Why Study Comeback Churches

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Why Study Comeback Churches?

• The statistics on churches are alarming
• Many churches are flat to declining

• We want to help churches come back after a
  decline

• Using biblical principles

• Learn from the
  experiences of others

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The Study Method

• The BIG question
• What principles from Comeback Churches could
  guide pastors and churches down the path of
  revitalization?

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The Study Method

• Examined 324 comeback churches
• That experienced renewed growth after a period of
  decline
• Increased membership and increased baptisms

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The Study Method

• Using surveys and phone interviews

• Criteria for a comeback church
• Experienced 5 years of plateau or decline since
  1995
• Followed by significant growth over the past 2 to
  5 years
• Membership to baptism (conversion) ratio of 351
• At least a 10 increase in attendance, per year

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Biblical Churches

• Scriptural authority
• Biblical leadership
• Preaching and teaching
• Ordinances
• Covenant community
• Mission

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Missional Churches

• Do what missionaries do, regardless of the
  context
• Join God on His mission
• Study and learn the culture
• Proclaim the good news
• Be the presence of Christ
• Contextualize biblical life and church for that
  culture

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Missional Churches

• Are incarnational
• Are indigenous
• Are intentional

Missional Matrix Christology, Ecclesiology,
Missiology
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Spiritual Churches

• What are some barriers to spiritual growth?

• Self-focused leaders and churches
• Experiencing Gods discipline
• Lack of radical faith/reliance
• Doing instead of being the church
• Watering down the gospel/truth

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Spiritual Churches

• What are some barriers to spiritual growth?

• Distracted from our first love
• Ineffective disciple-making
• Irrelevant ministry
• PRIDE

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Why Become a Comeback Church?

• We dont want our church to die. Well do what
  it takes.

Less
Change
More
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Dirty Bakers Dozen Churches

• Institutionalized
• Voluntary association
• Unintentional
• Us four and no more
• We cant compete
• Decently in order

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Dirty Bakers Dozen Churches

• Square peg in a round hole
• Time-warp
• Tidy
• My way or the highway
• Chaplaincy
• The company
• Play it safe

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Staging a Comeback

• The people have to be part of the turnaround -
  Acts 61-5

• Decide on a course of action
• Nehemiah 211-18
• Proactive leadership
• 1 Timothy 31

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Rising with Leadership

• Comeback leaders took the initiative for change
• Challenge excuses
• Pray Matthew 937-38 Regularly Passionately

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Rising with Leadership

• See the harvest Matthew 936-38
• Model evangelistic passion
• Share the ministry
• Make choices about how to invest your time

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Rising with Leadership

• Give away non-ministry tasks
• Use time intentionally
• Spend more time on people stuff
• Communicate a clear and compelling vision
• Comeback leaders multiply themselves

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Three Faith Factors

• What happened spiritually to impact such change?

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• Comeback leaders know that change takes place as
  the church is renewed spiritually.

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Three Faith Factors

• A renewed belief in Jesus Christ and the mission
  of the church,
• A renewed attitude for servanthood, and
• A more strategic prayer effort.

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• One pastor commented, Thats what brings a focus
  and determines your actions and how you spend
  money. Find out what God is calling you to doand
  do it.

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Getting back on mission

• Renewal knowing Jesus more fully and loving the
  church and its mission more passionately.

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Loving Jesus

• Comeback leaders helped people know and
  experience the reality of Jesus Christ in their
  lives.
• Churches became more motivated to overcome a slow
  or no-growth mentality.

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Loving the Community

• Comeback leaders helped churches grow in love
  with the community through their preaching,
  teaching, and praying.

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Loving the Community

• Too many pastors love someone elses community.

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Loving the Lost

• Comeback churches helped their churches grow to
  love the lost.

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Asking the hard questions

• When is the last time I have led someone to
  Christ?
• What has been our attendance over the past five
  years?
• How many visitors have we had in the past year
  and the year before that?
• When is the last time this church baptized
  someone from outside the existing church family?

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Loving the Lost

• Comeback leaders turned their churches outward.
• Most Christians dont like lost people.

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Servant Attitude

• Comeback leaders led their churches to develop
  the same passion, having a heart for service.

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Overcoming Preferences

• Comeback churches led people to care more about
  their communities than their preferences.

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What year is it here?

• Every church is living in some era. The issue is
  whether it aligns with the reality of the era
  where the gospel needs to be proclaimed.

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Having the attitude of Christ Jesus

• Comeback churches dont focus exclusively on
  their own spiritual maturity or demand their
  preferences.

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Actions of Service

• Comeback leaders model and promote acts of
  service.

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Strategic Prayer

• Comeback churches are praying churches.

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1 Thessalonians 517

• pray constantly

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• Prayer is a learned behavior. Nobody is born an
  expert at it. No one ever masters prayer. (John
  Ortberg)

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Prayer Major importance

• An increased emphasis on prayer was a major
  factor of importance to these comeback churches.

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Praying as a Leader

• Comeback leaders lead their churches to pray for
  things that matter.

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• What happens in revivals is not to be seen as
  something miraculously different from the regular
  experience of the church. The difference lies in
  degree not kind. In an outpouring of the Spirit,
  spiritual influence is more wide spread,
  convictions are deeper and feelings more intense.
  But all this is only a highlighting of normal
  Christianity. (Iain Murray)

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Goal setting

• Comeback leaders made plans.
• 13 percent of comeback churches selected setting
  goals as most important.

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Making no plans for growth

• results in little or no growth every time
  according to comeback leaders.

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Relationships and Reconciliation

• Many comeback leaders saw the value of
  reconciling relationships.
• Some leaders directly addressed reconciliation
  issues and allowed wounded congregations time to
  heal before moving forward with growth plans.

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Faith Factors Matter

• Spiritual initiatives are vital especially
  prayer, fasting, forgiveness and reconciliation.
  (Leadership Journal)

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• Comeback leaders know that church transformation
  is a spiritual business.
• Only God can move a church from sickness to
  health.

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Worship and Preaching Matter

• Comeback churches valued worship
• Identified their mood of worship as celebrative
  (96) and orderly (95)
• Discovered their passion for God and His mission
  by examining their worship

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Worship and Preaching Matter

• Comeback churches came in all different styles
• Generally more contemporary than traditional

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Musical Selections
Musical Selection in Comeback Churches
90
75
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Traditional Hymns
Praise Choruses
Contemporary
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Worship Moods
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Evangelism Principles

• Our greatest motivation for evangelism is our own
  relationship with God
• Live like a messenger of God in this world
• Organize for evangelism using multiple methods
• It takes a whole church to win a community

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Evangelism Principles

• The whole church has to embrace the mandate for
  evangelism
• Create an environment in which spontaneous and
  planned evangelism can take place
• Recognize and purposefully plan for doors of
  entry to the church

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Connecting People

• People need community
• People need stability
• People need commitment
• People need discipling

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Connecting Through Small Groups

• Recognize and respond to a need for biblical
  unity and community
• Use the small group system to identify and train
  leaders
• Add, replace and start new classes or groups

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Connecting Through Small Groups

• Create more space to expand the number of small
  groups
• Move slowly deliberately in empowering small
  group leaders

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Comeback Churches

• How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too
• By Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson

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• Questions?