“If you don’t do anything else, spend time with people in your community. Care for them, love them, champion them, and learn about them. Find out what is important to people. What do they love and care about? What brings them joy and what are they afraid of? What do they believe? Can you articulate what they believe in a way they would affirm?“

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

To define Christian character or biblical morality one must acknowledge that (1) there is absolute truth and (2) there is absolute right and wrong. This begs the question, “From where do we receive truth and our concept of right and wrong?” We need look no further than the nature of God who in Himself is good, just, and moral.

What about our association? I have grown increasingly concerned that we don’t work as closely together as we need to in order to carry out the mission of God. Instead, fault lines run deep and some have grown weary due to a lack of theological and structural integrity. My hope is to draw out those who desire to work more closely together, who see the need for change so that we can become more effective and efficient in taking the Gospel to our neighbors and the nations. Consider this a call to mission and unity that seems to be lacking in our ranks.

The Advent Christian Church has historically had a very large theological tent. Our ranks have often included the orphans from others churches, whose views were considered unorthodox at best and heretical at worst. One such doctrine has defined our little band of misfits— Conditional Immortality. We have multiple views on what the Scriptures teach on the role of women as elders, synergists and monergists, a wide acceptance of Atonement views. Additionally we lack agreement on what we should agree on to be a part of our group.

It is remarkable how ignorant the contemporary church is to its history. I’m by no means an expert, more like a hobbyist on the matter. Whether it’s reading the original works of guys who died long ago, or imbibing in a solid biography, church history is a joy for me. I’d like to share that joy with you by helping you see its importance.

In my first Army unit we were a bit of a hodgepodge of young Soldiers who were preparing for war. By my observation I noticed two kinds of leaders who were training us. Those who properly prepared and those who didn’t. However, the difference didn’t begin with the planning, but how they implemented lessons learned from the previous training event. Let me explain.

Sometimes I see something or hear something that makes me want to scream, “Hypocrite!” However, to make such a statement in person or online would in fact reveal my own hypocrisy. Usually it surrounds the things of Christian Liberty.