According to Leadership journal, “85 percent of churches in the United States have plateaued or declining attendance.” That’s approximately 340,000 churches. Mine is one of them. During our heyday in the 1980s, we had two services in an auditorium that seats 760 people. Today, we have one service and an average of 100 people in attendance. We’re almost 87-percent empty.
But I’m not worried for two reasons. First, I know that God wants us grow. Second, God has provided plenty of tools to help us grow.
One of those tools is Comeback Churches by Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson. It identifies five crucial issues in revitalizing your church: leadership, vibrant faith, lay ministry, intentional evangelism, and celebrative but orderly worship.
Church revitalization requires strong, change-oriented leadership from pulpit and pew. To make a comeback, your church needs the right people in the right jobs doing the right thing.
But leadership is not everything. Members of comeback churches must also have a faith that is characterized by personal commitment to Jesus and the church’s mission, a servant attitude, and strategic prayer.
In revitalized churches, pastors have limited roles, and they invite the laity to exercise their God-given ministries. And the whole church is involved in intentional evangelism, gradually incorporating unbelievers into the community and then into the faith.
Finally, comeback churches have celebrative (but orderly) worship services. More often than not, their musical style is contemporary, and they do everything with excellence.
If, like me, you’re the pastor of a church that’s seen better days, read Comeback Churches, and discover that your church’s best days are still in front of you.
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