REFRESH | From Maintenance to Mission:
My Church Revitalization Journey
By Brad Ransom
When I was asked to share my church revitalization story at a state meeting, I felt both honored and humbled. I was excited to share an honest account of how God took our ordinary church and began the extraordinary work of transformation. However, I didn’t want to try to offer some kind of one-size-fits-all strategy that would “work for any church” because I knew that wouldn’t be helpful. What I wanted to offer was the story of one church’s revitalization journey — my church’s revitalization journey.
A Church in Neutral
When I arrived, our church was hovering around one hundred people on Sunday morning. Finances were steady but disorganized. We technically had a budget, but no one looked at it. Payroll taxes hadn’t been filed. These things weren’t malicious. It was just a small church in maintenance mode.
The church was full of good people lacking clear leadership and direction. I’ll never forget my weekend as a pastoral candidate. No one really knew what to do or how to do it. Fortunately, my pastor and mentor Keith Burden walked us through the process. The church was full of kind, faithful people who didn’t have much leadership outside a few faithful deacons who hadn’t hired a pastor in over 16 years.
After receiving a unanimous vote, I jumped in with both feet. The classic “don’t change anything for a year” advice didn’t seem to apply in this situation. So much needed to be done, and the people were ready to follow a leader. They treated me with love and respect and graciously followed my leadership. It was an “easy” church to pastor. I loved the people, and the people loved me and my family. There weren’t really any problems. We were paying all the bills, people were showing up for every service, and all the routine boxes were checked. But after several years, I found myself asking God, “Why am I really here?” Not out of frustration, but out of holy discontent.
Most pastors would have been happy to lead this fine group of people. We built a busy ministry and had much going on. Why couldn’t I just settle in and ride the wave of comfort? We had a great thing going, but it wasn’t what God had called me to do.
Asking the Right Questions
As I studied biblical passages like Acts 2, I didn’t see a blueprint for church programs, but I did see a vision of a church that was alive and committed to making disciples. Our church had first-time guests, and occasionally someone would come forward to pray at the altar and receive Christ.We baptized people on a somewhat regular basis. But I knew there was supposed to be more. I began asking myself hard questions: What is the real purpose of the church? Why are we here? What are we called to do? How can we carry that out?
These questions became the foundation for change. I’ll never forget the day I went into the sanctuary by myself on a weekday morning and poured my heart out to God. I literally lay on the altar and cried out to God, committing to do whatever it took to reach people with the gospel.
The Turnaround Strategy
We didn’t immediately launch a flashy new ministry or chase the latest trends. Instead, we focused on a few biblical priorities that helped reorient our church toward health and focused on what I had committed to God: doing whatever it takes to reach people with the gospel.
We prayed intentionally and persistently. We developed prayer journals using the ACTS model (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) and asked our people to use them daily. Prayer became our focus as a church. We held cottage prayer meetings, started a prayer ministry to pray for the lost by name each week, and infused prayer into every part of church life from midweek services to Sunday mornings. Prayer became our engine, not our emergency brake.
We trained leaders one at a time. Leadership didn’t emerge overnight. I personally started by mentoring three men. Two became deacons, and one answered the call to ministry. Over time, more people stepped into leadership roles. We weren’t just building a team; we were building a culture of leadership.
We built systems from scratch. Good intentions weren’t enough. We had to build a plan to get things done. That meant essentially restructuring everything we had been doing. We began writing things down and strategically organizing a plan for everything.
We shifted focus from “us” to “them.” We challenged our people to do “whatever it takes” and embrace a Luke 15:7 mindset, having more joy over one sinner who repents than over 99 who need no repentance. That meant welcoming change, loving all people, giving up preferences, and making room for others to serve. It meant allocating resources to missions and outreach.
The Attack of the Enemy
Let me warn you, Satan didn’t like our strategy. He didn’t appreciate the commitment we were making to the Great Commission, and the enemy began to attack. I don’t want to over spiritualize it, but in a very short period, several people in our church were diagnosed with cancer, including me. Some had other catastrophic life events and tragedies.
All those challenges did was drive us deeper in our commitment to trust God and trust Him with everything. Our enemy, the devil, will not like it if your church commits to a “whatever it takes” mentality. He will fight back with every device he has, but we are more than conquerors through Christ. If we faithfully persist, we will prevail!
The Fruit of Faithfulness
God moved. I could tell you many stories, some of which you probably wouldn’t believe because they are so crazy. God did many amazing things. Attendance began to increase. Finances stabilized and then flourished. We gave more to missions and outside causes.
Eventually, we outgrew our meeting space and decided to build a new sanctuary. Going into the project, the church was debt-free, and honestly, the idea of debt scared me. We decided to launch a fundraising campaign to raise half the cost in cash and borrow the other half. We had a retired contractor in the church who led the project (God thing!), and by the time the last nail was driven, the entire project was paid for! We built it under budget (big God thing!) and raised more money than we thought we would be able to (God thing again!). We remodeled our old sanctuary into fellowship and classroom spaces, and all along the way, we kept our focus outward and upward.
Then God decided to show off some more, and about a year after completing the new sanctuary, we launched a fundraising campaign to build a new youth center.
One of the most powerful lessons our church, and I as pastor, learned during this phase of revitalization came during a major outreach production called Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames. It is a dramatic production the church put on with the help of a hired production team. As a church, we turned over control to the Lord and this small team that came in to produce the production. I had no control over the production. I didn’t like not being in control. It wasn’t in my personality skillset to hand over control to someone else, but God taught me a powerful lesson about praying, putting in the work, then taking my hands off and trusting in Him.
Over 125 people responded to the gospel the first evening. Even the production team was stunned. After extending the production because of the tremendous results both in attendance and decisions, by the end of it (seven nights total), 652 people had made decisions for Christ. The next Sunday, I baptized 51 new believers in one day.
Did all 652 people join our church? I wish. Most didn’t. Some were from out of town, and others who came to the production were connected to another church. But ask anyone in that small town, and they will agree that the production of Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames impacted every church in our community. God reminded me I wasn’t in control. God was, and He proved if I am obedient and trust in what He tells me to do, He is always faithful.
When God Calls You Elsewhere
I felt we had turned the corner as a church, and we were on a zooming trajectory. Then, only a couple of years later, God made it clear it was time for me to move into a different type of ministry. I honestly didn’t want to go, but obedience meant trusting Him with the church I loved. Today, that church continues to thrive, grow, and reach others because of what God started, not what I finished.
Defining Church Revitalization
Let me offer a very simple definition of church revitalization. Church revitalization is “leading a church to fulfill its mission.” When I did it, it wasn’t called church revitalization. It was trying to help a church move from maintenance to mission. Some may ask, “Does every church have the same mission?” And my answer is absolutely! The mission of every church is to “make disciples” (Matthew 28:19-20). If your church isn’t actively making disciples, then it needs to be revitalized.
Final Encouragement
If you’re wondering what to do next, here are my humble suggestions:
Be obedient to the mission, even if you’re unsure.
Get training. Take advantage of resources such as pastor boot camps, Rekindle, Refresh, and other resources.
Read everything you can.
Find a coach and be faithful to meeting together.
Above all:
Pray like eternity matters.
Trust the Holy Spirit.
Shift focus from inward to outward, no matter the cost.
Communicate urgency to your congregation.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Keep it simple and do what you can with excellence.
My prayer is this story encourages pastors and leaders to believe again in what God can do through faithful obedience, intentional planning, and Spirit-led courage. Revitalization won’t “just happen.” But with God, it can happen. And maybe, just maybe, your story is about to begin.
