5 Big Rocks of Church Revitalization
5 Big Rocks of Revitalization
To preserve our fellowship’s Gospel footprint
At Assist Church Expansion, we’re working really hard to try to preserve the footprint of the gospel where we already have churches. We do that through revitalization and restart. At Assist our process for revitalizing or restarting a church, we call our FIVE BIG ROCKS.
The first big rock is UNITY. We need to unify the church. First, the leaders of the church, then the key stakeholders of the church, then to the congregation itself. Jesus said a house divided against itself cannot stand. So we have to be unified. Unless the whole church is unified towards a partnership and process for revitalization or restart, we will not move forward. The first step is unity.
The second big rock is LEADERSHIP. Most churches that are in a position that need revitalization and restart are looking for a shepherd or teacher. Both of those gifts are really important in the church, but a church can’t go from where it is to where it needs to be without a strong leader. We’re looking for a strong leader to help that church move forward. And that leader we’re trying to find is someone who’s also aligned with us theologically. We work hard to make sure that the person who’s coming to take on a fellowship church doesn’t just want to lead the church, but wants to be part of our family. That’s really important. The second rock is leadership.
The third big rock is TEAM. You can have a fantastic leader, but he’s limited to the gifts that God has given to him. There needs to be more than one or two gifts applied to the vision and strategy in the execution of a plan. It’s really important that he has a team of people to round that out. Also, having a team gives you more people in the church to push that vision forward. And the leader isn’t doing it by himself. It’s really important to have a team.
The fourth rock is a PLAN. We want to help the church build a comprehensive strategic plan. Our goal, an assist isn’t to give them or prescribed way of doing church. We actually want to help them think through for themselves, “How do we reach our community? How do we make disciples? How do we reproduce?” And at the end of the day, they don’t just have an idea of what they’re trying to accomplish, but they have a comprehensive strategic plan. The fourth big rock is a plan.
The fifth big rock is LAUNCH. You’ve got unity in the church. You found the right leader. He’s built a team and now you have a strategic plan. Now we want to execute that plan and launch that new vision into the community and reach more people for Jesus. We want to see a new day happen for that church.
Bake the Cake. The illustration that we use to tie this all together is like inviting people over to your house for dessert. But when they get there, you’re not ready for them. The house is dirty, the table is not set, and there’s no cake ready for dessert. But what we want to do is we want to clean the house, set the table, finish baking the cake, and then we open the door. We want to unify the church, find a great leader, build a good team, finish building a strategy and strategic plan. Then we want to launch that new vision into the community and see who God will allow us to reach and create a new day for that church.
