HENDERSONVILLE — It’s not a matter of choice for leaders at First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, when it comes to church planting or church revitalization. They do both.
“We fully believe in planting churches,” said Bruce Raley, executive pastor of First Baptist Church, Hendersonville. “We have a church we’re planting right now in the Hell’s Kitchen community of New York City, but we also just have a burden for churches that are struggling. We know there are a lot of churches that if something doesn’t happen, they’re likely not to be in existence 10 or 15 years from now.”
Raley said that he and pastor Bruce Chesser “have a heart for those churches and want to see them become strong again. Most of them have a great history, but either community has changed, they’ve gone through struggles in the church, culture has changed and they’ve gotten to where they’re struggling,” he added.
The Hendersonville leaders know there are many ways to revitalize a church, including making a church a satellite campus or accepting the ownership of the struggling church’s property and assets. Both involve providing staff to help with the revitalization.
“We don’t believe there’s a one size fits all by any means. Each is a unique situation,” Raley said.
Chesser
Chesser agreed. “The satellite campus model is a successful model for many churches. It is just not the model that we have chosen to use.”
First Baptist helped revitalize a church in Castalian Springs several years ago. The congregation “had a roller coaster history, and that church actually shut down and was relaunched as a new church (Creekside Fellowship) six months later,” Raley said. “And, we did take possession of the property. Once that church was strengthened and self-sustaining, we deeded the property back to them.”
First Baptist’s latest endeavors at church revitalization include First Baptist Church, Madison, an urban congregation in metro Nashville, and Cross Roads Church in Westmoreland, a rural congregation. In both of these revitalizations, the existing churches have kept their property and assets.
“We normally do not take possession of their property. We pretty much have a gentleman’s agreement that either side can step out at any time. There is really no advantage for a church to deeding the property to us as long as they’re willing and understand that we’re going to help guide and provide leadership during this partnership for the entire purpose of seeing that church strengthened, revitalized and to become a self-sustaining church.”
Chesser observed the goal “is to have a self-supporting, autonomous church that we will see functioning with a healthy spiritual DNA within a few years. We are simply like a parent running alongside a child trying to learn to ride a bicycle. At some point, the parent stops running, and the child realizes they can do it independently.
“We have a healthy DNA in our church. We want to impart that DNA to other churches and help them be healthy and vibrant. The truth is that some of these revitalizations take longer than others. We do not know precisely how long it will take, but we look forward to all of them being independent and fully autonomous,” Chesser said.
Raley
Raley noted that each of the churches First Baptist has assisted so far have unique situations.
“As we go into each one, we’ve learned a few principles along the way and a few that we believe are best practices.” Raley said. He noted that leadership is a key. “When we partner with the church for revitalization, that pastor becomes a part of our church staff. They attend our staff meetings, whether it’s in person or by Zoom, but they’re a part of it. So, as we do staff training, they’re part of that training. As we communicate, they understand the communication, but it also allows them to communicate with us their needs and how we can step in and walk along beside them as well,” he continued.
“One of the realities we’ve discovered though, is for a church to be revitalized, the leadership and core members have to live in that community,” he said.
“The leaders can’t be people who drive in from the outside and see it as a ministry project. They have to be people who love their community and the people in the community, and they want to see that community reached for Christ.
“There’s a difference between desiring to grow a church and desiring to reach a community. If you reach the community, you’ll grow the church.
“But it starts with seeing that community as the mission field, falling in love with that community, being a part of that community and being in that community,” Raley maintained.
Churches also must be willing to be revitalized, Raley observed.
“Most of these churches are to the point where they realize that if something doesn’t change, they’re going to be in deep trouble pretty quickly. … So, they’re to the point where they want to see something happen. And yet at the same time, we know when there are traditions and history, it’s hard to let go of some of those ‘sacred cows.’ ”
First Baptist’s most recent revitalization effort is at Cross Roads Church.
“We actually were asked to visit with that church five years ago. A pastor had been there for several years, had done a good job with the church, but he felt like it needed a revitalization partner. We visited with them and the membership at that time was just not ready,” Raley said.
Five years later, the church had declined by about 50 percent and the remaining leadership realized something had to be done or the church would not survive. “They were ready for a partnership.”
FBC called Chuck Workman, who along with his wife, Tara, now lives in Westmoreland, as a revitalization pastor.
He is on staff of First Baptist but is the pastor of Cross Roads. In just three months, the church has doubled in attendance and on a recent Sunday, welcomed 11 new members, Raley said.
“New people are coming every week, and there’s a buzz throughout town that something’s happening at Cross Roads,” he said.
Workman, former pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church, Mount Juliet, officially began as pastor at Cross Roads on the first Sunday of the year with 25 people in attendance. On March 19, there were 70 people present, he said.
Workman said the partnership with First Baptist has been a win-win situation. Cross Roads has benefited from the financial support and encouragement provided by First Baptist to sustain its DNA of reaching the Westmoreland community with the gospel.
First Baptist is seeing the fruits of their commitment to help and support a sister church, he added.
“Our resources are expanded as we work together with a kingdom-minded focus. The impact we make on the community is eternal,” Workman said. B&R
