Three Essentials To Getting A Strong Start In A Revitalization Effort

By Jim Latimer

You’ve heard the stories: “The congregation said they wanted to grow, but it turned out they didn’t want to change;” or, “I was excited about leading them into a deeper relationship with God, but what they really wanted was getting the pews filled again.

In your heart you know that the local church is the hope of the world. It is declining at an alarming rate. You feel called to the revitalization challenge. You have skills, useful experience and a pastor’s heart.

Turning around a congregation is challenging. Time and money are limited and running out. You want to succeed. And you also know from experience that the single biggest indicator of success in any job is getting a strong start.

Three factors are essential to that strong start: Aligning expectations, working from your strengths, and deep listening. Each is important in any pastorate, but given the added intensity and risk of turnaround work, all three are essential.

Aligning Expectations

Every congregation in significant decline says they want to grow again – to increase attendance and financial health. And every “revitalization” pastor wants to help them do it. The rub comes in how to do it. Expectations drive everything – not only what is to be done, but also how it is to be done.

How the renewal work is carried out is driven by deep seated notions of the purpose of the local church. Here are some common ones: One, my church exists to serve us, meet our needs (our church is for us); two, the church is the primary vehicle for the moral education of our children (If we don’t who will?); and three, the church’s purpose is to connect people with God and help them grow spiritually.

The first two understandings commonly require the continued existence of the local organization in a particular place or building. Success depends upon keeping the doors open. The third understanding, however, depends less upon continuity in a building and more upon the dedication of the people to their purpose.

My intention here isn’t to advocate for any particular understanding of the mission of the church. Rather, I advocate that all parties involved in a particular renewal effort do the hard work needed to achieve a reasonable level of mutual clarity of each other’s various understandings.

Armed with this awareness, pastor and congregation can do significant work together even with somewhat different notions of the purpose of the church. They can find enough in common to make real progress.

However without this mutual clarity, attempts at renewing a local congregation are greatly impaired, not only because efforts are uncoordinated, but also because no one agrees what “success” looks like.

Put differently, the problem isn’t the differing expectations per se – no two individuals ever have exactly the same viewpoint, much less a pastor with an entire congregation. Rather, the problem comes when participants do not examine their own expectations and assumptions of the purpose of their church. Consequently, each party’s viewpoint is tacit – held as “common sense,” and therefore “right.” Differing viewpoints are seen as misguided or “wrong.” Trust and credibility suffer. Unexamined expectations are a central cause of failure.

The vital need to clarify expectations between pastor and congregation sounds obvious. However, the hidden nature of many expectations make this very difficult without skillful facilitation.

Work from your strengths

Renewal work is intense. The window of opportunity is narrow. Folks get stressed. You must work efficiently and effectively, that is, from your strengths (God-given talents). Unfortunately, it’s pretty easy to lack awareness of one’s strengths.

Evaluate yourself with some of the talent inventories available. The Clifton StrengthsFinder is one. It defines talent as an inbred manner of thinking, feeling or acting. (www.strengthsfinder.com)

Think about it this way: You’ve worked hard at something all day and go home exhausted. If you look forward to doing it again the next day – you’ve been employing natural talent. You are happiest and most productive when using them. So you want your revitalization work to call upon these talents as often as possible.

Did I mention the word expectations yet? That’s right, here they come again. Expectations determine which talents get used and which ones languish.

If the congregation has a history of intellectual hands-off pastors who allow the laity to make most of the decisions, and you come in with a take-charge approach, it won’t go well unless expectations have been thoroughly clarified.

Similarly, if they’ve only known highly extroverted warm fuzzy pastors who love being the chief “doer,” and you’re introverted with an equipping approach to ministry, it won’t go well either without thorough clarification.

Punchline: Know your talents and structure the work so you are using them at least 60% of the time.

Deep Listening

The third essential element to getting a strong start is deep listening. You’re probably thinking, “Hey, I know listening is important. I’m a pastor!” But I’m talking about deep listening. Deep listening happens when you are totally focused on what the speaker is trying to convey – verbally and non-verbally. Deep listening is not happening when you are thinking about what to say when the speaker stops talking.

So why is deep listening so important to a strong start? Did I mention expectations yet? The process of setting and aligning expectations is not a one-time event. Rather, the bulk can happen with diligent efforts up front, but clarity around the remaining amount occurs over time as the work progresses. Meaningful turnaround work necessarily involves taking risks together. Risks cause stress. Stress reveals subconscious expectations. Being tuned in via deep listening allows you to catch these residual expectations.

In conclusion, renewal work is difficult yet critically important to the hope of God’s world. Getting a strong start is essential to success. Some pastors don’t get one but could have if they had approached it differently. Faithfulness and hard work by themselves are not enough.

Three factors are essential to that strong start: Aligning expectations, working from strengths, and deep listening. Each is important in any pastorate, but given the added intensity and risk of turnaround work, all three are essential.

Expectations, strengths and deep listening, abide these three, but the greatest of these is expectations.