The dechurched are those who once attended church at least once a month and now attend church services a couple of times a year or less. Why did they leave? What will bring them back?
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Four key events and issues could make it seem like things are dire. The situation may be critical. You be the judge. However, I’d caution you that God is at work even in the worst situations. If Jesus overcame the grave, then he can undoubtedly overcome our dilemma. These four issues include Dr. Matt Larkin’s departure from MTI and his role as Coordinator of Leadership Development, the discontinuation of the Maranatha Daily Devotional, the ongoing pastoral shortage, and the deficit of quality leaders for denominational leadership positions.
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Lifeway Research indicates that 26% of SBC pastors are bivocational. I don’t know how many Advent Christian pastors maintain a marketplace job in addition to their role in the church. However, with the steady decline of Advent Christian church attendance, we must expect the number of bivocational pastors will only increase. For some, this could bring about a missiological revival and spur church revitalization. For others, it will be like palliative care.
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f we continue to encourage covocational ministry, more Christians will see it as a viable career path. A person can love their current vocation and see God’s call on their life to serve him by serving a local church simultaneously. Essentially, we open the door to otherwise qualified people who could have a call on their lives to serve but shut out that possibility because of perceived limitations bound by a full-time vocation-only model.
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If a church isn’t trained to hire pastors, then it is likely they will lack the skills necessary for hiring them. Mistakes will be made, which can have several undesirable impacts. Consider the church that, after six months, found a candidate, but when the candidate asked how much the church could offer in compensation, they responded with, “We won’t share that information until you accept the call because we don’t want a pastor who is greedy but trusts that God will provide.”
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The Advent Christian Church is not the only network or denomination struggling with finding called and qualified pastors. I remember sitting in a Church Revitalization class at Gordon-Conwell in South Hamilton when one of our Professors would bring in the ABC equivalent to Superintendents. Each one would provide some type of insight on church leadership or revitalization but would always take 10 minutes to pitch to eager seminary students why they should consider one of their many open churches in New England.
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I encourage you to enter the conversation or start one. Do you have ideas on how to serve our local homeless communities better? Share your lessons. Are you struggling with the implications of your theology regarding your fellowship? Someone else probably is, too. This is why many of us write: to share our thoughts, express our doubts, and introduce ideas that could be helpful to the brethren. This is how we dwell in unity.
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I’d rather we die the way we are than change one thing and survive.” This is an actual quote from a church member in a dying church, but it is the sentiment of many church members who find their congregation on the precipice of closure.
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Churches send out missionaries to spread the Gospel. As we seek to plant new churches we must first adjust our vision of what church planting is. Let’s train missionaries who will reach new people with the Gospel in our communities. These missionaries are the Christians in our churches, some of which are called to evangelize in ways that will see new churches planted.
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According to a paper written by Pastor John Roller in the 1980s, Advent Christians planted 100 churches from 1956-1986. Of those churches planted during the middle and latter half of the twentieth century, 50% lived past the 6th year of existence. In the 2018-2020 Advent Christian Strategic Plan, Executive Director Steve Lawson set a goal of planting twice the amount of churches as we have church closures.
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How does one train for godliness? Consider the athlete with whom the Apostle Paul compares the Christian life, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians, 9:25).
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Last week I published an article titled Can Church Planting Revitalize the Advent Christian Church? Its central premise was “although church planting sometimes seems at odds with church revitalization, it can be a means to revitalize churches because it puts the mission of being Christ’s witnesses to the world front and center.”
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How can we revitalize our churches, train leaders, and plant churches? Are these goals important? I suggest that although church planting sometimes seems at odds with church revitalization, it can be a means to revitalize churches because it puts the mission of being Christ’s witnesses to the world front and center. Through planting churches, local churches will see the imminent need to train leaders who can lead their church and send them off to plant new ones locally. The problem will necessitate solutions.
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As I write this, I agonize over the painstaking task of sending my wife, Robin, Amazon links to things I’d like her to buy me for Christmas. What’s on my list? Beard balm, beard conditioner, beard shampoo, an ESV Omega Thinline in Royal Purple, and mini statues of dead theologians to put on my bookshelf to make me look more cultured than I truly am.
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Perhaps, this is just who I am, mood, depressive, short-tempered, and exhausted. Is this what the rest of my life is? Fighting back irritability and tears of frustration when all I want to do is to be left alone is a recurring sense that can last hours, days, or weeks. These feelings come and go as months pass with no episodes, but then the dread and existential crisis return as it seeks to overcome me once more.
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Imagine if my wife described me as slender, clean-shaven, neatly dressed, short, and quiet. Then you met me and saw that I towered over most people, sported a Dad-bod, wore crocs, and have a beard that hides my chest. You’d think my wife must be talking about her other husband. That’s quite similar to our disagreements regarding the nature of God. Although we maintain denominational fellowship with those who reject the Trinity, we worship a different God because we disagree as to who God is.
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I believe there is hope because we do have pockets of unity. These strongholds of unity can be found in three areas, which Larkin focuses on and, in my estimation, provides hope for the future.
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Let’s stand in thankfulness for the work done by our Christian forbears and early Church Fathers. They’ve handed down priceless heirlooms born out of the careful study and thoughtful discussion in the early hours of our faith’s birth. Rejection of the creeds is to purposefully separate oneself from foundational Christian orthodoxy carried forward from the days before the legalization of Christianity.
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