A Guide to Church Revitalization

by

A Biblical guide to help existing churches begin to thrive and flourish for the glory of God.

Dr. Al Mohler edited a great volume on church entitled, A Guide to Church Revitalization.  11 chapters written by different pastors and professors, it is a great look on how to take any church forward.

DISCLAIMER: Every church need revitalization.  Don’t read anything else into the fact that I am reading this book.

Oftentimes, people will wonder by things people post that they are trying to imply this or address that.  Someone could read this book and say, “Does the church you are at need serious revitalization?  Did the pastor before you not do something?  Are you reading that to make a point to someone else?”

I read this book because of the wealth of wisdom contained in it and the fact that NO church is where they need to be completely.  Every established church and church plant need revitalization or else they are dead.  Every Christian is constantly in need of the gospel revitalizing his or her soul.

I have been blessed in my ministry career to be under a fantastic pastor in Jeff Lethco at North Side and to step into giant shoes left before me by Ken Forrester at Rocky Creek.  What I have learned from both of these men is always to pastor individuals and a congregation continually into God’s will.  Each of those guys could have written a chapter in this book!

With all that being said, let me share with you some of my favorite quotes from this great book.

Favorite Quotes

  1. Then there is this obvious fact: if existing congregations do not thrive, there will be no one to plant, sustain, support, and lead church planting (9).
  2. We call this “Legacy Church Planting” because it gives a dying church the opportunity to live on through a new work that starts in their church building (16).
  3. God demands holiness from all of his people, and rarely do people rise above their leaders; as the leaders go, so go the people (19).
  4. True spiritual life will never happen in a church that narrows its focus to the exclusion of believers who don’t “fit the profile” (30).
  5. It is a hollow victory in evangelicalism to have won the battle for the Bible in the academy only to domesticate it in our pulpits (34).
  6. Church members who want to see their churches come alive through revitalization must commit themselves to growing as Christians with other Christians through interpersonal spiritual disciplines (42).
  7. Pastors must preach and teach the Word in such a way that they believe it is the only way God can revive a struggling congregation (48).
  8. It should be your prayer and committed practice to unfold to the people of God the whole counsel of God (58).
  9. I wonder how the language of revitalizing means anything different from what we call pastoring (66).
  10. The longer I stayed, the more I realized I was just as broken and in need of Jesus as they were (76).
  11. We realize that nothing is as powerful in the advancement of the gospel as a healthy New Testament church (83).