Church, Come Forth: A Biblical Plan for Transformational Turnaround

By Todd Hudnall

Themajority of American churches are stalled or in decline. Church Come Forth is a strategic model for renewing andrevitalizing plateaued and dying churches into prevailing and growingcongregations. Todd Hudnall combines Biblical insights, church revitalizationresearch and his experience as a turnaround pastor to provide a guidebook for transformation.It is God's desire to renew His church and most church leaders will find thisplan a Godsend in effectively revitalizing their congregations.

Steve Pike, Director of the Church Multiplication Network says:

Three words came to mind when I read Church Come Forth by Todd Hudnall - Biblical, Practical, Real.

Biblical - A book about God's Church would be useless if not filled with wisdom from God's Book! Hudnall carefully makes the Biblical case for revitalization, unpacking scripture after scripture to lay a firm foundation for why and how a drifting church can once again join God on His mission.

Practical - Todd Hudnall is a seasoned and successful practitioner whose walk aligns with his talk. His counsel is based on the best research and his actual experience of applying that research. As a result, Church Come Forth is loaded with great advice that is tried and true.

Real - Todd's honesty about his personal growing pains is refreshing. His diverse experience in churches small and large make his counsel relatable to every pastor. He writes as a pastor friend writing to a pastor friend. Church Come Forth is a must read for every leader of a plateaued or declining church.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490896410

Todd Hudnall

Todd Hudnall has extensively researched the subject of church revitalization and organizational change. He has been a church planter and led two churches in dramatic transformational turnarounds. One of those churches was twice listed among the 100 fastest growing churches in the nation. Hudnall authored the church health book, Big God in a Little City, and has taught on church health at conferences throughout the United States and internationally. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hudnall and his wife, Kelly, serve together in ministry as lead pastors of Radiant Church. The Hudnalls and their two children live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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Copyright © 2015 Todd Hudnall.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-9642-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-9640-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-9641-0 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/17/2015

Contents

Dedication

In Praise of Church, Come Forth

Acknowledgments

Preface

Section 1: The Biblical Foundation for Revival and Renewal

Chapter 1 Waking The Dead

Scriptural Conditions for Church Revitalization

Chapter 2 Jesus’ Consultation For Declining Churches

Church of Ephesus: Returning to our First Love

Church of Smyrna: Enduring Hardship

Church of Pergamum: Uncompromising Faith

Church of Thyatira: Confronting Sin

Church of Sardis: Spirit Empowering

Church of Philadelphia: Outward Focused

Church of Laodicea: Passionately Serving

Conclusion

Section 2: The Turnaround Factors

Chapter 3 Transformational Leadership

Calling

Being Yourself

Credibility

Delegation

Humility

Outward Focus

Relational Intelligence

Self-leadership

Vision

Need for New or Renewed Leadership

He Will Be With You

Chapter 4 Turnaround Factors

Team Formation

Pragmatic Faith

Clear Purpose

Focused Activity

Ministry Accelerators

Continuous Improvement

Summary

Section 3: The Change Process Map

Chapter 5 The Transformation Process

Steps for Leading Change

Chapter 6 The Grit and Mystery of Revitalization

The Grit

The Mystery

Chapter 7 The Map to a Transformational Turnaround

End Notes

Dedication

To Kelly Hudnall, my co-laborer in pastoral ministry and the earthly love of my life and to the three congregations we have had the privilege of serving.

In Praise of Church, Come Forth

Steve Pike, Director of the Church Multiplication Network

Three words came to mind when I read Church Come Forth by Todd Hudnall - Biblical, Practical, Real.

Biblical - A book about God’s Church would be useless if not filled with wisdom from God’s Book! Hudnall carefully makes the Biblical case for revitalization, unpacking scripture after scripture to lay a firm foundation for why and how a drifting church can once again join God on His mission.

Practical - Todd Hudnall is a seasoned and successful practitioner whose walk aligns with his talk. His counsel is based on the best research and his actual experience of applying that research. As a result, Church Come Forth is loaded with great advice that is tried and true.

Real - Todd’s honesty about his personal growing pains is refreshing. His diverse experience in churches small and large make his counsel relatable to every pastor. He writes as a pastor friend writing to a pastor friend. Church Come Forth is a must read for every leader of a plateaued or declining church.

Dr. James Bradford, Assistant General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God.

The turnaround church is one of the most formidable leadership challenges facing pastoral leadership today. In this excellent book Todd Hudnall becomes a pastor’s friend, writing as both a practitioner and a mentor. By integrating spiritual dynamics with strategic intent, along with a good dose of refreshing honesty, Todd provides a workable framework for leading churches into Holy Spirit renewal and missional effectiveness.

Dr. Jim Garlow, Senior Pastor of Skyline Church, San Diego, CA

Turning around a stalled or declining church is one of the greatest challenges and the biggest needs in the American church. In Church, Come Forth, Dr. Todd Hudnall has provided church leaders with a practical and proven guide through this difficult leadership challenge. Having extensively researched the subject, consulted with many other turnaround leaders and having led churches through the process, Todd is uniquely qualified to provide insight on this vital subject.

Brady Boyd, Senior Pastor of New Life Church, Colorado Springs, CO

I am so grateful Pastor Todd wrote this book. He embodies the call of pastor as well as anyone I know and his voice for the local church needs to be heard loud and clear. May the bride of Christ be strengthened and encouraged.

Dick Hardy, Church Consultant and President of The Hardy Group

Todd Hudnall nails it. Down and out? Out for the count? Pick your phrase but leading a revitalization effort of any magnitude requires more than the latest and greatest human formula. Todd walks the reader through the spiritual journey of a comeback church. It is truly a biblical cry for transformational turnaround.

Justin Lathrop, Director of Prime Solutions

Convinced of God’s desire to revive His church, Todd draws on scripture and his own experience to create a foundation on which pastors can build a plan for revitalization. Todd unpacks the roles of pastor, leadership team, and congregation in this process by sharing the lessons he’s learned with humble honesty, creating a vision for Spirit-led renewal. I highly recommend this book to any pastor wanting to be part of leading the church through spiritual transformation.

Dr. Wayde Goodall, Dean of the College of Ministry, Northwest University, Kirkland, WA.

Pastoring is hard work and one must be led by the Holy Spirit to determine what needs to be done, and the strategy God has for that particular congregation. In my opinion, leading a church through revitalization is the most challenging. Many leaders become discouraged and quit in the process; some actually implode and burn out. Few actually turn a church around so that it becomes healthy, vibrant, and Spirit directed. Todd Hudnall has led three churches through this process. His recent book: Church, Come Forth walks the reader through the process of preparation, vision, strategy, and courage. America has thousands of churches that desperately need revitalization. In fact, I believe this is one of the greatest needs of the church today … and one of the most difficult things to do. Following the principles, critical points, and preparation that Dr. Hudnall gives is key in leading a congregation that needs new life.

Don Steiger, Superintendent of the Rocky Mountain District of the Assemblies of God

Dr. Todd Hudnall in Church, Come Forth provides an excellent resource of pastoral wisdom to effectively equip those called to lead declining or stagnated churches. The concepts presented are biblically based and tested in the crucible of Todd’s personal experience while leading turnaround churches. This book will encourage pastors while providing clarity and guidance for challenging pastoral assignments.

Terry Yancey, Superintendent of the Kansas District of the Assemblies of God

Theory and research about church turnaround often stimulates my imagination and thinking. However, practical input from an active practitioner encourages my faith, bolsters my confidence, and provides useful tools to actually accomplish the tasks necessary for Kingdom advancement. Todd Hudnall delivers that biblical practitioner punch in his book, Church Come Forth: A Biblical Cry For Transformational Turnaround.

Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful to God for all of those who made this book possible. Kathy Keen, Keisha McNeil and Laurie Stephenson were of invaluable assistance in the editing process. Thank you to Jeremy Reyes, who created the cover and to Laura Baarts, who designed the illustration of the bell curve. I am particularly grateful to Don Pape for his critique, final editing and development of the title.

My appreciation is also extended to the many turnaround pastors and churches that opened their hearts and ministries to this study. Their cooperation and assistance were essential in the research.

Preface

I lay in a crumpled heap on the floor of my bedroom wondering if this is what it felt like to suffer a mental breakdown. For the first time in over twenty-five years of ministry I genuinely wanted to quit. I felt defeated, confused and dreadfully alone. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Less than a year earlier I’d been overwhelmingly elected to lead what I had long considered my dream church. It was an assignment to which I was absolutely certain God had called me. The church was at the beginning of a revitalization effort, the second consecutive turnaround campaign I’d led and I was wondering how I had gotten myself into this horrible situation. I’d left a proverbial frying pan to fall head first into what felt like a very real fire. Welcome to the life of a turnaround pastor.

I’ve had the responsibility of leading three church revitalization efforts. In two of the three I had the satisfaction of seeing God renew churches in a dramatic way, as both moved from stagnant and stalled to vibrant and prevailing. In the second church there were clear signs of a turnaround developing with accompanying growth and new fruitfulness; however, a dramatic calling pulled me away from the revitalization before it was complete. I will explain that situation and the lessons learned from the experience later in the book. All three of these church turnaround efforts provided me with great hands-on training concerning what to do and, even more importantly, what not to do in leading a church comeback.

A great amount of outstanding research has been done and many exceptional materials have been written on the subjects of church and organizational revitalization. Drawing on these resources, adding additional Biblical framework and illustrating with my own experiences as a pastor leading turnaround efforts and those of other comeback pastors, my goal is to provide church leaders with a resource that will guide each church through its own process of renewal. Every congregation is unique and one plan will not fit every situation but the principles and practices outlined in this book will provide the tools for each church to design its own revitalization strategy.

In their research Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson defined a church in need of revitalization as one that has experienced five years of plateau and/or decline (worship attendance grew less than 10% in a five-year period). Stetzer and Dodson described a comeback church as one whose decline was followed by significant growth over 2 to 5 years which included a membership to baptism ratio of 35:1 or lower each year and at least a 10 percent increase in attendance each year.¹ I view this as reasonable attendance and conversion growth criteria for determining turnaround churches. In addition, I’d recommend a church demonstrate increased levels of health based on one of the biblical models that will be examined in chapter three of this book.

During my research the General Council of the Assemblies of God conducted a computer data search to locate if any of its over 12,000 churches met this criteria of revitalization during the years 2006 through 2009. They were unable to locate any Assemblies of God comeback churches during that time period. To me this highlights the challenge involved in leading a transformational turnaround. It also demonstrates the need for the kind of material contained in this book.

There were two key resources that were critical to this work. The first was Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. In it Collins outlines a strategy for transforming good, mediocre and underperforming companies into organizations that achieve enduring greatness.² The strategy was conceived through 15,000 hours of intensive research of companies that had made the transition to greatness. Thom Rainer used the Good to Great framework in writing a book on church revitalization entitled Breakout Churches. In his study of 50,000 churches Rainer discovered that the same factors that allowed mediocre companies to attain greatness were evident in the metamorphosis of declining churches into prevailing churches.³ Rainer’s work confirms that Collins’ principles provide an extensively researched and documented transformation model for both businesses and churches.⁴ The good-to-great framework was selected as the structure that would be adapted to provide turnaround factors for church revitalization. The second resource was John Kotter’s pivotal work, Leading Change. In it Kotter presents eight steps for leading an organization through transformational change.⁵ Kotter’s process will be adapted as an outline for implementing a transformational turnaround.

This handbook is divided into three sections. The first offers a Biblical foundation for revival and renewal of the church. It will not only examine insights from the Scripture and examples from contemporary turnaround churches but it can also serve as a resource for preparing messages for congregations in need of renewal. The second section will offer a framework of turnaround factors that will guide the revitalization process. The final section will deliver a change-process map for church leaders to follow in accomplishing their turnarounds. There may be a temptation to jump ahead to the nuts and bolts of sections two and three but I’d encourage you not to skip the first section. The Biblical teaching on church renewal is critical for connecting to God’s heart concerning the revitalization of your church. This book is written for pastors leading church revitalizations. My prayer is that this book will be used as a tool to assist you in seeing your own church experience renewal, revival and revitalization. That you will not only see a turnaround but realize a turnaround that transforms you, your church and your community.

After the incident on my bedroom floor, I was able to pull myself together, get up off the carpet, encourage myself in the Lord and continue to lead my congregation toward a transformational turnaround. I kept going, even though I didn’t feel like it. There was instead a painful sense that my ministry hopes and dreams had died. I felt like Lazarus.

SECTION 1:

THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATION FOR REVIVAL AND RENEWAL

CHAPTER 1

Waking The Dead

A messenger has frantically rushed to bring a report to Jesus from Martha and Mary in Bethany. The terse message alerts the Lord that his close friend, Lazarus, is sick (John 11:1-4). When Jesus receives the communication, He announces, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Christ’s glorification, not Lazarus’ death, would be the final outcome of His friend’s condition. Jesus goes on to tell His disciples that Lazarus is sick but that He would awaken him. This terminology confuses the disciples, so that Jesus has to bluntly explain to them, Lazarus is dead.

Jesus could be saying the same things about many churches in America today. In some places the church is sick. In other locations the church is asleep. Most alarming of all, there are churches that are dead and don’t even realize it. A sick church is riddled with dysfunction. The various parts of the body are not functioning properly and the church is unhealthy. Maybe it has become like the church in Corinth, ruled by strife, division and carnality (1 Cor. 3:3). Or it could be similar to the church in Galatia, where legalism has replaced living in the grace of Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:1-5). Regardless of the prognosis, churches experiencing these symptoms are in need of renewal.

Then there is the sleeping church. It is the church that snoozes, oblivious to the desperate need of the world around it. It sleeps while society plummets down a moral cliff into wickedness and perversion, unaware of the cries of hurting people all around. Sleeping churches remain unmoved as the lost slip into eternity to be forever separated from the God that loves them. To those churches the Scripture commands, Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light (Eph. 5:14).

Finally there is the dead church. It isn’t simply sleeping among the dead. It is stone dead. There is no