Church Revitalisation or Healing

Church Revitalisation or Healing

I am passionate about revitalising the church, especially those small, struggling churches in communities which really need them to do well.

We tend to think of revitalisation as an ingenious set of strategies to bring the church into a new era of growth. I know that’s how I started. But that’s not quite right. Any church redirection which doesn’t include some sort of God intervention is just not going to cut it. Any church growth, revitalisation, renewal or however you want to say it, has to be at its core, miraculous. It has to be a new start with God first, and then new outreach as a result.

Just as the leper gets a new start beginning with an encounter with Jesus, so the church has to seek a new start with the Lord of life. We must come before Him, crying out “Lord, have mercy,” and then see what happens. (It is vital then, to get on board with what happens though.)

A new start starts with the miraculous, not with strategy. Good strategy must follow, but it starts with Jesus, it starts with an encounter with Him, and it takes off with our falling in love once again with the saviour of the universe. Once we are sufficiently distracted by Jesus, we can get on with real kingdom building. That’s when revitalisation happens.

Where does Jesus start? He starts with prayer. He says in Luke Chapter 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

That too is where we need to start. Start with prayer, continue in following Him, look for answers to prayer, and seek where He is leading. As we bring our broken body before Him, we can find comfort and healing in the life He gives us. It is here that we will find ways to reinvigorate the body, find new expressions of love for Him and see new opportunities for His church to grow.

Certainly, we will need good strategy, nifty ideas, and courage to speak out our faith, but we must remember that the church is primarily a body. The organisation is only there to house, or clothe the body. Strategy is important, but it starts with the miraculous, the intervention of the Father. May God speak into your church, that you may find the way forward through the darkness.

Pastor Rob Edwards

See Pastor Rob’s YouTube Channel for messages on Church Revitalisation.
https://www.youtube.com/@robedwards3546