Topics That Must Be Addressed in Church Renewal

Every church revitalization journey needs a clear beginning point.

One of the most common traps churches fall into is confusing talking about renewal with actually beginning renewal. It is far easier to attend meetings, form task forces, and discuss ideas than it is to take the first concrete steps toward change. Without realizing it, leadership teams can spend months—or even years—talking about “what we are going to do” while very little actually changes.

At some point, a church must decide: this is the moment we move from conversation to action.

If renewal is going to take root, there are several key areas that must be honestly addressed.

1. The Need for New Initiatives

Renewal requires more than refining what already exists. While healthy traditions should be honoured, declining churches cannot rely solely on past successes.

New initiatives create fresh energy, signal openness to change, and communicate to the congregation—and the community—that the church is serious about engaging its present reality. These initiatives do not need to be large or expensive, but they must be intentional and aligned with the church’s mission.

2. The Need for New Entry Points

Many churches assume Sunday worship is the primary—or only—way people will connect. For most communities today, that assumption no longer holds.

Renewal requires creating new entrance points where people can belong before they believe. These pathways allow relationships to form, trust to grow, and curiosity about faith to develop naturally. Without new entry points, churches limit their ability to reach people who would never initially attend a worship service.

3. Updating Existing Ministries and Programs

Not every ministry that once bore fruit is still effective.

Renewal demands a careful evaluation of current programs—not to criticize the past, but to discern present effectiveness. Some ministries need updating, some need re-imagining, and some may need to be lovingly released. Holding onto programs simply because “we’ve always done it this way” often drains energy that could be redirected toward mission.

4. Caring for New and Existing Participants

Growth without care leads to disengagement.

As renewal begins, churches must consider how they will care for both new participants and long-time members. This includes intentional pathways for connection, spiritual support, and pastoral care. Healthy renewal strengthens the entire body, not just those who are newly engaged.

5. Long-Term Disciple Development

Renewal is not simply about attendance or activity. It is about forming faithful, mature disciples.

Churches must clarify how people grow spiritually over time. What does discipleship look like in this congregation? How are people encouraged to deepen their faith, live it out in everyday life, and pass it on to others? Without a long-term vision for disciple development, renewal efforts remain shallow and unsustainable.

6. Present and Future Staff Equipping

Leaders cannot guide the church where they themselves are unprepared to go.

Renewal requires equipping both current and future staff with the skills, support, and clarity needed to lead change. This includes theological grounding, emotional resilience, leadership development, and a shared understanding of the church’s mission. Staff health and alignment are essential to sustained renewal.

7. Maturing and Mobilizing the Laity

Renewal does not happen through clergy alone.

A revitalizing church intentionally matures its people in faith and actively enlists them in the work of ministry. This means moving members from spectators to participants, from consumers to contributors. As the laity grow spiritually, they become the primary agents of renewal within the church and beyond its walls.

8. Releasing What Has Become Dead Weight

One of the hardest—but most necessary—steps in renewal is identifying what is no longer serving the mission.

Some activities, committees, or programs may consume time and energy while contributing little to renewal. Letting go of these areas is not failure; it is stewardship. Releasing dead weight creates space for new life to emerge.

From Talk to Faithful Action

Church renewal always begins with a decision: we will move from discussion to obedience.

Addressing these areas does not guarantee immediate growth, but avoiding them almost guarantees continued decline. Renewal takes courage, clarity, and persistence—but it always begins with honest assessment and a willingness to act.

The question every church must eventually answer is this:

Are we ready to begin—not just talk about—renewal?

Check out our free resource: Church Renewal Diagnostic Checklist

Why Smaller Churches Often Stay Small

Many smaller churches love God deeply. They pray faithfully, care for one another, and show up week after week with sincere hearts. When growth stalls, it’s tempting to assume the problem is weak theology, the wrong location, or a lack of commitment. In most cases, that simply isn’t true.

More often, smaller churches remain small because of internal dynamics, not spiritual apathy. These dynamics are rarely intentional, but over time they quietly shape decisions, priorities, and expectations. Recognizing them is not an act of criticism—it’s an act of hope.

Here are five common reasons smaller churches often stay small.

1. Friendship Has Replaced Focus

One of the greatest strengths of a smaller church is its sense of family. People know one another. They care deeply. Relationships are real and meaningful.

But that strength can slowly become a liability.

When friendship becomes the primary focus, the church can unintentionally turn inward. New people may be welcomed warmly, but they can still feel like guests in someone else’s living room. Decisions begin to prioritize protecting relationships rather than advancing mission.

The question every smaller church must face is this:
Are relationships serving the mission—or replacing it?

Healthy churches learn to hold both together: deep community and outward focus.

2. Hope Has Faded

Most churches begin with great vision and expectation. Over time, setbacks, losses, and unmet hopes can quietly erode confidence. Eventually, growth no longer feels possible—it feels unrealistic.

This loss of hope doesn’t always show up publicly. Leaders may still speak optimistically, but deep down they’ve stopped believing that things can truly change.

Growth rarely happens where hope has died. Churches move forward when leaders recover the conviction that God still has a future for their congregation—even if that future looks different than the past.

Sometimes, the first step toward revitalization is not changing strategy, but changing belief.

3. Ministry Has Become Scattered

Smaller churches often say “yes” to everything. Every good idea becomes a ministry. Every need becomes a program. Over time, the church becomes busy—but not effective.

This scattered approach exhausts volunteers, drains leaders, and dilutes impact. Instead of doing a few things well, the church does many things poorly.

Focus is not unspiritual. Saying “no” to good things is often the only way to say “yes” to the best things. Churches that grow learn to align their ministries around a clear mission and let everything else go.

4. Teaching Avoids Courage

Courageous teaching is not loud, harsh, or confrontational. It is truthful, loving, and clear.

In many smaller churches, hard truths are avoided in order to preserve harmony. Challenging topics are skipped. Difficult passages are softened. Necessary calls to change are delayed.

People may not always like courageous teaching in the moment, but they instinctively recognize its authenticity. Over time, churches respond better to honest spiritual leadership than to carefully crafted sermons that never ask anything of them.

Revitalization requires leaders who are willing to speak the truth in love—and trust God with the results.

5. Popularity Trumps Leadership

Most pastors and leaders genuinely love people. That’s a gift—but it can become a trap. When the desire to be liked outweighs the call to lead, decision-making becomes reactive and hesitant.

In smaller churches especially, personal relationships are close. Decisions feel personal. Resistance feels relational. Leaders can begin to choose approval over faithfulness.

Healthy leadership does not ignore people—but it also does not allow fear of displeasing others to override obedience. Growth often requires leaders to make unpopular decisions for the sake of the mission.

A Final Word

Smaller churches do not stay small because God has abandoned them. They often stay small because unexamined habits and assumptions have gone unchallenged for too long.

Revitalization begins when leaders are willing to name reality honestly, recover hope boldly, and lead faithfully—even when it’s uncomfortable.

The question is not whether your church can grow.
The real question is whether you’re willing to confront what’s been holding it back.

And when that happens, renewal is no longer a distant dream—it becomes a real possibility.

The Difference Between Growing and Dying Churches

Church growth is one of those topics that can make leaders either lean in—or quietly tense up. We’ve all heard the debates:

Does God actually want churches to grow?
Is numerical growth the same thing as spiritual health?
If my church isn’t growing, am I failing?

These are honest questions, and they deserve thoughtful, grace-filled answers.

When we talk about growing versus dying churches, the issue is not about guilt, pressure, or comparison. Far too much damage has been done by measuring faithfulness solely by attendance charts.

Instead, the deeper issue is what kind of growth God desires—and what we are willing to do to participate in it.

What Do We Really Mean by “Church Growth”?

When people hear the phrase church growth, they often think immediately in numbers: attendance, giving, programs, and buildings. But growth can also be qualitative, not just quantitative.

Healthy churches grow in:

  • Spiritual maturity
  • Missional clarity
  • Obedient discipleship
  • Kingdom impact

That said, Scripture consistently points to a God whose kingdom expands. From Genesis to Revelation, God is always drawing more people into His redemptive story. Numerical growth is not everything—but it is something.

Importantly, not every pastor is called to lead a megachurch, and not every congregation will experience the same kind of growth. God assigns different fields of harvest. The question is not how big your church becomes, but whether you are faithfully cultivating the soil God has entrusted to you.

Growth Without Shortcuts

One of the most common temptations in ministry is to assume that somewhere else would be easier.

A new location.
A new demographic.
A new congregation.

But the grass is rarely greener on the other side. More often, God calls leaders to stay planted—deeply rooted—in the place where they already are. Growth does not usually come through relocation or reinvention alone, but through obedient persistence.

There are no spiritual shortcuts. Waiting on God, listening carefully, and responding faithfully tends to produce the kind of growth that fits your context—not someone else’s success story.

The Hidden Cost of Growth

Here’s the hard truth many leaders discover too late:

As churches grow, resistance to growth often increases.

Barriers emerge—structural, emotional, relational, and spiritual. One well-known example is the “100 barrier.” In North America, only a small percentage of churches ever move beyond it. Why?

Because growth comes at a cost.

  • The pastor can no longer be available to everyone at all times
  • Leadership must shift from solo ministry to shared leadership
  • Long-standing patterns and expectations must change
  • Comfort gives way to complexity

This transition is painful—not just for pastors, but for congregations. Growth forces a move away from the familiar “shepherd-only” model toward equipping others for ministry. While this shift is necessary for long-term health, it often feels disruptive in the short term.

Why Many Churches Stall

Most churches say they want to grow. Far fewer are willing to pay the price required for growth.

Growth requires:

  • Letting go of control
  • Embracing change
  • Developing new leaders
  • Releasing ministry to others

When these costs feel too high, churches often settle into maintenance mode. The result isn’t neutrality—it’s decline.

Jesus’ words in the Great Commission are not optional suggestions. They are a call to movement, multiplication, and obedience:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19–20)

Growth, in some form, is embedded in the mission itself.

Key Characteristics of Growing Churches

Growing churches are not perfect churches—but they tend to share several observable traits:

  • Consistent numerical growth, even if gradual
  • Low dropout rates, with people staying engaged
  • New and younger people becoming involved
  • Intentional efforts to remove barriers to growth

These churches recognize obstacles early and address them rather than ignoring them.

Signs of Stagnant or Dying Churches

By contrast, declining churches often show a different pattern:

  • No measurable numerical growth
  • High dropout rates
  • Members quietly disengaging or drifting away
  • Resistance to change framed as faithfulness

These signs rarely appear overnight. Decline is usually slow, subtle, and normalized—until it becomes undeniable.

A Final Word of Hope

The difference between growing and dying churches is not talent, luck, or location. More often, it comes down to vision, obedience, and willingness to change.

God’s desire is not to shame struggling congregations—but to renew them. Growth begins when leaders and churches honestly assess where they are, trust God where they’ve been planted, and courageously remove the barriers standing in the way of new life.

The question is not “Why aren’t we growing?”
It’s “What is God asking us to change so growth can occur?”