Were you recently appointed as the new pastor of a small church?
Over the summer, I’ve met with new pastors, freshly ordained, who have been appointed to very small churches in rural areas, or some churches in urban pockets that have been in decline for years.
What are some possible ways the small church pastor can help grow the church through evangelism? [Read more…] about So You Are the New Pastor of a Small Church, Now What?
Ron Crandall’s presentation on Church Transformation.
The audio didn’t record.
Upcoming webinars:
Signup for our Free Evangelism Tips Newsletter to get notice of future webinars.
As I continued to read through Ron Crandall’s book, he gives a list of principles for church renewal and revitalization from the ages of church history. It may seem like a no-brainer, but at least observations through church history back it up.
1. Personal renewal.
Renewal of a church begins with renewal of the individual. Sometimes that might be a dramatic and decisive experience such as a conversion moment at a church service, or answering an altar call or responding to the invitation to receive Christ. I had that moment of conversion myself when I was still in my teens.
For others, such as those who grew up in a church it might be a deepening of faith, where you know it’s yours and not that of your parents.
But all of us go through spiritual dry seasons, and there are those events that bring a fresh wave of personal renewal. Some have found them at events like the PRMI Ignite weekend, Cursillo, Walk to Emmaus, Presbyterian Pilgrimage, ABIDE, Tres Dias, Lay Witness Mission and so on.
2. Corporate Renewal.
A new awakening in the life of a church — there is a new cooperation among believers wanting to fulfill the vision of God for the local congregation, a new sense of praying into God’s vision. Sometimes it might be a more dramatic revival.
3. Conceptual Renewal.
This is a stage where the people of a congregation receive the fresh vision of what God wants to do with the congregation. Old models are challenged, risk taking becomes more normal, and often churches will begin to rethink what they are about.
4. Structural Renewal
With a fresh vision old programs fade. Old structures are laid aside. The church begins to reorganize itself to respond to the new direction that God is leading. Any form that is helping the church to find its new life and be faithful to its history should be kept. Any that deny the new fresh fire from the Spirit should be modified or retired.
5. Missiological Renewal
A church needing renewal is overly inward focused. As churches turnaround, experience renewal and revitalization, the church begins a new focus on mission and service to the world. Sometimes renewal begins here. . ..
This week and next, you’ll be reading about small church transformation, particularly the role of evangelism, based on a study of small churches first done in 1995 and then updated in December of 2008. These first few posts setup some of the background and are meant to be in small blog-size portions for easy consumption.
In Turnaround and Beyond: A Hopeful Future for the Small Membership Church, Ron Crandall takes a brief look at renewal in church history and also highlights some observations from current research on leadership. In broad strokes he offers the contributions of these disciplines to small church renewal and revitalization.
Church transformation is more than merely renewing or producing a good organization through competent leadership. Crandall puts forth a couple of lists that indicate the role of leadership in church renewal
Furthermore, Crandall lists some dynamics of renewal cleaned from business leadership studies.
Crandall’s observations are based in Howard Snyder’s Signs of the Spirit: How God Reshapes the Church. The key point he walks away with is
The first and perhaps most critical beginning point for renewal is to understand that the church has an inborn tendency to grow. Growth is in its genes. Whatever its pathologies every church has a vital urge toward its own health and renewal. The reason for this is simple and simply profound: The church is the body of Christ. The very Spirit of Jesus is at work in his church, always prodding and drawing it toward life and renewal.”
From Synder’s work, Crandall draws out
Crandall has studied others who have contributed to the field of small church renewal and has seen that
“the emphasis is on the importance of open and visionary leadership,
the creative use of all persons’ gifts and
the humble heart of a servant leader.”
What does the transformational study of turn around churches reveal? That’ll be tomorrow’s post. To get it automatically, sign up for the RSS feed.
Order your copy of Turnaround and Beyond: A Hopeful Future for the Small Membership Church Direct from Amazon.
While at the Mt. Vernon Evangelism Dunamis, I had the opportunity to visit with some elders of the Deming Presbyterian Church in Northwest Washington State (Acme WA), with about 15-25 people in worship.
Here is what one of the elders had to say [edited for spacing and readability]:
On the evening we and other church elders met with Chris Walker, he was able to provide new insight and confirm existing notions about reaching our community for Christ.
His taking the time to first hear about our church profile and current state of evangelistic activities before offering input was encouraging and helped make the title of Evangelism Coach fitting for Chris. He then proceeded to offer direction that was both appropriate and doable.
. . . .
Chris also drove home some great points we all could benefit from :
- Seek the face of God when we pray; we want to follow His will not our program.
- When we meet as a group to seek the will of God, save the brainstorming until after significant time is spent in group prayer.
- Once an inventory of community needs is taken, know that no church can meet them all. Ask the Lord to direct the church to which needs it is called to minister to.
- Do ministry with the stamp of Jesus clearly visible. It needs to be publicly proclaimed that our work is empowered by the love for others that flows from Jesus, through us and into the lives of others.
- Get out! These Post-Christendom times require us to get out of our building and into the community.
The following Sunday morning in our Adult Study time, after inviting our Lord’s leading, we had discussion about our mutual desire for our little church to become more connected to our community.
Next thing we knew we were inspired by an idea . . . . .
To conclude, I would say that Chris is about delivering the truth in a way that emulates how Jesus does it: He turns our attention and hope toward our Father.
Grateful,
Bruce Burke
Do you want a similar coaching session with your church outreach team or leadership team?
This type of meeting can be conducted via conference call and is travel free.
There is an expense for my time, but this church pastor said it was worth every penny to see his elders re-energized!
See Church Leadership Coaching Session to schedule your call and find some fresh ideas.
Risk free.
I and one of my co-teachers just finished the The Evangelism Dunamis track in Mt. Vernon Washington, about 2 hours north of Seattle.
One of the joys I get in my travels as an evangelism trainer is meeting new people all over the country.
Pastors from various denominations and gifted lay ministers.
At this conference, new initial groundwork was laid to start a new track of the Dunamis project sometime next year in multiple places in Washington state as well as perhaps just over the border from southern Western Canada.
Prior to The Evangelism Dunamis, I had an extra day, and spent the morning with Mike Neelley (left) and Bob Ekblad of Tierra Nueva Ministries.
Bob (right) had returned from the southern tip of Argentina the night before, as he is an international speaker and trainer.
Tierra Nueva (New Earth) is an ecumenical ministry located in Burlington, Washington, that seeks to share the Good News of God’s liberation in Jesus Christ with migrant farm workers, new immigrants, and permanent Hispanic residents in Western Washington.
Tierra Nueva is caught up in a vision of a shepherding ministry that seeks after lost sheep until they are found (Luke 15:4). They have consciously structured our ministries to:
• seek after lost sheep until they are found–through Skagit County Jail Ministry, migrant chaplaincy, and Tierra Nueva Honduras.
• care for, defend, and protect–through the Family Support Center.
• gather, feed and heal–through our English and Spanish faith communities, bilingual jail services and healing services.
• equip and send out–through the People’s Seminary events and courses.
Mike told me of one gang member he disciples who is smoking a joint while studying the Bible. He told me of a sex offender he meets with. He told me of former meth addicts who are now working for the ministry trying to get their life reoriented around following Christ.
This kind of Christianity on the edges is messy as God works transformation in real life. People on the margins. This takes a special calling and is the prime opportunity for evangelism as broken people seek to find their purpose in life.
Bob has written two books that are now on my reading list of books to get
The executive of the Presbytery of North Puget Sound, Corey Schlosser Hall (right), organized a lunch for us.
Some Cambodian church planters (left) joined us at lunch. It seemed to be a divine appointment for Bob Ekblad (tallest one in the back) to meet these church planters at lunch. I had time to visit and talk with these men about their work among Cambodian immigrants they work with.
That evening, I had the joy of visiting with Pastor Tom Ross of Deming Presbyterian Church and Mount Baker Presbyterian Church. He and 3 elders for some evangelism coaching — talking about the burning questions on their mind.
These were small rural churches in the hills of Northwest Washington, with about 15-25 in worship. A 3rd elder was from a church of about 600, tucked in the back of a subdivision, away from the main traffic flow.
Two questions were on the minds of those gathered:
We spent about 90 minutes brainstorming. They reported to me what a blessing it was to have me lead that session and they felt energized with a new list of ideas (see Church Leadership Coaching Session).
One elder wrote (edited for spelling and clairty):
Thank you for the wonderful evening when Chris
Walker visited. I found his style very natural
for our little church. We needed his calmness and
small town way about him. I know that what he does is
truly from the heart. He allowed us to express
ourselves and our needs.
He responded to our questions and gave us his
undivided attention. I
believe we found in his answers some answers that were
right in front of us.
The Evangelism Dunamis is focused on personal evangelism training. (See related article: 10 Practical Ways Of Sharing Your Faith)
It began on Thursday morning and ended in celebration on Saturday afternoon where people offer their stories of what God was doing in their life during the event. Several people from lots of different Christian traditions attended.
Much of the content for The Evangelism Dunamis is found in various pieces here on Evangelism Coach, and it is always fun to present the material live.
This time, my co-presenter was Susan Finck Lockhart (See Guest Article: Sharing your faith in the ordinary course of life), who is part time pastor of El Calvario Presbyterian Church in Waco Texas.
We focused on some theology, including the wonder of grace, but much of the teaching time was also given over to lots of practical work, praying and sharing in small groups:
For my newest subscribers through the EvangelismCoach feed and Monthly Evangelism Tips Newsletter, here are some important links that I highlighted at the Evangelism Dunamis.
I will also post over the next few days, the actual slides that we used for the event since I wasn’t able to get them printed as handouts.
Did you attend the conference? I’d love for you to put your words of encouragement in the comment form, or email me privately if you wish.
Send this to a friend
