In Episode 465 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Ed discuss how to revitalize a small, older church.
“I recently moved back to my childhood church to take on the associate pastor role with the intention of becoming the senior pastor in a few years. The church is under 20 people and has an average age of 65 years old. The neighborhood has an average age of 33 years old. The conversation about replanting the church, revitalizing the church, has been met with a lot of resistance. They feel all we need to do is invite more young people to church and we’ll be fine. There’s also been the suggestion of having a contemporary service that I would lead on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night. What is your suggestion in regards to what the next steps should be in growing the church larger and growing the church younger?”
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
- What missteps to avoid
- How to launch a new service
Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):
- “Anybody who is going through a revitalization is going to have a similar path.” – @edstetzer
- “Starting a second service as an evangelistic opportunity is not a bad idea.” – @edstetzer
- “There are a lot of nuances in church revitalization.” – @edstetzer
- “You need a revitalization process, but that process could take three forks in the road.” – @edstetzer
- “What does it look like to create a launch team to plant a new church – like a church within a church?” – @danielsangi
- “Because the average age of the neighborhood is 33, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to create a launch team and launch a service.” – @danielsangi
- “As it relates to the succession side of things, I would try to gain clarity about the timeline as much as you can.” – @danielsangi
Recommended Resources:
- Watch Replanting With John Mark Clifton [Behind-the-Scenes]
- Take the Essential Church Planting Course
- Read Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer and Daniel Im
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Published February 13, 2020