The Church Answers Podcast
#154 What the Revitalization Movement Is Missing: Culture Shift
Welcome to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. So you heard the nice lady introduce the podcast. We call them bumpers because they're on the front and the back of our podcast. Some people have a midpoint, they call it a midroll, but she's on the front and back. She's been doing our podcast and doing our voice over for some time now. So we're delighted. I think she has a great voice and always want you to listen to her. But will you listen to me for a moment? You know, I've got a twangy, southern, old man accent. You can find all those three together. I'm nearly as pleasant to listen to as the lady in the bumpers. Well, I want to talk to you one on one about Chaney and Associates because you need to understand that they are providing all that we need in order to bring this podcast to you. They are the exclusive sponsor. They love the church so much that they jump to the opportunity to get into this. And here's the thing about it, our sponsorships are invitation only. And so he told me, he said, I believe in the mission of church answers next time. There's an opportunity. We want to jump in on it. And when this opening took place for the church answers, podcast along came Chaney and Associates. So I know you hear the bumper, but every now and then, I just want to give you a reminder that we cannot do these podcasts without someone paying the bills and that's Chaney and Associates. And so if you get an opportunity to click on the link to find out more about them, yeah, they're an accounting firm and they are what we call them, the accounting firm for the church. We know that they've served over 1100 churches in just this part of financial life. They do a lot more. We know they have cloud based software, but what you're going to love about them is that they love the church and they know the church. They know the church extremely well. And that's why we have invited Chaney and Associates a nice California firm that can serve you anywhere in the nation and they can be your accounting firm. So thank you for letting me say those few words about Chaney and Associates. I will remind you every now and then because we're so appreciative of our sponsors. I have a three part series that I begin with this particular podcast and it's about the revitalization movement, which is growing. We thank the Lord for that. It is it is coming in increasing emphasis and denominations and churches and networks and I love it. I mean, I love that revitalization to live again is literally what that word means. I love it that revitalization has become an emphasis. What I want to do in these three episodes when I say these three we release three episodes at one time once week. And so you're listening to this one. I was about to say if you're listening, you have to be listening in order to hear me say this. Since you're listening to this podcast, this will be one of three very short podcasts about what the revitalization movement is missing. I am thankful for the revitalization movement. I am thankful that many, many people have said that we're going to join hands and hearts to make a difference in helping churches to live again. It is it is desperately needed anytime is desperately needed in such time as this and it became more acutely needed after the pandemic. So I'm going to talk about what I'm seeing and most of the revitalization movement is always a little bit risky to make a sweeping statement because there will always be exceptions. But I'm going to talk about what the revitalization is movement is missing and we're going to talk about three different things. All right, the first one I want to mention is many aspects of the revitalization movement is missing culture. Now, I remember growing up under the discipline, the love and discipline of my parents. My dad were a war to vet was a disciplinarian. He loved me dearly. He was proud of me, but he disciplined me and he many times he would say sign you better get your head screwed on straight. And then if I really, really began to be disobedient or irritating, he would say, I'm going to wear you out to a frazzle. I made the mistake one time because I never knew what a frazzle was. I said, I don't even know what a frazzle is being sarcastic little snip that I was. I said, I don't know what a frazzle is. Well, I found out what a frazzle is and I didn't have to ask anymore. What my dad was saying was, get your act together, son. Get your attitude right. And in many churches, I don't want to make the analogy so much that we're talking about corporate discipline. I just simply want to say that in many churches, we have to deal with our attitude first. And in the revitalization movement, there are many good emphases. But one of the emphases that does not always manifest itself is the empathy of culture. It is somewhat like attitude, the attitude of a person. A culture is are those things that have consequential actions. In other words, what you believe becomes what you do. And many times we go into revitalization movements and we look at revitalization of churches. And we know that the church needs to do things differently. We know that the church cannot continue to do things the way it has always done them. Otherwise, it would not need revitalization. But I am encouraging churches more and more to look at your culture, to look at your attitude. And specifically, if a church was heretical, if it was not true to the Bible, I would say the greatest need for you is to have a culture of belief, belief in God's word, belief in what Christ said, belief and obedience to the Great Commission, great commandment. But most churches that we deal with in revitalization, their issue is not belief in doctrine. It is action and evangelism. Or to put it another way, it is an outward focus. And churches have to get to the point where the leaders, where the church members, particularly those most committed church members on a regular basis, understand that our church is about reaching people. Our church is about going beyond ourselves. And these churches, once I get the culture right, they do away with the unholy trinity of me, myself and I. And instead of looking at preferences, they start seeking to be obedient. One of the reasons that we created the Hope Initiative, you've heard me talk about it many times, not because it was just some silver bullet that could solve all the problems, but as we looked at churches that were revitalizing, what we discovered about these churches was that they had a culture shift. They shifted their attitude. They became more outwardly focused and we started doing more studying. We found out what they did. And though we didn't replicate any one church with the Hope Initiative, we took what we hope was the best of all these churches and turned it into the Hope Initiative. And the simplicity of the Hope Initiative is this. You've heard me talk about it. The simplicity of it is that it's a 30-day get your head on straight. It's a 30-day culture shift. When members come out of these 30 days as they go through the action steps, the biblical steps, the obedient steps for 30 consecutive days, they are changed. And when church members are changed, the church has changed. And when the church has changed, the community has changed. And when the community has changed, the kingdom is enhanced for the glory of God. So my point in all of this is if we don't begin with the issue of culture, culture, what's important to us? Culture, where do we put our emphases? Culture, what do we do in that reflects what we're thinking? Culture, what is leading to the actions? And so if you are a pastor and you are seeking to have your church revitalized, look at the culture issue. It's missing in many of the revitalization emphases. If you are a denominational leader, start with churches with culture. Start with the attitude. And again, while the hope initiative is our resource to deal with this issue, it's not the only resource. Any resource that helps the people to look beyond themselves, to look to the community, or to look to Christ, to look to the community. That's where a culture shift will take place. So as we go through what the revitalization movement is missing, one of the key issues, and this is why I'll lead off with it, is the issue of culture. A church cannot revitalize unless it's changed its culture to one of obedience and one of looking beyond itself and beyond the walls of the church. That's where revitalization begins. That's where the heart of Christ is working. And if you truly want to see your church revitalized, look at culture, even more so. Pray that God will help you to look at the culture and to make the changes that are needed. Okay, we're going to continue this theme on what is missing in the revitalization movement culture. We lead off with, in the next episode, it'll be 155 if you happen to be looking at the listings. We're going to talk about accountability for evangelism. It's something that most revitalization movements and emphases are missing. This is one that I absolutely love, oh, I love this one too. And but next week, or next podcast, as you say, that next week, sort of here this week, we're going to talk about not just evangelism, but accountability for evangelism. Stay tuned, get ready, let's see what's missing so we can replace it. We'll see you in the next episode. You have been listening to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the Church Answers podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)