The Nitty Gritty: Is Your Church Declining or Dying? Here is an insider's View of How Church Renewal Happens.

Title: The Nitty Gritty: Is Your Church Declining or Dying? Here is an insider's View of How Church Renewal Happens. What does it feel like when your church is declining and hope is fading? How do you cope with more and more empty seats each Sunday? Jerry Watson - Red Oaks Baptist in Santa Maria, California Lisanne Huber - Foothill Baptist in Los Altos, California. CHRISTOPHER 6. One of the hardest things any person or church can do is examine itself honestly. What did ReNEW help your congregation see about itself that perhaps had been difficult to see before? Follow-up: Was there anything you heard during the process that you initially didn't want to hear—but later realized was probably true? CHASE: 7. What does church decline feel like from the pew rather than from the pastor's office? What do pastors and denominational leaders sometimes fail to understand about the experience of longtime members? CHRISTOPHER: 8. Change almost always involves some grief. What have you had to grieve, or what possibility have you had to become willing to surrender, for the sake of your church having a future? CHASE: 9. Imagine a church member listening whose congregation is declining. Everybody knows it, but nobody wants to say it out loud because asking for help feels like admitting failure. What would you say to that person and that church now that you've walked through ReNEW yourselves? CHRISTOPHER 10. What has been most encouraging to you through the ReNEW process? What signs of genuine renewal or hope have you already seen? And I'm interested in things beyond attendance: prayer, relationships, evangelism, generosity, willingness to serve, spiritual hunger.