Our church was in a death spiral. Bethel Assembly (Rapid City, South Dakota) was 63 years old, and the median age was even older. Our senior pastor resigned and asked me to assume the lead pastor position.

I had only been the youth and associate pastor for four years, and the idea of leading a declining church was overwhelming. My wife, Melanie, and I realized our well-established church needed to make some adjustments to survive, but we didn’t know where to start.

When the church voted us in as lead pastors of Bethel Assembly, we were excited and humbled; we also felt a strong sense of God’s calling. However, those meaningful emotions quickly gave way to the sobering truth of what we were stepping into when an elderly couple approached me to say, “Pastors come and go, but we will always be here!”

I knew we needed renewal. The Acts 2 Journey helped kick-start our transformation. It was the beginning of a Spirit-empowered process that exposed the need for a six-letter word that causes so much trepidation: change.

Introducing Change

Change, the ultimate swear word for a well-established church, needed to become the center of our renewal process. Easier said than done! The church struggles with change, perhaps because everything else in the world changes at such a rapid pace.

The senior saints and pillars of the church probably struggle the most. They tend to believe the church is the one place that should never change because God doesn’t change. If they sense the tide turning, they often start heading for the doors.

When a church has experienced congregational hemorrhaging, the faithful remnant seeks to hold on to the glory days. Hemorrhaging triggers survival mode, and survival mode causes a church to cling to the past, judge the present and fear the future. However, renewal must happen.

The first pastor I served under taught me a simple question I often reference: Is it a principle or a preference? Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). That’s a principle. Congregants may say, “The choruses of today are not worship,” or, “We can’t move to two services because we won’t know everyone,” or, “Small groups are not for me.” Those are preferences.

Change is inevitable. However, it becomes more palatable in the context of the principle vs. preference question. It’s a difficult discussion, but a critical one. These types of conversations become more manageable when the leader begins to change the way people think.

It Starts with Me

Even when we recognize the need for change, it’s sometimes difficult to know where to begin. Music and mindsets are easy targets. But I realized I had to lead the way. Change needed to start with me.

Pastoring the church through renewal required me to think differently. I acknowledged that I couldn’t manage everything myself. After all, it takes pastors, teachers and others to do the work of the church (Ephesians 4:11-12).

As renewal begins and the church expands, there is a need for high-capacity volunteers and staff. I looked for mature servants who had been faithful in the little things and provided opportunities for them to step up and serve as leaders. I truly believe this was crucial to our success.

Even with the right people in place, there were many uncertainties about the future. I didn’t have all the answers. But I had plenty of questions and a desire to learn and hear from God.

Proverbs 2:1-5 says, “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding — indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”

Questions and Answers

I found the change we needed in the wisdom of those who took the time to answer my questions and push me to grow. I learned how to build healthy relationships that lead people to find their purpose in ministry and leadership. I learned to give people room to grow instead of boxing them in by the rules of the church.

Here are a few of the questions I worked through as we turned our church toward renewal:

How do I keep people from leaving the church? When someone walks away, it feels personal — and sometimes it is. But over time I have settled in my heart who I am as a leader and who we are as a church.

A statement I heard from one leader resonated in my spirit: “We must choose who we will lose, to choose who we will gain.” It initially seems harsh and judgmental, but that’s not the intention. This counsel relieved the pressure when people left the church who were not in alignment with the vision. I would rather someone leave than stay and feel miserable.

We realized the church is only a generation away from closing its doors, and that motivated us in many of our decisions. We wanted to become a multi-generational congregation. Renewal required us to focus on the next generation. We must acknowledge and honor the past while preparing for the future.

Our church will not be a fit for everyone, and that’s OK, but arriving at that place of contentment required a change of thinking.

What’s the difference between culture and vision? We had great words to articulate our vision. We knew what we wanted people to experience when they walked through our doors. We wore wristbands to remind us and wrote it on the walls and letterhead. However, we quickly learned that words are just that until our behavior and atmosphere match what we say.

Changing culture in a church is not easy if a renewed mindset doesn’t start from the top.

Vision is what we want people to know about our church. And culture is how they feel while they are here. When a church accepts its God-given vision and understands its culture, there will be powerful moments that will change people’s lives.

Pairing faith-filled, visionary words with loving behavior and a welcoming atmosphere prepares the way for God to come in and do the impossible.

How do we change our culture? The church and its people are often quick to tell others what is wrong, sinful and unholy. As a result, many unbelievers see Christians as bigots, haters and hypocrites. John 13:34-35 says people will recognize us as Christ’s disciples when we put love on display.

We began sharing with our community what we are for instead of only what we are against. We want to be a hospital for the sick to come and find the Healer. We want to lead lost people to the Way. We want our church to be a place of worship and celebration for the King of kings. That is why, after every altar call, we rejoice and applaud. We celebrate!

We remind our people of Luke 15:32 often, “But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” We are learning that the power of celebration encourages our people to replicate the teachings of Scripture.

Changing culture in a church is not easy if a renewed mindset doesn’t start from the top. It should start with the lead pastor and trickle down to the rest of the leadership. This requires change from the board, ministry teams and ministry leaders.

During our orientation for new board members, we remind them of God’s calling on their lives and challenge them to serve as spiritual elders, not politicians. As our board realized they represented the vision of the church to the people, it made a difference in our leadership culture.

How can we become healthier? Salvation and water baptisms are vital indicators of church health. Yet there was a time when we rarely saw them. Acknowledging and celebrating God’s work among us helped spark cultural and spiritual changes. Every salvation and every baptism became a cause for celebration. The following year, we experienced an 87 percent increase in recorded salvations and a 400 percent increase in water baptisms.

I believe we should measure what matters. Attendance matters because each number is a soul. Guest retention matters because it reveals whether people feel welcome. Measuring allows for celebrations and highlights ministry areas that need more attention. For example, we noticed Holy Spirit baptism was underemphasized, so we established special ministry services for teaching about the Holy Spirit and inviting people to seek Spirit baptism.

How do I “kill” something? Evaluating the church can be a painful and sobering process, but measuring will inevitably reveal well-intentioned ministry that is no longer bearing fruit.

Ministries and ministry styles are simply tools to accomplish the Great Commission. However, tools eventually wear out. I quickly learned that simply ending a program implied a lack of respect and dignity. These tools once brought value, life change and eternal hope — and each one represents a person who helped forge it. Simply pulling the plug might hurt someone deeply.

Rick Allen, a national facilitator for the Acts 2 Journey, reminded me that such tools deserve the respect of a beautiful sunset. Change can be a time to pause and reflect on the day that is fading away. We can appreciate a sunset, even while looking forward to another sunrise and the promise of a new day.

For nearly nine years, our church operated a community outreach, the Wednesday Night Club. We bused neighborhood kids to our church for dinner, activities and Bible lessons.

This ministry was revolutionary for Bethel when it started. It shifted the mindset of the church from an inward to an outward focus. It challenged congregants to volunteer and engage in hands-on ministry. (Notice how I’m honoring the past. If you can’t honor the past, people will not dream with you for the future.) We planted seeds of salvation into countless kids over the years. We showed our neighborhood we were a safe place for their children.

Over time the ministry became stagnant and exhausting. It was time to consider some difficult questions: Were the volunteers still excited about this ministry and engaged in the mission? Were new families attending because of the program? The answers to these questions were painful. It was time to give this once valuable tool a sunset.

We also needed to give our volunteers and congregation a new tool for reaching the kids in our community. It took time and creativity, but we found our sunrise in the adoption of an elementary school in our neighborhood, where we served the same children in a new way. We built a relationship with the school and now serve them without any strings attached.

We honor the teachers and staff by catering lunch for them during pre-service and providing snacks for the lounge a few times a month. We place volunteers in and around the building on orientation nights to help neighborhood families find their classrooms and teachers. Bethel volunteers are in the classrooms each week mentoring kids in math and reading.

Every year, we partner with the school to provide a bicycle for any child who has had perfect attendance. The first year, the school only needed 12 bikes. Last year, it needed 53.

Through this new endeavor, we have seen families and staff from the school enter the doors of our church. The tools may change, but our mission remains the same: sharing the light of Christ in a dark world.

Conclusion

Bethel has experienced a lot of change in recent years. The renewal process has been gut-wrenching and soul changing but entirely worth it. Today, Bethel has a weekly impact of more than 600 people at two different locations. Our once-plateaued church is now a multiplying church with a commitment to seeing not just our city but our entire region discover Jesus Christ.

We are investing in rural places to advance the kingdom of God. Our second campus is 85 miles south of the main campus — in a town of 800 people, where the church was about to close its doors. Nearly 7 percent of that community now attends, and the church has seen its first salvations and water baptisms in more than 20 years.

For us, renewal is not only about increased attendance and salvations, but also about the ability to dream beyond what we are today. As our congregation approaches its 70th birthday two years from now, we sense the Lord challenging us to have seven healthy church campuses in underserved locations. Our dream is that each location will impact its region for Christ, giving people the joy of discovering their destiny in Jesus.

When you’re willing to face that six-letter word — change — celebrate a healthy culture, settle in your heart who you are not, watch a few sunsets and dream big, God will rock your world! It’s worth the pain and the journey.

God has entrusted you with His flock. Be faithful as you carry out His mission.

This has been our prayer, and we hope it will become yours. “Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come” (Psalm 71:17-18).

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2018 edition of Influence magazine.