EDITOR’S NOTE: This article includes additional reporting by Pathway contributing writer Richard Nations.
BRANSON – More than 50 joined a late-night panel discussion on church revitalization during the Missouri Baptist Convention annual meeting, Oct. 25, and their focus was on identifying and fostering key characteristics that can help a church bounce back and thrive.
“God does want to use leaders, said Brandon Moore, MBC missionary and director of the Resound network. “And He wants to use those leaders to mobilizes saints for ministry, not to do it all, but to equip the saints to serve the Bride of Christ.”
The panel included Bob Bickford, associate director of Replant for the North American Mission Board; Mark Hallock, a replant pastor in Denver, Colo.; Nathan Rose, a revitalization pastor from Kansas City; John Vernon, director of missions for Cape Girardeau Baptist Association; and Frank Whitney, a revitalization pastor from Holts Summit.
Some of the characteristics discussed included: visionary shepherding, gospel-oriented, missionally focused, organizationally aware, pastoral grit, spousal perseverance, generally resourceful, tactically patient, emotionally intelligent, affinity for multi-generational ministry, respectful toward a church’s legacy and a willingness to confront when necessary.
Post-convention summit
Approximately 50 leaders of Missouri Baptist churches and associations also met after the MBC annual meeting for a Resound Network “Partnership Summit.” The goal was to link key pastors and churches with churches in need of revitalization or replanting. The directors of missions each brought a key pastor with them to consider becoming a partnering church with Resound Network.
Warren Colebank, Connection pastor at Waypoint Church, St. Charles spoke during the summit, as did Hallock from the panel discussion earlier.
Hallock said to help revitalize a church you have to “develop a ‘partner church’ culture.” He said you have to cultivate a climate where 1) people deeply care for other churches and 2) there is an intentional effort to provide a partnership. He encouraged developing a pipeline of potential leaders. He also said partner churches will need to plan to send out lay people to plant churches or revitalize struggling churches in need of help. He said sometimes it doesn’t happen because churches lack a plan or they don’t consider the cost.
“There must be a willingness to take ‘faith-filled risks” for the sake of the gospel,” he said.
The Resound process
The MBC Resound Network exists to catalyze a movement of revitalized and replanted churches resounding for the glory of God and the good of their communities. The voluntary process for a church seeking revitalization looks like this:
Explore: starting the conversation with church leaders. After that is discovery: conducting in-depth assessments of church health and ministry context to discover strengths and challenges. After that, there are three pathways, depending on how God leads: revitalization, the extended pursuit of renewed health and effectiveness; replanting, the decisive transformation of a church in order to experience new life through a relaunch, adoption or merger; or repurpose, the creative stewardship of facilities and resources.
For more information on church revitalization or replanting, go to resoundnetwork.com or contact Moore at 731-435-0163 or bmoore@mobaptist.org.