2024 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.
What Network Participants Are Saying
- "Being at the European Leadership Forum is so helpful for me because I had the opportunity to connect and learn from other leaders, but also I have been able to serve others with my experience, knowledge, and ability. During this time I had the chance to reconnect with leaders I met in the last years and consolidate our relationship, but also meet leaders for the first time. Mainly, I learned new ideas in relation to church revitalization and in relation to Internet discipleship and evangelism, which I will use in my teaching with students and pastors from my sphere of influence."
- Daniel Fodorean, Associate Professor of the Baptist Theological Institute of Bucharest, Romania - "For the last couple of years our church has gone through some difficult times and some problems have emerged. Because of those problems, we see a need for church revitalisation and the Forum is the best place I know of to get insights on the matter. For me it has been a tremendous blessing to participate in the Forum’s Network about this topic. I am learning a lot."
- Edvin Puka, Field Leader in IFES, Albania
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
2023 Network Programme
Detailed information about this Network's 2024 sessions is not yet available but will be posted in the future. Please review the information from last year for a look at the high quality of instructors, teaching, and content available in this network:
In many cases congregations are dwindling because they are seeing no conversions from people outside their fellowship. Church life seems to be in a different world to where most people are today and we need to reconnect our churches so that the Gospel really seems to be good news for them. This session will outline how Europeans understand life and suggest some ways to make the Gospel plausible and believable for our non-Christian neighbours.
The main objective of revitalisation is to bring the church back to good health. This means a Gospel-centred church in which the Christians are learning, as disciples, to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to love other people, whether they are fellow Christians within the church or non-believers whom they meet in their daily lives. That is the vision for revitalisation but we also need to work out the intentional process by which this can be achieved bearing in mind both the local context and the cultural atmosphere of Europe today.
Some people have claimed that it is more important, even more biblical, to plant new churches than to bring new life to existing ones. This session will show that the idea of revitalisation runs right through the Scriptures, and that it truly is a Biblical principle. We will never reach the world for Christ if we give up on the churches which the Lord has already raised up, sometimes many years ago.
Successful church revitalisations are dependent upon the existing church leaders recognising the urgency of the need for change before the church does, and the formation of a suitably gifted team to envision and implement change. This session will consider how church revitalisers, denominations and networks can persuade churches to accept the need for revitalisation without alienating those who have served in the church for many years. It will also consider the character and competencies required of those who will undertake the revitalisation, and address some of the challenges that might arise amongst the church revitalisation team. The session will draw on biblical teaching, practical examples, and case studies to show how careful attention to these issues is crucial to achieving transformation of the church.
Few things are more essential to church revitalisation than a spirit of joy and unity within the church family. Similarly, healthy relationships with people outside the walls of the church are also vital if a church is going to reach the community. Good relationships do not just happen though. They must be intentionally cultivated…but how do we do that? This session will present practical suggestions on how to cultivate grace-filled relationships both inside and outside the church.
We will be evaluating key components that need to be in place for church revitalization to occur. This practical checklist will be comprised of biblical principles for you to use to see how you can best position your church for renewed life and vibrancy.
Are our ministries designed to reproduce past models or to creatively fulfill our present mission? How can our churches resonate with secular unbelievers today? This session will share contextualization principles, tell stories of effective urban ministry, and help you rethink your church’s posture to society and culture.
Most churches have a time each Sunday when all the church members meet together. The writer to the Hebrews encourages Christians not to give up doing this in order spur one another on towards love and good deeds (Hebrews 10.24-25). How can we best use this unique moment which we have as Christians, as the gathered church, in order to prepare ourselves to live for Christ in everything we do throughout the week, as the scattered church?