sin described so clearly in Romans 7, a healthy Christian life is one of constant conviction over sin and repentance from that sin. For me, repentance is a daily, sometimes hourly necessity.

The journey that followed over the next ten years is the context in which the Lord taught me many lessons on church revitalization. FBC had entrenched power structures and unbiblical attitudes in many vital areas, including an unbiblical church government based on committees and democratic processes that resulted in unbiblical lay leadership for decades; a large number of influential members whose status as regenerate believers in Christ was at best suspect; a chronic pattern of running off godly pastors who had sought to minister well to the church; an unbiblical attitude toward money, with an unhealthy focus on the beauty of the building to the exclusion of missionary efforts; a poor discipleship program; a bad history of racism in dealing with the surrounding community; a clique of powerful lay leaders who considered it their responsibility to dominate church life in secular ways; and a large contingent of senior adults who had received little solid biblical training.

Despite all of that, FBC also had a remnant of extremely godly men and women who were praying and yearning for the revitalization of their beloved church. Without them, I never would have survived the stormy years of war that would soon follow that call for repentance. This is as much their story as it is mine.

A church that stops reforming is dying. And a church that has been in that state for a long time will be rescued only by revitalization. As dangerous and painful as church revitalization can be, the far greater danger is not revitalizing. And FBC was a church very much in need of revitalization. In this book, I will seek to relate some of the lessons learned from FBC’s journey from the toxic church I began pastoring in 1998 to the encouragingly healthy and fruitful church it is today. The lessons apply to pastors and church members who may be influential in moving their church toward spiritual vitality.

Fourteen Lessons in Revitalization

The lessons that follow will each be the focus of an entire chapter, supported with Scripture and experiential anecdotes. Here they are in summary:

Embrace Christ’s ownership of the church. Christ is the only One who shed his blood for the church (Acts 20:28); it is his, for he bought it at a price. A common characteristic of dying churches is an unhealthy sense of ownership of the church by its members and/or leaders. Some feel that because of their financial contributions or hours of service, This church is mine. Hence the power struggles. Beyond this, a revitalizing pastor can get sucked into similarly unhealthy thought patterns as he suffers and makes sacrifices for the church. We must embrace, by faith, that the local church is Christ’s, and do all our ministry for his glory.

Be holy. Christ’s eyes are blazing fire, and his garments are radiant with pure light, representing his perfect holiness. Likewise, the sword coming from his mouth represents his Word in its power to cut the tumor of sin from his church. Everyone committed to revitalization must seek total purity from sin in his life. He must submit his public and private life to the holy gaze of Christ and be humbled and convicted of sin, or he will be disqualified from leading the church toward vitality. Beyond this, he must lead the church to embrace sanctification—consistent growth in holiness by the power of the Spirit.

Rely on God, not on yourself. One of the greatest battles we face in life is learning to rely on God and not on ourselves. If we look toward the perilous journey ahead of us in church reform and then turn inwardly for the resources, we will think either we have what it takes or we do not. The first will result in arrogance; the second will result in despair. Arrogance and despair are two sides of the same coin: self-reliance. We must learn at every moment to look upward to God by faith and rely on his power to do the transformation.

Rely on God’s Word, not on techniques. Church revitalization cannot be bought from a Christian bookstore. God’s Word must be unleashed, not only weekly from the pulpit but also throughout every ministry and moment of church life. God’s Word alone has the power to save souls and bring them to Christlike maturity.

Saturate the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Endorsements
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• 1. Eyes of Blazing Fire
• 2. God Speaks Life into Dying Churches
• 3. Embrace Christ’s Ownership of the Church
• 4. Be Holy
• 5. Rely on God, Not on Yourself
• 6. Rely on God’s Word, Not on Techniques
• 7. Saturate the Church in Prayer
• 8. Cast a Clear Vision
• 9. Be Humble toward Opponents
• 10. Be Courageous
• 11. Be Patient
• 12. Be Discerning
• 13. Wage War against Discouragement
• 14. Develop and Establish Men as Leaders
• 15. Become Supple on Worship
• 16. Embrace the Two Journeys of Disciple-Making
• 17. A Heavenly Celebration of God’s Glory
• Notes
• About the Author
• Back Ad
• Back Cover