Developing An Intentional Church Revitalization Paradigm for the Twenty-first Century!

transcript

By Dr. Tom Cheyney, EDOM GOBA

Founder & Directional Leader

RENOVATE National Church Revitalization ConferenceTom@RenovateConference.org

tcheyney@goba.org

2 Timothy 1:7“For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power,

love, and sound judgment.”

DEVELOPING AN INTENTIONAL CHURCH REVITALIZATION PARADIGM FOR

THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY!

ORLANDO

DEVELOPING AN INTENTIONAL CHURCH REVITALIZATION PARADIGM

To get the app, you can go to the Google Play Store or the Apple Apps Store and search for Renovate Conference. You can download a copy of this presentation or subscribe to the Church Revitalizer Weekly Blog from Tom Cheyney.

• The word paradigm comes from the Greek word paradigma, which means a framework of thought or a pattern. With that in mind I would like for us to consider a church revitalization paradigm as a system or structure for understanding and explaining various phases, parts and pieces of a realistic paradigm which walks pass the bigger is better church growth paradigm of the 1980’s.

• So would you consider with me today an entirely new church revitalization system or structure for understanding and explaining various phases, parts and pieces of a Church Revitalization and Renewal Model?

Churches rarely renew or revitalize themselves in significant ways unless they come to a point in time where the pain of supporting the status quo is greater than the pain of making changes and then they almost never voluntarily shift to an entirely new pattern for the present culture in which they are ministering!

What Does Church Revitalization Mean?

STATISTICAL REALITIES CONCERNING CHURCH REVITALIZATION

Did you know that:

•There are 344,000 protestant evangelical churches from the eight mainline denominations in the western hemisphere, which are in plateau and decline.

•95% of all churches in North America average 100 or less.

Did you know that:

•Over 82% of American Churches are in decline or on a plateau.

•Each year 3,500 to 4,000 churches die in North America (900 last year within our Denomination alone).

Did you know that:

•Studies have shown that churches typically plateau in attendance by their fifteenth year, and by year 35 they begin having trouble replacing the members they lose.

•They have the inability to regain the critical mass necessary to regrow the church utilizing the tools and techniques they are presently employing.

Did you know that:

•50 – 60 churches in North America close their door every week.

Only 7.3% of small churches are growing.

Of churches fifty years old and older only 9.2% are growing.

Did you know that:•A more recent series of studies (The State of the Church) was conducted by Bill Day; Associate Director of the Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Health, who serves the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary as the Gurney Professor of Evangelism and Church Health in his sequential studies on church health and growth of 2003, 2007, and 2010 where he reports that currently there are less than seven percent (6.8) of our SBC churches which are healthy growing churches. That means 3,087 of our 45,727 SBC churches are healthy.

The hard reality is this:

Church Revitalization is important because so many churches are dying and or are all but dead. It is also important because even today’s healthy churches run the risk of developing the same illness that other churches are experiencing. God’s people desperately need a biblical foundation for church revitalization! Many Christians today actually attend a local church, which needs to consider learning and practicing the various principles for Revitalizing Churches.

Lyle Schaller reminds us that 85,000 evangelical churches are running fewer than 50 on Sunday.

• Being aware of their “critical” condition, however, is not enough.

• They have got to become convinced they need “major” surgical treatment.

We must recreate the mindset of the remaining member in the renewing

church.

As more and more Godly men are going into church planting we have a crisis of pastors and ministry leaders seeking to lead the declining church out of its challenges and obstacles.

If it were just about making a better leader we have so many Christian leadership groups training and individuals going to weekly or monthly meetings and yet the pace of decline has not been slowed by building a better ministry leader to serve as pastor and shepherd.

SEVEN PARADIGM OR MODEL SHIFTS FOR CHURCH REVITALIZATION

There are Seven Paradigm or Model Shifts for Church Revitalization that addresses the current crises of leader quantity and quality:

1. A new goal of sustainable critical mass.

In the next 15 years there will be a growing shortage of pastors willing to fill our churches, which have low renewal potential. In our denomination we have 6,000 Southern Baptist Pastors who leave their ministries each year. More than 200 pastors are fired each month. In one recent article from LifeWay there are 70,000 vacant pulpits in America.

1. A new goal of sustainable critical mass. 2. A new methodology for rebirthing

something new from the decline.

In this new paradigm, we must implement a holistic process that gives strong and integrated attention to four dynamics for church renewal:

•Spiritual Transformation. Experiential union with Christ is the center of a truly transformational revitalization paradigm. We must move our developing church revitalizers from the sanctuary sitting in our worship centers and exchange their posture to walking our streets sharing Christ!

•Relational Transformation. Developing church revitalizers need journey! They need daily relationships with mature fellow revitalizers, role models, and examples. They need spiritual Paul’s – in the context of normal daily life and ministry. In the encouragement, support, challenge, teaching, discipline and accountability of these relationships, the shepherd’s character is built, marriages are strengthened and spiritual life is nurtured.

•Experiential Transformation. Developing church revitalizers learn by doing and not only by listening. Activity is the new norm not audience participation. They are transformed through the fires of trail and pressure. The church revitalizer is stretched by challenging tasks that focus on church revitalization and renewal.

•Proclamational Transformation. Developing church revitalizers must work on new ways in teaching of the Word of God – in an engaging way, and woven into the ongoing daily realities of life, family and ministry.

1. A new goal of sustainable critical mass. 2. A new methodology for rebirthing

something new from the decline.3. A new ministry design developed from

church assessment and leader assessment.

Churches in decline and pastors of declining churches both need an assessment.

Shepherds need to know what the strengths and obstacles of the church may be and the church needs to know if the skill sets necessary for a turnaround are within the leaders ability to learn or possess already.

1. A new goal of sustainable critical mass. 2. A new methodology for rebirthing something

new from the decline.3. A new ministry design developed from church

assessment and leader assessment.4. Church Revitalizers embracing and building

new Revitalizers.

Within this new paradigm, Church Revitalizers face the personal responsibility for embracing and building new Revitalizers as a core part of what it means to be a leader. This shift alone has the potential to raise up a new army of missional pastors equipped for the task of revitalization and renewal.

5. Churches building new revitalizers.

Biblically, the primary place for the development of new church revitalizers is the local church or a cluster of churches.

Some of the benefits of churches building revitalizers are:

Multiplication. The church-based revitalization approach provides a paradigm or model that can be multiplied virtually endlessly with every local church or cluster of churches providing a church revitalization-learning environment for their new leaders. If every local church would build only one or two new leaders for church renewal, the quantity crisis would be over!

Some of the benefits are:

Holistic development. The church renewal learning process becomes considerably more effective since the local church provides the spiritual, relational and practical context for the development of the church revitalizer.

• The right people receive training. The emerging revitalizer and existing church pastor who need training the most are those who are already engaged in renewal ministry. Whit the training focused in the church we move from training the wrong individuals to training and equipping the right people.

Flexibility. When it comes to church revitalizer development, “one size” does not fit all. Around the world, Church Revitalizers from a vast variety of cultures, backgrounds, experiences, education levels, need to be fostered. Our renewal approaches must be flexible and customizable. In addition, the environment is rapidly changing around the church today so flexibility in our approaches to renewal is required.

Self-supporting, self sustaining and self propagating. The local church provides the financial support for the learning process, thus maintaining both responsibility for and control of the development of its own emerging church revitalizers. The church must also become self-sustaining so equipping future revitalizers for the work of the ministry is essential. Then the local church must become self-propagating in its effort to regrow the work of the Lord in their setting.

Ongoing skill sets and life long revitalizer development. The equipping and training is not limited to a certain period of time, but continues throughout the church revitalizers lives. Leaders are built over lifetimes!

Effective evaluation. Members of the local community who know the emerging church revitalizer and who work with him on a regular basis are the best ones to help him both establish clear goals for his development and evaluate his growth toward those goals.

5. Churches building new revitalizers.6. A Move from a Church Growth Paradigm to

a Restored Emphases on a Biblical Paradigm

Revitalization: "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first..." (Rev. 2:5).

That is the three-fold emphasis of the paradigm: Remember...Repent... Recapture the first things.

A PARADIGM is a way of thinking. When our lives come into alignment with Romans 12:2, our way of thinking gets re-aligned with God’s thoughts and ideals.

“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

To get the app, you can go to the Google Play Store or the Apple Apps Store and search for Renovate Conference. You can download a copy of this presentation or subscribe to the Church Revitalizer Weekly Blog from Tom Cheyney.

ORLANDO

Developing An Intentional Church Revitalization Paradigm for the Twenty-first Century!

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