This quote from “Reclaiming Glory: Creating a Gospel Legacy Throughout North America” by Mark Clifton stuck out to me: “Satan has been robbing God of his glory in that church for years, and he won’t give up that territory without a fight.“
The work of growing a church is extremely hard, much more difficult than reading the book about growing the church. And if you want to revitalize a church, your work is exponentially more difficult.
Don’t think that Satan will sit by and allow you to change the church by imposing your will or overwhelming with your personality. This is a hard spiritual battleground that requires a deeply rooted spiritual approach. We should do the work of understanding the neighborhood and the church, of building relationships, and encouraging a cultural shift, but ultimately this is spiritual work.
Too often we do the organizational work and the logistical work, but we neglect the spiritual work. Lead your people to pray. Pray often over the work that must be done. Lead them to depend on God and to seek God’s will for His church.
What does a dying church say to the world about the glory of God? What does a revitalized church say to the world about the glory of God?
Let’s do the work of prayer first, second, and last. Let’s pray for our churches. Let’s pray for His churches. May He bring Himself glory through the church.
God bless,
Steve Brazzel
sbrazzel@unityba.org
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