The Pastors Who Should Pursue Church Revitalization In A Cohort

I’m just now (June, 2026) wrapping up a one-year revitalization cohort with four great pastors from three states. It has been a joy.  I have learned a lot from these guys and I’m pretty sure that they and their churches have each been helped significantly.

We met via Zoom, once a month for 12 months, for two hours each session.  I gave the guys a minimal amount of homework, mostly just reading my Revitalization Playbook before the group began and – along the way – some reading, thinking, praying and compiling of their own experiences.

In each session the guys have reported on their lives, their families and their churches.  We’ve gotten to know each other. We’ve prayed for each other. We’ve celebrated our wins and mourned our losses. While they live in different states and serve congregations of several denominational “tribes,” their churches have enough in common to give each man the opportunity to be a true “peer coach” to his band of brothers.

My hope and prayer is to start another such group (or groups) in the fall because I have learned that this is one of the best ways to pursue church revitalization and there are so many churches in need of help.

But groups like this are not for everybody. I have no desire to persuade pastors to join groups that they don’t need to be in.

So, here’s a description of the pastors who should consider pursuing church revitalization through such a cohort:

(1) Pastors who are serving churches which are in need of revitalization.  A few descriptors might sound like this:

• A church which lacks relational unity (in which the people don’t like each other) or unity of purpose (in which the people aren’t working toward a common goal) needs revitalization.
• A church which is inward focused enough to leave guests feeling less than warmly welcomed and wanted, needs revitalization.
• A church that seldom wins an unbeliever to faith in Christ and isn’t teaching new Christians how to live the Christian life is in need of revitalization.
• A church which no longer has young families and children is probably in need of revitalization.
• A church which leaves the pastor wondering whether or not it needs revitalization probably needs revitalization.

(2) Pastors who did not know they were being called to churches needing revitalization. Serving as a solo or senior pastor of any church is a big, demanding job. Serving as a solo or senior pastor of a church in need of revitalization is a profoundly difficult job. Did anybody train you for this? (You would be the rare exception if someone did train you for this.)

(3) Pastors who do not have ongoing coaching. Almost all pastors can benefit from having a coach. Revitalization pastors seriously need pastor coaches. An individual coach is great, but for pastors in revitalization challenges, a peer coaching group – in which a small group of pastors in similar situations are committed to helping each other as they themselves are helped – can be even better.

(4) Pastors who don’t have serious, honest, prayerful, humble, regular, ongoing, heart-to-heart fellowship with a small group of pastors. Most pastors don’t have this; all pastors need it.

(5) Pastors who are humble enough to know that they need help. At 28 and fresh out of seminary, I thought I knew just about everything. I wasn’t ready to admit defeat and look for some serious help until I was about 40. You don’t have to wait – and suffer – that long. You can learn everything the hard way or you can be wise and learn some things the easy way. You’ll never live long enough to make every mistake yourself.

(6) Pastors who do not have time to read stacks of books on church revitalization and sort it all out. I tried this. It’s overwhelming. Every book has something to offer but it’s easy to lock into one methodology that may not be the solution for your congregation. Talking things over in a group can help, especially if the leader of the group is a fanatic who has read that stack of books I mentioned.

(7) Pastors who are willing to do some reading, thinking, listening and praying to help themselves and their brethren. I’m not talking about a “several hours of homework per month” type of group. I’ve led such groups, but they’re not realistic for most pastors.

(8) Pastors who are willing to commit themselves to their brothers in the group. Peer group coaching means that I’m not the only coach; we are all coaching each other each month.  Like the gals at the “bring your own craft night,” we take turns putting our churches “on the workbench” and working on them together. As a veteran church health specialist, I know a lot about this subject.  But the other men in the group – collectively – know more than I do.  My very enjoyable challenge is to draw the wisdom and experience out of them. By the way: If you don’t show up for the group, you’re not a student skipping out of class; you’re a teacher skipping out of class. So, we’re looking for those who will have a lot of fun while taking the commitment seriously.

(9) Pastors who are willing to face their own issues. These are not confrontational therapy groups; we don’t scream at each other and call each other names. But we do delve into the extreme challenges which face the pastor seeking to lead an unhealthy church to health, and that does – to a certain extent – involve those pastors facing the truth about their own challenges, weaknesses and “demons.”

(10) Pastors who are willing to come up with fifty dollars a month (for one year) to fund this group. Ideally, your church is going to foot this modest bill. If you do have to fund this yourself, it could turn out to be a tremendously valuable investment in your future – as well as a satisfying and enjoyable monthly gathering.

If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of, contact me. Let’s talk. Even if I steer you towards a similar group led by someone other than myself – like you for instance – I will be blessed to have helped you and your church thrive.