Bringing New Things to Life

Our God wants to bring a fresh touch of His presence every single day, to infiltrate our lives with His Spirit and to infuse His power into the activities in which we participate.  He will strengthen and sustain us as we rely on Him.   Here is what Lamentations 3 says:
22Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.23They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.24"The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!"

We serve a God who lifts the fallen, repairs the broken, and who can reverse what has been in decline, so that He might be glorified.  He will take our lives and transform us day by day into the image of Christ as we allow Him to have His way.   He breathes new life into each one of us, and He can bring healing and restoration into hearts, organizations, and situations that are submitted to Him.   We can turn to Jesus and see Him do fabulous things in our midst!

We serve a God who specializes in restoration, breathing His life into what has been in decline.  Isaiah 43 gives insight into the nature of God:
15I am the Lord, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King."16Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea And a path through the mighty waters,17Who brings forth the chariot and horse, The army and the power (They shall lie down together, they shall not rise; They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):18"Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old.19Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.

If you do a Google search related to the number of churches that close each year, you will find numbers in the thousands.  John Mark Clifton determined that Wornall Road Baptist Church in Kansas City, MO, was not going to close and become a statistic.  According to a Baptist Press report, a group of older ladies from the once large and prominent church approached Clifton in 2004 about their dying church. Relying on his 25 years of church planting experience, Clifton decided to help turn the once-thriving church around.

Beginning with 18 people, the church now averages about 140 in attendance most weekends. The community also has taken more ownership of the church, Clifton said.

"They'd realize that we can't let this church close,” said Clifton, lead pastor of Wornall Road. “It's an important part of our neighborhood. It feeds the kids on the football team. It feeds the kids in the elementary school. It serves our neighbors in an important way. We're sort of the go-to church if there's any need in the community."

Clifton says the transformation of Wornall Road had three parts:

First, he "loved on" the remaining elderly congregation and warmed the people's hearts to the Gospel. He says, "I didn't make them the change agent...I didn't blame them for what went wrong. I didn't blame them for all the failures of the past. I didn't marginalize them. I just loved them immensely as the bride of Christ. I just really tried to get them to warm up to the Gospel and love Jesus again."

As he was caring for the remaining Wornall Road members, Clifton started doing the work of a church planter. He built relationships with people in the community, shared Jesus with them and discipled them. He specifically focused on discipling a core group of future leaders, young men between the ages of 18 and 30.

Clifton and the others at Wornall Road also "served the community with abandon" and provided its building for a variety of community organizations and new church plants in an effort to use the large amount of space it has. In the past six to seven years, Clifton said, nine church plants have launched and held services in the building.

Clifton is now helping the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board in its church revitalization efforts.

The Board has introduced strategies to help struggling churches. Chris Emery, who coordinates church revitalization for NAMB, said that many need to address leadership issues that can hinder their growth. State Baptist conventions are particularly well-placed to help many of the churches in this category.
NAMB also sponsors Send North America Church Growth and Revitalization conferences throughout the U.S.  It also encourages churches that are on the verge of closing to not let their church building be lost to the work of ministry. NAMB calls this "legacy church planting."   Emery says that, "As God leads, we want to encourage these churches to consider 'passing the baton' -- to let their legacy of ministry and missions continue through a legacy church plant...Passing the baton may include a new name and a legacy church planter being called to lead the church."

This can be highly motivational for all of us.  There is no shortage of information online about church attendance overall, as well as churches that are actually closing.   There are a number of reasons for the shift, and I think that rather than become discouraged, we can see some of the negative trends as opportunities for God to do a fresh work.   We can be recalibrated in the work of our mission and seek God's Word, to call upon Him in prayer, and be active in His work.

I like to say that God is involved in healing and restoration.   Just as He has taken all of our lives in a state of decline and made us new, He is the One who can turn things around in the work of our churches and ministries.  John Mark Clifton didn't give up, and you can sum up His strategy with the word "love" - he ministered to the remaining people in what had become a small congregation, he built relationships with the community and raised up leaders, and he encouraged the church to be involved in service.  God desires to breathe new life into people, such as you and me, and to breathe new life into entities that are committed to lifting up His name.   We can be encouraged that as we are devoted to following Christ, He will do amazing things!