Local Church Revitalization

Despite the fact the leadership of General Conference kept trying to insist everything was about local church revitalization, I found the most creative ideas came from delegates with whom I spoke.

Let me share just a few key ideas I heard. One set comes from Africa and the other from America.

A superintendent in Africa in one of the fastest growing church movements does the following:

1. On a regular basis, provide training for pastors and laity on how to evangelize. Keep it simple and repeat and prioritize it, such as meet everyone in your area, be gracious, listen to their stories, share your story, share Jesus’ story, invite them to church

2. He then visits each church once a quarter to see the pastor’s book, the listing of new members in the church.

3. In turn, he takes another pastor along with him on his travels through the district to show what is happening both as good examples and bad.

4. He includes clergy and laity from the district in decision-making for the district.

5. He asks for a small but consistent contribution for district and conference needs.

I didn’t record all his ideas but this gives you an inkling of what is happening there.

An American pastor supplements that. His philosophy is that a local church cannot have too much to do. His approach is to learn what each new member has a passion for and then plugs them into an existing group or starts a new one where that passion can be expressed. He said this is how sanctification occurs and channels the gifts church people have into a positive direction.

I found these two fundamental approaches something I really appreciated, in line what I have always thought and what I tried to do. I had just not heard them described this way.

Simple descriptions are just what we need to give us a pull in the right direction.