Skip to content ↓

7 Reasons Some Churches Experience Revitalization (While Others Don’t)

Sponsored Collection cover image

Rainer
By Thom S. Rainer

I have a great love for local congregations. To be sure, I’ve never been in a perfect church. They just don’t exist.

But I still love local churches.

One of my greatest joys in the past several years has been to see and work with churches that have experienced significant turnaround. While that turnaround is typically evident in attendance numbers, it is much more than that.

I recently categorized those reasons some churches experience revitalization. I then compared them to churches that have not been revitalized. I found seven differences between the two sets of churches. These are the seven traits unique to the revitalized churches:

  1. The leaders and members faced reality. One of the reasons most churches don’t experience revitalization is their unwillingness to “look in the mirror.” Denial leads to decline which leads to death.
  2. Many in the church began explicitly praying for God to revitalize the church. I know of a leadership group in one church that prayed every week for over two years. The church is now in true revitalization.
  3. The churches had an explicit and clear focus on the gospel. Preaching became clearly gospel-centered. Ministries became gospel-centered. And many members began intentionally sharing the gospel, which brings me to the next reason.
  4. Members did not just talk evangelism; they did evangelism. I did not see a specific approach or methodology to share the gospel in these congregations. It was clear, however, that there was a more focused intentionality on sharing Christ than in many previous years.
  5. Many members in these churches began focusing on serving Christ through the church rather than seeking their own preferences. Another way of stating it is that these members became other-focused rather than self-focused. This attitude seemed to be directly connected to their prayers for revitalization.
  6. These churches raised the bar of expectations. Thus membership in these congregations became meaningful. Members moved from spectators to participants.
  7. The churches developed a clear process of discipleship. The members became more immersed in the Word. There was a clear and cogent plan to help members grow in their walk with Christ.

Do not count me among those who have their heads in the sand about the state of congregations in North America. As many as 100,000 churches are very sick or dying. Many more also need revitalization.

I hope you can join me for a video consultation on church revitalization at RevitalizedChurches.com. It will almost be like I’m at your church offering you guidance and hope toward the future. You can click here to sign up for the four-part overview of the series at no cost.

Yes, I remain an obnoxious optimist about local churches. I am seeing too many indicators of His work to believe otherwise. Let me hear from you. And I hope to see you in the video consultation on church revitalization.

What are your perspectives on the need for church revitalization? What do you think might be missing in many churches?


  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (May 20)

    A La Carte: The foibles and fallibility of Christian leaders / Mental illness / Why didn’t Christ come sooner? / When it’s okay to die / Spiritual formation / and more.

  • Unlock Your Ministry Potential with Microcredentials

    Are you looking for accessible faith-based resources that can help you serve your church community with confidence? Check out Redeemer University’s online church leadership microcredentials—available anytime, anywhere. #Sponsored

  • Discernment

    What Does a Discerning Person Do?

    Some Christians seem to be specially gifted when it comes to spiritual discernment. Others take a special interest in discernment and expend the hard effort of growing in the discipline of it. But they may sometimes wonder: What should I do with this discernment?

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (May 19)

    A La Carte: Dangers of theological controversy / No confidence? No problem! / The goodness of gardening friends / Jeff the low stakes prophet / Hurting people / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Prayer

    The Reward They Longed for They Received

    Jesus, who knew what was in the heart of men, warned of the hypocrisy of those whose prayer life is only ever public. “When you pray,” he said, “you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (May 17)

    A La Carte: Generalizations are not stereotypes / Hospitality and reaching the dechurched / Essential lessons for pastors / The rise of Islam and the resilience of the church / Gossip and godly church / Fear takes you where grace has not yet gone / and more.