How do you take a church that is barely hanging on and, by God’s grace and some good old-fashioned courage and sweat, see it grow bigger, stronger, and better? You replant the church.

From Pastor Mark Driscoll:

I’ve known Pastor Bubba for over a decade. He and his wife Shelly are my friends. He’s done pretty much every job at Mars Hill.

Right now he’s replanting Mars Hill Federal Way as Mars Hill Tacoma, which is about an hour south of Seattle. And by God’s grace and people’s faithfulness, he’s seeing huge success.

What he’s doing needs to happen a lot more. The statistics that get bantered around are that 3 out of 4 churches are plateaued or declining, and that 3,500–4,000 churches die and close every year. We all drive by churches that are on life support, stuck, and struggling.

Yes, there needs to be more church planting, but much of that planting needs to be church replanting. There are groups of godly people and neglected church buildings everywhere. How do you take a church that is not dead but also not strong, and by God’s grace and some good old-fashioned courage and sweat see it get bigger, stronger, and better?

Pastor Bubba is not yet another theorist doing church of the mind. He’s a pastor in the trenches who probably was on some scaffolding until midnight last night, painting trim at the new building. So I’ve asked him to share with us what they are doing so that it can inspire and instruct other leaders with churches who need to have a future and not a funeral.

Flat broke, meeting in a school gymnasium, and no elder team—that’s exactly where Mars Hill Federal Way was when I became the lead pastor there in 2012. But in the past two years, I have seen Jesus do something awesome. Simply put, there has been an explosion of grace, growth, and discipleship.

Here are a few examples of what Jesus has done:

• Weekly attendance has gone from under 600 to around 1,500.
• Worship services grew from two to five.
• Community Groups started at 17 and are now at over 50 in number, meeting across 12 cities in South Puget Sound.
• The number of volunteer leaders has doubled each year, and we are on track to do it again this year.
• A building was purchased, and we raised $745,000 for renovations.
• Volunteers did over 8,000 man-hours of work to restore the building, and then we physically relocated the church gathering.
• Most importantly, people are meeting Jesus. At our official launch on January 12, 2014, we had the privilege of baptizing 28 people.

Now, if it seems like I’m bragging, I am. I’m bragging on Jesus!

I can take no credit for all that has happened. It’s Jesus’ church. He is the chief shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4) who builds his church (Matt. 16:18). I’m just an under-shepherd. But God uses under shepherds in a powerful way when they seek to love Jesus’ church. In my case, Jesus used me to replant one of his churches, and I hope my experience will help you get a clear vision and learn to communicate that vision.

A culture headed toward disease rather than discipleship

When I first arrived at Mars Hill Federal Way, I saw a lot of little problems that needed correcting, but the problems were symptoms of a greater, more dangerous disease—the church lacked vision.

Any time a church lacks vision, the people and the mission suffer. No vision means no direction, which means nothing happens.

There needs to be more church planting, but much of that planting needs to be church replanting.

At Mars Hill Federal Way, the lack of vision meant that the church had no track record of making disciples and then multiplying to make more disciples. The church had a handful of ministry leaders who understood in theory that they were called to make disciples, but they were having a hard time understanding practically how to replicate themselves. Thankfully, the people loved Jesus, wanted to be led, and wanted to change the culture. They had a heart for Jesus’ mission; they just didn’t know what to do or how to get started.

How do you get a clear vision for replanting your church?

1. Resist temptation

A common mistake pastors make is thinking they need to create a clever, one-of-a-kind vision to inspire people and compel them to action. What often results from this is confusion for the pastor and lack of clarity for the people. And you risk having a vision that isn’t biblical. Resist this temptation. You don’t need to create a new vision, because Jesus has already given you one.

2. Look to Scripture for vision

In Matthew 28:18–20 and Acts 1:8, Jesus gave a clear, compelling vision for Christians in general and pastors in particular. Jesus’ vision is for us to go and make disciples, reaching the entire earth. For this reason, every Christian church has the same vision to make disciples who make disciples and plant other churches.

Any time a church lacks vision, the people and the mission suffer. No vision means no direction, which means nothing happens.

3. Ask the Holy Spirit for help

Throughout the book of Acts, we see that the Holy Spirit speaks to pastors and gives them guidance for ministry while empowering them to do ministry. Oftentimes, pastors are ready to get to work, and in our eagerness, we forget prayer. When we don’t start with prayer, we risk working out of our own strength instead of leading by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before you act, stop and pray so that the Holy Spirit aligns your mind to God’s mind and your heart to God’s heart. This will help you get a clear vision of Jesus’ mission, which will enable you to give that vision to the people you lead.

When I started replanting Mars Hill Federal Way, the Holy Spirit made it clear to me that the biggest challenge I faced was building a culture of discipleship through multiplication.

You don’t need to create a new vision for your church; Jesus has already given you one.

So for the first year of the replant, I was obsessed with helping leaders understand that our vision to make disciples and plant churches starts with them multiplying themselves. (I will explain more specifically in a later post how I instructed leaders to do this.)

How do you share the vision?

1. Personal connections

First, I needed to know the leaders. So I worked hard to meet as many leaders as I could to hear their testimonies, learn about their lives, and discover their fears, hopes, and gifts. Before you can lead people toward a common vision, you have to establish trust. Trust comes from love. If you love people, they will trust you. If people trust you, they will follow you. Trust and love happen through relationship.

Every Christian church has the same vision to make disciples who make disciples and plant other churches.

2. Clear communication

Second, I knew I needed to establish a clear line of communication so I could constantly share the vision and reinforce a culture of multiplication. Every week I spoke the vision from the pulpit. I sent out weekly emails to share the vision, tell stories about lives being changed, and show photos, so people could see the vision in action. It’s not enough to tell people about the vision. As much as possible, let them see it through photos and videos.

Here is an example of sharing the vision:

3. Equipping

Third, I met regularly with key leaders to reinforce the vision and clarify multiplication goals and priorities. Vision must be both taught and caught, so I held weekly meetings to teach our highest-level leaders the why behind the what. I wanted them to understand not only the vision, but also why we do ministry a certain way. Then, I gathered all our leaders each month for visionary equipping. Visionary equipping is when you teach people practical ministry skills that empower them to action. (Keep an eye out for a future post about this.)

4. Encourage, encourage, encourage

My momma always said, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Never underestimate the motivating power of encouragement. Encouragement fuels vision. I looked for opportunities to affirm people in Christ and encourage their hearts. I spoke words of encouragement to them in person, sent them handwritten notes, and acknowledged them in groups of their peers. All of this was truly sincere and heartfelt on my part—fake encouragement is emotional manipulation, which is sinful.

Before you can lead people toward a common vision, you have to establish trust. Trust comes from love.

Who needs you to give them vision?

If you are the pastor of a visionless church, your head might be spinning by now. Your church may be stagnating with the disease of discouragement or wandering in several different directions.

As the pastor of a church, everything you say and do, for better or worse, teaches your disciples. What kind of culture has been created in your church as a result of a lack of vision? When are you going to get alone, pray over the Scriptures, and ask God for a clear vision?

Encouragement fuels vision.

Who are the leaders in your church, and how will you connect with them personally? How will you start communicating vision at every level? Who needs to be equipped by you? Who needs to be encouraged by you? Will you share Jesus’ vision in a way that will help people grow as followers of Christ and as leaders of other people?

Now, go do something!

Stay tuned for more posts from Pastor Bubba in the coming weeks as he shares the practical details of replanting a church, including how to motivate people for the mission, raise funds, recruit volunteers, and more.