Do you know the number one change needed for an effective church revitalization? It’s not programs, systems or structure. Everyone always things about those first. Those are easy to change. Okay, well, maybe not easy. Try changing the library into a welcome area or removing the choir robes.
But there is one change even bigger than those if you want effective church revitalization.
The number one change is an ideology. It’s a mindset.
It’s deciding what’s important. Asking questions such as, why we are a church? What would God have us to do as one? Church revitalization means changing the focus from “us” to “them”. We have to think about those who might never attend the church – but might if we begin to think about them more.
It’s valuing empowerment of others over the control of a few. We need new ideas and that means getting more people at the table.
Revitalization means realizing our external energy – “going outside the walls” – must be equal or greater than our internal energy. (And we might even need to measure those activities and see how our budget aligns with it.)
If the church truly wants revitalization it will have to make the hard choices. That almost always begins with an ideology – a mindset – of who we are and how we function as a church. In fact, many times it is simply getting back to the Biblical basis of church.
Change the mindset – Change the church.
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This article on church revitalization originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
