Far too many churches in North America are either plateauing or dying. In almost every community, a former church is either closed or turned into something other than who she used to be. It is heartbreaking to see places where once people glorified God sold away as the church property changed hands through a sale or auction on the courthouse steps. One must realize that it is not one decision that closed the established church but multiple decisions, sometimes made over decades, that got it to closure. Without a clear mission, the church lurched inward and slowly died. One does not have to look very far to find the missional call found in Matt (28:16-20) or, as others call it, the ""Great Commission."" Yet where is the church on mission today? Far too many are focused on internal matters instead of external spiritual issues and are allowing millions to go to hell without knowing the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ. What will it take for a transformation to happen? Missional service will take a willing heart to serve others locally and internationally as the hands and feet of Christ. It will take the ability to keep learning and growing in God's grace while celebrating victories as they come. It seems basic, right? Yet, most churches in communities like yours do not support missionaries through programs tied to mission agencies or investing locally to reach the lost. The time of inaction has lapsed, and it is time for God's church to come alive through visionary local leadership to promote and then lead in the area of missions.
About the Author: Desmond Barrett is the lead pastor at Summit Church of the Nazarene in Ashland, Kentucky, where he is married to his wife, Julie, and has four children. He is a former district mission president for the Kentucky District Church of the Nazarene, and is the author of Revitalizing the Declining Church: From Deaths Door to Community Growth (2021), Addition Through Subtraction: Revitalizing the Established Church (2022), and co-author of Revitalize to Plant: Reshaping the Established Church to Plant Churches (2023). He is a host of the podcast Revitalizing the Declining Church with Dr. Desmond Barrett.



Charlotte P. Holter is an adjunct professor in the school of education at Liberty University, district mission president for the Virginia District Church of the Nazarene, and a retired veteran elementary school teacher of thirty years. She is the coauthor of Linking Literature to Structures: Grades 3-5 (2015) and Linking Literature to Structures: Grades K-2 (2015).