Part 1: What is renewal?
By Mark Hallock
First in a four-part series on renewal in pastors and local churches.
All across North America, the Lord is moving in power. And he’s moving in power in a lot of different ways. One of those ways is in seeing and empowering once-dying churches to come back to life and vibrancy and health again.
Sadly, in many churches, people gave up a long time ago. But God says, “You know what? I do my best work when people give up on my church. I do my best work when everything seems hopeless.”
And as revitalization pastors, what we’re about is what I like to call “underdog ministry.” We’re underdogs – and God loves underdogs!
It reminds me of my all-time favorite movie, Hoosiers. If you haven’t seen it, I would encourage you to check it out. It’s a story about a small town high school basketball team from Hickory, Indiana. To say the Hickory Huskers are an underdog team is a massive understatement. They don’t have much height. They don’t have much skill. In fact, they barely have enough players to even make a complete team! And yet, in the face of incredible challenges, doubts, mockery, and impossible odds, this little band of underdog hoopsters from Nowhere, Indiana, battle their way to play in the state championship game before the largest crowd they have ever seen. Remarkably, against all odds, Hickory does the impossible. They play out of their minds and somehow beat the best team in the state – a team loaded with talent, skill, size, and unmatched confidence – the South Bend Central Bears.
Hoosiers is an incredible story. It’s an underdog story! It’s a story of how the small, the overlooked, and the weak can shock the world to do things nobody thought possible.
Just like the Hickory Huskers, our great God is in the business of using small, overlooked, weak things for His glory and purposes. For this reason, it shouldn’t shock us that the Lord loves to renew and bring back to life and vibrancy the dying and struggling churches most people have given up on.
The joy of serving in church revitalization with the North American Mission Board is that we get to come alongside underdog pastors and underdog churches. We have the privilege of encouraging them and seeing God do some amazing things for His glory through them.
While many different types of leaders are needed in this movement of renewal, revitalization, and replanting, the role of the pastor is certainly critical. I praise God for leaders who have summoned the courage to serve as underdog pastors in underdog churches!
We “pray without ceasing” for you. And we’re excited to see God giving you fresh vision and passion for the future of declining churches.
We’re excited because we know, beyond any doubt, that our God is a God of the new. The concept of renewal is at the heart of Christianity because it is God’s heart for His struggling people and His creation.
The most basic definition of renewal is “the act of making something new again.” And, of course, the key word in that definition is ‘again.’ The Lord loves to renew things – to make them new again – for His glory and for the joy of His people.
We see God’s heart for renewal all through Scripture. If you search the Word, you will find everywhere that the Lord is about making things new. Let me share just six examples.
2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Aren’t you thankful for that? God made us new in Christ. We’ve got every reason to sing praises the rest of our days!
Romans 12:2 – “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Psalm 51:10 – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
Psalm 40:3 – “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” Don’t you love that? A new song!
Lamentations 3:22-23 – “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” I’m so glad for that. They’re new every single morning – and I need new mercies every single morning.
2 Peter 3:13 – “But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
If you didn’t know it, now you do: The Lord’s going to make all things new. He’s going to do it for His glory. He’s going to do it for His praise.
And he’s going to do it in the hearts of His underdog pastors and underdog churches.
Published April 8, 2025
