DELTA/MACON, Mo. – First Baptist Church (FBC) of Delta and Macon FBC encountered long-lasting revitalization through Resound Network’s ReFocus program. This program provides clarity on six imperative aspects of a church’s ministry: vision, mission, values, strategy, goals, and annual plans. While this can be done by forming a cohort that meets over a period of months, these two churches participated in the 3-day intensive workshop.
ReFocus, according to Pastor Phil Bray of Macon FBC, provides “specific tools” which helps teams lead their congregations toward renewal based upon the church’s strengths and the needs of their unique community.
“All the information was in our church [already],” Bray says. “We just had to put it in the right categories.” He appreciates how the ReFocus program never told them what to do; instead, they were given “real specificity” on terms like “mission” and “vision.” They came away with “definable, measurable goals.” Their guide from Resound Network kept them focused toward achieving a “concrete action [plan] that [the congregation] could do in a year.” This was a recipe for excitement, unity, and momentum.
Macon FBC is now on the second year of implementation. The church is still ministering to their community with enthusiasm.
FBC Delta also experienced revitalization through ReFocus. According to Pastor Randy Conn, the congregation had been in decline and “needed to change trajectory” when they decided to engage with the program. ReFocus removed “preconceived ideas” and the “blinders” of complacency. In addition, the team they sent to the workshop was intentionally diverse, consisting of both lifelong members and newer members. The variety in perspectives aided the team in finding a balance between what needed to change and what was already healthy.
The intensive wasn’t about pointing out everything that was wrong, Conn says. He, like Bray, noted that Resound never told their team what to do but rather helped them evaluate and enabled them to create action steps. They came away with a plan, and they discovered that the vision they’d been missing was one to “reach households,” not just children.
Both churches faced challenges in the years that followed their workshop, but those challenges were met with a more unified and mission-minded body.
“We didn’t realize how ineffective we really were,” Bray says of Macon FBC. “It was brutal to… be honest with [ourselves] about how bad it was. I think that’s a hurdle we had to get over… to make progress. I think that’s where a lot of churches are, an unwillingness to look at the facts.”
Macon FBC also had to address burnout as they carried out their action plan. The original team from the ReFocus workshop needed a break after leading the charge for a while. They had to learn how to rotate leadership responsibilities and call more people into leadership roles.
FBC Delta faced a similar problem. Motivating longtime, comfortable members to step into more active roles was challenging. At first, their volunteers were mostly newer members. But, Conn says, enthusiasm and unity was born out of faithful service as God started to work. They never stopped inviting all members to participate, and once “comfortable” members saw what God was doing, “they wanted to be part of that.”
Conn emphasizes that instead of trying to force changes that would break up or disturb relationships—such as those within a long-standing Bible study—he welcomes these groups to contribute in ways unique to them. He values working alongside established and influential lay leaders.
Both churches now display increasing unity and more effective missions as God continues to renew their hearts for the spread of the gospel and the discipleship of His people.
At FBC Delta, Conn says, “ReFocus helped sharpen our vision of our ministry in our community to help us achieve what God has called us to do.” He credits ReFocus for enabling the creation of effective outreach that resulted in “whole family salvations,” such as one family in which seven people were baptized.
Similarly, the long-term plan developed during ReFocus gave Macon FBC strategies and goals to build upon year after year. Each year of the plan has a focus. “What happens is,” Bray says, “a layering and building instead of trying to do everything at once and getting bogged down and unable to do anything well. You start slow. You start small. Once you get that going, and once that’s functional, you add to it.”
This build-as-you-go approach has resulted in a thriving “family preservation and restoration ministry” for parents whose children have been put into foster care, a Community Care Days ministry that meets the physical needs of their neighbors, and a Go and Tell ministry that meets spiritual needs through prayer and friendship.
Bray says, “So many times, as pastors, we try to lead from the top down… [ReFocus] involved the entire church in the process, so there was instant buy-in from everybody because they felt like, ‘This isn’t just Phil’s idea. This is our idea.’ …There was a unifying factor to it. It helped me learn how to lead by walking alongside [people]. … It’s humbling to say, ‘I’ve been [leading] wrong,’ but I wish I’d learned it years ago.”
According to Conn, “Resound Network and ReFocus are excellent tools to help bring a church to a place where they can come together to see there is a way… to change the trajectory of the church… You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but sometimes you need to change the water.”
Both pastors agreed that every church could benefit from the ReFocus program. To learn more about how your church can find clarity and renewed enthusiasm for ministry, contact Resound Network at resound@mobaptist.org and ask about ReFocus.