John Mark Clifton is the senior director of Replanting/Revitalization at NAMB. This book is a overview of the subject of replanting within the context of churches that in significant decline. His perspective is augmented by his own successful replant of Wornall Road Baptist Church in Kansas City, MO. I received the book from Mark at a breakout session during NAMB's recent Director of Missions Lab.
There is a vast amount of great information in the book. The audiences that can benefit most from a reading of this material are: churches that are in a declining situation and pastors/leaders of such churches. It should especially be read by someone contemplating becoming pastor of a church in decline who knows that they will be tasked with the resuscitation of the church.
I have reached out to Mark to try to begin dialogue about this area. An area of concern for me is an attitude that seems to leak out of most books on the subject: the attitude implies that churches in decline, principally characterized by an older congregation, are somehow selfish and Unconcerned about the advance of the kingdom of Christ simply because they are in the position that they are in. For example, it is implied that they are inordinately concerned with their buildings when they should be much more concerned with the kingdom. Yet, the heritage of the church exists; the buildings that were produced during that heritage exist; and, the need to care for those buildings continues to exist.
One aspect of this whole subject for me is a missiological question. When I worked in a cross-cultural setting, we knew that the advance of the gospel had truly arrived when the culture receiving the gospel began to produce worship and music indigenous to that culture. Most churches in decline are filled with people who have enjoyed worship of the Lord within a particular context. Almost all of the "solutions" within the revitalization camp demand that such churches surrender things that are the very fabric of their heart cry to God. Few who operate in the circle of revitalization understand their hypocrisy: they imply that seniors who are committed to a form of worship are selfish, then they bring in a form of worship that is generational. I'm convinced that the revitalization movement needs to find ways that demonstrate respect to those who have found themselves the possessors of the heritage and who value the way that they worship in the midst of changing the church culture to embrace new generations.
