Brewing a Turnaround, Part One by Jeff Matas

Leading a turnaround in a local church is incredibly difficult.  Over ninety percent of Church of God congregations in Indiana are either plateaued or declining, and that means most pastors who are reading this are faced with the challenge of a turnaround. Older parishioners remember the glory days when the church was growing, when souls were being saved, when facilities for ministry were being built and when the church was a difference maker in the local community. But those days are in the past; so much has changed in the world since then, and so much has changed in how we do church. Chances are your church is struggling. The church is not what it was. How did it get this way? What do you do? How do you lead a turnaround? How can you lead a church whose best days are in the future, not in the past? You can't go back and replicate the past, because things are different now. It's a different world in which you are called to minister; and although the gospel is timeless, the methods are changing in how we communicate the truth of Christ to the world. Leading a turnaround in a local church is daunting to say the least.

Maybe you can relate to the heart cry of this leader who wrote to his staff and said:

"If you're really honest with yourself, as I have tried to be with myself, along the way...there has been something we have lost. And it's no one's fault and there's no punishment or blame. We are what we are-but the question is: What are we going to do about it and how are we going to fix it?" 

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