01
Jul '25

What Church Revitalization Is and Is Not*
01
Jul '25

*Excerpt from an Alan Weinacht article first presented in NMYM Connection 6/21/25
“Church revitalization is not a new program or trendy way of trying to engage a post-modern culture. Whatever it is, it is not a cure-all, follow this program and all will succeed proposition. Thankfully it is not about trying to become a megachurch or assuming that the biggest church is the best church. So, what is revitalization?
Church Revitalization is (and this is why it may be so hopeful for Evangelical Friends) an open door to slowly but surely work on the disconnect between our churches’ cultures where we think we are committed to outreach but we really are not. Looking back, over my being a member and eventually a recorded Friends minister with an entire working career in pastoral and yearly meeting leadership among Friends, I’ve concluded that the real issue for Friends is culture. We believe that we are outreach-minded, when in reality our mindset is that anyone is welcome in our churches if they want to take us, just as we are.
This is not a mindset that stands beside Jesus and sees that the fields are ready for harvest. Church Revitalization is not about creating outreach and evangelism strategies that are an add-on to our current programming and life of fellowship in the church. If a church hangs with Church Revitalization it has the potential to vastly improve how it opens its doors to the community and reaches out to invite people in. In the process, the mindset and pace of Church Revitalization creates room for the faithful believers to adapt and adjust, so that they become effective at passing on what they’ve learned about cultivating an intimate walk with Jesus to new believers.”
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29
Mar '25

One Bite at a Time
29
Mar '25

In one of our recent “Scrappy Church” sessions we talked about small actions and how they can have big effects when added together. The author calls this concept eating an elephant. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Sitting down with the idea to eat a whole elephant is kind of crazy. You would be eating for weeks and weeks. But sitting down to take one bite at a time doesn’t seem so bad. You can make small progress. The goal may be the same, eat the elephant, but the pressure of doing it all right now doesn’t have to be there.
As we look at ways to make an impact for Jesus we can get overwhelmed by the number of things there are to do, the people that need to be helped, the changes we need to make and allow God to make within us, the cost financially, time, and energy which can all stack up and seem insurmountable. In that moment we can remind ourselves to take one bite. To make small incremental progress, day by day, and allow those changes to compound to get us to the place we are called to be.
One bite at a time gets us there in a much more manageable way than trying to unhinge our jaws and swallow the elephant whole. But we do all this all the time, we look at the world and its problems and think, “well, if I can’t fix it all, what is the point in trying?” It matters to the one person you got to help today, in whatever measure you got to help them, and, if we have 50 people doing small things to bless those around them every day, that will add up pretty quick. So, grab your fork and get ready to take one bite at a time. We will get this elephant eaten, slowly but surely.
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