The church restart model: How to lead it

Bob Whitesel June 24, 2021

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All church attendees know (and even many non-churchgoers are aware) that pastoral transitions can affect a church's health as well as the pastor's spiritual wellness. And because research indicates that pastors will transition out of one job and into a new one about every 3.5 - 10 years (depending on the denomination), this topic is of critical importance to almost all leaders in all churches.

Discussions on pastoral transitions usually focus on helping the pastor manage the experience. But the congregation is perhaps in even more in need, since it is a sizable community that must survive in these stormy waters. But, there are tools that can help churches that have been decimated by pastoral transitions come back. One such tool is the "restart model" or the "regeneration process." This is a procedure which allows a church to dissolve the present entity and form a new congregation with help from nearby congregations of the same polity.

Components of the "restart model" usually include the following:

1. The present church committees are disbanded and a new "steering committee" is appointed. This new committee will be comprised of members of the restart church and neighboring churches of the same denomination. The majority (51+%) of this steering committee will be from congregations other than the restart church. This committee will guide the church for one to three years.

2. The church will usually close for a six-month period of time. During this time home Bible studies will continue for members of the restart church, in order to provide continuity. This allows a time for mourning of the demise of the former union and introspection on the type of congregation that should emerge.

3. The church will actively seek a new pastor. And, the church will usually not reopen until it has new pastoral leadership in place.

The restart model is a viable alternative to closure and has been employed extensively by the American Baptist Church. While unable to preserve the traditions or history of the aging church, this approach does preserve a denominational presence in the community.

Two pre-conditions

However, the advice below must be considered when considering the restart or regeneration model.

1. The church leadership must be ready to relinquish control of the new organization to a steering committee comprised of people outside the local congregation. Sometimes this is difficult for the leaders to do, since they have been accustomed to leading the congregation for so many years. But, it may have to be delicately and gracefully explained that the present trajectory has been created by the historic leadership and because a new direction is needed, a new leadership team will also be required.

2. Church members must understand that their spiritual sustenance will come from a small group setting for at least six months during the transition phase. Some will miss the larger gathering, but they can be reminded that a return to a larger gathering is the purpose of the restart model. Thus the temporal nature of the small-group-only setting can be endured when the return to a larger gathering is on the horizon.

This model is frequently successful in planting a new and oftentimes younger congregation in the same community as the aging church.

Two considerations

However, older members of the former congregation usually do not make it through the transition due to two important reasons.

First, aging members are accustomed to sharing intimacy and closeness through Sunday School classes which often are their smaller groups. Home Bible studies, while more popular among Boomers, do not provide an attractive alternative to aging members who traditionally have enjoyed small group intimacy through the Sunday School format.

Secondly, the restart model works best when the existing leadership is fragmented or non-existent. The restart strategy then provides needed leadership to fill the void. However, if an existing and long-lived leadership is already in place, and in most aging churches this is the case, the restart model often prunes a majority of these steadfast saints from the process. Long-standing leaders will feel they are no longer wanted or needed, and resistance to forward progress often spreads informally among the aging congregation.

Though the restart model is effective in establishing a younger church in the community context, it usually fails in preserving a sub-congregation of older members.

This article was adapted from "A House Divided: Bridging the Generation Gaps in Your Church," by Bob Whitesel and Kent R. Hunter, Abingdon Press, 2000.

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Bob Whitesel (D.Min., Ph.D.) is a foresight coach, professor, and award-winning author of 14 books. For over 30 years, he has guided leaders and churches to pivot and engage what’s next. He holds two earned doctorates from Fuller Theological Seminary and teaches on leadership foresight, church health, and organizational change. His website is www.ChurchForesight.com. Learn More »

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