Should I Revitalization This Church?
I have listed some critical questions that you need to ask yourself and you must be brutally honest with yourself about the answer. A lack of honest will lead you to make the wrong decision about revitalizing a church. If you have trouble being honest with yourself, get a trusted mentor or friend to help you answer these questions.
The reason I want to encourage you to answer these questions is because I believe many pastors lie to themselves about revitalizing a church. They convince themselves that they can turn around a church that the Apostle Paul himself could not turn around. I don’t want to see Pastors burn their time, passion, and energy trying to revitalize churches that don’t have the potential to turn around. Or churches that don’t want to turn around and like things the way they are…
This might sound brutal to some people, but we want to make sure we are not investing our time, passion, and energy in the wrong area. If you are going to help a church find new life, then you need to be thoughtful and strategic about the churches you pour ourselves into. We each only have one life and you want to maximize your impact for the Kingdom of God while you are here on this earth. I would encourage you to pray and be honest with yourself about these questions. Of course God can do anything and turn any church around. Above all else do what God tells you to do, but maybe these questions below can help you get clarity from God.
Critical Questions To Ask Yourself
- Do you have the bandwidth?
- Do the people on your team have the ability?
- Are there more people who are willing to go forward in the future with you or more against you?
- Is the financial situation of the church in a state to revitalize?
- Are the key leaders ready and willing to take the risk?
- Will people sacrifice what it will take to reach the disengaged in the community that surrounds them?
- Will you be willing to make the hard choices that need to be made that may cost you your job?
- What are the golden calves in the church? If you kill these will they kill you?
- Who is going to coach you through this process?
- Do you have the staff team to turn things around and are they committed to you as a leader and your vision?
- Is God telling you to do this? (This trumps everything, but the previous questions might help you discern God’s call)
To be clear if God calls you to do something, He can give you what you need overcome any hurdle or challenge. The questions above are simply a tool to help you get clarity.
