Change Leadership Workshop for Church Leaders and Members Lee Kricher, Senior Pastor of Amplify Church Author of For a New Generation: A Practical Guide for Revitalizing Your Church In 2003, the church at I serve as pastor was an aging, dying church. After years of declining attendance, we were on the verge of closing our doors. The average age of our church attendees was over 50 years old - more than 15 years older than the average age of our community. I knew that prayer would provide the foundation of hope for our future as a church. As Tom Cheney writes, a doubt the single “Without most important ingredient to renewal is the power that comes from intercessory prayer.” I also knew that we had to change some things. We did not have to change our core beliefs and values. They were not the problem. The problem was that our approach to church was in the distant past. Our services, programs, ministries and practices were perfectly designed to reach the people we were reaching. While preserving our core beliefs and values, we had to find a way to make the kind of changes to our services, programs, ministries and practices that were needed to reach people we were not reaching particularly the – next generation. The combination of prayer and strategic change resulted in a dramatic turnaround in our church. Amplify Church now has over 1600 weekend attendees with an average age of approximately 35 years old. We are a healthy church again with every generation well represented for the first time in many, many years. The changes we made were unique to our church. The change strategies that sparked those changes are universal. This workshop is designed to help you to pursue perpetual church revitalization by putting appropriate strategies in place to ensure that your church will better connect with and stay connected with the next generation. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. (Psalm 78:4) Strategy #1 - a New Mindset Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2
Change Leadership Workshop for Church Leaders and Members Lee Kricher, Senior Pastor of Amplify Church Author of For a New Generation: A Practical Guide for Revitalizing Your Church In 2003, the church at I serve as pastor was an aging, dying church. After years of declining attendance, we were on the verge of closing our doors. The average age of our church attendees was over 50 years old - more than 15 years older than the average age of our community. I knew that prayer would provide the foundation of hope for our future as a church. As Tom Cheney writes, “Without a doubt the single most important ingredient to renewal is the power that comes from intercessory prayer.” I also knew that we had to change some things. We did not have to change our core beliefs and values. They were not the problem. The problem was that our approach to church was in the distant past. Our services, programs, ministries and practices were perfectly designed to reach the people we were reaching. While preserving our core beliefs and values, we had to find a way to make the kind of changes to our services, programs, ministries and practices that were needed to reach people we were not reaching – particularly the next generation. The combination of prayer and strategic change resulted in a dramatic turnaround in our church. Amplify Church now has over 1600 weekend attendees with an average age of approximately 35 years old. We are a healthy church again with every generation well represented for the first time in many, many years. The changes we made were unique to our church. The change strategies that sparked those changes are universal. This workshop is designed to help you to pursue perpetual church revitalization by putting appropriate strategies in place to ensure that your church will better connect with and stay connected with the next generation. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. (Psalm 78:4) Strategy #1 - a New Mindset Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2