Pastor Gary Moritz and his wife, Jana, say they fell into church revitalization by default. While it is challenging work, their strategic church revitalization efforts at City United Church in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, demonstrate how a dying congregation can find new life.
The church thrived in its heyday, boasting a daycare, a Christian school, a radio station, and a 1,000-seat auditorium. However, when Gary and Jana were called to serve in 2012, the ministry was facing bankruptcy with fewer than 70 congregants remaining. Learning how to navigate common pitfalls in revitalization proved crucial for their eventual success.
Facing such a dire situation, the couple could not implement every necessary change at once. Instead, they addressed the most pressing issues first by reevaluating the organization and paring down programs that did not align with their mission. Practicing simple actionable revitalization steps was essential for them to move the vision forward.
They quickly learned that reaching people in New England is not about a crowd or the hype but about personal relationships.
“It’s about spending time one-on-one with people where they’re at, even if that’s messy or uncomfortable,” says Jana.
For Randy and Kim Moulton, City United was just what they needed.
“I’d been involved in street gangs. I was rough around the edges, and worried about being accepted,” says Randy. As for Kim, she was a homebody who kept to herself.
The folks at City United, however, made them both feel welcome, and the Holy Spirit took hold.
“I had this overwhelming feeling that we were doing the right thing,” says Randy. He and Kim both accepted Jesus, and their lives were transformed.
“Jesus saved our marriage and our family,” says Kim.
Today, City United looks much different than before the pandemic. For starters, the church shut down superfluous programming by forcing everyone to focus on what was important to Jesus and his mission. In addition, when COVID-19 hit, the church underwent a reshuffling of the deck in leadership. The Moritzes found that some of the existing leaders were only invested in titles and fluff, so when the going got tough, they got going. At the same time, others they never expected to lead stepped up to the plate.
“It taught us that when it comes to leadership, it’s not about charisma, it’s about character,” says Gary. “Charisma gets you in the building, but character keeps you in the room.”
City United is now a church of between 500 and 600 people, with some folks participating on campus, others online and still others in smaller meet-up groups.
“It’s not necessarily ‘Come and see,’” says Gary. “Now it’s, ‘Go and be.’”
Since Gary and Jana stepped foot in City United, they have followed the “pray, train and send” model.
“For a pastor, sending means giving your people permission to lead,” says Gary. “Ultimately, Jesus gave that responsibility to everyone, not just one guy in a building.”
The church plants overseas with two different organizations: Outreach to Asia Nationals, which trains and equips persecuted Asian pastors to reach their people, and The Timothy Initiative, which partners with local leaders in some of the least-reached areas of the world to train disciple makers and church planters. With their experience over the last 10 years, Gary and Jana have had the opportunity to support these church plants and church revitalizers, and the pastors who sustain them.
Gary anticipates that as boomer pastors step away from the pulpit, there will be a lack of successors to take their place. “The leadership pipelines are not in place to fill the void of the evangelical collapse that’s happening.”
This is why the focus needs to be on revitalization and replanting, he says. During COVID-19, the couple wrote a book titled Carry On: Tactical Strategies for Church Revitalization and Renewal. It addresses 10 approaches to implement when walking into a church revitalization.
Gary believes the church in America seems to have adopted a consumer mindset where people ask, “What have you got for me?”
“If they don’t like a program, they look to a church down the street for it,” says Gary. “We emphasize that Jesus never created programs. He gave us one command, and that is to go and make disciples.”