{"id":13163,"date":"2023-02-03T05:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/?post_type=resource&p=13163"},"modified":"2023-02-02T13:52:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T18:52:29","slug":"the-great-adventure-of-revitalization","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/the-great-adventure-of-revitalization\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Adventure of Revitalization"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a bit clich\u00e9, but it\u2019s true: A song changed my life.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 1997, I was a 14-year-old kid moving from the 8th grade into High School. By that time, I\u2019d been a believer for around 8 years. I think over the previous couple of years, God had been calling me into ministry, but I wasn\u2019t quite sure what was happening. It had dawned on me that, standing at 5\u20198\u201d and with limited athletic ability, my dreams of playing for the Dallas Cowboys most likely weren\u2019t going to happen.<\/p>\n

That summer, Lifeway\u2019s VBS theme was, \u201cThe Wild and Wonderful Good News Stampede: Telling Other About Jesus.\u201d One of the songs included on the music CD that year was Steven Curtis Chapman\u2019s \u201cThe Great Adventure.\u201d At the time, I was learning to play the guitar, and was mostly listening to and playing country music. Most of the gospel music I\u2019d heard to that point didn\u2019t interest me.<\/p>\n

When I heard the opening guitar riff to \u201cThe Great Adventure,\u201d it grabbed me. Then the words hit. Here was a guy singing about the Christian life as an adventure. That wasn\u2019t what I\u2019d experienced or heard about to that point. (It\u2019s important to note that I was 14 \u2026 so, I don\u2019t think that others hadn\u2019t talked about it, rather that I probably didn\u2019t have the \u201cears to hear\u201d until that moment.) Suddenly, there was an excitement to the Christian life that I hadn\u2019t considered before. I think it was during that week that God solidified my call to ministry, although I wouldn\u2019t officially \u201csurrender\u201d to the call for a couple more years.<\/p>\n

Over the next decade and a half, I served mostly in youth & worship ministries. Then, in the middle of the most difficult year of my life \u2013 a year that included my dad passing away and the only time I ever really dreaded going to my job at a church \u2013 God began calling me to move into a lead pastor role. Again, I fought this because 1) I didn\u2019t think I was qualified and 2) I saw the pastor I was serving with at the time take a lot of cheap shots and I wanted no part of that.<\/p>\n

Still, after several months of struggling with the Lord, I couldn\u2019t escape the call. So I started sending out resumes and waited for the calls to come pouring in. (I had, after all, just finished my M.Div.) And \u2026 nothing. For months, there were no calls \u2026 no emails \u2026 nothing. Churches were not lining up to have me come serve as their pastor.<\/p>\n

Finally, in an act of desperation, I sent a resume to a church in a small town in New Mexico. They called me within a couple of weeks. And thus began the most exciting decade of my life (to this point). Over the next nine years, I served two churches in New Mexico, one of which was facing significant struggles. Just as Steven sang (I just assume we\u2019d be best friends if we got to have coffee once), there were a lot of mountains and valleys. But it certainly was an adventure.<\/p>\n

As I once again approach a new decade of life, I find myself in a role where I get to champion pastors serving in church revitalization and replanting in some of the smallest and most remote places in North America. And I can tell you from the stories I\u2019ve heard, this really is a great adventure! Sure, there are some days when guys want to throw in the towel, walk away from their church and serve as a funeral director or sell insurance. But there are a lot of days when they walk away encouraged because a teenager came to faith in Christ, they saw an addict freed by the power of the gospel or they saw a marriage restored. We\u2019re seeing once-dying churches come back to life all across the country.<\/p>\n

Getting to hear these stories and be a small part of them is the greatest adventure I\u2019ve encountered yet!<\/p>\n

So whether you\u2019re reading this on the mountaintop of the best weekend you\u2019ve experienced or from the depth of the lowest valley of despair you can imagine, know that God is working in you and through you in ways you likely won\u2019t understand for years to come. And there\u2019s still more to the adventure! Don\u2019t lose heart. Saddle up your horses, and get ready for what God will continue to do in your life and ministry!<\/p>\n

Just for fun, here are some other reflections on The Wild and Wonderful Good News Stampede<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And for a bit of nostalgia, enjoy the classic music video to The Great Adventure<\/a>. That hair is \u2026 really something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a bit clich\u00e9, but it\u2019s true: A song changed my life. In the summer of …<\/p>\n

The Great Adventure of Revitalization<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13164,"template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"channels":[],"topics":[53],"languages":[],"class_list":["post-13163","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-article","topics-replanting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Great Adventure of Revitalization - Church Replanting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/the-great-adventure-of-revitalization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Great Adventure of Revitalization\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s a bit clich\u00e9, but it\u2019s true: A song changed my life. 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