Planning for the new year

The new year brings new opportunities for churches, families and individuals. I've always looked forward to the start of the new year because of the opportunities to learn new things, to have new experiences and to see how God will work in my life and the lives of my family. At the same time, I do not believe in merely sitting back and waiting to see what God will do. I'm convinced we have a part to play in this as well. Each of us needs to have some plan, a vision, for what we want to see happen in the new year.

For a number of years I set several goals I would work on in the coming year. Some of these would be short-term that would be achieved before the year ended. Some would be longer term that would need several years to see fulfilled. These would include goals for my family, my ministry, my finances, my own self-care and any other thing that I felt was important. I used a goal-tracking program to ensure I was making regular progress on each goal. One of the things I learned was that setting these goals allowed me to accomplish much more than if I had just sat back hoping that something good would happen that year.

Every goal was not fully achieved. Once I set a work goal of reaching a certain number of people I would serve in an area of my ministry. I came up about 10 people short of that goal. When our Executive Minister asked why I thought I didn't reach the goal, I explained that I knew that goal would stretch me, but I had still achieved more pursuing that goal than I would have without the goal. Occasionally, I would realize that a particular goal I had set was not for this time in my life, and I would stop working on it. Sometimes, God would lead me in a different direction for a certain goal. It's often been said if you want to make God laugh just tell Him your plans. I've made God laugh a few times, and He has led me in a different direction than I thought I would take.

What goals have you set for 2024? Without goals you run the risk of coming to December 2024 and look back to see that you really didn't accomplish very much, you didn't grow very much, and everything looks much like it did at the end of 2023. No one should be satisfied with that. 

Set goals and find ways to hold yourself accountable to achieve them. If you have goals for the most important things in your life you will find yourself more in control of what's happening rather than drifting around wondering what's happening.

Hulk Hogan and Jesus Christ

 Several months ago Kat Von D moved into a community in the next county from me. She is a tattoo artist who had her own TV show starting in 2007 and running for four years. After moving into the commumity she began attending a small Baptist church, a church in which I had preached numerous times as it's judicatory minister. A few weeks ago it was announced that she received Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior and was baptized in that church. While many Christians applauded her conversion to Christ, some were critical questioning whether this was all a publicity stunt or some other sham. Her responses to that criticism has convinced me that her acceptance of Christ was real. I welcome my sister-in-Christ into the family!

A few days ago I read that Hulk Hogan, the well-known professional wrestler, also was recently baptized. For years, I followed professional wrestling starting with Dick the Bruiser in Indianapolis and up to more modern times that included the Attitude Era. Judge me if you want! I'm sure that critics will show up questioning Hulk's baptism. I would suggest it's not for you to judge! This is between Hulk Hogan and God, and God alone is able to judge what is in Hulk Hogan's heart.

Rather than criticizing, perhaps we need to be asking if God is doing a new thing. Prior to her baptism, Kat von D destroyed her witchcraft books saying they no longer reflected who she wanted to be. Hogan and his wife were baptized together, and he says it was the greatest day of his life. 

I am accepting that both of these events are true examples of what God is doing, and I celebrate with both individuals. One of the things this tells us is that God wants to reach the up-and-out as well as the down-and-out. Both Kat Von D and Hulk Hogan were at the top of their fields. Both were very successful; both were wealthy, and yet, both realized that there was something, or someone, missing in their lives. This is something our churches need not forget. All people need Jesus Christ.

 

The pastor shortage Part 3

 In recent posts I've been addressing the pastor shortage that is impacting our churches. If you haven't read those, I encourage you to go back and do so. Today, I want to continue this discussion with an additional thought about pastoral leadership and its value to our churches.

In the past post I focused on some things judicatories can do to help their pastors and relieve some of the pressures of pastoral ministry. Another thing our judicatory was able to do when I was serving on our staff was to help relieve some of the financial burdens our pastors felt. We were able to do that due to a very generous grant made available to us through Lilly. We were able to pay off student debt, medical bills, and other debts our pastors had. Can you imagine the impact that had on those pastors and their families? We also sought donations from our churches into a fund to enable us to continue to support our pastors in this way. Since I've been retired for a few years and out of the loop, I don't know if this program still exists or not, but we made a major impact on the finances of our pastors through this opportunity.

Again I am emphasizing the impact a judicatory can have on the health of its pastoral leadership. When pastors feel supported and appreciated by their judicatory leadership, they are less likely to leave the ministry. But, there is another advantage here that judicatories can enjoy. You can attract better pastors to the churches in your region. When pastors see that they are going to be supported by the judicatory they are going to become more interested in serving in that region or district.

No one has influenced me more in the area of leadership than John Maxwell. In his wonderful book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,  he begins with Law 1, the Law of the Lid. The Law of the Lid says that no organization can rise any higher than the lid of its leadership. If the leader of any organization, including churches, has a leadership lid of a four, it can never rise higher than a 3 in effectiveness. The only way to raise the effectiveness of the organization is to raise the lid of its leadership.

As a lay leader in a church, do you want to improve the effectiveness of your church? The only way to do that is to raise the leadership lid of your pastor and lay leaders. As a judicatory leader, do you want to raise the effectiveness of the churches in your judicatory? The only way to do that is to raise the leadership lid of your pastors and the lay leaders in your churches. In the midst of a pastor shortage, do you want to raise the leadership lid of the pastors in your judicatory? The only way to do that is to attract the best pastors to serve in your judicatory, and the way to do is to become known as a judicatory who best serves its pastors. When you become knows as a judicatory that appreciates and supports its pastors, you will find pastors taking a second look at your open churches. As you attract better pastors and leaders to serve in your judicatory, you will find your judicatory begin to grow. Your churches become healthier, and they begin to grow. You have better leaders to serve in positions within your judicatory. It's a win for everyone!

The pastor shortage Part 2

 Yesterday, I addressed the problem of a shortage of pastors and offered some suggestions that might help. I want to continue that conversation today.

I have a lot of respect for denominational leaders. Like pastors, they have a lot of people wanting to advise and influence them. In many denominations, they spend much of their time trying to satisfy the different interests within their denomination. I have spent my ministry in the ABC-USA, the most diverse of any denomination. I know my denominational leaders walk a tightrope trying to keep all the special interest groups satisfied. While I have great respect for the diversity found in our denomination, I can sometimes get frustrated when our leadership doesn't take a stand I think they should take. At the same time, I understand why they don't. Having said all that, there is much they could probably do to help address the clergy shortage that exists within our denomination, but I have little hope they will. That brings me to our judicatories.

When I retired as an Regional Resource Minister in our region I was serving 133 churches. One of the things I tried to do was serve as an advocate for the pastor. When pastors were unfairly terminated by a church I fought for a fair severance package of at least six month salary and benefits. I didn't always win, but I usually got something for the pastor. Usually, it didn't hurt my relationship with the church, and when it did, it was normally with a very unhealthy church so I didn't really care. They had greater issues than being angry with me. I encouraged churches to be very generous with their salary and benefit packages reminding them what it will cost if they have to seek new pastoral leadership. I argued for sabbaticals after seven years for their pastors. 

I challenged every church to give their pastors four weeks vacation every year. Most wanted to offer two weeks when the pastor started, but I would remind them of how little it actually cost them to give their pastor the extra two weeks. Most of those churches paid $150.00-200.00 for a supply pastor, so that extra two weeks would cost them at the most $400.00. I then explained how much those two weeks would mean to the pastor and his or her family, and that would only cost the church $400.00. I worked very hard to make sure that the pastors and their families knew I supported them and would do anything I could to make their ministry more enjoyable. Pastors need to know their judicatory leaders support them, and, from emails I've received over the years, many do not.

I'm also convinced the best continuing education for pastors will come through their judicatories. They know their pastors and what they need. They know their churches and their needs. Parachurch ministries, and even denominations, do not know the churches and pastors as well as the judicatories. More of these training events need to be scheduled at the judicatory level. When I was serving on regional staff we offered a three-year continuing education opportunity we called "Church Alive" which was designed to bring renewal to our churches. I think we had mixed success, but at least in some churches we did see some renewal come as a result of that program.

In short, I believe that our judicatories can do much to help our pastors, and by extension, our churches, enjoy fruitful ministry. That enjoyment will result in fewer pastors wanting to leave the ministry which leads to many positive things in our churches.

The pastor shortage

When I began serving as a Regional Resource Minister in 2001 it wasn't uncommon for me to be able to give Pastor Search Teams 30-40 pastor profiles that seemed to fit their search requirements. Understand, I didn't give them that many all at once. But, that many would come back when I entered their information into our denominational profile system. That soon began to change, and by the time I retired from that position in 2019 I was fortunate to provide 5-6 profiles that might meet at least some of their requirements.

Since retiring I have served two churches, good, strong churches, as their Transitional Pastor. One took two years to find a pastor, and the other church took 2 1/2 years. I am now serving a third church in this position, and they have been without a pastor for nearly three years. I am their second Transitional Pastor. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find a pastor for the traditional church. To find a bivocational pastor is even more difficult.

There are many reasons for this: fewer people enrolling in seminary, and of those who do enroll, many are not planning on pursuing pastoral ministry when they graduate, the current people serving in ministry are aging and retiring, the stresses of ministry drive many out of ministry into other careers (50% of seminary graduates leave the ministry within five years after graduation), some ministers are focused on serving in newly planted churches rather than in traditional churches, the lack of denominational support that exists in many denominations (this one isn't often mentioned but it bears a study of its own), and a list too long to mention in a blog post. Regardless of the reasons, most denominational leaders will admit that there is a severe shortage of pastors for churches, and this isn't likely to improve soon.

How do we solve this problem? Perhaps the first thing is to address any unrealistic expectations that some churches might have when seeking new pastoral leadership. A church of 30 people do not need a seminary trained, MDiv graduate to serve their church. They need a bivocational pastor who loves God and feels called into the ministry. When I worked in the factory every new job I had I learned through on-the-job-training. When I began as a pastor I had no experience and no education beyond high school. It was on-the-job-training which I later supplemented by attending a Bible school and pursuing more formal education (all while serving in ministry) and eventually earning an MAR and a DMin. 

Secondly, we might look at how we prepare people for ministry. For decades (perhaps longer) seminaries have primarily trained persons preparing for pastoral ministry to be research theologians. When they graduated, they really weren't equipped to do either! You'll notice when I attended seminary it was to earn an MAR which was much better preparation for pastoral ministry than the typical MDiv. (I often get into trouble for saying that, but I'm 75 years old so I don't care!) The MDiv is great preparation for those who plan to eventually earn a PhD, but it's probably an overkill for persons called to pastoral ministry.

We also need to look at what needs to be offered as continuing education. Regardless of what one studies in college and seminary, much of it will be outdated in 10 years. In fact, some of what we are taught in college is proved to be wrong within a few years when further research is done. Churches change, culture changes, and in ten years much of what we have learned in our studies needs to change as well. Just this evening I was looking at my library and realized that I needed to throw out many of my books because they are simply outdated and no longer apply to today's ministry needs. It was not a pleasant realization!

There is much more that could be said, but this is enough for this post. Look for future blog posts for further thoughts.

The growth of non-denominational churches

Thom Rainer is a well-respected Christian author who produces valuable resources for the church. In a recent post of his that I read he addresses the growth of non-denominational churches. He points out that many of our denominations are seeing a significant decline in membership and attendance. For instance, the United Methodist Church has seen their membership decline from 3 million to 2 million with expected further decline as more churches leave the denomination. The Southern Baptist Convention had 16.2 million members in their churches in 2006, and that number fell to 13.2 million in 2022. Furthermore, the SBC saw a nearly 40 percent decline in attendance in those 13 years. These are significant decreases in two of our largest denominations.

At the same time, he notes that 13 percent of American adults now attend non-denominational churches which is more than the SBC and UMC combined. I might add that the national media seldom reports on this growth among non-denominational churches but often reports on the decline experienced by the denominational churches. Rainer offers five thoughts on why he believes the non-denominational churches are growing.

1. They tend to be more evangelistic. In general, they tend to see their purpose to be reaching their communities for Jesus Christ, and their efforts are directed to that end.
2. They invest more money in local evangelism. While most of the churches I served as a judicatory minister said they wanted to grow, their budget was primarily directed toward their current membership. Non-denominational churches tend to budget more money for outreach.
3. They spend less time on conflict issues. When you are focused on doing positive things you have less time to fight over minor details.
4. They have no baggage associated with a denominational label. Like Rainer, I think this has been over-emphasized. While many people today do not choose a church based on its denominational affiliation, I do not believe most reject a church for that same reason. Still, there may be some people who will reject a church due to its denominational affiliation.
5.  It is a proven fact that newer churches tend to grow faster, and many non-denominational churches are newer. I read recently elsewhere that this tends to end when the church reaches eleven years of age. At that point, the church is likely to become more structured and begins to lose its initial emphasis on evangelism. That will be something interesting to study further.

I tend to think there is another reason Rainer doesn't mention, and that is the way these churches are structured. In many denominational churches it can be very difficult to do anything new. Committees and boards often study new proposals for months before presenting them to the congregation for approval only to see them turned down by a handful of people who show up for a business meeting who haven't spent 10 minutes studying the proposal. In the newer, non-denominational churches the structure is often much leaner. They trust their leadership to lead, and these individuals make most of the decisions for the church in much less time.

Denominational churches serious about wanting to grow need to compare their church to what Rainer has identified as elements of growing churches. As I've written many times in this blog, your structure is perfectly designed for the results you are getting.

Recent trip

 Last week my wife and I flew to Austin, Texas to spend time with our son and his youngest son. His other two children are on the east coast and would not be there at the time of our visit. We typically only see him a couple of times a year so we were eager for the visit. I was a little apprehensive because the past two years we've had flight issues due to weather causing delays and cancellations. I'm happy to that was not the case this year. We had zero travel issues and very good flights.

Family is always important, but especially so during holidays. For most of us, holidays such as Christmas are times filled with joy and excitement. That is not always the case for others, especially if they have lost loved ones since the last holiday. For those individuals, the holiday season can be a time of painful memories, and the sense of separation from those loved ones increases. It's very important that we do not forget those individuals and to make sure we give them extra attention during the holiday season.

The holiday season can also be a difficult time for families that are in conflict with one another. Family gatherings can be stressful with everyone walking on eggshells. Life is too short for such conflicts to remain. Jesus taught us to forgive, and this is especially true when there are family issues. As a pastor and an auctioneer I have seen families fight over the most minor things with neither side willing to give. That's a hard way to live. Especially Christians should be quick to forgive. If there are issues within your family, reach out and try to find peace during this Christmas season.

The purpose of the church

 In 1995 Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Church, was released. It immediately became a best-selling book, and it remains one that should be required reading for all pastors and church leaders. The reason is simple: most of our churches are drifting with no real sense of direction and purpose. Warren's book shows us how to turn that around.

We are wrapping up another year. If your church is like most churches, you may look back and wonder what you actually accomplished for the Kingdom of God. You may have had a lot of programs and activities, but at the end of the year, what did they accomplish? One primary reason for the lack of achievement in most churches is that they had no sense of vision and purpose behind the things they did. Until we identify the purpose of our church and begin to have a vision for how we can accomplish that purpose, we will continue to drift and achieve little.

The mission of the church is quite simple: it is to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. This mission is the same for every church regardless of location or size. The vision of the church, however, will be different for each church because it will address how a particular church will fulfill that mission. Your community will be different with different needs, and the people in your church will have differing gifts and passions. What will enable one church to fulfill its mission will be different than what will work in another church. Therefore, the vision must be different. But, once your purpose and vision is clear you can then focus on doing the things that will produce results.

The challenge then will be to make the changes necessary in the church that will allow you to focus on that purpose and vision. Nobody likes change except a small baby. Most of our members are not comfortable with change, and in all honesty, neither do many pastors. We like the familiar, the known, the life that doesn't create problems. Once you begin to refocus the direction of the church you will encounter problems.

Church members who view their pastor as the church chaplain won't like it when he or she begins to focus more attention on unchurched people. Years ago I coached my son's Parks Department baseball team. A friend who pastored another church was also a coach in a different league. His church told him they didn't pay him to coach baseball, they paid him to be their pastor. He finished out the season and soon left the church. They could not see the ministry value in him being involved in the community.

What is the purpose of your church? Can your members clearly express that purpose? Does your church budget and calendar reflect that purpose? As we begin a new year, what needs to change to make that purpose a reality in your church?

Dare to think big thoughts

 Perhaps nothing limits us more than spending our lives thinking small thoughts. In his book, Thinking for a Change, John Maxwell writes: Unsuccessful people focus their thinking on survival, Average people focus their thinking on maintenance. Successful people focus their thinking on progress. What he writes about individuals is true of churches, businesses, families, governments and all organizations.

When I served as a regional Resource Minister most of the 133 churches in my area were focused on survival. They had been in decline, some for decades. There was little time spent thinking about growth or addressing new ministry needs in their communities. They only had one thing on their minds: survival. In some cases, they had financial reserves in the six figures but would not consider spending it in an effort to reach more than the 20-30 who normally attended their services. They were afraid they would lose their savings and be unable to survive as a church.

I would argue that they had already ceased being a church. Jesus gave the church the Great Commission which focuses on reaching people for God, not survival as an institution. In fact, as I have mentioned in the numerous pastor conferences I have led, God is not interested in whether or not your church survives. He is interested in whether or not you are doing what He commanded His church to do, and if not He will raise up other churches who will.

Many times I heard from frustrated pastors and church leaders how some churches seemed to be able to reach new people while they struggled to stay open. I heard complaints when we would help start new churches. "Why not give that money to your existing churches instead of starting new churches?' was often their complaint. The answer was simple although it was seldom expressed: These new churches have the potential to reach new people. Your church ceased reaching new people a long time ago.

I often heard other complaints from our existing churches. One common question was why new churches in the area seemed to be unable to keep up with their growth while the existing churches were trying to desperately to stay open. I usually responded that the new churches thought differently about ministry than existing churches. Existing churches were often highly structured with boards, committees, monthly business meetings and required church approval from nearly everything from staffing to the color of the toilet paper used in the restrooms. The new churches trusted their leadership to make the vast majority of the decisions. In other words, they thought differently than existing churches which enabled them to respond quickly to ministry opportunities.

For too long, churches have been handicapped by small thinking. We think in terms of what we do not have instead of what God has. We often have a scarcity mentality instead of remembering that God own the cattle on a thousand hills. When we catch God's vision for our church and pursue it, He will bring us the resources we need to see it become a reality. I encourage every pastor, every church leader, to dare to think big thoughts that will advance the Kingdom of God.

What is a soul worth?

While serving as a judicatory minister one of my pastors was being attacked by a group within his church. I attended a business meeting and was pleased that the church's deacons stood up at the start of the meeting and affirmed the pastor's ministry and what the church was doing. The budget and other items were approved with no negative votes. When the meeting ended about two dozen people surrounded me with their complaints. One of the complaints was the amount of money being spent on youth ministry in the church. The spokeswoman for the group said the church had recently spent $800.00 to rent a rock climbing wall for a youth retreat, and they believed that was a poor expenditure of the church's money.

I explained to her that I received the church's newsletter each week, and in almost every edition there was a report of the number of people, including many young people, who were saved in the church during the past week. I then asked her, "What do you believe a soul is worth? Do you think spending $800.00 is too much to reach one person for Jesus Christ? If you do, I have churches that won't spend $800.00 a year on their youth ministry. Maybe you would be happier attending one of them." The group walked away, and many of them left the church over the next couple of weeks. Because of the ministries of the church, it was able to replace them, and more, within a few months.

Many churches would have given in to this group of church critics, but the pastor, the deacons and most of the congregation refused to do so. They understood God was doing a good work in that church, and they were not going to let a group of discontented people hold up that work.

One thing is certain...when a church begins to be effective in reaching people for Jesus Christ, Satan will come in and try to stop it. The weapons he most often uses are people within the congregation. They will point out that things are not being done according to the constitution or Roberts Rules of Order. They will question whether funding was achieved through "proper channels." They will loudly cry out the seven last words of the church: WE NEVER DID IT THAT WAY BEFORE!

For too long churches have caved into to these critics, and our churches are suffering because of it. Men, women and young people are dying and going to hell because we permit critics to limit what we and God want to do in our churches. Tom Bandy wrote in Fragile Hope some words that have affected my ministry since I first read them. He wrote

All you need to ask is: "Do you love controllers more than your own children, parents, neighbors, and work associates?" Is it more important to keep controlling clergy, matriarchs, patriarchs, wealthy trustees, or dominating institutional managers, rather than welcome your own teenagers, parents and immediate loved ones into the community of faith? The choice may be as profound as "Christ or institution," but for most people it is as simple as "Controller or my teenager.? If one must go so the other can belong, what will be your preference?

I'll ask again...what is a soul worth?

Tearing down walls and building bridges

One of my doctoral classes was on church growth taught by Elmer Towns. One day in class he asked each student to tell the class how high the walls were around their churches from 1-10. He explained that every church has built walls, often unintentionally but sometimes on purpose, to keep out the people they do not want in their church. Each student had to give him a number. Most of us gave a number between 3-5. When we finished he told us if we wanted to grow our churches we had to remove those walls and begin to build bridges into our communities. I've never forgot that lesson.

Dr. Towns was right...every church has walls that often keep new people away from the church. Those walls may be the way we treat first-time guests. They may be in the way our church is structured. These walls could be the appearance of the church property that sends the wrong signals to observers. They could be the reputation the church has for the way it treats its pastors or members. The style of worship in the church can be a wall that keeps people out. Our traditions often becomes walls that divide "us" from "them." Frankly, anything can become a wall that excludes people.

One problem with walls is that we are often not aware they exist. We become so comfortable doing church the same way we always have that we don't notice that our traditional ways of doing things tell people they are not welcome. Having served in denominational work for 14 years I visited a lot of churches that did a very poor job welcoming guests. In fact, some were so bad that I developed a workshop on church hospitality that I presented to a number of churches. From the moment a first-time guest enters the church property that person will make a decision within 10 minutes as to whether or not they will return. They make that decision based on the walls they encounter.

It's vital that churches begin to identify any walls that exist in their churches and begin to remove them immediately. Yes, some of those walls may be sacred to some members, but if they are a barrier to people experiencing God in our churches, they need to be removed. In 1995 Bill Easum wrote a great book titled Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers that addresses the need to remove some of the sacred cows found in many of our churches, and he points out how leadership can make this happen.

The cross of Jesus Christ should be the only stumbling block the unchurched should experience in any of our churches (1 Cor. 1: 23). We never compromise the gospel in order to appease others, but we do need to remove our man-made walls that keep people from hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. Instead of building walls, let's build bridges into our communities to help make it easier for others to experience what our church has to offer and the message we have to share.

Replanting a church

 Over the years I've been fortunate to read a number of the histories of various churches. In every case, these churches were formed by people who had a vision for a church that would serve that particular area. I would say that every church that has come into existence did so first because of a vision a group of people had. The vision laid the groundwork, and then the hard work began as people made that vision a reality.

Today most churches are in trouble. They have had declining attendance for years. It is commonly accepted that 80 percent of churches in the US ae plateaued or declining. In every seminar I've led over the years I have pointed out that this number is misleading because a plateau lasts only for a very short time. In reality, the church is either growing or declining. To say it is on a plateau might make the congregation feel better, but the truth is that the church is likely in a state of decline.

In my 14 years as a judicatory leader I worked with many churches seeking new pastoral leadership. In my first meeting with their search team I would ask what they wanted in their new pastor. In almost every case they responded they wanted a pastor who would grow their church. I eventually would follow that response by saying, "So, in other words, you want a pastor who will come in here and change everything you are doing." That usually resulted in an immediate "No!" I would then explain that if they could grow their church by doing what they were already doing, they would already be growing. If they are serious about wanting to grow, they must accept that significant change will be required. Sometimes, these comments resulted in a good conversation; other times I was not invited back to help the search team find a new pastor.

I have come to the conclusion that when a church has been in a significant decline for an extended period of time they need to replant their church. In other words, they need to start from ground zero just like a church that is just starting out and begin to build a new church. In our judicatory we have helped closed churches for a couple of years and started over, but this is not always required if the church is willing to see themselves as a replant.

Replanting a church is not easy. In fact, it may be harder than starting a new church from scratch. In a replant the church has to overcome the traditions that exist in the church. Everything has to be open for change, and this is not easy for an existing church. The key to replanting a church is that EVERYTHING HAS TO BE FOCUSED ON THE CULTURE YOU WANT TO REACH. This is not an easy concept for the current membership. When the church was first established, it was focused on the people it sought to reach. The same must be true in a replant.

Traditional churches like choirs, organs and hymns. Is this the culture you need to reach to grow the church? Probably not, which means that new forms of music needs to be introduced, which the current congregation may not enjoy. Traditional churches like committees, boards, and incremental change. Is this mindset found in the culture you hope to reach? Probably not, which means your church structure may need to change. One of the most helpful rules of thumb I have ever learned is "YOUR STRUCTURE IS PERFECTLY DESIGNED FOR THE RESULTS YOU ARE GETTING! If you want different results, you have to change how your church is structured, and not every church is willing to do that.

Replanting a church is one of the most difficult things a congregation can do. Many will refuse and will eventually find themselves among the approximately 5,000 churches in the US who close their doors every year. Those who begin this journey will find it difficult but one of the most satisfying things they've ever done.