Version 2

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.

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Suffering comes to everyone.

Sometimes it comes in the form of routine setbacks and disappointments. At other times, suffering is deeper than that, more tragic, even devastating. Enduring suffering asks something of us that few of us are prepared to give. The pain of it all puts us on our heels, tests our character, and strains our relationships.

But what do we do when suffering is someone else’s to endure? What is our responsibility to the sufferer? How can God use us who are looking in from the outside as ministers of mercy?

In the Bible, we read about a man named Job who experienced unimaginable loss. Within only a few days he lost his livestock (livelihood), his servants, his children, and then his health. His wounded and despairing wife told him to give up on God, but he refused. And then three friends showed up.

Job’s friends did not get everything right. In fact, Job’s suffering revealed they had much to learn about the ways of God. But their initial efforts remind us of a few important ways we can respond to our friends who suffer.

Now when Job’s three friends ​— ​Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite ​— ​heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense. Job 2:11-13

Even as you look in from the outside, consider these four practices God can use to provide great comfort to friends who are suffering:

Show up.

Notice that Job’s friends left their home and went to Job. Technology allows us to communicate quickly and even personally, but there is no substitute for your physical presence.

When a loved one dies, it’s common for the family members to hold “visitation,” which gives friends and family the opportunity to show up.

Some kinds of grief are just too much to bear alone.

So whenever possible, do whatever you can to be present. Even if it’s to sit quietly in a waiting room, or to come and go at a funeral home, to share a meal or do something fun together, just show up.

Make room for grieving.

The church leader, Paul wrote to Christians in Rome that we should “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). Job’s friends went to comfort Job, but when they saw him and the terrible situation he was in, they wept with him.

As uncomfortable as it makes us, lament is an important part of life. Some things make us sad enough to cry.

So to comfort someone isn’t to insist they stop feeling sad or to stop crying. It isn’t to fix their pain. Rather to comfort someone is to feel deeply with them, and then to sit and cry with them.

Serve obvious needs and ask about the others.

Suffering makes us vulnerable, so sufferers need help. They may need groceries picked up. They may need meals prepared. They may need transportation, or help with their kids, or for someone to make a few calls.

Like a cut finger or a broken leg, our most immediate pain blinds us to every other need in our lives. So sufferers don’t always know what they need, which means they can’t tell us exactly what they need in the moment. But if we know them, we know some of their needs and will show kindness, patience, and sacrifice to meet those needs.

Even then, it’s important not to assume too much. Not all needs are as obvious as physical ones. Job’s friends simply made too many assumptions that did not serve Job well.

Pain often causes people to close themselves off, to self-protect. We may even say they are “shutting down on us.”

So there are likely needs that we will not know or understand unless we ask. So when the time is right, ask good questions. And when you ask, be prepared to respond with empathy, grace, and mercy.

Pray for God to give comfort

Flowers, notes, and acts of kindness from faithful friends minister to the afflicted in immeasurable ways. But the comfort of the soul that will sustain through the dark nights and long days ahead only come from the presence of the Lord.

For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 2 Corinthians 1:5 

No suffering is wasted suffering. And no suffering hinders the abundant mercies of Christ.

God does amazing work through the most difficult seasons of life, so protecting or rescuing others from pain is not the goal. Explaining away suffering is not helpful either. Instead, praying and trusting God with our friends so that they will experience the wonder and sufficiency of Jesus in their suffering is the greater goal.

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