When Church Revitalization Doesn’t Go to Plan: Learning from the Stories We Don’t Often Share

By Dan Steel

Sometimes, despite our best hopes, our most prayerful plans, our track-record and our wholehearted efforts, the church we came to love and to serve doesn’t grow. The vision doesn’t take root. The resistance is stronger than we ever expected. The momentum never builds. Or the cost – financial, relational, emotional, spiritual - proves greater than we anticipated. And we quietly step back, or are asked to step down, often without much of a chance to process what just happened. And we leave feeling bruised and broken.