I recently realized that I have come to use the term “revitalization” as a means of insulating myself from failure and isolating myself from my flock’s imperfections. This realization has brought me face-to-face with my own failures and imperfections. What happens when your ministry philosophies fail to be the magic bullet you had imagined? What happens when you employ best practices and wise council with fruitless and even adverse results? What happens when you have to face your own inabilities and short comings?
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As I have watched our church through the cycle of growth, plateau, and decline several times in the last 15 years, I have learned there are some good, healthy, and exciting ways God shows to be at work in a church even through decline. I want to challenge this common way to evaluate local churches with 5 reasons we want a church decline that demonstrates health and life, not dysfunction and death.
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In the tough, early years of my ministry, I thought I was the patient one. I was enduring through the criticisms, judgments, and actions to remove me. As the years have passed, I have realized that it was the other way around. These faithful saints, wounded by previous pastors for decades, were being patient with me.
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