Church planting movements are expanding because we need new churches. In urban and rural communities alike, existing churches alone cannot reach everyone fast enough who needs to hear and respond to the Gospel.
But existing churches, even churches that struggle to remain vibrant, still have a role to play in reaching their neighbors and the nations in Jesus’ name. So in addition to supporting church planting efforts in the U.S. and around the world, our church began to pray about how God would allow us to replant an existing church in our community.
Perhaps revitalization was baked into our church DNA as not too many years ago we found ourselves in a difficult place. The church had a tough stretch marked by division and decline. When God called me to pastor Green Hill Church, I found a hopeful, resilient, but uncertain congregation. By God’s grace and a lot of hard work, we experienced new growth, raised up healthy leaders, and achieved a new measure of financial stability.
We have a long way to go to becoming the kind of church we believe God has called us to become. By most standards, we are a medium-sized neighborhood church, but we’ve taken major steps toward health that has most recently led us to adopt a nearby existing church for the purpose of replanting it as multi-national, multi-generational church that makes disciples of Jesus who live for His Kingdom.
So why have we stepped into church revitalization now? At least these four realities shaped our decision-making:
Loving our neighbors means putting them first.
Jesus modeled the kind of love he expected us to show. And when he loved us, he set aside his own rights and privileges and took on the form of a servant. The apostle Paul wrote,
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4
It’s reasonable to content that churches, as well as individual believers, are called to this kind of other-centeredness. Yet too often in congregational life, we assume our children’s ministry needs to be the best in town before we think of others. We assume our music program and our facilities and our situation must be well in hand before we offer a hand to people beyond us.
While our church family faced tremendous challenges we made a decision not to “circle the wagons” to simply survive. Instead, when finances and human resources were limited, we looked for ways to give. We began giving to mission causes beyond us. We sought out local leaders to discover how we could bless our community. We embraced, in the only ways we knew how, the role of a servant.
God honored that posture by not only preserving us, but by allowing us to join his activity in ways that were impossible before.
Joining God’s activity means abandoning some of ours.
When we follow Jesus, we eliminate every other priority. Saying “yes” to him means saying “no” to a lot of other really good things. So when we began to ask God to allow us to plant or replant churches locally, we had to stay flexible. We wanted to put ourselves into a position to hear from God and to respond with enthusiastic obedience.
So even before the conversation began with this church we would eventually adopt, we tapped the breaks on some of our goals, put our “yes” on the table, and trusted God to direct our next steps.
Reaching the nations means beginning sooner than later.
If young couples waited to have children until they were ready, none of us would ever have children. Likewise, a church is never completely ready to start or revitalize another church. But with a growing percentage of our neighbors living without God and without hope in the world, delaying is not an option.
We are not caviler, and we do not rush into new efforts ill advised. But also do not allow fear, traditionalism, personal preferences, or small faith to paralyze us as we wait for the perfect time.
In our case, a congregation had been praying and looking at their options for over four years. When doors opened for us to possibly be how God would answer their prayers, we all desired to be found faithful stewards of the opportunity before us.
Not every need reveals the will of God, but when God makes his will known, we want to follow sooner than later. Our neighbors and the nations are waiting.
Making disciples means sharing ministry with kingdom partners.
Among my tribe of Southern Baptist churches, we value church autonomy. That is, we value the local church and its ability to govern itself. The local church makes all local church decisions. Yet we also embrace the value of cooperation.
Not one church, no matter how large, wealthy, or influential can accomplish the Great Commission alone. We need each other. Local churches working together advance the Kingdom of God among every nation, tribe, and tongue.
So church planting and church revitalization invite churches in any location and at every stage of development to join in. In the local church setting, it gives followers of Christ new opportunities to trust God, exercise their gifts, personalize missions, and make disciples who will make disciples.
And it allows churches of all sizes and abilities to pray, participate, and to contribute financially to something that reaches beyond their reach.
As you and your church begin a New Year, this may be your time to consider other churches ahead of your own, to push “pause” on some of your plans, and to join what God is doing to bring new life to a struggling church so that Jesus will saves souls and bring new life to an entire community.
Note: Green Hill Church is adopting and replanting Glenwood Baptist Church, Nashville, TN (sign pictured above). For information on how to partner with this multi-national, multi-generational church replant, please visit greenhillchurch.com.