So you’re a leader… at a traditional church.
What are your first moves to help revitalize the church and see it thrive again? Or maybe thrive for the first time ever?
When I began ministry leading three small, dying traditional churches, someone told me, “It’s easier to give birth than raise the dead.” But I believe in a God who specializes in resurrection.
On that note, look at the numbers.
For every new church planted in America today, three close their doors forever. Yep… 3 churches close for every new church planted. And the majority of the closures are traditional churches – congregations with deep roots and rich histories.
I’ve worked with countless young leaders pastoring traditional churches who ask me: “I just started ministry at a traditional church, how do I bring change to systems that seem resistant to it? Where do we even start?”
It can be easy to target the music, the preaching style, and technology as the first things you tackle, and clearly, those need to change.
But you can start changing all of that and miss most of what you really need to focus on: some of the underlying beliefs and assumptions that are left unchallenged will sink the church, even if you install an LED wall and open a TikTok account.
5 Critical Shifts to Revitalize a Traditional Church and See Growth:
1. Elevate the Mission over the Methods
Walking into some traditional churches feels like stepping into a museum. You can smell a year. Preservation trumps purpose. Methods have become more sacred than the mission.
Look, history matters—I even hold a degree in it—but no congregation can let their methods become more sacred than their mission.
So what do you do? Well, honor the past without living in it.
Look at Disney. They’ve masterfully preserved Walt’s vision while constantly innovating how they deliver it. Your methods should serve your mission, not the other way around.
Here’s the warning you need to keep in mind. Churches that love their methods more than their mission will die.
2. Embrace the Truth. Don’t Dilute It.
A growing drift toward diluting the message of the Gospel is compromising traditional churches. When Jesus becomes a way to God, not the way to God, the world begins to wonder what we really stand for.
Think about it this way. If I were to convert to Buddhism, I would want to become a Buddhist, not a diet Buddhist or Buddhist light. When church leaders dilute the message, the message loses its power.
Biblical conviction is more powerful than theological compromise.
3. Don’t Let Belief Squash Faith
I know this sounds like heresy, but often, what you have left in a traditional church is people who believe. And that’s wonderful, but it’s not enough.
Often, debate in traditional churches is characterized by positions of what is culturally ‘right and wrong’, what’s ‘liberal and what’s conservative’ or some doctrine or interpretation people are very passionate about.
What gets lost is faith and trust. Believing God for something rather than simply believing God.
And if you’re really going to see renewal, it’s going to take faith and trust in a living God. Belief can get in the way of faith.
4. Stop Calling Ineffectiveness Faithfulness
I’ve heard too many leaders claim, “We’re small because we’re faithful.”
Let’s be clear: size and faithfulness aren’t correlated. You can be large and faithful, small and unfaithful, or any combination in between.
The real question isn’t about size—it’s about effectiveness, “Are we faithfully maximizing our impact with the resources God has given us?”
Small can be strategic, but ineffectiveness should never be baptized as faithfulness. Don’t let people get away with calling ineffectiveness “faithfulness.”
5. Replace Criticism with Curiosity
There’s a persistent suspicion in traditional church culture that growing churches must have “sold out” and watered down their teaching, embraced entertainment, or compromised their values.
Here’s a radical idea: Instead of criticizing, get curious—it’s a trait that effective leaders have.
Talk to people whose lives have been transformed in these churches. You’ll often find authentic, deep conversion stories that rival any in church history. Everybody wins when we stop questioning each other’s motives and start learning from each other’s successes.
Next-Gen’s Path Forward to Church Revitalization
So, especially if you’re a next-gen leader, I want to leave you with a few steps today:
- Reflect on this—Grab your phone and jot down one belief you hold about your church that might need a fresh perspective.
- Build your support circle—Seek out a community of like-minded leaders who are navigating similar challenges.
- Strategically learn and grow—Commit to diving deeper and learning something new this month because change starts with you.
Long before you start discussing music, programs, and other means to an end, start removing self-imposed barriers that prevent your church from fully engaging in the mission.
The traditional church’s greatest days could still lie ahead. But that future belongs to those willing to change everything except their core message and mission. The question isn’t whether traditional churches can thrive again – it’s whether they’re willing to make the shifts necessary to do so. And these five will get you started.
