Take a Reality Check

The first place in revitalizing a church is to take a serious reality check. Why is the church in decline? How did the church get here? Those are questions that need to be asked and answered.

I was once asked ask where the church I pastored was... Egypt, Jordan River, Conquering the land, or in exile? My first reaction was to say we were at the Jordan River ready to cross it and begin conquering the land. I saw that our church, though it had been in decline had stabilized, was ready to move forward. The more I prayed about it, the more I realized we were actually in exile.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah helped our church take a serious look at our condition. It was once a large church in Pacific Northwest. However, over ten to fifteen years it had slowly declined. Why? There are a lot of reasons, but my feeling was the church simply did not look to God and allow Him to lead the church. The church went from being an outgoing community minded to church to being an inward focused church.

Much like Israel, the church had abandoned God's command of making disciples. For that reason, I felt our church was in exile until we committed ourselves to obeying the Great Commission.

The church started with a reality check. For us we needed to recognize our condition, repent of it, and return to obeying God. Much like Israel when in exile, they realized their sinful condition, repented of their sins, and God allowed them to return to their land and rebuild the temple and Jerusalem.

In coming blogs, we'll look at the process a church can take to Rebuild the Temple, Renew the People, and Rebuild the Walls.