A Spiritless Congregation Experiences a Revolution

A case study based on a real congregational experience

A Spiritless Congregation Experiences a Revolution

By George W. Bullard Jr. , Strategic Thinking Mentor for Christian Leaders, Congregations, Denominations, and Parachurch Organizations BullardJournal@gmail.com

A revolution began the day Martin Kaiser declared martial law at Castle Heights First Church. He suspended the bylaws. Took charge. The revolution continued for two years.

Martin began as the interim pastor of Castle Heights First Church just as the year was turning from summer to fall. The typical Sunday saw around 40 people present in a worship center that would hold 450.

Once filled with worshippers, Castle Heights engaged in decades of attendance reduction campaigns. They just could not get along and kept driving current attenders away and by reputation discouraging new people from connecting with them.

Their desire to drive people away included a string of short-term pastorates. When the honeymoon season for each pastor was over, they were no longer welcome.

Martin new he must change the spiritual culture of this congregation, or they would continue to be repeat offenders. He began preaching, teaching, and trying to lead them to unfreeze from their current place in congregational ministry.

For the first four months they ignored him. Perhaps he too would go away.

The church was run by five deacons. Good men untrained in the duties of a New Testament deacon. Certainly not the kind found in the Acts of the Apostles chapter six. They were more like the high priests and Sanhedrin in the Gospels.

These deacons and the congregation were Spiritless. This was an overly churched culture congregation. Directionless. Not into disciplemaking.

Surviving by calling the next pastor and discouraging him so he would leave after a few years was their unconscious goal.

Smoldering Embers

The day after Christmas their church facilities caught fire and all their primary buildings were destroyed. Firefighters fought the flames with great courage, but the buildings could not be saved. The fire was too advanced before enough equipment and personnel were on-site.

The next Sunday the remnant congregation met at a community school gymnasium. During the first part of worship people spoke about what the now destroyed buildings meant to them. Especially some of the special things that happened to them in the church facilities. Weddings. Funerals. Baptisms. Music and drama programs. Times of personal spiritual awakening.

Then Martin declared, “Our church did not burn. Our buildings burned. You are the people of God at Castle Heights. You are very much alive. God will lead us forward. From these smoldering embers, God will do a new thing!”

He then preached from Isaiah 43:19 which says “Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?” (The Message)

Knowing the dysfunctional nature of the congregation, and that radical action was needed, Martin declared martial law. They now trusted him and followed his lead.

From that point forward Martin was able to serve as the Intentional Interim Pastor focused on planting a new congregation on top of the smoldering embers. The congregation still saw the church as buildings. He championed the church as people in a spiritual relationship with God.

The church not only lost their buildings, but they had recently paid salaries from their financial reserves. They were close to broke.

Spiritual Challenges

During January Martin preached a message on stewardship and tithing as obedience to God. He challenged all who had never tithed ten percent of their income through the church to do so for the month of February.

During February offerings significantly increased. They continue to be even higher for March. People saw the difference it made and that many were following in obedience which gave them confidence to continue.

The Spring brought forth a sermon series on “Out of the Ashes: Lessons God Teaches Us from the Fire.” Attendance slowly began increasing. It was up to 75 or more by Easter.

As church attendance previously declined, programming diminished too almost nothing. Martin determined he needed to initiate a disciplemaking process among the active congregation. He suggested starting small groups. Leaders said this was tried multiple times before and did not work.

Martin was not deterred. He and his wife invited 12 couples to their home for a weekly dinner and to study a book together on spiritual renewal. These couples were then challenged to start a group of their own and teach the same book.

The people involved in this process grew from the original 24 to almost 75 people, or almost twice the number of adults who were present for worship before the fire. Weekly sermons on spiritual growth supported the small groups.

Benchmarks

The fire chief, who had led the crews fighting the church fire, and his wife began attending Castle Heights. He said he was inspired by their story to come but was at first afraid. “I was afraid to come because I could not save the church, and wondered if people would blame me for the destruction.”

“No, you are not to blame. I do not hear anyone suggesting that,” responded Martin.

Having the fire chief as part of the church was a great sign of healing, and an affirmation that the church is people and not buildings.

An important benchmark was the deacons. By default, they had served as managers of the church for many years as the committee structure disappeared. They were challenged to shift from management to doing the work of ministry.

As the fellowship of the congregation and the ministry of the deacons activated, the attendance at the church exceeded 100. It had been many years since this number of people had worshiped as Castle Heights on a weekly basis.

Even with all the progress, Martin felt things were still moving too slow. He took the risk to assume even more authority and see if the congregation was now willing to follow his lead. Many things needed to happen at a quick pace to get the church into a new building and soaring as a new congregation.

He appointed a layperson who had the expertise and willingness to oversee clearly away of the debris left by the fire. The debris was a constant reminder of what happened. A cleared lot ready for a new building would be a promise of the future.

A former member with building expertise returned to the church during this time and brought experience and wisdom needed for a new church building. With these two people as the core, he recommended to the church a building committee.

The building project was begun. They moved into the new facility two years after the fire with no debt between their insurance benefits and money that was given or raised. Before they moved into the new building, they were already averaging close to 200 in attendance.

The new facility was smaller than the previous one. It held 300 for worship compared to 450 previously. The total square footage for the new building was 24,000 compared to 35,000 before. The first Sunday in the new building they packed it out with 300 people present for worship.

The sermon was on Moses standing before the burning bush that was not consumed. The church building had burned but the congregation was not consumed. They had a mandate from the fire for their future.

Leadership

As Castle Heights began anew, they were able to hire a part-time children’s minister and a part-time youth minister. This provided needed program support for the families they were reaching. Additionally, a part-time business administrator was secured.

A new type of volunteer leadership roles was filled once the church bylaws had been rewritten. A 12-person leadership council was put in place that involved the pastor, church administrator, worship pastor, six people with specific program and ministry assignments, and three at-large representatives from the congregation. The pastor chairs this group.

This formalized the deacons as no longer doing management but ministry to the membership and community. After almost a decade the deacons could be deacons again.

Four months after the congregation moved into the new building, they voted to call a new pastor. With his coming worship attendance is already averaging 250 or more. A second worship service by this congregation who two-and-one-half years earlier averaged around 40 is now being considered.

Now new suburban development is getting ready to come to this church’s community. Within a five-mile radius of the church location 2000 homes are projected to be built. Unknown yet is if this church will be able to connect with the new residents. The next chapter of their story is yet to be written.

They are no longer Spiritless.