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Showing posts with the label outreach

The Way of the Towel: Greatness, Redefined by Jesus

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by Bart Denny Central text: John 13:12–17 (NIV) Over the years, in church settings, I’ve done a lot of dishes. I’ve raked a lot of leaves. I’ve painted plenty of church walls. I’ve plunged more than a few clogged toilets. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. But if I’m honest, at this age, with this many years in church, there’s a part of me that wants to say, “I’ve done my time.” I don’t usually say it out loud. I dress it up. I call it wisdom. Focus. Stewarding my time well. But the feeling sneaks up on me. It shows up when another need pops up. When the same few people carry the same load. When I feel tired. It shows up when I think, “Shouldn’t somebody else take a turn now?” And I’ll confess something else: I don’t mind serving. I just want to choose the terms. And if I’m not careful, I start thinking and acting like the low places belong to somebody else. Now let me be even more honest: I don’t struggle with getting my hands dirty. I struggle to keep my ego in check....
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The First Step to Church Revitalization

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by Bart L. Denny, Ph.D., Th.M. So your church needs revitalization, and you don’t know where to start? Maybe you have no financial resources and not much of a volunteer base. Perhaps you’re struggling to pay your bills and keep the facilities in good repair. And you’re down to seven people—all of whom are beyond their physically best years. Perhaps you don’t even have a pastor anymore. Or, your church situation may be far from dire. The congregation is paying its bills, and there are reserves in the bank. There is more than one full-time paid staff member. But the early signs of decline are there. Attendance has been trending down for the last few years. Outreach initiatives meet with less enthusiasm amongst the membership. New faces are a rarer sight on Sunday mornings. While specific strategies for successful revitalization would differ in some specifics between the two church situations I’ve just described, the starting point for—and the continued focus during—revitalization is some...
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Ten Critical Barriers to Church Revitalization—and How to Overcome Them

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by Bart L. Denny Church revitalization is never easy. There are no silver bullets, quick fixes, or one-size-fits-all strategies. But if we’re honest, the root issue in most struggling churches isn’t a lack of programs or people—it’s a lack of Gospel focus. When Jesus Christ is no longer central, everything else begins to drift. The path forward must be prayerful and Spirit-dependent, marked by repentance and renewed devotion to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. Only when we place Christ and His mission at the center of our church’s life can true revitalization begin. Below are ten of the most common barriers that keep churches from moving forward—along with general remedies to help overcome them. 1. Resistance to Change Long-standing traditions and deeply ingrained preferences often create powerful resistance to change. Many congregants fear that letting go of the past means abandoning what’s sacred. But revitalization isn’t about chasing trends—it’s about reali...
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Cultural Diversity in Leading Church Revitalization

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This paper will demonstrate the crucial importance to church revitalization of cultural diversity—race, ethnicity, and age—that reflects that of its neighborhood. By almost any metric, church decline in the United States is at epidemic levels.  In the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) alone, the denomination’s North American Mission Board projects that by the end of 2019, over 900 churches will have closed their doors during the year (Clifton, 2019).  Sadly, this is a trend that has continued for several years and accounts only for the closures in one denomination (albeit the largest Protestant group).  Reliable numbers are hard to come by, if not non-existent (and Clifton admits that the SBC’s numbers are probably not as dependable as he would like).  However, if one projects this trend across all of evangelicalism, an assumption Clifton sees as valid—the number of evangelical churches closing their doors each year is assuredly staggering.   Among one of t...
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The Ugly Babies of Church Revitalization

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by Bart Denny Your baby is ugly. I know—that’s harsh. You don’t want to hear it, and I get it. We’re talking about your baby, after all. She’s not stunning. But you love her. You’d defend her with everything you’ve got. Especially from the guy who just called her ugly. I’m that guy. No, I’m not talking about your kids or grandkids. I’m sure they’re gorgeous. I’m talking about your church. Your church is an ugly baby. Or at least statistically speaking, it is. Depending on the source, somewhere between 65% and 85% of American churches are struggling—ugly babies at best, smoldering dumpster fires at worst. And that’s based on numbers before COVID-19. In the last year and a half, I’ve seen the reality for myself across multiple regions. Churches are far less welcoming than they believe. Congregations are inward-focused. Sure, they support “global missions,” but they’ve outsourced the actual work of evangelism to professionals. They're not making disciples—at least not ...
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