This, I think, is a glimpse of what God intends in his many churches, a spirit of cooperation and help, not one of division and competition! This is a picture of the Kingdom, people gifted in different ways serving one another and reaching others with the gospel!

You don’t see the hearts. They are changed. Once hardened against outsiders, people who are different, or people of color, their hearts are now softened, and joyfully so! They welcome the stranger and they love their neighbors, all of them.

Discussion of planting a new church in Middle Georgia is often met with a negative response - “We already have too many churches!” “What do you think a new church could do that we can’t do?!” Sadly, often the responses from local pastors are the most negative and most defensive.

This is what I hear whenever there is a discussion with pastors who came into already existing churches about the things New City does and does not do. This (and more) is what I hear when there is any discussion of moving people to mission, being a welcoming church, loving neighbors and the city. New Church vs Old Church is always the reason given for why our culture is what it is and other churches have a different and supposedly “unchangeable” culture.

The people in your church demonstrate the existing organizational culture each week. When they rush to get to lunch they show that lunch is a greater value than welcoming new people, helping them feel connected and at home. They show that church is about the event more than it is about people.

What I really needed were people who had already gone through the things I was currently going through, who learned and grew, learned from the situation and grew in their faith and trust in Jesus.

There are reasons churches are dying. Most often it isn’t because the people not coming are bad people seeking the wrong things. Often it is because our churches aren’t really offering the things that matter most and being the people God has called us to be.

Patience, Prayer, Persistence and Gentleness were a few of the things we talked about last night. Most of us want to see change quickly, but that isn’t likely in a revitalization!

Without the inward change of loving God and loving people our works toward new life are just as misguided as the works that have led to dying. When our hearts are filled with love, we gladly and joyfully work as an overflow, not as a duty or task that must be completed to save our sinking ship.

At New City I have seen many people drift further and further away from gathering with the church on Sundays and from gathering with their small groups (Missional Communities) during the week. I always know what happens next - they leave.

I have witnessed some incredible things in the last year. I witness a church grappling with following their savior or closing their doors. I witnessed leaders fall to their knees and ask God for grace and mercy. I witnessed those leaders ask God to give them the help they needed to be the church that they were called to be.

The statistics consistently show a massive need for a renewed focus on church health. Pastors often know their churches need to be healthier but struggle to take the steps necessary like this pastor did to get there. We settle for our the status quo in lieu of making the necessary changes to experience different results.

“Oh, yes our pastor preaches the gospel!” “Of course we are a very gospel-centered church.” Ask a church goer about their church’s gospel-centrality and their answers are almost always the same. But are they really gospel-centered? What makes a church and church ministry truly gospel-centered?

We are a predominantly white church led by an African American pastor in Middle-Georgia.  We live in the heart of the south where racism and bigotry still remains strongly rooted.

There has been a lot of repenting, hard conversations, work and changes over the past months but none of it has done what only God could do - revive hearts that were dreaming of death and cause them to dream His new dreams! This is what we signed up for when we talked about church replanting.

More than just “things” starting, the people who are a part of these MCs are dreaming new dreams of reaching the community, growing in Christ, and growing together as family.

It is no small matter, not because Northridge was vastly different than the hundreds of other churches in Middle Georgia, but because it is not vastly different, because 11 am is still the most segregated hour of Christian America. It is right that they cheered. This is an incredible work of the Spirit! It is the manifold wisdom of God on display for all the world to see and we get to be a part of it!

This is what I want, to lead with a team of men working together for the mission of the church.

I wish that I had this information (on leadership, planting and replanting) before I took my first church. It would have all been so different.

This should be a required seminary course. Every seminary student who wants to lead in a church needs to hear this.

While this simple leadership development process applies to every ministry area in the church and even leadership outside of the church, we are finding that it will be incredibly helpful in our planting and replanting efforts!

Change and loss are difficult realities for most church replants. Even anticipated change and loss is more than some legacy church members can deal with. This becomes especially difficult for areas of ministry that have “always been” for many church members, areas like Sunday School. Sunday School has a rich and valued place in older, established churches and in many ways has served congregations, communities and the Kingdom well.