Philosophy for Local Church Replanting and Re-envisioning
Our philosophy for local church re-planting and re-envisioning goes hand in hand with ourphilosophy for district multiplication. We believe the two are inseparable.
First, there is the aspect of theological realignment. The pursuit of theological realignment to the understanding of the God of mission and to the mission in which he is engaged is centric to our district philosophy.
In this realignment, there is the essential blending of orthodoxy and orthopraxy. In other words, it is imperative to embrace the biblical theological truth that our God is a missionary God who has consistently called his people to join him in his mission. However, it is not enough to know who God is and what he expects. We should passionately embrace the calling he has placed upon our lives and upon our congregations. We must live on mission with him by reaching the world around us with the Gospel, making disciples, and advancing his Kingdom through an expanding faithful presence into the communities around us. In other words, we need to rightly believe, and we need to practice what we say we believe.
Therefore, the perpetual movement of Jesus’ church should be that of faithful participation in the mission of God to redeem his creation.
“Getting caught up in God’s mission shifts the center of attention to God instead of us. We are called to join God in the renewal of all things. Reflecting on the sending nature of God, we discover our own sentness; reflecting on the nature of the incarnation, we discover how we can live into our own sentness. Reflecting on how the Father and Son sent the Spirit, we remember that in our weakness he becomes strong.” (J. R. Woodward and Don White, Jr., The Church as a Movement, Starting and Sustaining Missional-Incarnational Communities, 2016, pg. 124)
Ultimately, we believe congregational health and District revitalization hinges upon the pursuit of an aggressive culture of discipleship and multiplication. Multiplication-mindedleaders will reproduce multiplication-minded disciples, leaders, pastors, and churches. This creates the missional movement that will re-culture district life.
District Methodology for Church Replants and Re-Envisioning
District Churches will be assessed and placed in one of the following categories:
1) Dying
2) Surviving
3) Striving
4) Thriving
While these 4 categories exist, there are common metrics used to determine which churches fit into which categories. First and foremost, each category must be defined:
The Dying Church: Is a church that has resisted change, experienced consistent decline, has no vision for the future, and there is little left in the present. This church lacks missional leadershipand, even though the remaining congregants may speak of growth, the primary mission is to keep the doors open until it is impossible to do so. This church is generally set on resisting change until the church dies. In most cases, there is little reason for the continued existence of this church other than to meet the needs of the few members that still attend. While a dying church may have had a productive past, it can see no way forward.
The Surviving Church: Is a step up from the dying church in the sense that it can maintain itself financially and there is often a good pastor. However, this church has experienced little to no growth through new attendees, which has caused the church to decline in attendance and vital functionality. This church may be defined by the following characteristics: 1) a church that has seen few (or no) conversions, new disciples, or new attendees over a long period of time, 2) the pastor is respected in the community, but has not led the church toward effective local missionality and disciple-making, 3) the building and property receives essential care and maintenance, which consumes most of the church’s income, and 4) the attendance is small, but has been somewhat consistent over a period of years. Unfortunately, this congregation is contentto simply maintain the little they have, which will eventually lead to the death of the church.
The Striving Church: This congregation may look much like the Surviving Church with one exception: They are not content to be at their current level of mission and ministry. There is a desire to grow. Missionality has become a vision for them, but missional practice may be a foreign concept for which they need coaching or consultation. They are passionately desirous of seeing conversions and baptisms. They pray for the lost. There is a moderate level of disciple-making. They are open to ideas that may take them to the next level of ministry. In some cases, they need educational resources and exposure to missional leaders, organizations, and movements. This church wants to do better, but they may not know how. Their leadership may need training or encouragement. They may have values statements and a sense of mission, but they are not sure how to bring those values to life in the culture of the church. In some ways it may seem like they are doing everything right, and their attendance may be decent, but they just can’t seem to get to the next level.
The Thriving Church: The thriving church is the church that is on mission with God. They may not be doing everything perfectly, but they know where they are going and are on the way. They understand vision and leadership. They have solid ministries, and are multiplying mission, disciples, leaders, and in some cases campuses and Kingdom communities. These are churches that are making an impact on their ministry area and measure success by Kingdom metrics rather than buildings, budgets, and attendance. They understand church health and have come to terms with what they understand as God’s purpose for their congregation. Thriving churches are few and far between. Many churches are still in the Striving category – which is not a bad place to be. However, the reality is: Most churches are in the Dying or Surviving categories. Thus, the great need for an effective revitalization process for our District.
To determine the appropriate category for each church, specific metrics must be utilized. In other words, we must determine what questions will be asked and measurements used to assess a church’s health and potential for growth, mission, and multiplication.
While every church is valuable, not every church can be considered Striving or Thriving. Many churches consistently dwell in maintenance mode, while others have entered their end-of-life journey.
In conjunction with our desired district culture and philosophy of multiplication, which is multiplying missional movements, there is a 4-legged foundation for effectively re-planting or re-envisioning a congregation. These 4 legs are:
1) Multiplying Mission
2) Multiplying Disciples
3) Multiplying Leaders
4) Multiplying Kingdom Communities or Congregations.
The seat of this 4-legged stool is that of Theological Realignment. The church and/or pastor engaged in this process must possess an unwavering belief that our God is a God of mission. From the beginning he has been on mission to redeem his lost creation and we must be on mission with him. This is primarily viewed as a leadership issue. In other words, if the pastor does not pursue this theological realignment, he/she cannot lead the congregation forward into mission and multiplication.
How will District Re-planting and Re-Envisioning happen?
Step 1: District Leaders will assess prospects for replanting and/or re-envisioning…. Thiswill require statistical analysis, evaluating missional potential, leadership assessment, andnecessary meetings with the prospective churches and leaders.
Step 2: Churches will be honestly evaluated and categorized…. While even the dying church is of great value and could be miraculously resurrected to new life, the determinants that place a church in this category strongly indicate that a turn-around is unlikely. For many years, the district has poured money, time, and energy into extensive revitalization efforts to help these churches, only to see a high rate of failure resulting in closed doors, property sales, and often financial loss.
While there is a desire that every dying or striving church be revived, we deem it wise to invest our time, money, and efforts into potential re-plants and district churches that illustrate more potential for growth, mission, disciple-making, and multiplication. A congregation and pastor must be 100% sold on the re-envisioning process. Investing resources in congregations that will give less than their absolute best will not be profitable. For the re-envisioning process, only capable, potential, and dedicated churches, and pastors will be chosen.
Churches will die. We love all our congregations and respect each one deeply, but in some cases the best we can do is provide compassionate hospice care which will enable them to die gracefully, with dignity and a sense of Kingdom accomplishment. When a church reaches the end of its life cycle the doors will be compassionately closed.
With that said, some dying churches may present an opportunity for new leadership and the birth of a new congregation. While congregations cannot always be resurrected, old facilities, property, and locations (after proper research and assessment) may provide a perfect opportunity for new birth under a church planting pastor. Some dying churches can become Legacy Churches. These congregations can celebrate their past mission and ministries while believing the close of their church will bring new life through a new congregation. These Legacy Churchescan directly enable the multiplication of mission, disciples, leaders, and congregations in their ministry area through the birth of a new Wesleyan Church at the location and facilities they have provided.
The Re-Envisioning Church: Re-Envisioning is an intensive training and resourcing process provided for eligible churches and pastors that show solid potential for mission, disciple-making, and multiplication and are committed to going to the next level. Holistic District revitalization will come as new churches are planted and our most potential congregations re-envision with a keen focus upon theological realignment and being on mission with God.
District leadership will carefully review the potential of the churches in the Surviving and Striving categories, while also searching for the most potential Legacy Churches. After intense review, churches will be given the opportunity to become a Re-envisioning or a Legacy Church.
Each church and pastor will be asked to sign an Inertia 3M (Multiplying Missional Movements)Covenant stating the terms of the Re-envisioning process and their commitment to be aggressively engaged. The remaining members of a congregation entering the Legacy Church process will be asked to sign a covenant which details the commitments and steps to replanting as a Legacy Church.
Step 3: The serious work begins….
Legacy Churches will be closed, and the replanting process will begin. For Replant Churches, the methods set in place for District Multiplication will be utilized. The replant is a new church which has been given a location and facilities by the Legacy Church. Congregants from the previous church are welcome to attend and participate with the new plant and the replanting team, but vision, values, mission, and ministry are in the hands of the new team. Former congregants can join in the fun, but they will have no authority over the direction of thenew church.
For Re-Envisioning Churches, Thrive Cohorts will be utilized when possible…. Thrive Cohorts will consist of the pastors of the churches chosen for Re-envisioning. These pastors represent churches that we believe can be taken from “surviving” to “striving” or “striving to thriving” (Think of taking Exponential Level 2 and 3 churches to level 4 or even 5). This small cohort will meet for the purpose of discipleship and accountability. They will share ideas and be exposed to the teachings and ideology of Level 4 and 5 leaders. This will happen through recruitment of Level 4 or 5 Wesleyan pastors and through involving Thrive Cohort members in Exponential Cohorts and other learning opportunities. As we do in church planting, we will ask these cohort participants to develop congregational values and a strategic plan for mission, discipleship, and multiplication. Their visionizing capacity will be assessed and brought to the forefront. Developing this strategic plan, casting vision, and recruiting the people to make it happen becomes essential to this process. Eventually they will provide this plan with a timeline showing their important milestones for the next 2 years. After this, intense vision development and vision casting will begin. Leaders lead! This is key: If the pastor fails to participate and there is little evidence of personal leader development, we will need to consider if the pastor can lead a thriving church (again, think Exponential Levels 4 and 5). In some cases, it may be time for the pastor to step away. Potential churches are sometimes held back by stagnant leaders. In some cases, leadership change is necessary.
Of course, it’s not enough to disciple the pastors. Lay leaders and congregations must be discipled and challenged to thrive. While it has been said that “everything rises and falls on leadership” we also know that high-potential leaders have been limited, and in some cases destroyed by congregations that refuse to change. Pastors and congregations must be able to put Kingdom mission and multiplication into perspective. In their cultural context, they must be able to discern how to effectively multiply mission, disciples, leaders, and new ministries/communities. Coaching and training must be provided for lay-leaders of the church as well as for pastors. We believe the same training offered to church planters can be used for our Re-envisioning leaders and their congregations. In other words, a Thrive Cohort pastor can be paired with a certified coach, and the pastor and congregational leaders can experience Essentials Training and leadership mentoring together. In some cases, depending on the context, training, and coaching and development through The Dirt Roads Network will be utilized.
Once the District Multiplication Leader determines the participants are ready, intensive work will begin. Within the first 3 months, cohort training, resourcing, and accountability will begin, and the leaders will become laser focused upon community exegesis, values statements, contextual mission, and creating a culture of multiplication.
Step 4: We will celebrate multiplying mission, disciples, leaders, and Kingdom Communities!Re-envisioning congregations will come to life and will actively advance the Kingdom! Multiplicative minded disciples and leaders will be reproduced! New congregations will be born!
Here are 4 principal options or methods for replanting and re-envisioning:
1) A Thriving Church can adopt a striving congregation for prayer, support, and partnership during Re-envisioning. A Thriving Church can also work alongside a Legacy Church as a partner for a re-plant or to even establish a campus in a new location. However, if a Legacy Church becomes a campus for a Thriving congregation, it will be under the care of the leaders of the main campus. Also, through a Legacy Church a Thriving Church can parent a new Kingdom community. As mentioned above, coaching and training will be provided through the district.
2) A Multiplying Pastor/Church planter, under the right conditions, can become the pastor fora potential Re-envisioning congregation. This pastor will be church planter assessed(using the planter assessments available to us through the Wesleyan Church) and will bring a passionate missional mindset to a high-capacity congregation. He/she will be placed in a Thrive Cohort and provided training, coaching, and resources for success.
3) A district church, deemed to be a potential Re-envision prospect, and with a solid existing leader, can be taken through the process outlined earlier in this document. While the pastor is in a Thrive Cohort and in a vital coaching relationship, he/she and the lay leaders will be trained through convenient but challenging pathways of leadership growthsuch as Church Planter’s Essentials, Exponential Cohorts, The Dirt Roads Network, and District accountability.
4) A declining congregation which has opted to pursue the Legacy Church initiative, will follow the outlined procedure in this document under the direction of the District Multiplication Leader (DML). The DML will lead the Legacy Church into and through the process as defined in the Memorandum Of Understanding for Legacy Churches.
District Resources and Funds for Re-envisioning Congregations:
- Pastors and congregations that choose to participate in the Re-envisioning process will be provided with assessments, coaching, and training through district funds.
- Once a re-envisioning pastor and the church leadership agree upon a viable, courageous strategic plan for mission, ministry and multiplication, this will be approved by the DML and a $5000 grant will be provided to help the Re-envisioning congregation pursue and achieve the goals set forth in the plan.
- When re-envisioning leaders provide evidence of substantial progress, such as: new disciples, multiple baptisms, intentional leader development, innovative missional ministries, and plans for multiplying new ministries and/or new Kingdom communities, the district will celebrate this progress with the church by providing another $5000 grant for continued ministry anddevelopment.
- If the re-envisioned congregation decides to plant a new congregation (not campus) the district will provide all the funds and resources available to any new church plant. This includeshelping the church obtain multiple grants provided by the denomination for church planting. Missional churches planting more missional churches is the ultimate goal.
The bottom line is: We believe multiplication drives revitalization. If the District (District leaders, pastors, and congregations) becomes devoted to multiplying mission, disciples, leaders, and new Kingdom communities, district-wide revival and revitalization can occur. Multiplicative-minded leaders and congregations possess a contagious, driven, pioneering spiritthat can cause an awakening in every open heart. As we infuse a new paradigm of mission and multiplication into our district culture, we will celebrate disciples making disciples, and churches planting churches, until there is a faithful Wesleyan witness in every zip code.
If you and your church desire to become a re-envisioning church, print and fill out the following memorandum of understanding and return it to the District Multiplication Leader.