Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc: Welcome. The following message is a ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is known for ministries such as the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, as well as nationally syndicated radio programs, like The Bible Study Hour, Every Last Word, and Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. Our purpose is to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Thank you for listening.

Dr. Harry Reeder: If you'll take your copies of God's word, turn with me to Acts, the Book of Acts. Many of you I know, many of you I don't know personally, and I look forward to seeing you. I'm going to try to be around as much as possible, so please, let's make contact.

I didn't know this last week I was speaking at the Mayor's prayer breakfast at Birmingham. You talk about an ecclesiastical mix there. That's pretty extraordinary in Birmingham. I wasn't sure of the mix here, and that's always a concern when you're speaking.

I was raised in the south in small southern towns. You had a Baptist church, you had a Methodist church, and you had a Presbyterian church. The Baptist church would be the biggest, the Methodist would be the prettiest, and the Presbyterian would be the smallest. That's the way it worked.

But one time, I can't vouch for the accuracy of this story, but it was told to me about a particular southern town. They had this problem of a bat infestation of the town. So the mayor called for the pastors together and he bought their lunch. That's a big deal when a mayor buys a lunch for pastors in a small southern town. He's always looking for lunch, not buying it.

He said, "I got a job for y'all to do. You got to get rid of these bats. You got bats in your belfry and they're killing our town. You got to get rid of them." So he said, "I'll buy you lunch again next week. Tell me how you did it."

So the next week, he buys their lunch and he looks to the Presbyterian minister. He said, "Did you get rid of the bats in your belfry?" The Presbyterian minister looks a little sheepish and he said, "Well, I got my elders together. We prayed about it and we were going to go get them. But one of my elders said, 'You know, I think God predestined those bats to be in our steeple, and when God wants them to leave, he'll predestine them to leave.'"

So he looked to the Methodist and he said, "What about you?" The Methodist minister said, "Well, I got my board together and we prayed about it. We were going to go get them, but one of my board members said, 'You know, I think those bats are in that steeple of their own free will and it would be absolutely wrong for us to coerce them and violate their free will.'"

So he looked to the Baptist and he said, "Did you get rid of them?" Now y'all remember this, you can learn a lot from Baptists. The Baptist pastor said, "Absolutely, they're all gone." He said, "Would you tell your brothers how you did it?" He said, "Sure. Got my deacons together. We prayed about it. We went up in the steeple, caught every single bat, we brought them down to the altar, baptized them, they joined the church, and we ain't seen them since." Unfortunately, we heard they may show back up Christmas and Easter, but right now, they're gone.

I want to invite you to visit us in Birmingham. I advise it. That way it won't be a culture shock when you get to heaven. Just come down and visit us and we'd love to have you there. Save money; all calls to heaven from there are local. We'd love to have you down there. Just come and visit at Briarwood.

Also, our conference on Embers to a Flame is the third week of January every year. We have a wonderful time there. I'm going to cover some of the material with you, as I've been assigned to do so, but we won't be able to cover the four days' worth of material. But you're certainly invited and our people love to give you hospitality.

I want to thank not only Bob and the Alliance but also Mr. Craig and his staff. They actually got me started in this matter of church revitalization after a couple of years of the first church that I pastored. I got a call from Roger Greenway, who was writing a book called The Pastor Evangelist. He had been my professor up at Westminster and he said, "Harry, I want you to write the chapter on church revitalization."

I said, "I don't know what to write." He said, "Well, I know you don't, but you've been doing it, so I want you to figure out what you were doing and write it out as a chapter." Well, the chapter became a dissertation, and then that became a book, From Embers to a Flame. I've had the privilege to see it reprinted by these gracious people on numerous occasions. When they called and asked that I participate in this, it was really my privilege to do so.

I'm going to try to cover a lot of material with you. I've got to cover it at about 30,000 feet, but I want to get started by asking you to go with me to a couple of texts of scripture. I think in just a few moments you'll find out why these are so important to me. Take your Bibles and look with me in the Book of Acts, Chapter 1.

"In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, 'you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'

So when they had come together, they asked him, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' And he said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' When he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.'" The grass withers and the flower fades, God's word abides forever. Let me ask you now to turn to Acts 15 and just keep your finger there and your mind there, but direct your ears toward me just for a moment.

I want to start like I like to start a lot of sermons, with a story. I can tell you this one's true. It is of a young seminarian that graduated from seminary and entered into his first pastorate. When he got there, he was prepared for a challenging ministry, but he didn't know how challenging.

The first week, he got a phone call from the Mission to North America Presbytery, of that committee of that presbytery. They asked him, "You know, this church has been through a lot of difficulty and doesn't seem to have much hope. Would you consider now that you're there and you got a little bit of capital, leading them to sell the property, take the money, and then we'll help you go find a good place and plant the church and you'll be our church planter?"

The second thing happened; he had a meeting with the elders. Some things became obvious that hadn't been so obvious. To sum it up very quickly, of the five elders that were there, it became pretty clear that of the five, only three did not know the Lord personally. They did not have a born-again personal relationship with Christ. Two of them did.

Of the two that did, one within three months would die of leukemia and the other would be transferred by a job. That would leave the three that were not converted, did not know the Lord. Conveniently, all three of them were named John. So he had First, Second, and Third John. They just didn't know the Lord.

Beyond that, in the conversation about how to replace one of the elders, one of them said, "Well, what about Bill?" and gave the last name. One of the other Johns said, "Well, does he still go to church here?" They said, "No, but if we make him an elder, maybe he will."

There were probably at the most 17 men in the church that numbered about 55. The average age was 69, and the lady that had figured that out had been 59 for about 10 years. Beyond that, there was no children's Sunday school class. In fact, as he arrived, his three children were the only children in the church.

Two retirement centers really were being serviced by the church. That was pretty much it. No one from the neighborhood. The church was vandalized literally every single day. Every day, there was a phone call where broomsticks had knocked out lights, skateboarding on the roof, graffiti regularly.

Perhaps some more things; he looked at the statistics. The church had been over 1,000. Now the average attendance was 55. He went to the office supply store. When he got to the office supply store, he asked the clerk, "Do you have accounts for churches?" She said, "Yes." Then she said, "And what is the name of your church?" He told her. She got a rather sheepish look on her face and said, "Well, sorry, we do have accounts with all the churches, but yours is flagged: cash only, no credit."

Maybe one of the most startling things was a phone call from one of the nine previous pastors, the fourth one in the lineup of nine. The pastor said, "Did you pray about accepting this call?" "Well, yes." "Well, while we're glad you're in the denomination and you need to know I'm going to be praying for you, because I believe that church has the mark of Satan on it." That's not really encouraging to hear in your first church from one of the previous pastors. "I believe it has the mark of Satan on it."

Then he said, "Let me tell you what happened to the first pastor, the founding pastor. His wife stabbed him in the mall publicly, almost killed him when she found out he was having an affair with the choir director. The next pastor's out of the ministry because of an addiction to prescription drugs. The third pastor's out of the ministry because his wife is an alcoholic and he has to give all attention to her and cannot begin the ministry." Then he said, "I'm not going to tell you what happened to me. I was fourth. I'm going to be praying for you. I think it's got the mark of Satan on it."

Well, there's a lot more. That is a very edited version. There's a lot more I could tell you because I was that pastor and that was my church that drove me to the scriptures. How do you handle this? How do you deal with this? It drove me to the scriptures and drove me all kinds of places, drove me almost to despair.

I mean, I had a church that one good flu season, I didn't have a church. I had a church full of people, they didn't buy green bananas, I'm telling you. They ate dessert. If they had been over there tonight, they'd have eaten dessert first. They wouldn't have waited around, took a chance. It was a challenging situation and the Presbytery wanting to close it.

I got to thinking. Okay, let's close it, get the money and go plant a church somewhere else. But I looked around, the neighborhood's full of people. Now, it wasn't the same "kind of people" that were there when it was planted, but it was full of people. If we can't reach them with the gospel, then what makes us think we could reach another group with the gospel, unless we're just going to constantly go around finding low-hanging fruit like a lot of our strategies are?

So I began to pray about it. Now, that was in the years I was coming out of Westminster Seminary. That was in the years that church growth material was being written and published. It was just a whole industry, or sub-industry of an industry. Well, let me confess, I went and bought every single one of them I could and started reading them all night, everything I could.

I want to say something clearly. I have no doubt about the motivations of those who were writing it, nor their zeal, nor their motivations. But as I was reading it, there were two things that struck me. Number one, the first thing that struck me was that almost everything that was being recommended was kind of like a best practices, and most of it was originating out of sociology or psychology or demographic analysis in the name of missiology.

Then it seems as if after they'd make these recommendations, for instance, the homogeneous principle... Well folks, that was a little bit of a challenge for me, number one, because I don't really want to pastor a homogeneous church. I know birds of a feather flock together. I know this thing works. But I don't want to do that.

I want to pastor a church that I'm reaching throughout the community, and whatever's in the community is showing up at the church. So there is a people who are not a people. Well, how'd these people come together? You can't explain it sociologically or psychologically. These people came together. These are a people who are not a people. They're the people of God. That's what has drawn them together and that's what unites them together.

I longed to see that. I had this unbelievable racial, cultural, ethnic diversity all around me. I woke up one morning and I realized my neighbor across the street was from Nebraska. The one next to him was Jewish from New York. The one next to him was from Texas, an airline pilot. Next door to me was from the Dominican Republic. Next door to him was from Haiti. Next door to him was Grenada. Next door to him was Saint Lucia. Next door to him was Saint Vincent. Next door to him was Jamaica. I went back in and said, "Honey, we don't live in the United States. We live in the West Indies."

Unlike when this church was planted, where there was all these people moving down from New Jersey, and some of them looking for a Presbyterian church, these people come to the West Indies and they could care less about a Presbyterian church. So what are we going to do and how are we going to face this? How can we get this tapestry that's sitting around our neighborhood showing up when God's people gather on the Lord's Day?

So I went back to the expansion of the church in the Book of Acts. I'm not going to read the text, I'm going to quote it for you, but there's one verse that has 13 words I'd love to hear just one more time. "These people who have turned the world upside down have come here also."

Let me tell you who's saying that. That is not a paid-for endorsement of the Pauline ministry brochure. That is a frustrated opponent of the kingdom of God in Europe, less than 25 years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, in frustration speaking of what is happening all the way to Europe in less than 25 years.

The world is getting turned upside down, a world-shaking movement, which actually is right-side up. A world-shaking movement of the gospel is going forward. It is getting no assist from any of the pagan governments. It is moving forward in power, shaking everything where it goes, like a gospel earthquake. It is moving out.

The Book of Acts is only recording its direction north and west. It's not even recording what's happening east and south. There is this glorious, wonderful movement. Now, I know who turned the world upside down when I read that. That's the Holy Spirit through the body of Christ. I know what turns the world upside down. That's the power of the gospel and the exaltation of Christ.

But what interests me, because of the turn of my mind, is how was this happening? So I went back and started in the Book of Acts, and the passage that I just read first of all struck me. "Theophilus, this is the second volume I'm writing. The first volume was all about what Jesus began to do and teach."

Well, there was revolutionized already. Now, I was advanced. I had gone to Covenant College and Westminster Seminary, and I knew discipleship was not simply getting people through the seven Colossian books, or the Colossian 2:7, getting them through the ten. Discipleship was not just informational, it was relational.

I had already made that jump. But let me tell you the way I'd do ministry. Here's the way I'd do: I'd teach and then I'd say, "Come watch me do it." Then I read this and what'd it tell me? I not only believe in the inerrancy of scripture, infallibility of scripture, I believe in verbal plenary inspiration of scripture. That means I believe the order of the words. Not only every word, but the order of the words are important. So when it says he began to do and teach, I would mentor and model. Jesus modeled and mentored.

So that means I had to start taking a look at how I was doing disciple-making. Then I began to look at it and I noticed the wording carefully. If the first volume, which is what book?

Audience: Luke.

Dr. Harry Reeder: If the first volume is what all Jesus began to do and teach, then what is the second volume, the Book of Acts? It's all that Jesus is continuing to do and teach. Now ascended. That's why Paul loves to identify us as what?

Audience: The body of Christ.

Dr. Harry Reeder: His church manifested locally is the body of Jesus Christ. It is how Christ continues to do and teach through us, his body, his church. Well, that got me started.

So then I said, "Now how's he going to do this thing?" Well, the kingdom's going to go from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the world. So I began to just look at the Book of Acts. I'm sitting there and I said, "Lord, here's what I believe. I love the church growth material and I'm grateful they went back to check the Bible to make sure they're not going against it. But instead of going from something derived from at least the glances of general revelation, I would rather start with special revelation."

I cannot think that church plateaued, church declining, church dying is going to take you by surprise. If the scripture is sufficient as well as inerrant, I would think you would have something here for us to know how to lead dying, plateaued churches back to life. It has to be here.

So let me go take a look and see what you did in this history of the church. Interestingly, the second volume covers basically the same span of years that the first volume. In body number one, Jesus began to do and teach the Gospel of Luke. That body, he went to the cross. That body is raised, that body ascends. In that body, glorified body, he is now interceding. In that body, one day he will come again just as he went, in that body.

But until that day when he comes, we are body number two. We are body number two through which he continues to do and teach with the word of God that he's given us and the Spirit of God which he's poured out upon us.

How did it happen? Well, Acts 1 through 8, you've got the work of the gospel and the spreading of the kingdom in Jerusalem. Acts 9 through 12 is the work of the gospel and the spreading of the kingdom to Judea and Samaria. Acts 13 through 28 is the work of the gospel and the spreading of the kingdom to the world. Notice how he never really ends. He just kind of quits writing, it looks like. That's because we're not through yet. We're supposed to be carrying the history of what he's doing. It continues to be worked out through our ministries until he comes again.

Then I went back and I took a look at Jerusalem. I noted two things. One, when the kingdom spread through the power of the gospel and shook Jerusalem, God used leaders. Whenever God does something, he uses leaders. God, when he moves, he first calls a leader, gets the leader on message, on mission, and in ministry.

The second thing is, leaders have to both engage in and be supported with persistent, protracted, intercessory prayer. The third thing that I noticed is God does it through the church. So, Bob, I'm grateful for the introduction because I will tell you right now, I am an unabashed churchman. That is the one institution in this world that's headed to eternity.

That's the one. In Charlotte one time, some people approached me about, believe it or not, about running for a national office. I said, "No." They said, "Well, you need to pray about it." I said, "I don't want to pray about it. If I pray about it, I might decide to do it." They said, "Well, you might get elected." I said, "Well, that would be a demotion."

I can't think of a greater privilege than to be a pastor in Christ's church. I don't know a greater privilege. We are in the church of Jesus Christ. When Jesus went to the cross, he died for the sins of his people, he defeated Satan, and he purchased his church with his own blood.

Many of us here actually get supported to serve in that church. The church is not here to give us a job. We're here to do a job. Amazingly, the very thing that got Achan killed is the very thing that supports us: the tithe of the Lord. That is absolutely astounding, isn't it? That we get supported to do this ministry.

So how does it? So God uses leaders, God uses a praying people, and God uses his church. In Jerusalem, the first Presbyterian church... Well, I don't know whether it was OPC or PCA, but I'm absolutely sure it was a Presbyterian church. There it is in Jerusalem.

Then when he goes to Judea and Samaria, it's the church at Antioch. Then when he shakes the world, he shakes Jerusalem, shakes Judea and Samaria, then he shakes the world and the key church is Ephesus. We know of 13 daughter churches that dotted Asia Minor, all born out of that one church at Ephesus.

Then when Paul thinks, "Well, I'm going on to Spain now," what does he do? He writes this great declaration and exposition of the gospel to make sure he had another good epicenter church in place, another gospel-earthquake-sending church, the church at Rome, from which he was going to work to go and reach Spain.

That is what God began to use. I said, "Well, Lord, is there any possibility that Pinelands Presbyterian Church in little old South Florida down in Homestead, Perrine, Cutler Ridge area, is there some way you could shake the world? If nothing else, just shake Perrine and Cutler Ridge. I'm not much of a leader, but I'm here and you called. So let's get to praying."

What should I do? What is the work of the ministry particularly focused upon revitalization? What is it and how should I approach it? Well, that led me on a tremendous discovery and I want you to go with me to Acts Chapter 15. Take a look in verse 36.

"And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are.' Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from one another.

Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches."

This is the birth of the second missionary journey. It's really an interesting study. First of all, you kind of start off with this little biographical note about Paul and Barnabas' ministry where they're getting ready to go on the second missionary journey. What did they do on the first missionary journey?

Well, if you just go through the Book of Acts and you take each city, here's what happened: Every city that they went to, they did four things. Here's the first thing they did: They did gospel evangelism and discipleship. The second thing they did is they planted a church. The third thing that they did is they would respond with gospel deeds of love, mercy, and justice, whatever the situation demanded, widows, famine.

Fourth thing they would do is they would develop leaders for that church, because no church goes beyond its leadership. If they didn't have time to develop leaders, that's the famous "we-they" passages, that means that Paul would leave some of his team behind until they could get leaders in place because the church needed leadership.

Those are the four things that they did. Then they came back and they reported to Antioch. Then they went to the first general assembly in Jerusalem. They dealt with theological issues, and then they're going back and they're going to take their commissioners, they're going to bring their reports back.

Paul goes to Barnabas and he says, "Barnabas, let's go do that thing again. Let's go do another missionary journey." Barnabas says, "Okay, let's go. Let me go get my cousin John Mark." Paul said, "Nah, we're not going to take him on the team this time." "Well, why not?" "Well, he didn't even make it to the first preaching place, he washed out the first time." Barnabas says, "Well, I'm going to take him." Paul says, "No, we're not."

So they had a disagreement. Now you've got split peas. Now you've got another... you've got the first and second Presbyterian church started here. They had this argument about it. So Barnabas takes John Mark and he goes off with him, and that's the last time you hear of Barnabas.

By the way, let me ask y'all a question. How many of you here believe that Barnabas was right in this debate? How many here think Barnabas was right?

Audience: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine...

Dr. Harry Reeder: A little hard-hearted up here north, aren't you? How many of y'all think Paul was right? It's kind of hard to vote against Paul, isn't it? I mean... well, how many y'all are thinking?

Well, of course, we've got our wonderful postmodern answer, don't we? They're both right. I actually do think in this case they're both right because Barnabas, when he built leadership teams, he was always building platoons of possible leaders. He always saw, "Here's how this guy could possibly be a leader." So the fact that Barnabas washed out just meant he needed a little bit more attention. Let's take him, let's give him a mulligan. He needs one more time.

But for Paul, Paul isn't building a platoon. Paul is going behind enemy lines. So he's looking for the recon unit. He's looking for the Navy SEALs. That's what he's looking for. We'll put churches that'll develop leaders, but I need the recon to go in. I need the SEALs. I need the commandos. That's the one I need to get behind enemy lines now.

So they have this disagreement. Of course, you don't hear about Barnabas again, but you hear from Barnabas again because all of you have done the sermons on what happened to John Mark afterwards. He goes off with Barnabas and John Mark ends up not only reclaimed and fitted and equipped and encouraged and enabled and empowered and all of those great counseling terms, he now becomes the sidekick with Peter, doesn't he? He helps him with First and Second Peter, and through Peter, we get the Gospel of Mark.

So thank you, Barnabas. By the way, at the end of his ministry from prison, Paul keeps talking about the great ministry of who?

Audience: Mark.

Dr. Harry Reeder: And receive him. Then when he's about to die, he writes Second Timothy and he says, "Send me my parchment, send me my cloak, and send me John Mark. He is useful for me in the ministry." You kind of want to say, "No thanks to you, Paul."

But you know, my greatest thing on that, by the way, is what that really tells me about Barnabas is not only how he equipped him and reclaimed him, but how he did it in such a way that he didn't turn him against Paul. That would have been real easy, wouldn't it? He didn't think much of you, but I did. That would have been very easy. He not only reclaims him and he becomes useful, but he becomes useful for Paul, the guy that wouldn't take him on this special mission.

So that's what happens, and then they go on the second missionary journey. Now what did they do on the second missionary journey? Here's the clue. The clue is in the text. They did the same four things. Paul and Timothy and Silas did the same four things on the second missionary journey they did on the first missionary journey, except they added one.

Every city they went to, they did evangelism and discipleship. They would do church planting. They would do gospel deeds of love, mercy, and justice. They would develop and deploy leaders, multiply and mobilize leaders. But they added a fifth one: They went back and strengthened, revitalized the churches that had been planted.

So church revitalization became a Pauline strategy. By the way, who planted the churches that need revitalization? Paul. So, my brothers, it's okay for me and you to raise our hand and say, "My church needs revitalization." Paul's did, so it's okay for ours to need it also.

Now, how would it be done? How should the strengthening of the churches take place? In fact, go on with me a little bit to Acts Chapter 16 to the next as it sums up what happens in this ministry. Paul came to Derbe, to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches, what was his mission? To revitalize. What happens? They're strengthened in the faith and they, what?

Audience: Increased in numbers.

Dr. Harry Reeder: Daily. But now notice, he didn't say, "Let's go grow the church." He said, "Let's go," what? Strengthen the church. The consequence of a strengthened, healthy, revitalized church was statistical growth. But it wasn't his objective. It was the anticipated consequence, but it was not his objective. His objective was to go back, do what they did before, and where they had gone before to go back to those places and make sure that those churches were being strengthened.

You have the record of what he does in the second missionary journey, later the third missionary journey. So I'd like you to think about something in ministry. I'd like you to think of a church like a tree for a moment. A church is like a tree in that it needs a root system, it needs a trunk, and that gives fruit.

Church growth focus basically is doing what's necessary to get fruit on the branches. Church revitalization aims at the root, not the fruit, because the fruit is the consequence of the root. So you want not only a root, you want a good root that's rooted in the right place. Then when you got a good root, you get what? Good fruit.

What we would aim at is the root of the spiritual vitality of the church. A vital church then functions well because it's strong. When it's strong and functions well, it then gives out fruit: believers, disciples, pastors, missionaries, more churches. Much of our church planting is not the reproduction of healthy churches, it's the subdividing of dying churches.

So here is this great opportunity that Paul then goes back and he aims at church vitality. Let me try to illustrate this. Let's go back to the church at Jerusalem for a minute. The church at Jerusalem is growing. You've got 12 fearful disciples, now down to 11. Some women who were the last at the tomb and the last at the cross and first at the tomb.

You've got Jesus risen, Jesus ascended. Now that group expands to 120 back in the upper room. Now his brothers are converted. Now it's growing and they go to prayer. The promised Holy Spirit falls upon them. They go out and begin to preach the gospel, and the next thing you know, 3,000 are gathered in.

That's probably just counting the men. Don't get mad at me, ladies. That's just the way they counted. I don't know why they would do such a thing, but they did. It's all their fault. But that's probably just counting the men because later on they're going to do it with 5,000, and it explicitly says that's just counting the men.

In other words, the church at Jerusalem is up to about probably 16 to 20,000. Of course, that cannot be a faithful church if it's that big. Have you ever noticed how the Bible never determines the faithfulness of a church by whether it has to meet in an open temple to accommodate all the people or in a house because it's just getting started? That's not the metrics that the Bible uses.

When you go to church growth, what do you think? Big's good, small's bad. Or we become knee-jerk reactionary: small's good, big's bad. There was a church... love the guy, know him, admire him. Did conference after conference, "Here's what you do to make a seeker-centered church growth." You got to have a seeker-centered church and he laid it out.

I heard a guy's an executive pastor who had a lot of integrity and he went to him, to this guy who has integrity, and he said to him, "You know, why don't we do an examination just to see how we're doing?" And they did. This was published in Christianity Today. This isn't inside baseball. This was published.

This is what they said, and I love the honesty: "We repent. We're five miles wide and one inch deep. We got a lot of people coming; no lives are being changed." Then my heart sank as I read the last part of the article, which was, "We're going to get a clean sheet of paper and a Bible and start over."

Well, again, I kind of like orders of words. I'd encourage you to get the Bible first and then go get the sheet of paper. That was what got you in trouble the first time, getting the sheet of paper and then go check the Bible. Go to the Bible first and then go fill up the paper as to what does it say.

We're five miles wide and one inch deep. Of course, many of us would have reacted to what they'd been doing because we actually think the church is supposed to be one inch wide and five miles deep. I confess to you, my heart desire is I don't know what the DNA is in the body of Christ that I pastor, the manifestation of the body of Christ that I pastor.

I believe God's got a DNA in it, and it's determined by the leaders he puts there, the location he puts there, and everything else in his own sovereign decree. All I want it to do is to be as big as the Lord wants it to be, but I want it to be whatever five miles wide is and five miles deep is. That's what I want it to be. I don't want to be in a reactionary mode.

So how do you approach this? In Acts Chapter 6, the church is growing like crazy. It's got people being added every day. They're coming in by groups of 3,000 households, 5,000 households. This thing's growing like crazy. So Satan, of course, is going to leave the scene when that happens, right? No, he's going to attack.

Satan has two attack modes. He has persecution and penetration. Persecution, he does persecution two ways. It's all in the Book of Acts. One, he persecutes the leaders. Did he do that at the church at Jerusalem? We'll ask Stephen. Ask James. And he persecutes the people. He'll try to persecute the followership. He'll persecute the leadership, he'll persecute the followership. That's why they all scattered to Judea and Samaria. Of course, that became a short-term mission trip and then that sent the gospel out.

The other thing that Satan loves to do is penetrate. Again, he likes to penetrate the leadership, he likes to penetrate the membership and the fellowship. Here, he penetrates the fellowship. At Ephesus, Paul warned them: "When I leave, Satan's going to attack. And from among yourselves are going to rise up false teachers and false leaders, leading the disciples away." He penetrates leadership; that's why he loves to go after seminaries.

He penetrates fellowship, and that's what he does at Acts. Church is growing, people are selling property. The mercy ministry is burgeoning and overflowing, and some people begin to look around out of all of this thing that's going on in this mercy ministry and they notice all the mercy ministry money is going to one group of people.

Acts 6 records this event. All the mercy ministry going to who? The Hebrew widows, right? By the way, all those apostles that are leading us, they're all what?

Audience: Hebrews.

Dr. Harry Reeder: You understand the veiled charge, don't you? Racism. Partiality at best, outright racism. The Hellenistic Hebrews: y'all don't care about them. Here is a great example of leadership. The apostles hear the sheep bleating and they know there's a problem, but they don't let the sheep diagnose the problem. They exercise leadership.

They're able to take a look and realize... now right here, I'm going to speculation, so I want to acknowledge that. Up till now, I feel absolutely comfortable with everything I just said to you. From this point on, I'm a little bit speculative. I believe that they brought that charge and I don't know whether they had an actual session meeting or not, but they got to thinking about this thing.

"You know, they're right. Money is not being evenly distributed. There's a whole class of people. But we're not doing it because we're racist. We're not doing it because of partiality. This thing's too big for us. We're trying to teach and preach and disciple and mentor and all of that. You got 11 leaders, you got 16 to 18,000 people."

I think they were doing the mercy ministry out of their hip pocket. They had plenty of resources, but they weren't given a lot of time as to where should it really go. Being all Hebrews, their network would have been what? Hebrew widows. So the squeaky wheel would get the oil and they'd give it to them and they said, "You know, we got... they think we got a spiritual problem. We don't have a spiritual problem. We got a functional problem."

If we handle the functional problem as if it's a spiritual problem and start doing more mercy ministry, we're going to create a spiritual problem. What we need are seven *diakonas*. We need seven deacons to serve the tables. Now that doesn't mean put, you know, a napkin on and go around pick up dishes, although you need to be willing to do that.

I believe the word table, if you'll go check the Greek, which many of you know a lot better than me, means bank. Jesus turned over the money tables. In other words, the *diakonas* was ordained to carry out the direction of the functioning elders and to administer the church, the stewardship of the church, and the mercy ministry of the church. They were given authority to do that, so that we will not neglect what? Prayer and the word.

In other words, they understood something. This church was birthed in a prayer meeting, Acts 1. It was birthed in a sermon, Acts 2. It is nurtured by devotion to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayer. If we do a better job at mercy ministry, we've got to do less of a job in prayer and the word. If we do a less of a job in prayer and the word, there's not going to be any mercy heart, there's not going to be any resources, and there's not going to be anyone to minister to.

Our mercy ministry is downstream from prayer and the word. Doesn't mean it's unimportant, but it's downstream. We can't rip the roots out to get that function done better. So let's raise up seven deacons. And then they did.

We're not going to read the text, but I love the way the text ends. They chose the seven deacons, the people said this is great, and then it says, "And the word of the Lord," Acts 6:7, "and the word of the Lord kept," what? Spiritual growth, kept spreading. And the number of the disciples continued to increase. Statistical consequence.

And then a little statement, really interesting: "And a great many number of the priests became obedient to the faith." You know what I think? Now here I'm going to give myself away. I'm kind of a three-office guy that masquerades in the PCA as a two-office guy, but functions as a two-and-a-half-office guy.

I believe that reflection of prophet, priest, and king is in the New Testament: minister of the word and shepherding kings, the elders, and the priesthood, the deacons. Who was in charge of the mercy ministry in the old covenant? The priests. When they saw the church doing it with integrity and with equality and with thoughtfulness, functioning well, the mercy ministry made them vulnerable to evangelism and they started becoming obedient to the faith.

But what I want you to see is the flow. Spiritual vitality that led to functional effectiveness that led to statistical growth. Never one time did the guys get together and say, "You know, if we don't handle this right, we're just not going to have numerical growth." They said, "What is right for the life and health of this congregation spiritually?" They solved the problem that did not take away from spiritual vitality but enhanced the spiritual vitality of the church. It then began to move forward with great authority and great power.

So let me sum up tonight for you. I'll just give you three things in summation tonight, and then we'll get back to this tomorrow. Here's the first thing: Church revitalization is not just a practical necessity, it is a biblical strategy of apostolic delivery.

Church revitalization is not just, "Maybe we ought to do something in church revitalization." No, I do believe it's a practical necessity. For the last 22 years, we've averaged a loss of 3,500 churches every year in North America. In other words, take the churches you plant, add them to the churches that exist, and at the end of the year subtract the churches that closed. Net loss average 3,500 every year.

Tom Rainer says it's going to increase to 5,000 a year in the next three years. I got an idea. Why don't we instead of peddling harder in church planting, why don't we close less? Why don't we quit shutting down so many of them? Why don't we go to the Bible to see what is the biblical apostolic strategy when churches plateau, decline, or go into the symptoms of death?

And that it we see this isn't just a good idea, it is necessary. But it is a biblical strategy. I was sitting in one of my General Assemblies one year where the representative of Mission to North America got up and said, "All you pastors, come on be a church planter, be a church planter, be a church planter. Why go be a caretaker of a dying church?" My elders actually had to hold me back.

What did Jesus do when one sheep would wander? So what do you think he does when a whole flock wanders? Well, just shut it down and we'll plant another one? No. If you want to know what he does, just go see what he says to John by the Holy Spirit in the Book of Revelation where, of the seven churches, four needed revitalization, and he went after them. He didn't just shut them down. He warned them, "You're about to get shut down, the lampstand's about to go out, but here is the way back to health and vitality focused upon the one who stands in the middle of the lampstands."

So here... let me be clear. I believe we are engaged in at best well-meaning lack of focus and maybe almost a sin of omission if we do not in our local church, Presbyteries, and General Assemblies or associations, whatever you're from, if we do not put something in place. We are in the second missionary journey. We ought to have something set aside.

You want to know what a church values? You want to know what a denomination values? It's where they put their prime people, where they put their prime resources, and where they put their prime time. That's how you know what they really value. I believe that church revitalization is not only a practical necessity for many of us who, like me, were in a church that was about to die, but it is also a biblical strategy to shake the world.

Many of our mission fields, I would say to my mission to the world brothers, many of our mission fields, we're on the second missionary journey in them. Yes, we always need to keep church planting. By the way, for those of you that say, "I just want to get out of this church revitalization and go plant a church where all the elite go, church planting," listen, anybody can plant a church. It takes a man of God.

Harry, what do you mean to revitalize a church? Well, let me ask you a question. Who revitalized the church at Ephesus? Anybody know? His name is Timothy, who Paul called "you man of God." When the church at Ephesus was dying, Paul didn't just close it, he sent his best man on the ministry of church revitalization. We gave attention to it, he gave resources, gave prime time, prime money, prime people to it. So that we are called to this ministry to engage in the whole dynamic of church revitalization as a way in which God has called us to.

Let me get to the second thing: The objective of church revitalization, if we commit to church revitalization, what's the objective? The objective of church revitalization is not church growth but church health and vitality. That's the objective. Growth is a consequence. Normally, if a church is healthy, there is going to be a statistical reflection.

Now, there are some exceptions. I was with one church, wonderful church, I'm not going to mention who it is because I never got permission to do that. But this church was in a corner of a coal mining county. It was one of only two counties in the United States that did not have a stoplight. The pastor, when I was there to spend some time with him, was just... he wept the whole conference. I didn't think my preaching was that bad. He was crying the whole time.

I said to him, "What's the matter, brother?" He said, "I'm an utter failure." I said, "Why?" He said, "Well, the church when I came here had 250 people, we're down to 190." So I just said, "Can I pray about this a little bit?" I did a little bit of prayer, did a little bit of talking, I came back to him. I said, "Look, I want to ask you a question. What is the number one industry here?" He said, "Well, it used to be coal mining. That's gone."

I said, "What was the population here when you came in the county?" He said, "25,000." I said, "What is it now?" He said, "6,000." I said, "Brother, I hope you have a church of 6,000 people, but let me tell you, 190 is a bigger slice of the pie for 6,000 than 250 was of 20-something thousand. Besides that, you've done good pastoral work to stay the course during all of this economic chaos, and God's been honored in that."

So he looked at the statistics and didn't think... but normally, there will be new believers, there will be new missionaries, there will be new pastors, there will be new disciple-makers, there will be new disciples. That is the fruit or the statistical, but that's not the focus. The focus is the church vitality.

I want to emphasize that. Do not make the focus tree... if your focus is church growth, it's just a matter of time until you will in pragmatism compromise either the message or the ministry or the methods. Just a matter of time because the numbers will dictate your ultimate decisions.

I believe that's what happens to us when we focus on church growth. What is a church called? It's called what? A church, the church of the Lord Jesus, called the body of Christ. Our local church is a manifestation of the body of Christ. There are three major metaphors for the church in the Bible. There's a bunch of them, but there's three major: family, body, army.

Every time you see a metaphor, it's there for a reason. The metaphor is there to tell you something about your savior and who he is, and it's there to tell you something about who you are and what you're called to do. Are we a flock? Go study sheep and you'll see what he's trying to tell us about us. You see what a shepherd is? Is he the captain of the Lord of Hosts? We're an army on a mission. We're a family. You don't get to choose your family. Get to choose your friends, not your family. You got to love them.

And he is the one who we now call Father, and Jesus is our groom. All of those metaphors are there to teach us something. Also, we're called the body. That is symmetry, that is unity with diversity. That's all of this that's coming together and we're a body, we're body number two.

Let me try to illustrate this way. I had three children growing up that I was able to raise. Every time they had a birthday, we'd do three things. One is we'd give them a birthday party with a present. Two, I'd give them a birthday spanking. That's a southern tradition, I love it. You know, it's one swat for every year and it's a great... you can catch up on anything you missed the last year. It's a wonderful tradition.

Third thing we'd do is we'd take them up to their room, we'd stand them up next to the doorpost and we would measure them. We would put the date down and we'd step back and say, "Look, son, you grew an inch and a half last year." I don't ever remember a time saying, "Son, you grew an inch and a half last year. Do not come back here without growing three inches. Three inches."

I didn't do that. What'd I do? I fed him, I exercised him, and I got him to rest. Because I knew God had a DNA built in him. My job was to lead him to revitalization, to health and vitality. That was my job.

What are the means that God has ordained? Folks, I am not talking about mechanistic revival. You preach for revival, you pray for revival. But we have biblical instructions how fathers and mothers in the church can lead the children of God to health and vitality as the body of Christ. That's what this is about.

The Lord will and does use this for revival, but the aim is how do we lead the church biblically back to health and vitality. Then some of us we say, "Big's not good and small's not bad," and then we make the trip "small's good and big's bad." Well, I don't know where, there's got to be a hospital near here. Take me to the hospital, I'll take you to the floor where people believe that. They believe small's good, big's bad.

Their body, because they don't take care of its health, they see anything looking like health as something to be not wanted, not desired, undesirable. Therefore, their body is turning and eating itself alive, organ by organ, with the eating disorders that they have. That's where some of our churches are. We're eating ourselves alive, you know, "us four no more, shut the door." Just me and thee, and I'm not sure about thee.

We have this bottleneck right at the pastor's study where we have to be in such control that we can't give away leadership, we can't give away direction, we can't do any of that because we are scared to death that growth is bad and therefore we turn and eat ourselves alive with the critical spirit.

So the objective is church revitalization, not church growth, but church health in church revitalization. Thirdly and finally, church revitalization must be Christ-centered and gospel-driven. That's where we stay focused.

I actually believe that the Bible gives us a paradigm of church revitalization and I hope to give that to you tomorrow morning at 10:45 or something like that. I want to lay out for you the biblical paradigm for church revitalization, and I want to define for you the objective of what a healthy church looks like. I think there's four marks of it and we'll look at that tomorrow. We'll follow the biblical roadmap to church revitalization and the destination of what is a healthy church, what are the metrics in the Bible of a healthy church.

But all I want to end today with is this. If you don't get anything else, is this. God, would you allow me to lead this church that we become a part of the world-shaking movement of the kingdom? A world-shaking church is a Christ-centered church, a gospel-driven church, a Holy Spirit-empowered church, a Bible-shaped church.

The gospel is penetrating every discipleship group. It is the foundation, the formation, and the motivation of the church. It fills the pulpit every single Sunday, it fills the Sunday school classes, the small group discipling, it fills the decisions, it fills the mercy ministry, it fills the children's ministry. It is everywhere.

So I arrived at Pinelands my first Sunday. I preached. I got through reasonably at 12:00. I was told that was very important to these older people who had to get back where lunch was served. I went to the back to shake their hand. There was nobody's hand to shake. Now, they may have been 69-plus years old, but they were quick. They were already out in the parking lot heading out, already gone.

This is the honest truth. You can call her up and ask her. I was out in the parking lot stopping cars, shaking hands with people. It could not have been that bad of a sermon, my first one, but it could not have been that bad. But I just... and then when I turned around to come back in, it was five minutes after 12:00, the doors were already locked. Part-time janitor had already gone. Doors were locked.

My first Sunday, I had to break in to get my car keys and my wife's pocketbook to get home. We got in the car and I looked to my wife. I had pastored this student pastor of this wonderful reformed Baptist work in Chattanooga and you couldn't make people leave there after the service. And they were all gone. I said, "Honey, you know what? We're not in Kansas anymore. This is going to be a challenge."

So I went home. We literally cried on the way home. What in the world is going to happen here? And I had an elder tell me, he said, "When this church was alive, we had four services every Sunday. Why don't you start four services?" I said, "John," that was John, one of the Johns, I said, "John, if I start four services, we got nine people in each one of them."

I said, "John," but this was a great moment, I said, "John, wait, let me ask you a question. Did you start four services and a thousand people come, or did we do four services because a thousand people were coming?" He said, "Oh, I hadn't thought about it that way." I said, "Why don't we find out why a thousand people were coming? And that's got something to do with our going. Why don't we think about that and work our way through it and pray our way through it?" "Okay, well, we'll do that."

So we began to think about it. I sat down with Terry Geiger. I had Lynn Downing there, I had Terry Geiger and Jim Bland, Dr. Kennedy, Jim Kennedy, and just so many guys that I could be mentored by and guided, just a fledgling pastor. One of them said, I said, "Where do you start?" And he said, "Well, Harry, I'm not sure. We'll talk about it. I mean, you start with church discipline? I got three elders unconverted. Where do you start?"

He said, "Well, I'll tell you where I'd start. I'd just start with the gospel." I said, "Now that's a winner." So I preached from Second Timothy 1:12 the next Sunday. "I suffer these things and I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him against that day." So I gave them a little five-point sermon. Not three, I'm not Baptist. Five points.

Saving faith is personal, six times it says "I." Saving faith is knowledgeable, I learned this from John Murray. Saving faith is knowledgeable, it's rational, "I know." It's emotional, "conviction, I'm convinced." It's volitional, trust, "I have entrusted." There it is: personal, rational knowledge, emotional conviction, volitional trust, and it's directional. He doesn't say "I know what I believed," he doesn't say "I know when I believed," he doesn't say "I know that I believed," "I know whom I have believed."

Finished the sermon and I had said to the organist, "I want you to play something real soft because I just want to, when I close in prayer, I want to invite people to commit their life to Christ." Now, I didn't say altar call. Don't bring charges against me. I said I just want to invite people to Christ. I think that's okay.

So I got to the end of the sermon and she's not playing. I said, "Where in the world is she?" I looked down, there she is. There's Roxanne standing in front of me. I can still see her that fall day, green chiffon dress, looking up to me, tears flowing down her face. She said, "Preacher, I don't... I don't have that. Can I... I've been the organist here, choir director eight years, can I be a Christian?"

I said, "Absolutely." I went down, prayed with her. Cindy came up and prayed with her. I went to the back and the chairman of the deacons met me at the back. His name was Jack and he said to me, he said, "Harry!" and this guy's a man's man, deep-sea fishing vessel, captain in the fire department, he said, "Harry!" Red-faced. He said, "What were you doing down there?"

I said, "Well, Roxanne wanted to commit her life to Jesus and I was praying with her and Cindy's going to talk with her about following up with some discipleship." He said, "I thought that's what you were doing." I literally thought I was about to get in a fistfight with the chairman of the deacons. I'm trying to determine: Do I hit back? Do I not hit back? What am I going to do here?

Then he looked at me and said, "I need that. I need to be a Christian like that." I said, "Well, Jack, you don't have to come forward. You can commit your life to Jesus right here. Let's pray." He said, "I knew you'd say that." He said, "And I did that, but," he said, "I've been chairman of deacons 14 years. I've just been a hypocrite. I want to come up there and do it publicly and ask everybody to forgive me." I said, "Well, we can arrange that."

So Thursday, I get a phone call: Jack cut a thumb off on a power saw. I met him at Jackson Memorial Hospital. This is 1980. Y'all ever heard of "the practice of medicine"? They just got microsurgical equipment; he was the second guy. They operated for hours, sewed it all up, had him all wrapped up, had a button on the end of his thumb holding it down, wrapped it all up, had it up in the air like that when I got there.

The doctor had just told him, "You know, I think... we think it's going to work. If it doesn't, if you start smelling something, just come on back." So I put my arms around him and I said, "Jack, I don't know what to tell you, but I can tell you two things now. You committed your life to Jesus, right?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, you just went in the crosshairs of Satan. As long as you were deceiving this church, he's going to leave you alone. Now you're stepping up for Jesus, you're in his crosshairs. But Satan is God's Satan, and he can't do anything to you that God's got in plan for your good, ultimately.

In fact, you now have a promise that you didn't have until last Sunday: All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Now I don't... he didn't say all things are good, but all things work together for good." I don't know what we were about to find out.

So I prayed with him and I left. I got to church that Sunday and Jack come in the back. Slipped in the back during the call to worship, sat down, he's got his arms wrapped up, hand up in the air like that. I tell people that was my one Billy Graham moment in life. "I see that hand back there!" The buses will wait for you. That was my one moment.

I finished the sermon. I didn't give an altar call. Jack's just up, coming down. When I looked up, there he is. I went down, put both arms around him. He put one around me, one up in the air like this, and I said, "Jack, I didn't think you'd be here today." He said, "Harry, Satan could have taken my arm off at the shoulder, I'd have been here today. I'd be here today." He said, "It all starts today."

Behind him came Beth. Remember those 55 people? 28 more with no request, no invitation, stood and came to Jesus or recommitted to Jesus. And then this thing began to take off. So much so that Roger Greenway says, "Would you write something?" I said, "Man, I just don't know what's happening, but thank you for the opportunity to think my way through it."

That birthed the ministry. This has been such a blessing to me so many times. Just two General Assemblies ago, I had the privilege to be the moderator for the General Assembly and on that next General Assembly, I preached. Mike Campbell preached, Kevin Smith preached, Paul Coyster preached. All four pastors of the church that they were going to close down. All four.

This last summer when I went down for prostate cancer treatment, I went over for the first time in almost three decades. Same tapestry, multiracial, multiethnic church, loving the Lord, growing in grace, looking to the next chapter. The Lord loves his church and he loves his people to go do it.

Church planting, you know what you get? Dan McNair gave us this. You get 30-something people and you think they're with you to plant the church. Actually, they're with you because they can't get along anywhere else. And by the way, as soon as you plant the church, what do you got to do? Buy some property, build a building.

Church revitalization? You don't have 30 untried ideas about the church, you just got one that's dying. And you don't have to build any... buy any property, you don't have to build any buildings, just got to start using them and filling them. Then you get to go back and say, "Okay, God, I don't have to do any capital campaigns, I don't have to do any of this stuff. All we got to do is use this stuff and then help the people."

Here's the map that God gives us. Harry, what's that map? I'll share that with you tomorrow. Father, thank you for the time we could be together. Thank you for the dear privilege to be in your word and to consider this glorious privilege to follow our great shepherd in not only establishing flocks from the folds of this world, flocks of our God, but also pursuing those flocks when they wander even like sheep do.

Thank you, you haven't left... you haven't left this over simply to our imagination and our ingenuity, which we love, but you've given us a clear map to accomplish it. But first, help us to be committed to church revitalization. It's not only necessary, it's biblical. Help us then to do church revitalization, and our focus is not on the numbers. Our focus is on the health and vitality of the church, that it functions well and then makes an impact statistically. Father, thank you that the gospel is powerful. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

One final sentence. When I finished that second Sunday, I have to confess, I wanted to call that pastor back and say, "So much for the mark of Satan." Resist him; he will flee from you.

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