Video Transcript: Lesson 2 The Necessity & Call of Revitalization

Hello, and welcome once again to this class with Christian leaders Institute. I am John Kenny, and thanks for coming back for lecture number two, you made it  through the first one, good for you. And today, as you can see on the screen,  we're going to be going through a lecture I've called the necessity and call of  revitalization. So this lecture is really going to be in two halves. The first half is  we're going to talk about the the necessity of revitalization. And we can even use the word inevitability that it's going to happen to any church, any Miss ministry,  that it's just going to happen sooner or later. So we'll talk a little bit about that.  And what are some dynamics that are going on, especially in the American  church landscape that really highlight the need for revitalization. And then  second, we're going to talk about the call of revitalization. That there's a biblical  command for us to do something about it. There's a there's a biblical precedent.  Again, we talked about this in the last lecture, that these issues that we're talking about, they are not new, these have been going on, you know, since the dawn of time, God's people have always been faithful, and then straying and then  coming back, and there's always been seasons of growth and within the church  and and seasons of decline. So the Bible speaks to that. And there's a  command for us to respond to it, to do something about it. So as we're going to  do every lecture, we're going to start with a word of prayer. So I would invite you  wherever you're at to join with me, dear Lord, as we come before you this  morning, or this afternoon, this evening, wherever we're at Lord, we pray for an  honest and a humble spirit, that we might be able to face truth. With, with the  difficult situations that we're in that we would not try to make excuses and justify, but Lord that we would embrace our situation, and Lord, we pray that You would  open our hearts and minds to hear what you have to say, Lord, just just fresh  water in the desert Lord speak to us and, and give us all that we stand in need  of. We pray this in Your name, amen. Okay, so I want to begin by doing an  analysis of some statistical trends that have been going on in the US for the last  several decades, we might say the last generation or two. Now, again, I said this in the first lecture, but if you're not from the US, that's fine. I still think this might  be relevant to you, you could learn at least something about what is going on in  other parts of the world. But some of the things the underlying causes we're  going to talk about, I am sure I am positive, that you have the same dynamics  going on, wherever you're at. So, so hold tight, because we're getting there  pretty soon. So let's talk a little bit about some of the trends that are going on.  The broad the broad teaching here is a broad understanding is that for decades, worship, attendance and membership in American churches, is on the decline,  we'd say probably about since the 1960s, maybe even the late 50s. For many  people, the church has become unimportant, or, even worse, completely  irrelevant. There's a reason golf courses and marinas and restaurants are  packed on Sunday mornings, because people are doing other things and and I  don't think they're they're rubbing their hands and they're, they're, they're feeling 

guilty or worrying about not being in church that day. It's not even on their mind.  And so the question is, how did we get to this place? Where this is what's going  on in in our world, and particularly in our country? Well, let's look at some  specific numbers. The Barna Group had done a study in 2014. And they were  documenting the rapid decline of people who were connected to a church. And  so their book is called churchless, which you can see in quotes there. And they  reported this that in the early 1990s, about three out of 10 adults were  churchless so that's 30%. Then in the next decade in 2000 2010, the figure  inched up to 1/3 of the population. So that was about 33%. So there's a slight  increase. Now during the decade we're in now, the figure has jumped to 43% of  people who say they are not connected or tied to any church, they are  churchless, that's a 13% increase since the early mid 90s. Just like a little over  20 years. That is tremendous. That is a huge increase. So that tells us right  away, things aren't going that well. There was a similar study that Barna had  done, and they were doing a study about different you know, how different  people classified themselves. And there's a group called the nones n-o-n-e-s not like, you know, Roman Catholic nuns, but nones and these are people who  identify either as atheist agnostic, or they say their religion is nothing in  particular. Now, according to the Pew study, or I'm sorry, this this one the nones  is a Pew study Pew, not Barna. The nones represent 23% of the adult US  population. So 23% say they have nothing, they're atheist, they're not connected at all. Now, what's really disturbing is that, that's a 7% increase over seven  years now, for an entire people group to grow by 7%, across the nation in seven  years, is really an astronomical change. It's really kind of flashing red alarm kind  of numbers. Now, there are some recent surveys, people filling out surveys, in  terms of weekly church attendance and the numbers that people report is about  40%. So on any given Sunday, or any given weekend, about 40% of American  adults attend a worship service. Now, people tend to exaggerate a little bit  about, you know, how much they give, how much they go to church, actual  numbers actually are closer to about half that about 20%. So about one in five  adults is engaged in some kind of worship on any given weekend. Wow. I mean, we need to talk about revitalization. churches aren't these healthy, vibrant,  wonderful places that are connecting with their communities, and people are  sharing their faith when we see these trends. And, and these statistics are  confirming what's really been long observed is that nominal Christianity, which is when people just like they say, like, oh, yeah, I'm a Christian, but they don't  really believe and they don't do anything about it. That nominal Christianity and  just as indifference to anything related to Christ, it's really on the rise in America. Now, based on these numbers alone, we shouldn't be surprised at these next  numbers. Back in 1998. Church researcher dynamic, Win Arn, estimated at  3,500 to 4,000, churches close annually, which is really a shocking and a  staggering number. But this situation hasn't improved over time. And one of the 

foremost researchers, Church Health and church growth and just the state of the church. His name's Thom Rainer, he estimated in an article in 2013, that he  thinks the number has actually increased to 8-10,000 churches close every year. The numbers are just staggering. And really the statistics, they don't lie, they tell  us the reality of the church in America is on decline. Not just size numbers and  identification numbers and attendance numbers, but also things like how often  do people pray, and Bible reading? And how often do people share their faith?  And how much have they tithe and how many hours have they spent serving,  similar type statistics, everything is kind of on the decline. And we take all of this  as a whole. And it shows that really, the church has become ineffective in gospel ministry, and it's become disconnected from the world. And we can see as a  result of that, the church has been on the losing end of a cultural revolution.  Since the 1960s. The Church does not have the place of influence that it once  had. So that's the bad news. And you could probably throw in your own story of  how your church fits into this and where your church was or your ministry was  five years ago, 10 years ago, or 50 years ago, or maybe 100 years ago, and it's  not that anymore. Certainly my church would fit into this. And I'll tell you a little  bit more about my church and our history in a few lectures from now. But we  very much fit into this pattern of like decline in things going down. So I think the  big question that we need to start with is, why is this? Why is there this, this  sharp decline and the lack of gospel ministry and lack of connection to the world and lack of the practice of just the most basic spiritual disciplines? Well, I've got  three reasons for you, that we'll talk about. One is our own sin nature. Let me  ask you this. Since you be became a Christian, have you been faithful to the  Lord in everything in every single day? Of course not. You haven't been faithful  and obedient in everything. And if you're like, most people, you probably  struggle with the same sins, whatever it is, and they're just hard for you to get  over at times. And, and there is this internal fighting against the Lord. So just  imagine that you put a group of people together who share that same sin nature, now we've been redeemed by Christ with the promise of salvation, we are filled  with the Holy Spirit. That is true. And we embrace that, and we celebrate those  things. But at the same time, there is still a level of corruption within us. Paul  says, we're always battling the flesh. You know, read Romans 7 is always talking about I do the things I don't want to do, I don't do the things I want to do. And we can take that from an individual level, and then apply it to an organizational or  corporate level. So we have this thing within us, that's always going to be  working against it and, and your church is full, your ministry is full of people who  are saved, and yet battle, sin nature. So we can almost kind of think of like sin  nature, it's like gravity, there's always a thing that's pulling us down. And so  there's no surprise here that churches and ministries are gonna have seasons,  where there's where there's decline where our sin nature gets the best of us. I'll  speak specifically to the American church on this one. There's two ditches that I 

see that really have caused churches to go into decline. The first one is really,  we might call it traditionalism, where the church is frozen in time. And they're  trying to like pretend it's still like 1958. And we can't change any thing we can't.  You know, we can't move with the times or do anything. And it has to be a  certain way. You know, the famous last words, we've never done it that way  before. I was just talking to someone not that long ago. And they were talking  about the church that they're attending. And they took their hymnal home and  they only sing out of the hymnal. And the person was flipping through the  hymnal. And they realized that the earliest or most recent copyright date of a  song in that hymnal was from 1912. So this church is really stuck in the 1800s,  to say the least. And it is a church that's struggling. And we would say, Well,  yeah, because that church is committed to being 130 years behind the rest of  the world. Now, on the other side, the other ditch there is trying to copy the world where the church sees what the world is doing, or what the world accepts and  what the world believes. And then bringing that back into the church and the  buzzword there is relevance, we want to be relevant. And after a while, it doesn't take very long the church begins to look exactly like the world. And when the  church begins to look just like the world, it becomes irrelevant. We'll talk more  about that later. But this, this prized word, the single like, we got to be relevant,  we have to connect, I get that we have to be able to speak the language of the  culture and the place that we're in. You know, my church is in the Dutch  background, and for the first 60, 70 years of the church, they spoke Dutch in  worship. But there became a time when they said, You know what, nobody  speaks Dutch anymore. We have to change. So we only have to speak English.  So there are times where we really do need to understand the world that we live  in. But just to embrace whatever moral views or whatever business leadership  practices the world takes and then to try to kind of lay it onto the church and  saying this is who we're going to be. Or we do that with some entertainment sort of things with worship, and then we realize we're completely irrelevant. The  Church no longer has anything to say because it looks exactly like the world. So  I think the cause of decline is one of two things, either churches are so stuck in  the past, or they're so married to the world, and the now. And so we want to  avoid those two things. Third, and this is, this is probably I would say most  important of all, is that we have a real enemy. We we do battle against Satan.  Remember, in Ephesians 6, Paul talks about this, that our battle is not against  flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. So, as we're going  through revitalization, the enemy isn't the people in your church or your ministry  who are being difficult, it feels like that, at times, let's be honest, it feels like the  people around you. But there's, there's an enemy who's seeking to derail the  church, who's who wars against the kingdom of God. And we can't be going into  revitalization, thinking. Otherwise, when we were first getting really launched  into this revitalization. period in the life of our churches season, we had a 

wonderful coach who came alongside of us. And one of the things he told us is,  as you do this, you need to get ready because the enemy is going to come after  you he is going to attack he's going to discourage, he's going to throw obstacles, he's going to throw people in your way, all kinds of circumstances, to get you off  

track. And I can say, our coach, he was right on the money. As soon as we  started to see some progress. As soon as good thing started to happen. Man, it  felt like the gates hell were opened up at times against us. So there is a real  enemy. So when we consider our own sin nature, the two digit ditches, which is  like the influence of human leadership, that stands against what God is doing.  And then we throw the enemy in there, man, there's really no surprise that  churches can at times, really, start to go on a decline. Now, with that said,  revitalization is the urgent call for the church, it is in America and revitalization is  the urgent call for any church, or any ministry, that is not what it can be, is not  what Christ has called it to be, it must increase, it must increase in strength, and in health, and in vitality. Now hear me, this is not just a matter of institutional  survival. And by that I mean, we need to get things going. So we can keep the  doors open. I remember when I first got to the church, and people would point  out where there was a bunch of empty pews, like a whole section of the church  was empty pews. And people say those pews need to be those used to be full,  we need to fill them again. And at first, I thought, Oh, well, that's just like a well  intentioned thought, and I'm glad they're on board with me. But I realized after a  while, they weren't really thinking in terms of, we need to go save the lost, and  we need to do the work of Christ. They were just thinking, our church has lost  this status. We're having a harder time paying our bills. And people didn't want  to be there, like their generation to be the one where the church shut down. And  I started to realize they're not really so much interested in revitalization as really  just keeping the doors open, at least until they die, right? I mean, seriously,  that's kind of where it was like, let's just keep this thing going until I die. And then whatever happens after that, who cares? It's a little blunt but that was really, I  think, the sentiment I was dealing with. So we really want to talk about this call,  not just to keep the doors open, not just to have more people show up, but for  revitalization, for obedience and faithfulness to Jesus Christ, and to the call he  has placed upon you and His Church. So I've got a couple of quotes I'm going to share with you. I'm going to put them on the screen. And we'll read them and I  just I really liked these. This one is fairly recently. It's from a gentleman named  Bobby Jameison. In an article that he wrote for a ministry called Nine Marks  which is a Church Health Ministry. And he wrote, I would suggest that church  revitalization, bringing old life to dying churches by dealing with the causes of  decline, and building towards faithfulness is a biblical burden. I love what he's  saying that dealing with the causes and then building towards, you know,  faithfulness. That's not just a good idea. It's a burden. It's what the I don't mean  burden in a bad way. Like, I mean a burden. It's like the kind of burden Jeremiah

had when the Lord said, like, you're my prophet go and speak. And he, he could  do nothing but that and it just laid on his heart so much. So when we think about revitalization, we're Bobby Jameison is saying is it's, it's a biblical burden. We  just can't ignore it and say, Oh, well, but that Christ is calling us to do something  about the current situation. And then another quote, and I really like this one,  and this is by Philipp Spener. This quote, you can see on the bottom is from  1675. And he wrote a fairly well known book called Pia desideria. And Pia  desideria means pious desires. And it's about you know, holy longing, we might  be another translation. And so Spener was in the Lutheran church, and he saw  all these same kinds of dynamics going on in his church, and he saw a great  need for revitalization. And so he writes, in a manner which concerns all of us. It  is incumbent on all Christians, especially all whom the Lord has set as  watchmen of his church, that's you, okay, you're the watchman in various  places, to examine the condition of the church, and consider how it may be  improved. Okay. What is that about 330 years ago, they were dealing with the  same thing and saying the same things we're saying today is, we need to  understand the condition of the church, we need to be honest about it, we need  to face facts. And now we need to be able to do something about it. We need to  consider what can be done to improve it. So we're gonna look at a couple  examples in Scripture, that demonstrate this biblical burden for revitalization. So  I want you to consider Paul's journey. So I'm going to open up my Bible to Acts  15 (on screen- Acts 15:36.41; 18:23). You can see the text I'm using on the  screen. Now, when we think about Paul and his ministry, we are often think  about how he would go off and he was a wonderful church planter, and he was  always doing new things and going to new places. But listen to this. Now, this is  Paul's second missionary journey. This is after he's done a loop, he's come back home. And he's getting ready to launch out again. And it says, sometime later,  Paul said to Barnabas, who is his ministry partner, let us go back and visit the  brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how  they are doing. So Paul's second missionary journey, the intent wasn't  necessarily to go out and plant new churches. He wanted to go back to the  places where he had been, and to see how they were doing. We get down to  verse 41. And it says, He went through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the  churches. You know what that sounds like to me, church revitalization. Paul  went there and he strengthened them. Why? Because they needed to be  strengthened. When he got back there. They weren't all that they needed to be.  And if his ministry in those churches is anything like his letters, he was  correcting doctrine. He was informing them of better practices, how to relate to  each other. He was building up leaders demonstrating, you know, how to do that with his own apprentices, all those kinds of things. But the thing is, Paul's  missionary journeys, yes, it was church planting, but it was just as much church  revitalization. So let's go ahead to Acts 18. And in chapter 18, Paul is now on his

third missionary journey. And it says, again, he comes back home after a second missionary journey. This is after spending some time in Antioch. Paul set out  from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia. Strengthening all the disciples. Once again, Paul is doing the ministry  of church revitalization why? because, again, it needed it. It required it. And the  people that he had do it he was doing ministry with, they have sin nature. They  were corrupted by, you know, human thought that was not in accord with God's  will. And they were fighting an enemy as well. So it's no surprise, it shouldn't be  any surprise to us that Paul goes around, and does this. Now. Think of how  important church revitalization is for a minute. Paul was so concerned about the  health of the churches that he planted. Now, this is with huge regions of the  Mediterranean that still needed to be evangelized. And Lord knows he had an  ambition to do that personally. Even though there was still a whole lot of  evangelism and unreached areas, Paul went back through the areas that he'd  already done ministry in order to strengthen the churches. So Paul's journeys,  it's a, he's he's following his biblical burden, to bring revitalization and renewal.  Let's think about Jesus's letters to the churches in the Book of Revelation, in  chapters two and three of Revelation, Jesus writes, through Paul, he gives  seven letters to seven different churches in five of those. He's fairly direct, that  they have lost their way. And each of them has a sense, sometimes directly, but  sometimes more indirectly. He's saying, Repent, come back to me. If nothing  else, we should see that revitalization is near and dear to the heart of our Lord.  Christ loves the local church. And he does not give up on it when it struggles, or  when it's in a season of decline. He calls it back to life, he calls it back to life,  right? This is, this is where we get a sense of the biblical burden. And then when we jump into the work of revitalization, are we not doing what Christ himself his  ministry was to the first century churches. So listen to this, this is in the letter to  the church in Laodicea, Revelation 3:19-20, to those whom I love, I rebuke and  discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am, I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him. And  he with me. So we see here the heart of Christ. And he's not satisfied with where that church is, in fact, there's quite a bit problems with the church in Laodicea,  probably far more than you're dealing with right now. However, Christ has not  given up on it, he loves it. And he's saying, come back, repent and do the things  I'm telling you to do. This is he's knocking at the door of the church. And he's  like, I want to come in, I want to be a part of this. Okay, so once again, we see  this biblical precedent for having a burden for revitalization from no one other  than Jesus Christ himself. Now, let me ask you for a second where, where you  are, because perhaps you struggle with an element of pride. That could very  well be the case. And if I can be honest, I know I did. When we started doing this revitalization very intentionally, I've been doing it kind of on my own for a few  years, and our church was floundering. And when we finally got some outside 

help, and I went for a program of study and all this stuff, there was a part of me  that felt like, am I gonna get fired, like, like, the church brought me here to help  them and I don't know what to do. And I know, it can be really hard to address,  kind of our own shortcomings and being able to lead. And a dear friend of mine  

who runs a revitalization ministry said, the hardest part of his job is getting  pastors and ministry leaders in the local churches to admit their need for help.  To admit that things aren't okay. So if that's where you you are at let me kind of  wrap up with this one illustration. It's a true, true story about a church. The  church is the church in the city of Ephesus in the first century. Now, the church  was not planted by Paul, but it was planted by disciples of Paul probably  Priscilla, and Aquila. And after the church had been going for a few years, they  got a new pastor. His name was Paul. He spent three years in Ephesus. It was  the longest He place he's ever done ministry. Now, when Paul left, he left one of  his helpers, to be the next pastor of the city of Ephesus. And that was Timothy,  Timothy in the Bible. So your first real pastor is Paul, your second pastor is  Timothy who's working under the direction of Paul. And then church history tells  us, pretty reliably, that sometime after that they had another pastor come, who  was John, the apostle John, the one who was Jesus's beloved, who wrote the  Gospel of John, who wrote the letters towards the end of the New Testament,  who saw the vision in Revelation. Now, here's the thing. Can you imagine a  church where three, your first three pastors are? Paul, Timothy, and John, that's  quite a lineup, right? I mean, that's unbelievable. And what's amazing is that in  Revelation, one of the letters to the churches is to the church, in Ephesus, and  they needed to be revitalized, they needed to get back on track, they were not  doing what they were supposed to be doing. And they were had all kinds of  issues that they needed to address. Now, let me just push this point on you a  little bit. If a church that was led by Paul, Timothy, and then John, they needed to go through revitalization. Are you saying to me that you are in a position of such  superior leadership ability that you don't need to do? Or your ministry doesn't  need to do what the church in Ephesus needed to do? Now? Certainly, none of  us would say, Well, yeah, I'm up there with Paul or John, I may even be a little  better, we realize that we are not. So if you are in a situation, we throw a throw  Ephesus up there, I forgot to put that slide up there for you. If you are in this  situation, it's okay. Really listen to me. It's okay. Now, I'm not saying we should  celebrate it. But I want you to know you're not alone. Some of the greatest  leaders in the history of the church have needed revitalization in their ministry.  And if they needed it, certainly, we need to be open to the prospect of needing it, as well. And that's why in the beginning, I really choose the word inevitable, the  inevitable necessity of church revitalization, because it's going to happen. And if  you're there now, which I assume you are, because you're taking this class, it's  OK, that God's word has something to say for us. And it's an encouraging word.  And that's what our next lecture is on. But before we get there, let's pray. Lord, 

our Father, thank you so much for this time that we have had. And I pray, Lord,  that you both convicted us and challenged us along the way. And Lord, as we  stand before you, as we sit before you, Lord, we pray that you'd have your hand  on our ministry. Lord, give us the humility that Christian men and women need to lead others into glory. We pray this in Your name. So before we wrap up, here's  one final challenge. Are you going to accept the status quo? Or will you heed  Christ's call to revitalization? I hope you're getting fired up. I hope you're getting  excited. I hope you're feeling the Holy Spirit gives you the determination to go  forward and to do just what Christ is calling you to do. Well, that's it and I can't  wait to meet you in our next lecture as we talk about all the reasons to be  hopeful for revitalization.