Church Revitalization: A Pastoral Guide to Church Renewal.  Russel Small. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregal Ministry, 2023. 232 Pages. Print, $23.99.   

Summary

Church revitalization is a common concept in ministry today. Though the term itself has become widespread, the practice is nothing new; church leaders have always sought to lead churches toward health and growth. Certain ministries have more work to do than others, but the focus remains the same. Russel Small, in his book Church Revitalization: A Pastoral Guide to Church Renewal, seeks to help churches consider revitalization steps that can be taken to move forward in mission and philosophy. Whether just starting to consider strategic revitalization or well down the revitalization pathway, Russel Small’s book proves a helpful guide to church members and their leaders. Small, who serves as a revitalization strategist with the Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia, brings a wealth of practical experience to the table, having served as pastor and having also been involved in revitalization efforts through his years of pastoral ministry.     

Flow of Book

The author breaks up his book of ten chapters into two distinct sections. The first five chapters focus on helping church leaders to evaluate a church’s need and readiness for revitalization. The author also uses this section to focus on instructing those leading the revitalization efforts in gaining the necessary skills to lead a ministry in revitalization. These first five chapters address topics such as evaluating a church’s readiness for revitalization, evaluating a leader’s ability to lead in revitalization, examining a church’s history, assessing the community around a church, and measuring the health of the one leading the revitalization efforts. The second section of five chapters provides a detailed and practical guide to the process of revitalization itself. These chapters address topics such as creating a revitalization blueprint, building a team, the difficulties of implementation, navigating conflict, and continuing in revitalization after an initial plan has been implemented.    

Analysis

This book is filled with practical wisdom on the topic of church revitalization. One cannot help but perceive that Russel Small writes from a position of practical experience in church ministry. He successfully meets his goal of helping his readers to understand the principles behind revitalization while also giving a clear outline to follow. One discussion which I found especially insightful related to evaluating the skills of the one leading the revitalization. Small offers candid comments about the difficulty of helping a church toward revitalization and gives necessary cautions to those who might feel called to this sort of ministry. Alongside of this, Small gives clear points of evaluation for pastors and leaders to use as they look at their own strengths and weaknesses in considering if they themselves are suitable for a revitalization type of ministry. In this regard, Small begins where some books on revitalization fail to start, with the revitalizer, to see if an individual has what it takes to do the work of revitalization. This is a factor that is sometimes left out of the process, but as Small demonstrates, is vitally important.         

Point of Contention

Though I appreciated nearly all of this work, I have one point of contention with what was written. In discussion on conflict, Small advises the creation of a grievance policy, and having a clear system for submitting grievances or areas of conflict between members in the church or leadership of the church. Small gives tangible suggestions, such as a box used for submitting grievance reports to the church leadership and advises establishing a system for grievance review. While I can understand the wisdom of having a plan for taking care of conflict in the church, I wonder if the system suggested bypasses the plan given in the pages of Scripture found in Matthew 18. Christ Jesus gives his church a way to handle conflict, not by submitting a form for someone to review. Rather, Jesus instructs believers to start off by handling conflict personally with the other party. In suggesting the submission of forms and subsequent investigation or review, I fear that Small may be advising churches to overlook a better and more biblical way of handling conflict in substitution for a more clinical or impersonal means.   

Recommendation

In conclusion, I found the book to be immensely helpful. The wisdom of the author is evident, and readers cannot help but grow through the practical insight he provides. The book is written for pastors and church leaders, and that is who will find this book most helpful. But the book is useful for many others as well. Deacons, lay leaders, and church members will also find great value in Church Revitalization: A Pastoral Guide to Church Renewal. Anyone who seeks to help his or her church move towards health and growth will find value in this work, and Russel Small has done a great job of providing a resource that will prove valuable to many.    

*This book review was originally published in the Journal of Ministry and Theology, copyright © 2023 by Baptist Bible Seminary. You can access the Journal of Ministry and Theology HERE.