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Stories of Church Revitalization Blessings. By Dr. Tom Cheyney Executive Director of Missions. First Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. Andy Davis is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina .
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Stories of Church Revitalization Blessings By Dr. Tom Cheyney Executive Director of Missions
First Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina • Andy Davis is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. • The reformation of First Baptist Church is one of the greatest displays of God’s glory that I have ever seen in my life. My prayer is that God will use this narrative to effect similar reformation in other churches around the world for his glory. • In 1998, FBC Durham was a church in need of reform. It was the oldest congregation in Durham, founded in 1845, and it took pride in being the FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. In the 1950’s to 1970’s it was the church where everyone who wanted to be anyone in Durham would have attended. By the time I came, those days were over. Yet the memory lingered.
Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia • Mike McKinley is the senior pastor of Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia. He is the author of Church Planting is for Wimps (Crossway, 2010), and Am I Really a Christian? (Crossway, 2011). • His church was revitalized as a two-for-one! It established a new gospel presence in a town of Sterling, Virginia. Secondly it removed a negative witness in the community.
Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina • J.D. Greear is lead pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina and the author of Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary(B&H, 2011). • Summit Church, was planted in 1962. In 2001, however, the Summit Church (then Homestead Heights Baptist Church) was a plateaued, declining Baptist church. The current pastor had been asked to resign after being caught in immorality. The pastor prior to him had unsuccessfully attempted to impose a Willow Creek model, and the pastor prior to him was a theological moderate. When J.D. arrived as the youth minister, the church was in its fourth straight year of attendance and offering decline, and the outlook was bleak. • Today it runs 3000+ in worship during the weekends.
Rehoboth Baptist Church in Tucker, Georgia • Primarily known in revitalization circles for the use of multiethnic revitalization. They are starting language churches, multiethnic churches, and multigenerational churches. • Once a fast growing church in the late 1980’s averaging 5000 in worship. But as the community changed its failure like so many to change with it drew the church into deep decline. Flight of the Anglo population took place and the church failed to adjust in order to reach a new populace. • SBC LIFE reports that its change was largely due to a predominantly African American SBC church needing to expand and as a result RBC was near by and became the spillover place for Peace Baptist Church.
Corinth Reformed Church in Byron Center, Michigan • Kevin Harney led the Corinth Reformed Church through a revitalization experience from 1993 through 2006. • Kevin is the co-author of U-Turn Church with Bob Bouwer.
Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama • Harry Reeder is a well know church revitalizer for the Presbyterian denomination and pastor of Briarwood PC. Reeder has revitalized two previous churches and led them through revitalization experiences. • Pinelands Presbyterian Church in Miami which grew from a handful to over 400 in three years. • Christ Covenant Church in Charlotte grew from 38 individuals to over 3,000 over a course of 17 years.
The church @ oaklevel in Ocoee, Florida • Jason Cooper “Coop” serves as the pastor of the Church @ Oaklevel and has been there for five years. He began his ministry with a handful of people and today they have been revitalized to a church of 250. • Growth and synergy is back to this church and for the first time in over 20 years the church has a vibrant future.
