Ren-o-vate,
verb 1. Restore something old to a good condition

by Terry Shanahan, Northeast Regional Minister

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind… (Romans 12:2)

I was privileged this past week to be able to join the CCCC Church Development Team at the national Renovate Conference in Orlando, Florida. Our own Dr. John Kimball presented several workshops at this national event, and we were blessed by all of the plenary sessions and workshops. (And the weather!)

For me personally, I was inspired by the testimonies of pastors who spoke about their church revitalization efforts. The testimonies were honest and authentic as they shared stories of failure and success, triumph and tragedy. I was moved by the sharing of one man in particular who talked about all his struggles, frustrations, and hurts which continually brought him to his knees. A revelation that came to him out of all the frustration was that trials and struggles were his spiritual formation. The struggles continued to draw him to Christ in ways he wouldn’t have been drawn before. The frustrations continued to keep him seeking God in prayer and left him humble enough for God to do the work, and for him not to rely on himself.

This was not a concept that was new to me, but through the working of the Holy Spirit, this message hit home in a very real way. It was one of those occasions where God speaks to my soul and I am able to release to Him some personal struggles of ministry. We can expect struggles in the work of the ministry and we can thank God for those struggles. The struggles work within us and help grow us to the person God desires us to be.

Of course there were numerous other excellent presenters, including Ed Stetzer who spoke at our Annual Family Conference this past July. This whole conference reinforced within me that the CCCC has been on the right path, and in many ways we are leaders in the evangelical community in recognizing and seeking to meet the development needs of our churches. For me it was a time of rejuvenation, sort of like a “renovation,” like a renewing of my mind.

We can all get overwhelmed by the tyranny of the urgent, the sense of responsibility and the ultimate sense of our human frailty as we do this work. We need to make sure to stay close to God and remember that He does the work; then let Him perform his renovation in us. It starts with the renovation of our hearts and the renewing of our minds before we can renovate our churches.