Three Ways Revitalizing Your Church Is Like Remodeling Your Home

“Revitalizing your church is like remodeling your house: It will take more time, cost more money and create a bigger mess than you ever could have imagined.                 But in the end, it’s worth it.” Anonymous

 

I have loved that observation for a long time now, and I wish I could tell you who first said it.  I’ve seen it played out in churches: the time, the cost, the organizational messes – the whole scenario.

But beyond the time, the cost and the messiness, there are three more parallels that I’d like to flesh out for you right here:

1. It helps to have a plan.

As a young married couple, Donna and I visited some friends of ours who had recently purchased their first home; a little old “fixer-upper” was all they could afford at the time.  We got out of our car and our friends immediately launched into their remodeling horror story.  They had done a great deal of hard work on some banged up walls, only to discover that their electrical and plumbing problems demanded that they tear out their nice new walls and start over.

Contrast that with the long-running public television show, “This Old House.”  You probably know the drill.  The “This Old House” experts would sit down with the homeowners and hear their dreams for their home.  Then they would get up from the kitchen table and inspect the house from bottom to top.

Next, they would sit down with the homeowner(s) again and give them a realistic assessment of what they could do and, in some cases, what they must do to their house.  In many cases the homeowners were advised to put serious money into vital, but unappealing, infrastructure upgrades before any aesthetic improvements could be made. By the end of the one-hour show, the results were always beautiful because of the dreams of the homeowners and the plan drawn up by the experienced remodelers.

There’s no question that the Bible commends planning.  It’s all over the book of Proverbs, endorsed by Jesus in Luke 14:28-33, and assumed in Paul’s descriptions of farming and home building in I Corinthians three.

But to my surprise, I’ve heard it suggested that it’s less than “spiritual” to seek to revitalize your church according to a plan. “We should let the Spirit guide us, one change at a time.”

But wait a minute.  The Holy Spirit wrote those Biblical passages about planning, didn’t He?  We use flexible plans for church planting, church mergers, interim pastorates, church adoptions and church building construction, don’t we?  Why would we not start with a flexible plan for revitalization?

A review of church revitalization literature reveals that many church leaders, by way of much prayer and eye-opening experiences, have come to very close agreement on what an effective church revitalization process looks like.  The process they’ve discovered is one that the Holy Spirit has chosen to use and bless, again and again. Why would we not seek to gain from their wisdom and experience?  It helps to have a plan.

2. It helps to have some guidance.

Back in my childhood, my father, who was reasonably “handy” but not an experienced carpenter, with help from my teenaged brother, built a garage beside our house.  It turned out just fine.  YouTube wasn’t invented yet, but our retired carpenter neighbor, Max, was right there, day after day, telling my dad what to do next.

In my long-term pastorate – twelve years as the senior leader – we did some good things and made some good changes.  But we didn’t have a plan and neither did we have outside guidance for our revitalization project.

As a result, we made costly mistakes, wasted effort on some unnecessary changes, failed to do some vital improvements and did some good things in the wrong order. It was a lot like the remodeling project I described under #1 above.

A good book – or better yet – an experienced consultant, could have helped us immensely.  It helps to have some guidance.

3.   It really is worth the trouble.

Church revitalization is not for the faint of heart.  Thom Rainer says that no pastor should launch into such a project without a willingness to give himself wholeheartedly to it for at least three years.  Such an effort certainly can’t be led by the pastor who has “retired in place.”

Churches are systems and systems have something called homeostasis.  That means a built-in resistance to change.  You might call it organizational inertia.  Good people resist change for a plethora of reasons.  In most cases, before a congregation can move from Great Commission ineffectiveness to Great Commission effectiveness some dear folks who find the changes too painful to bear will have to leave.

You’ve heard this all before, and yes, it’s scary.

But many thousands of Christians – lay-persons as well as pastors – will testify that it was worth the time and trouble.  They entered into the revitalization process with fear and trembling, but they are so grateful that someone persuaded them to participate.

They love the fact that their churches are now reaching lost people.  They love the new believers in their midst. They are thrilled to have young couples again and children running up and down the aisles. They’ll talk to you about “the old church” like it’s a dim and distant and dreary memory.

In church revitalization It helps to have a plan.  It helps to have some guidance.  It really is worth the trouble.