Video Transcript: Lesson 1 Introduction and Class Overview

Welcome. My name is John Kenny. And I am going to be your instructor for this  class with Christian leaders Institute. And before we get started on all these  lectures and all this wonderful teaching from scripture, I'd like to introduce  myself. So at least you have a little bit of idea of who I am and how I came about to this place of teaching you about church and ministry, revitalization. I have  been a local church pastor, for about 20 years, that's how long I've been in full  time ministry and I have served in big churches, and I've served in small  churches, I've served in churches I've had, who were very contemporary, I've  served in churches that are very traditional. I've been a youth pastor, an  associate pastor, and a lead pastor. In addition to that, I've also served as a  chaplain in the United States Army. And when I did that, I worked with soldiers  from all different kinds of backgrounds and, and denominations. And I mentioned that just because as we head into this class, I want you to know that there's a  broad base that I am coming from that, as we talk about revitalization, we're not  going to be talking necessarily about a specific theology, or denomination or  worship style, we're really thinking about the church as a whole, very broadly.  And so that wherever you are going through this class, that hopefully, it will hit  you with exactly what you're looking for, and exactly what the Lord needs to  teach you. Now as we go through all the different lectures at different times, I will reference certain things that are going on in the American church and sharing  some statistics. Now, the reason I do that is because that is my context. That's  what I'm most familiar with. However, I realized that a number of you have will  not be very familiar with some of the things that are going on in the American  church. And that's fine. There's no way we're going to address the topic of  revitalization or anything and be able to hit everybody exactly where they're at.  However, I would say that a lot of the things that go into church ministry decline  and stagnation, those kinds of things. The principles tend to be universal,  they've been seen in different countries and in different times throughout the  history of the church. So even though we'll talk, I'll reference some American  dynamics, I think wherever you're at, you'll probably get a pretty good  connection to what's going on, wherever you happen to be. Again, what we're  going to be dealing with is really human nature. And churches, across the globe  and across time, tend to battle the same sorts of issues. And that's really what  we're going to be addressing a little bit more about me as we get started. My  educational background, I have a master's in divinity from Princeton Theological  Seminary, and I have a doctorate of ministry in from Reformed Theological  Seminary. And I just share that so that you have a sense of what my my  background is, and that I have spent quite a bit of time studying and thinking  about this. In fact, my my Doctor of Ministry is in church revitalization. But even  more important than that, and the studying and the research. Even more  important than all the work I've done in the classroom is the education I have  had, as a pastor, and as a ministry leader, trying to bring about revitalization, to 

the congregations and the people I serve. And I have learned a lot along the  way in the last 20 years, both in success. And in what I don't know how to say  disasters or flops. I've learned a lot from both of those things. And so my hope is that I'm going to be able to pass along some of those lessons to you, and that  this class is going to be a blessing for you, wherever you are, whatever kind of  ministry you are leading, that when we get to the end of this, you'll have a whole  different idea of where God is leading you and calling you as his man or woman. So, before we go any further, we need to pray. We're going to start and end  every class with prayer. And for obvious reasons, we need the Lord's help. So  wherever you are, let's join together in prayer. Lord Jesus We come to you. And  we ask for your blessing on this class, we pray that the words I speak would be  helpful that they would reflect the truth of your word. And Lord, for the students  watching and listening, Lord, may they be attentive. And they truly learn, Lord,  not just for knowledge, but to see a change a real change in their ministry. So  Lord, I pray your blessing on them, even now, as they watch this, amen. So let's, let's talk a little bit about you, and why you are interested in taking this, this  particular class. So there's 36 lectures, you're gonna have to do readings, you're gonna have to do quizzes. So I'm guessing that there was something about this  class that you saw that you said, I would really like to know more about this. So  let's talk about that. So let me ask you these Do you ever feel like ministering? Is not what it could be? Do you ever feel like your ministry is stalled, or declining,  or is stagnant, and there's just this sense of like, I know what it could be, I know  what it should be. And it just simply isn't that. Or maybe you, you feel  sometimes, like I've tried all different kinds of things. And, and nothing seems to  work, you feel like you've emptied out your bag of tricks. You've read books,  you've done the conferences, whatever it is, you've you've taken advice from  fellow people in ministry, and it just isn't going anywhere. Or maybe you feel like  you just can't try any harder. You're working as hard as you can, you're giving  your absolute best effort into this. Your best ideas, you're, you're, you're wearing yourself out trying to get this ministry to turn around, and it just simply isn't  happening. Perhaps you feel like it discontent as you are with it, nobody else  seems to be they're. They're okay with it. And you're trying to lead a group of  people that just seem unmotivated, or possibly uncaring and they, they love the  Lord, they have faith in Jesus Christ, but when it comes to really kind of living it  out, and, and following Christ and mission, it just seems like it's just flat, and  there just isn't any support behind you. Maybe you feel like, kind of related to  that, it's impossible to lead that you are with a group of people. And God loves  them, God bless him. But they are just, it's like mules, you know, like you can,  and you've run out of carrots, you have run out of sticks, there is nothing to get  them to move. And they just are very, very hard to get to adopt any kind of  change, to see any kind of progress. And maybe you feel like, you need to go  somewhere else. Maybe you feel like that, because of where your ministry is, 

you're so discouraged. You're so hopeless, that I just need to pack up my bags  and go somewhere else. And it's an accumulation of things that there's declining attendance. And people aren't have fervent prayer lives, they're not reading  scripture, you're getting a hard time people to serve. And anytime that you have  an idea that you want to lead people in you're just like banging up against a hard wall. And so maybe you're thinking you need to go somewhere else. And maybe  you're even thinking you should do something other than ministry. And if that's  where you're at, I want to just tell you to hit the pause button. Those are very,  very common feelings ministry is an incredibly hard calling. And what you're  experiencing is very normal, we'll be talking quite a bit about that is what you're  going through is quite normal. And I would just encourage you to, to hang with  me through these classes, especially the first few lectures, you're going to hear  a lot of really hopeful words and encouragement, and that's for you. Just hang in there. Really, there's a lot of good stuff coming. If you feel like any of these  things that are on the screen, I can relate. The church I serve at now I arrived a  little over 12 years ago. The church I served was founded in 1850. So as of the  recording, the church is 169 years old. So you can imagine there's a lot of  tradition, there's a lot of culture. There's quite a bit of history in our congregation. And before I'd gotten there, there had been about the previous 25 to 30 years,  incredibly trying, multiple pastors had left over, or just horrible moral situations.  The church had split over some property purchases. It was just the church was  hemorrhaging. And by the time I had arrived, that the church was less than half  the size, it was just even three or four years previously, and I knew coming in,  that I was going to be taking on a revitalization project, I had no false illusions  that this was a growing healthy, vibrant church. And I just had to jump right in, I  knew this was going to be really, really hard work. So let me tell you just a touch  about that now, and I'm going to tell you a little bit more about it as we go  through the lectures. But when I first got there, you know, I had all kinds of ideas about things we can do. Some of the problems that our church was facing, were  really obvious. It didn't take a rocket scientist or great theologian to figure out  what some of these problems were. And so we started to do some things. And  we did some planning, and we did some rearranging and I did some  challenging, and we did some encouraging, and I guess I could say things were  okay, I guess being there, I brought a little bit of stability, but in terms of like  actual change, not a whole lot. And I was really discouraged by that, because I  taken my leaders away for a retreat, and we come back, and we'd worked for a  few months, and we came up with this great plan. And then when it came time to actually do something with it. Nothing happened, like nobody really seemed to  care. If you go back to this one. Others seem to be okay with it, it's hard to lead,  I brought those up, because that was my experience. We would do things like go out and have like evangelistic days or projects are serving, and we put a lot of  time and effort into it. And we'd get a decent kind of turnout. But then when after 

it was done, there was no momentum. And as soon as we finished something it  went right back to who we were before. One of the bigger things I tried was  starting a new service and thinking, wow, you know, we'll get some new energy,  and we'll get some new leadership and we'll get new people and that will really  help the congregation. And certainly that's not an original idea. Many, many  churches have tried that. And I can say my experience was It was an absolute  disaster. That by the time we shut it down, which we did, it was so disconnected  and so poorly done, that the people in our church, were rooting against it. Can  you imagine that the people in your ministry, the people in your church are  rooting against an initiative to do something for the kingdom of God. So if  brother or sister if you are there right now, and you feel like you've got some  stumbling blocks of people, I am with you all the way I know just what that is  like, and I know exactly how disheartening and discouraging that can be. Now  now the thing that really confused me. Or what I look back on that is, is I didn't  know why I wasn't getting anywhere. I had no idea why why we weren't moving  forward and getting anywhere. Because the ideas I had, they seemed like good  ideas. Again, the situation I was dealing with it. It was pretty obvious what the  problems were. My heart was in the right place. I was praying a lot about it. And  yet nothing was happening. And so I became discouraged, confused, really left  scratching my head. But if I'm honest with you, when I look back on that whole  experience, my first several years at this congregation, I didn't even really know  exactly what kind of change I was trying to bring about. I didn't even know where I was trying to lead the congregation. I mean, I had thoughts of like, well, we  want more people or we want, we had some programs that weren't really done  very well. And it was like, well, we could do those much better. We could maybe  introduce some new ones. But as I thought about it, those as well intentioned as those things are. They seem kind of shallow. And here's what I mean. Because  when I thought about kind of the things I was trying to do, it really didn't fit the  pattern that Jesus had established in, in the Gospels. Because I was thinking as I was trying to get more people to come, I thought, When did Jesus ever say, we need more people to show up at this event? When was Jesus ever about  attracting crowds? And actually, Jesus often is dispersing the crowds. And he's  trying to spend more time one on one. So I kind of felt like, I don't know if I'm  real. I mean, I know that great commission and all that. And we'll, we'll get to  that. But this idea of just drawing crowds for the sake of crowds, like that didn't  seem to be like anything Jesus did, and And what about programs like Jesus  didn't have any programs, he had none, nothing like that. So I got the sense that what I was trying to do, like, number one, I didn't even know what it exactly was,  I didn't really even have a definition for revitalization meant and what it looked  like and how you could get there. And really no idea of what the heck I was  supposed to be doing. And so perhaps, if you're there today, you can join me  where I was starting out in thinking, I am in the deep end of the pool. And I don't 

know how to swim, I am completely overwhelmed scratching my head. Lord  Jesus, please tell me what to do. And I had thought about leaving where I was,  at the ministry I was at, just because, and I loved the people, I just thought, I  don't know if I'm the person to help get them out of this to where they want to  be. And, and yet, at the same time, I felt so called by the Lord, to go to that  church, to love them, to minister to them. And to bring them out of that it was  such a strong conviction I had when I first started when I received the call to go  to that church. So if you're there, dig in your heels, stay where you're at, I  couldn't have been any more lost and confused and discouraged than where I  had been. So let me tell you about where we're at now. So we are about seven  years into a very, very, very intentional process of revitalization of trying to turn  the church around, and to bring life back to it to bring health and vitality and, and to really be the church that Christ has called us to be. And that is something that we talked about, we focus on daily. And we've we've got some a bunch of  outside help I did a bunch of studying on it, I've got some wonderful people who  have really caught a vision for that. And so we're seven years down the road.  And, and I can't say like we've arrived, we've figured everything out, because I  don't think on this side of heaven, any church gets there, you never arrive. You  never figure it all out. But I will say that together the congregation I've, we have  gone pretty far down the path, certainly a whole lot further down than where we  were initially. And the Lord has worked in just the most wonderful ways. And just  so grateful to see all the change and the transformation and the positive things  that have happened, that have really not just changed, you know, our hearts, but like just the culture of the church and, and how we understand our walk with the  Lord. So I'll just touch on quickly, kind of our goals and my purpose for the class, and they're pretty straightforward. One, my goal is for you to be able to have a  ministry that is more productive. And if we want to use the language Jesus does  in the Gospel of John, to bear more fruit to bear a lot of fruit. So for your ministry to do the very things to accomplish the very things for which Christ has called it  into being, okay. So we want to see change, we want to see things happen.  Second, and it's related to have a stronger and healthier ministry. Really what  I'm talking about here is a more faithful expression of the kingdom of God. What  is the church supposed to be and for you to be able to follow that model those  examples with obedience and faithfulness, and to see good things happen  things that would make the Lord delight in your church. Now we'll talk more  about this that's that doesn't necessarily mean you're growing in size and  numbers and you're building additions and second services. The Lord may  choose to do that, but there are many, many faithful expressions of churches  and ministries that don't experience that. Some of that's very contextual. If  you're in a, let's say, a really rural area, you're probably going to be fairly limited  size wise in what you can do in terms of growth, however, you can become a  much, much more vibrant and faithful expression of the kingdom of God, where 

you're at. And then finally, one of my goals for you is just for you to have a more  joyful experience as being a leader in the church of whatever ministry that you're involved in, that you would take, just delight in what you're doing and working  with the people and that you would have a sense of reward and satisfaction in  ministry. Because I know what it's like to lead without that. And so if we can help  you experience some of this and remember why it is that you heard the call to  ministry in the first place, we'll have done a lot of good. And just for us to be  joyfully leading our congregations where we love them. We embrace them. And  we don't want to ever think of this and sometimes revitalization this, this can be  the case, we don't want to think of the congregation versus the pastor. We don't  want to think of the people we lead as our adversaries or our enemies, or they're an obstacle we have to climb over. No, they are the bride of Christ. And we are  to love them and joyfully serve them. So one of the big goals here is helping us  get to that place. So let's talk just for a moment about what we're going to do in  the class. What's going to be our approach, how are we going to handle this  whole subject of church and ministry revitalization? First and foremost, we're  going to be looking to God's word for instruction, your Bible, my Bible, it is a  revitalization handbook. All that we need to know about bringing life back to  God's church is in our Bibles. I want you to think a little bit about Scripture. How  it is a revitalization handbook, think about how both Old and New Testament are  filled with stories of God calling his people back to a place of renewal. I mean,  we can throw all the prophets into that, right? I mean, the ministry of the  prophets is all about. You know, taking God's people who have sinned who have erred, who strayed been disobedient, and bringing them back into a relationship  of obedience and faithfulness and joy and blessing with him. And we have other  stories of people in the Old Testament who've led revitalization. We can think of  Ezra when he comes back after the Babylonian exile, and he uses God's word  to bring about revitalization. And in a similar way, a similar way prior to the exile  of Babylon. The wonderful King Josiah led Judah through a time of renewal and  revitalization. And guess what, again, he uses the word. And back then they  didn't obviously have the New Testament because it hadn't happened yet. So  they were reading, leading revitalization, just with Old Testament, you know, law, the Torah. And obviously, God has revealed and done much more since then. So we have a fantastic resource right here in our scriptures. But let's jump to the  New Testament for a moment. Let's think about John the Baptist. His ministry  was all about renewal about preparing people to come into a deeper fellowship.  As Christ appeared in his ministry, we can think of all of Paul's pastoral letters  and even some of his epistles, but particularly his pastoral letters were sent to  church leaders to help them bring about renewal and revitalization. Because he  addresses in there's there's some doctrinal issues, there's some practice,  practice, practice kind of issues all going on. So we have that. And then finally,  we also have Christ's letters to the churches in Revelations. We'll get to talk a bit

more about that in our next lecture. But all in all, what I want to say is that  there's, there's a lot the Bible has a lot to say about how and how God calls his  people back to himself. Why he does it, and the pros and the cons of all the  different ways people try to do it. So what we're dealing with is nothing new. It's  not unique. It goes all Way back to Scripture and praise the Lord that He has  given us His revealed Word, and we're going to use it to really map out a chart  for ourselves. Second, we're going to consider what others have thought and  said and done. We're not the first people to try to figure out this whole  revitalization and renewal problem. throughout church history, there have been  many people who thought about it and who've been very successful, we would  say very faithful in and how to do that. So we're going to look at some different  folks through church history, we're going to look at some people who were doing things now. And we're going to not just talk about theory, but things that have  been tested and done, and really applied to churches. And then finally, our  approach, we're going to start discussing some practical applications, things that I'm going to challenge you to do, wherever you're at in ministry, how God can  use you to bring a renewal. So let's talk about some of those things real quickly.  We're going to start off with things like what is revitalization? Remember, I didn't  even know I didn't even know what I was trying to do. So we want to really kind  of set the course of what is revitalization and understanding that we're going to  ask the questions, how do you get started? What's like, what's the first thing you can do? Or what are some of the first things you can do? We're also going to  ask the question, how are you going to need to change as a leader, one of the  things I learned early on was that in order for my congregation to change, I  needed to change. First, I couldn't just point my fingers and say, Hey, you're all  messed up, and you're all doing the wrong things. And you should do this, that I  needed to change. And I found out that if I changed, my church began to change as well. So we're gonna talk about how, what are the things you need to change, and that's gonna take some humility, I promise. We'll talk about how do you lead your congregation through a season of repentance, getting them to own what's  going on, and how to come before the Lord and the time of confession. And in  turning back, we're going to talk about the difference between Church Health  and church growth. I'm going to try to help you develop an effective model for  ministry. And you may even not know what that means right now. We'll get to it.  But we're going to come up with a plan for you. For ministry, we're going to talk  about how to expand your leadership base. So it's not just you trying to lead, but that you're going to have a lot of partners and friends in ministry, who are trying  to do the same thing as you. And I think you'll find that when you get that. That's  really the tipping point of a healthy, productive ministry when it's, it's not just you  leading, but it's shared and other people are coming alongside. And we'll also  discuss some very practical matters in terms of how can you be a more effective organizational leader, I can say that when I was in seminary, I got zero training. 

And I went to some of the best schools in the world. But I didn't get any training  at all on how do you be a good leader? How do you get, you know, meetings  that go somewhere? How can you disciple other people to become leaders?  How do you find them, recruit them, all those sorts of things, we'll we'll get to  that as our lectures go on. So let me wrap up here. And I want to say I am so  glad that you are joining me today. And through these next 35 lectures, I am so  glad that you are doing this. And I think you're going to be so rewarded by doing  the Lord's work and bringing life to that which is dying or has died. But let me  just say this, I can make one guarantee. And this is probably about the only  guarantee I will make that revitalization will not be easy. It's going to be very  hard. If it were easy. You would have done it already. Can we just be honest, if it  were really easy, you would have done it already. And so would a lot of other  people, but that's not the case, you haven't done it already. And a lot of people  don't do it. So it's not easy. And my second kind of warning is that there are no  silver bullets to making this work. There's no easy five step program I'm going to lay out for you. We are going to cover some universal principles that are  revealed in in scripture. But you're going to have to do some hard work to  discern what is the unique application of those principles in your ministry  context? So we're not going to be doing copycat kind of work here, you're gonna have to work hard to think about how, what does revitalization look like in your  unique location and generation with the people that God has put in front of you,  in the community in which you're serving, you're gonna have to figure that out.  And so that's hard. It's not easy. It takes a lot of work, a lot of reflection, and trial  and error, to be honest. So, through this process, let me just throw out there.  Now, this is like the disclaimer, it's hard. It's slow. There's all kinds of obstacles  is very humbling. And even when you start to experience renewal and  revitalization, it's not going to look most likely the way you imagine it. But I will  say this, in 20 years of ministry, there is nothing I have done, that has been as  fun, as rewarding, as joyful. And as exciting as being a part of revitalization of  seeing God's people come alive and just playing a part in that obviously, it's the  Lord who's doing the work, but to play a part in that, to see God's beloved bride,  wake up and stir and become a force for His Kingdom. Wow. It's an incredible  experience. And that is what I wish and I pray for all of you. Now that may seem  like a long shot for where you are right now. And trust me, I get it. It feels like a  long shot. But I don't want you to forget this, okay. We are people of the  resurrection. God is a God of life. And as we talked about bringing life and new  life and renewing life into a congregation, let us not forget, that is what the Lord  does. Isn't that the whole purpose of the ministry of the Lord, ever since the  Garden of Eden, through the new heavens and the new earth? It's always about  restoring life and bringing relationships back into full, full measure with him. So  don't forget this. We are people of the resurrection. And God is at work in you  yet. So we're going to close with a word of prayer. Dear Father, we come to you 

in the name of your blessed Son, Jesus Christ. And we ask that you would make a way for us we are about to set out, Lord on a very difficult journey. And yet you call us anyway. And we pray that you would strengthen us. You would let us  humbly receive your direction and you are leading and your guidance faithfully  trusting Lord, that you will take us just where we need to be. Lord, we pray this  in Your name. Amen.