Part 3: A passion for local church renewal
Third in a four-part series on renewal in pastors and local churches.
Do you remember when the Lord called you to serve him as a pastor of a church in need of renewal? Do you remember some of the things that got you fired up? My guess is there were lots of things that got you excited – lots of dreams.
What a privilege to be filled with a genuine desire and passion to help a struggling church thrive! To help them experience healthy growth and flourishing for the sake of the gospel. That’s why you got into this thing! You said, “God, use me to bring hope where there is no hope, to bring joy where there is no joy, to bring vision and strategy where there is no vision and strategy. Here I am. Send me!”
Do you remember the passion you had at the beginning?
Pastor, that same passion God gave you at the beginning is needed right now, more than ever. And that’s not to say you aren’t passionate. It’s just that the Lord wants to fill you with fresh passion. He wants to put fresh fire in your bones! And please hear this, if you are in a place where you are feeling passion-less, go humbly to the Lord and ask Him to fill you up with His Spirit once again. Ask Him to fill you with passion and fire that can only come from Him. He loves to answer this prayer!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to waste my days. I don’t know how many days I have left, but I know I want to spend them for Christ and the Gospel! I don’t want to get comfortable and just cruise to the end. Dying churches don’t need that from us. What they need are humble, faith-filled leaders who love Jesus and will do whatever it takes to help their churches experience new life. That’s the adventure – and the joy – we have been called to!
So, how do we keep our passion hot to serve struggling, dying churches? Because, let’s face it, this is a ministry where it is easy to get discouraged and lose your passion, fast. Let me briefly share three realities that God brings me back to over and over again that help fuel passion in my calling to fight for hurting, declining churches.
Reality #1. God’s people in dying churches desperately need hope and encouragement. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They are faces, not numbers. These are people Jesus died for. These are churches God used in powerful ways for decades. They need to know God is not done with them, that they matter.
Every pastor needs to know that Jesus has a great plan for their church. Jesus has not forgotten them. He loves them, He’s with them, and He’s for them. And as they look to Him, He will guide them and lead them back to life. These congregations desperately need hope and encouragement from us. We’re the hug they need. Seriously. They need us to point them back to the one who has all the power, the one who died for them, the one who loves to show His strength in weakness.
Reality #2. Dying churches are surrounded by lost and broken people who desperately need the gospel. This is one thing that can keep me up at night – thinking about all the men and women, all the sweet boys and girls where I live who do not know Jesus. When I really think on it, the thought overwhelms me. It breaks my heart.
When I think about the thousands upon thousands of lost people who live in neighborhoods where once-thriving, outward-focused churches have become declining, inward-focused churches, I want to do anything and everything we can to reach them with the gospel. One of the ways God renews our passion to see dying churches come back to life is by breaking our hearts for all the people around us who are headed to hell apart from Christ.
One of the things I get concerned about for many Christians in North America, is that perhaps our hearts are no longer broken for the lost the way they should be. Paul writes in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord! Do we believe this truth? Do we really believe it or do we just like to quote it? Many of us have plenty of “head knowledge” about the gospel. My fear is that our head knowledge has not broken our hearts and caused us to move out to share the gospel with our words. It hasn’t caused us to reach a community. It hasn’t caused us to take risks for the sake of Christ.
We need to pray and ask the Lord to help struggling churches move beyond survival mode and experience renewed conviction over the lost. We’ve got to help congregations recapture a passion and vision for the Great Commission. Evangelizing the lost and making disciples is the primary mission for every Christian and every biblical church. And that’s why we need to do all we can to help every church get healthy and back on the mission Jesus has given them.
Reality #3. Dying churches rob God of His glory. This reality should be our greatest source of motivation when it comes to seeing our churches revitalized, replanted, and renewed. The glory of God. The key to the revitalization of a church near death is a passion for the glory of God in all things. This alone must be the beginning and primary motivation for church renewal, even over worthy objectives such as reaching the community, growing the church, and meeting needs.
Can you see it? Renewed faith. Renewed joy. Renewed unity. Renewed worship. Renewed hunger for the Word. And renewed urgency to reach the lost. As this happens in our churches, our great God receives more and more glory – glory He alone deserves.
So, let us remember these three realities:
#1. God’s people in dying churches desperately need hope and encouragement.
#2. We are surrounded by lost and broken people who desperately need the gospel. #3. Dying churches rob God of His glory.
Lord, use us to bring fame and glory to your name as we seek to help your people, your local churches, experience fresh hope, new life, and Spirit-empowered passion to reach the lost and make disciples!
This is the heart of true church renewal.
Published April 24, 2025
