What does decline in a church look like?
The thing that strikes me is it seems churches lose what they're there for. They forget what their purpose is. They forget they're there to fulfill the Great Commission, to make disciples.
Because of that, they lose their fire and their passion because they're not focused on what God wants them to be focused on.
We tend to think more about what we can get out of church, so it becomes a consumer thing. We come to consume, rather than to let God consume us.When a pastor is going into a church, what needs to happen to revitalize it?
It's not an easy process. And ther'es far more failures than sucesses when a pastor tries to do that.What other changes need to take place?
One of the first things that needs to happen is spiritual renewal in the hearts of the people.
You've got to get people praying. You've got to make them understand the urgency of their need to change.
I think part of it is understanding what their purpose is, get their eyes focused that way, help them understand the need of the community and the nation, and turn them to repentance.
But I think alongside that, there needs to be a group of people who catch the vision for this and it begins to spread.
It starts small initially, but over time, like a snowball, it begins to grow.
What's your advice to laypeople who want their church to take off?
Of course, this is going to sound like a platitude, but it's truly not. That is prayer.
You look in the Bible, and you see what can happen when you pray. And so often in the Bible, what happens is that God sends someone.
I do believe in the efficacy of prayer.What does that kind of prayer look like?
I think it looks like desperation. It looks like a guy being pushed underwater and trying not to drown.
And unless you have that desperation, it's hard to truly understand prayer.
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