Although the ministry of the local church is exhausting and difficult, each church leader has the tremendous privilege of connecting the people they shepherd with the story and mission of God that "was before the foundation of the world." This project was made possible thanks to the shared encouragement and sacrifice of my family.
INTRODUCTION
Woodward and Dan White Jr., The Church as Movement: Starting and Sustaining Missional-Incarnational Communities (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 2016), 25. Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches, 3rd ed. the church's organizational culture facilitated an effective missional culture.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Christopherson believes that the church is not the goal of the kingdom of God but an instrument to advance the kingdom. Revival leaders must ensure that new cultural initiatives have viability in the current systems of the church.
METHODOLOGY
This particular segment of the study explored how transforming the church's missional culture results in revitalization. Quantitative results usually tell about the types of participants. purposely selected from the qualitative phase and the type of questions that will be asked to the participants. The following sections detail the purpose and design of each component and set of the study.
In an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, the purpose of the quantitative strand is to identify types of individuals (or churches in this case) that can be selected for the.
The purpose of phase 1 was to define the criteria of revitalization and identify the churches that meet that criterion. The data for this phase was drawn from the
The purpose of phase 1 was to define the criteria for revitalization and identify the churches that meet this criterion. The purpose of this phase was to investigate how mission culture contributed to the revitalization of churches from phase 2.
The purpose of this phase was to explore how mission culture contributed to the revitalization of churches from phase 2. This qualitative strand
The following section describes the process of delineating the population at each stage of the study. Churches that met this three-criteria definition of revitalization served as the study population. Joseph Stephen Hudson, "A Competency Model for Church Revitalization in Southern Baptist Convention Churches: A Mixed Methods Study" (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017), 8.
Members of the research team reviewed the content and process together with the project supervisor.
Delimitations
Once this number of eligible churches was determined, the researchers used the following delineation of specific criteria, observing rates of church decline and growth. This first step in the second demarcation reviewed the stages of church decline and growth. Another criterion excluded churches that had less than two of the last five years of one-year attendance growth of 10 percent or more, or less than two of the last five years had an attendance-to-baptism ratio of 20:1 or higher.
This final determination identified 716 churches (5.24 percent of the previously declining population) that met the revitalization and eligibility criteria for phase 2 of the survey.5 Using these criteria isolated churches that.
Delimitations and Protocol
An expert panel of pastors and denominational leaders with expertise in church revival provided review, insight and feedback for the survey questions.8 The research team selected different churches that met their selected criteria and made efforts to avoid overlapping of church leaders in the interview process. 9. Davis, author of Revitalize: Biblical Keys to Helping Your Church Come Alive Again (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2017); Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, and Philip Nation, revival pastors and co-authors of Transformational Discipleship: How People Really Grow (Nashville: B&H, 2012); and Joseph Stephen Hudson, author of “A Competency Model for Church Revitalization in Southern Baptist Convention Churches: A Mixed Methods Study” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017). Survey item 19: "Choose your level of agreement with the following statements regarding the church's mission ministry before the revival process.
The church had a vibrant mission ministry focused on financially supporting short-term and/or long-term missionaries.
Delimitations and Protocol
The interviews were conducted using several different platforms that depended on the technological ability of the interviewer. After the interview and transcription process, the interview participants were emailed a copy of the transcript of their interview for validation. 12 The interview was divided into two separate parts with the first demographic questions and the second focusing on the missionary culture of the church.
First, participant names, church names, and city locations of participants were not included in the study.
Participant Demographics
To understand the ministry context in which respondents led and served, they were asked to classify their ministry context as rural, suburban, or urban (see Table 6). The majority were rural (53.19 percent) and served in a rural context, over a third (36.17 percent) were from a suburban context, and only 10.36 percent were classified as urban. 15 Point 2 of the survey: "Your role before the revitalization process: pastor/elder, deacon, staff, volunteer or not in the church".
Item 3 of the survey: "Your role during the revival process: pastor/elder, deacon, staff, volunteer or not in the church."
Participants
Two of the Church leaders held dual occupations (one was a human resources contractor and the other homeschooled her children).21 The Church leaders also held several staff positions (see Table 10). Ten of the church leaders were principal/senior pastors, one was an executive pastor, and one was a church administrator/mission leader.22. Survey item 8 asked participants to rate each of the six ministerial accents on a six-point Likert scale for the importance it played in their church's revitalization process (see Table 11).
Seeking out, identifying, training, equipping and releasing key leaders regarding the task of cultivating missional culture in church revitalization was the only theme found in all the qualitative interviews.
Leaders worked intentionally to change the mindset of the congregation. All but one of the church leaders reported that they worked intentionally
Church Leader 6 stated, "God began to bring leaders who wanted to be a part of hearing about our church. Church Leader 5 stated that instead of pushing outward and partnering with the missio Dei, "his congregation turned against Him himself and just trying to survive."45 Church leader 1 described the mission culture in his church as "well-intentioned but non-existent. Most of what happened was very inwardly focused.”46 Church leader 10 surmised: “You have to get a church to think outward.”47.
Church leader 11 described his attempt to use revival preaching as “preaching, teaching, banging, banging my head against the wall.
Leaders initiated ministry in their community. Ten of the twelve church leaders indicated that getting their church members into the community to make
Ten of the twelve Church leaders reported getting their Church members into the congregation.
Leaders had an intentional communication strategy to highlight missions awareness. Nine of twelve respondents employed some sort of strategy to
They created categories based on the geographic regions of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth, with leaders and mission opportunities for each geographic location.64 Church Leader 2 also used a strategy of placing mission facilities in prominent church locations. his.
Leaders recognized a faithful few in their congregation whose hearts were warm to mission. Seven out of twelve church leaders recognized that there
I would quickly say that there were people here before I came here who prayed and were faithful and perhaps did not attract others with the gospel as they should have, but in their hearts there was still a desire to benefit the kingdom. Church leader 6 stated that he still has people in his church who "want to be the church God wanted them to be."70. Seven out of twelve interviewees reported that short-term travel influenced mission design. The interviewees reported that the short-term trips influenced the formation of a missionary culture that led to revival.
Now they are active and have hearts that recognize that there are missions in other places.”71 While Church leaders could not specifically articulate the ways trips helped revitalize, it is clear that they saw a connection.
Leaders led their church to increase the financing of mission
So in many ways I feel like what we're doing now is we're reaping the rewards of their loyalty, because they could have gone elsewhere. We've just appropriated some, some resources to say that we're at least going to give it a right to move the kingdom forward. And then we just talked about that, you know, every week we talk about when you give, you don't just give to what's happening here, you give to the gospel reaching the nations.
Church leader 4 reported that an initial offering his church made in faith had the impact of changing the culture of the church: “Remember this church was struggling and every aspect, even financially, was struggling.
Leaders created ministry partnerships with other churches. Half of the respondents reported that partnerships created with other churches cultivated
And we could talk specifically at that point about where those resources go and who they go to and what happened in those churches.72. It ended up being about $160,000, but they went with it.”73 That first financial gift led to a thriving church partnership with a network of churches in Central America. Church leader 3 discovered that his own parishioners were "so stuck in our own area and so we just adapted to it."74 Ministry in a different geographical location enlightened congregations about missionary opportunities that existed all around them in their local community. .
Church leader 11 reflected that the partnerships his church cultivated were “the catalyst that made us who we are today.”75.
Leaders utilized modeling and small group discipleship to warm hearts for mission. Five out of twelve respondents reported that some sort of
The more Christ-like you become, the more you will desire what God desires. And he tells us that he wants us to come out and be his hands and feet.”79. Church Leader 11 noted that "we've slowly begun to move from events to actually the only one-on-one relationship with people."80 Church Leader 10 realized that this shift in mentality from events to relational justice was influential in his church's growth, specifically in the launch of their second church campus location.81 Church leader 3 noted that when his people began to get to know people in the community, there was immediate numerical growth in his church.82.
Leaders communicated a raised level of member expectation
The inward-looking culture of "just sitting on a pew on a Sunday morning, listening to the music, getting the message, shaking my hand as they go out the door" was no longer acceptable.85. Five of the 12 respondents found that focused prayer for missions was an integral part of cultivating a.
Church leaders led focused prayer for mission. Five out of twelve respondents identified that focused prayer for mission was integral in cultivating a
Church leader 3 noticed that when he spent time "on his face" before the Lord, he began to see God's work. He also took advantage of having several key leaders and other pastors in his area who joined him in praying for a change in mission.88.
Leaders focused on moving toward more optimal church governance. Five out of twelve respondents indicated that a change in church
This third phase of the study consisted of qualitative interviews with 12 church leaders who saw missions as an important factor in their church's revival. Some of the church leaders assumed that they were still in revival or attributed the revival to a previous leader. Finally, in phase 3 of the study, 12 church leaders were interviewed, and they provided formative data.
These findings represent one of the largest studies on church revival in the past decade.
CONCLUSIONS
The respondent church leaders developed deliberate language that was deployed in the activities and ministries of the church. 15. Choose your level of agreement with the following statements regarding the church's evangelistic ministry during the revival process. 19. Choose your level of agreement with the following statements regarding the church's current mission ministry.
Leadership development played a significant role in the revitalization process. 24. Briefly describe the primary changes to the church's prayer service that you see have contributed significantly to the revival process. His area of focus is specifically in the field of missionary culture and its role in influencing the church's revival. Missional structures: the particular community.” In Missional Church: A Vision for the Mission of the Church in North America, edited by Darrell L.
