Thinking about Church Replanting

Lamentations 5:1-2 Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace! Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.

Lamentations 5:21-22 "Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old--unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us."


Think about a nation or kingdom whose people are poor, unhealthy, malnourished, sick, and near death. What would one's thoughts be towards that kingdom or nation? Immediately the blame would rest on the king, ruler, and its leaders, not the people. But, what if the king had provided everything the people needed for vitality and vibrancy, and all that was necessary is that the people surrender and embrace the kings remedy to cure their overall pitiful state? Now the blame shifts from the king and the kingdom to the stubborn people of the kingdom.

What is happening all across America is the mischaracterization of the kingdom of God, given the debilitated state of the local churches who are agents of God's kingdom. Somehow and in someway the churches across America have lost the keys to the kingdom. Jesus told Peter that upon himself he would build his church, and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. While Jesus is busy in remnant churches (new or old) across America, the majority of local churches are suffering decay and decline. A question that must be asked is, does our king and savior deserve such defaming publicity? Is this what our great God and Savior died for? Did he die for churches to be started only to rot and die rather than being replanted and live?

While many will sit and point fingers and distribute blame, the only people to blame and point fingers at is the church and those who constitute it. Those who are part of such dilapidated churches need to realize their state is revocable and reversible. Reversing such a state is difficult, demanding, and radical. It will require repentance, surrender, patience, releasing, forgiveness, and radical transformation. Allowing Christ to work and resuscitate, renew, and replant what life is left in churches, whether it be just the assets having been accumulated over years, will launch a movement of his glory and power. Think about what Jesus did with what the little boy gave him? What if decaying, declining, and near death churches gave what little they had left back to Jesus? Think about what our great God and Savior could do with just a little that is surrendered to him. May churches surrender and may God be glorified!