From time to time, I enjoy bringing in a guest blogger – especially when they can bring you something new or different than what my personal experience allows for.
To that end, I’ve asked Don Ross to share some posts on Church Revitalization (or Turn-Around Churches). Don is an Advanced Coaching Alum and the Lead Pastor of Creekside Church in the Seattle, Washington Area.
Hope you find this helpful:
The First Turnaround Church – By Dr. Donald E. Ross
As a coach, I’m often asked how to lead a church through a turnaround situation and see it become vibrant and healthy again. You know the kind of church I mean. It has a rich history and a poor present, a large rear view mirror and a small windshield. You get it.
I tell people I have a great turnaround coach myself, who has been helping stumbling pastors find their way in the fog for the last 2000 years. They smile and respond obligingly, but I’m serious.
Jesus knows very well how to confront lazy pastors who won’t do their job, as well as how to confront churches that stop dedicated pastors from doing their job.
In many ways, the challenge of a turnaround church was written for us 2000 years ago in Revelation, 3:1-3. The letter to the church of Sardis says,
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
Look at how Jesus confronts this church in Sardis, which I believe was the first turnaround church in history.
A declining church often had a reputation of once being alive, but it is dead now. I know our church had the reputation of being alive. I’m told our church was the largest church in Seattle in the late 1980’s.
In my first years as pastor, when someone in our church reminded me of our history and how large we once were, I reminded them I wasn’t here then and our church is no longer that way. I didn’t win points with that response. It was my way of reminding us we had a “reputation of being alive, but we were dead” in mission.
Secondly, as a turnaround pastor you are called to “strengthen what remains and is about to die”. To our knowledge, every one of the seven churches in Revelation went out of business, just like the more than 4,000 churches in America that go out of business each year.
A turnaround leader is called to see a better day for the church they are serving and be willing to endure the pain necessary to get the church there. The critical decisions necessary to move a dying church towards health and mission are painful and hard. In fact, just getting your church to admit it’s dying may be the hardest thing of all.
But never forget you serve an expert in resurrection and He loves to bring the dead back to life, so get after it. He is an awesome coach.
For information on the Turn Around Church Coaching Network, see www.turnaroundchurch.org
P.S. For a package of resources to help you evaluate and improve the Systems of your church, check out The Systems Seminars Package.
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