Kicking and Screaming

As many of you know, I find myself in the wilderness currently as I look for a church to Lead into a work of Revitalization. What is not surprising is that over 80% of churches in our country are in need of the work of Revitalization / Renewal. Current research shows that approximately 89% of our churches in North American are plateaued or are declining. However, my initial search for a church has been met with opposition and hard heartedness.

Many of the church search teams I have met with think they are doing just fine. If you are like me at all, you think HOW IS THAT? While there are many ways to answer that question, my mind and heart gravitated back to our fear of death and our delusion that we have some level of control over it. If you have ever taken a philosophy class, there is a good chance you were asked to read the book “The Death of Ivan Ilych” by Leo Tolstoy.

In this classic book Tolstoy brings us a man who has everything and then suddenly and unexpectedly he finds himself declining in health and eventually on his deathbed. His response to this process is to fight with all his being to control the situation. His self-centeredness tortures his family and a cloud of hopelessness descends on the household.

I think this is a perfect word picture for the plight of the North American Church. We think that we can control or fix the problem of decline in the church. And nothing could be further from the truth. We go kicking and screaming as we are dragged into decline, which will end in death one way or the other. We try new programs, put new systems into place, rely on money and building as a crutch, or coax ourselves into thinking we need more staff to fix the problem. But what we need to do is allow God to bring us to a graceful death so that resurrection can take place. There is something about where the church is that needs to die so that we can experience new life and be revitalized. In Tolstoy’s novel Ivan eventually realizes his need for surrender to find peace. Below is a quote from the book:

He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. “Where is it? What death?” There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light. “So that’s what it is!” he suddenly exclaimed aloud. “What joy!”

What Joy you may ask? The Christian faith is very counterintuitive at times. Without the death of Christ, we have no resurrection. Without us dying to self, we cannot experience the life of Christ in us (Galatians 2:20). Without the church dying and giving up control, they will never see life and renewal via revitalization. The good news is that there are churches out there that are ready for this counterintuitive approach. We have met with one already that we feel is being spiritually stirred to this movement. As we patiently work to get to know them, time will tell if we are being led to come and experience a glorious death together in order to then experience a faithful and expectant resurrection. Our prayer and hope is to lead many others into this process. Revitalization is about repentant faith and obedience not money, buildings, or programming that in the end only prolongs the death process.