2022 Church Revitalisation Network
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For the last few decades, there has been a growing realisation that existing churches, even those that were recently planted, are not faring well. Many church leaders currently lack the training necessary to build sustained growth, health, and spiritual vitality.
The Church Revitalisation Network seeks to respond to the decline of existing churches by training church leaders in the spiritual leadership and skills they need to revitalise their churches for long-term sustainability. Its vision is to equip spiritually mature and intellectually well-grounded evangelical church leaders to:
- Improve the spiritual health of the church through worship, building trust in God as obedient disciples
- Improve relationships within the church and with unbelievers through face-to-face relationships and better integration of new members
- Improve the quality of leadership within the church through team building
- Improve the effectiveness of the church by identifying the mission, vision, and strategic plan
- Improve the contextualisation of the church through historical, geographical, and cultural study of the church’s community
Participants in the Church Revitalisation Network will receive specialised training at the Annual Meeting and throughout the year, as well as helpful resources and opportunities to be mentored.
Applicants should be church leaders interested in receiving the spiritual leadership and skills they need to revitalise declining churches and build sustained growth, health, and spiritual vitality.
Network Leadership
Network Speakers
René Breuel was born in São Paulo, Brazil and has lived in Rome, Italy for the past 13 years, where he serves as the Founding Pastor of Hopera, a church in Rome’s university neighborhood. He holds a Master of Studies in Creative Writing from Oxford University in the UK, a Master of Divinity… Read more
David Brown planted three churches before revitalising a church in central Paris. For many years he was involved with GBU (Groupes Bibliques Universitaires), the French student movement affiliated with IFES. More recently he has been promoting church revitalisation through his chairmanship of… Read more
Daniel Fodorean is the Dean of the School of Theology and Associate Professor of Applied Theology at the Baptist Theological Institute of Bucharest, Director of Leader Formation Institute and Antioch Church Network, Teacher Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, Bucharest. He is also the Coordinator… Read more
John James is the lead pastor of City Church Birmingham (UK). For ten years John was the pastor of Crossway Church, a church revitalisation project in the city of Birmingham. He is the author of Renewal: Church Revitalisation along the way of the Cross.
Marián Kanuch is a Lutheran pastor in Žilina, Slovakia. He also serves as a regional leader for twenty-two local congregations. In 2018, he defended his dissertation: “Planting New Churches as a Challenge for Lutheran Missiology”. He is also very interested in the topic of revitalization of… Read more
Jay Mosser has served in pastoral roles for 43 years – about 20 years in various assistant pastor capacities and the rest as senior pastor. Through those years he has served in three churches ranging from smaller (less than 50) to larger (about 1,000). Along the way he has worked with children,… Read more
Scott Poling serves as Senior Pastor of Harvest New Beginnings Church located in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. He has served in ministry for 28 years at Harvest, seeing first-hand God’s work in the renewal of a dying church. He’s gained a unique perspective, understanding the pressures and… Read more
John Stevens is the National Director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, a family of over 500 Bible-centred churches in the UK, a position that he has held since 2010. Prior to this he was one of the founding pastors of City Evangelical Church Birmingham, which was planted in… Read more
Network Programme
Sunday, 22 May
Why is church revitalization necessary? Why is it difficult? What are the barriers to revitalization? This overview shows the need for a locally built vision followed by an intentional process to develop the church into a place where Christians learn to love God and to love others in their cultural context.
Learn important Biblical principles that help set the stage for God to work, bringing new life and vibrancy to your church. Whether your church is small, struggling, plateaued, declining, or even somewhat healthy, we will learn how to overcome challenges that hinder physical and spiritual growth.
Monday, 23 May
Church revitalisation, alongside church planting, is an essential strategy for gospel growth in the countries of Europe. However, a church revitalisation strategy will only be effective if it takes account of the cultural context that has led to church decline in the first place, and is aware of the obstacles that need to be overcome to bring about essential change and restore church health. John Stevens will draw on the specific experience of the Fellowship of Independent Churches in the post-Christian secular context of the UK, but the principles of contextualisation he identifies will be transferable to other contexts such as atheist, Catholic or post-Communist societies. The session will not seek to provide answers but rather equip leaders of networks and churches that have a vision for revitalisation to ask the right questions so that the probability of success is improved.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2.16), and later in the same letter “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11.1). Apart from the day-to-day relationship with God, which every Christian should be pursuing, in what particular ways does someone involved in church revitalisation need to cultivate the mind of Christ?
Tuesday, 24 May
How do you help a church transition from home group to public meetings, to multiple leaders, to establishing an online presence and beyond? This session will share practical lessons learned at a church plant in Rome, Italy, about leadership and church size dynamics.
Is unity an important component of church revitalisation? As biblically-driven leaders, we are responsible to lead God's people to "preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." In this session, we will explore how joyful unity amplifies our Gospel witness and facilitates change in the life of a church because good relationships are a major component of church revitalization.
Wednesday, 25 May
Can churches really be revitalised? What does it look like in practice? In this session three pastors will recount how their churches went through the process, looking at some of the challenges of the process in their contexts, but also hearing about the encouraging outcomes.
Different case studies will be offered in order to bring together what we have learnt in the week. Participants come from various parts of Europe, each sub-region having its own background, and from various ecclesiastical traditions (historic denominations, older free churches, more recent church plants looking for a new impetus). We obviously cannot cater for every permutation, but we shall attempt to provide meaningful case studies for each participant.