We all have seen the reports. The American Evangelical Church is in decline.  Aubrey Malphurs reports that 80-85% of Churches are plateaued or declining.  Tom Rainer suggests the number is 84%. Here in Indiana we did an informal survey of about half of our Associations and they have indicated that 75% of their churches were plateaued or dying.  And all of those conclusions came before the impact of Covid19!
What is our response?  Revitalization.Bob Bickford, of the North American Mission Board, defines revitalization as, “a deliberate, dedicated and protracted effort to reverse the decline or death of an existing church.”  The effort is primarily spiritual but it is also practical and strategic. There are things that can and should be done to arrest the downfall of the local church.

But that is the problem isn’t it.  What needs to be done?  What is the Next Step? For many pastors those are questions they just can’t answer.

Enter “High Impact Leadership Lab – Revitalization Skills”.  The High Impact Leadership Lab (HILL) is a retreat based learning experience where Pastors separate themselves from the noise for a couple of days so they may retool and refocus.  This year the immersive HILL experience will focus on “Revitalization Skills.”

While we will have some nationally respected Revitalization leaders like Kenneth Priest, Steve Hopkins and Brandon Moore this year’s HILL will be led mostly by Indiana pastors.  Pastors with names like Kallem, Thompson, Staten, Pell, LaFleur, Newland and others.  These pastors are experts AND excellent practitioners in the subject areas they will be leading us in. The subject areas are “Preaching for Revitalization,” “Leveraging Discipleship for Revitalization,” “Impact of Vision on Revitalization,” “Prayer and Spiritual Renewal in Revitalization,” “Leading Change; being a transformational leader,” “Addressing Conflict,” and “Outreach, Ministry & Evangelism and their role in Revitalization.” WOW!

Mark your calendar for May 3-5, 2021.  We will start at 1 pm Monday and end by noon on Wednesday.  All Pastors and Staff are invited to attend. Registration will be open soon and will be as inexpensive as we can make it.

More to come!!