{"id":45831,"date":"2023-11-16T18:55:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T23:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridabaptist.wpengine.com\/?p=45831"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:18:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:18:43","slug":"only-god-can-revitalize-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/only-god-can-revitalize-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Only God can revitalize church"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUTZ\u2013In a thought-provoking panel discussion led by Paul Purvis, pastor of Mission Hill Church<\/a> in Temple Terrace, three Florida Baptist pastors highlighted the need for and shared their experiences in church revitalization.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging the need for church planting, Purvis, who was wrapping up his second and final term as Florida Baptist State Convention president, said, \u201cChurch planting is not always going to be the answer. We need also to focus on church revitalization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three panelists\u00ad\u2013Kevin Smith, pastor, Family Church Village<\/a>, Ft. Lauderdale; Cliff Lea, pastor, First Baptist Church<\/a>, Leesburg; and Louis Egipciaco, pastor, Elevate Church<\/a>, Miami Lakes\u2013spoke during Florida Baptists\u2019 2023 annual meeting at Idlewild Baptist Church<\/a> in Lutz.<\/p>\n

Kevin Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smith, who gained experience in church revitalization in Kentucky and Maryland\/Delaware prior to his pastorate in Ft. Lauderdale, encouraged congregations who are helping revitalize churches to do so \u201cin partnership\u201d with others and also to \u201csend your best. If we will commit to revitalization with our best \u2026 God has plenty and will restock the shelves. Don\u2019t be stingy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pastor, who serves a community in South Florida that is home to 30 nationalities, also advised those who are involved in church revitalization to \u201cleave the results and the fruit to God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pastor Smith advised that church revitalization is also a \u201cstewardship issue. Southern Baptists have good real estate. Missiologically, if we lose these properties, we will not get them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

As revitalization began to take hold in the once-struggling church, Smith said that he saw numerous individuals repenting of their sins. Also, some of the people who remained with the church during the revitalization process were encouraged as they began to \u201csee the fruit of gospel ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the challenges and ups and downs of church revitalization seem overwhelming, Smith reminded attendees, \u201cIt\u2019s worth it to be obedient to the call of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cliff Lea<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lea acknowledged that it\u2019s a \u201chard admission\u201d for a church to recognize that it needs to be revitalized. The decision, he said, \u201ctakes a lot of humility.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Lea\u2019s church was helping revitalize another local church that had experienced numerous splits, he said that one measurement that the revitalization was making progress was unity\u2013\u201creal Christian unity.\u201d The church being revitalized became one of three campuses at First Baptist Leesburg, and when unity among all three campuses was evident, Lea said, \u201cGod is growing this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

One surprise along the way for Lea was the fact that the church revitalization was located in a community of primarily senior adults. Many people told him that the church would never be multigenerational. The church now has a growing children\u2019s and youth group and a next gen pastor, with senior adults welcoming the young people enthusiastically.<\/p>\n

As a pastor begins the journey of revitalization, Lea cautioned, \u201cDon\u2019t assume things will fall into place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as church revitalization comes with its share of challenges, Lea said, \u201cChallenges are so fruitful for your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louis Egipciaco<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Egipciaco accepted the bivocational pastor role at Elevate Church, he recalled that the building was in such disrepair that the sky was visible through the sanctuary\u2019s roof; birds had begun to make nests on the second floor of the church.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill,\u201d he said, \u201cGod put in me a heart for my community and also for that church. I felt called.\u201d<\/p>\n

Committed to \u201cgive everything to build God\u2019s kingdom,\u201d Egipciaco began to see God\u2019s hand on the revitalization, particularly as the church, after breaking ground on a new building in 2019 and then enduring a pandemic year, entered their new facility debt-free, without one fundraising initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the things that only God can do,\u201d he said, when determining if a church revitalization is making positive steps forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod wants to reach our communities more than we do. He showed up, and He had His own agenda, and it was better than ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Church revitalization comes with its share of risks, but Egipciaco said, \u201cBelieve more. Believe in the God who is backing you up and has called you to do the work. The only One who can revitalize a church is God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a thought-provoking panel discussion led by Paul Purvis, pastor of Mission Hill Church in Temple Terrace, three Florida Baptist pastors highlighted the need for and shared their experiences in church revitalization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":45832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,39,40,11,19,22,23,45,25],"tags":[511,512,128,513,514,41,507,503,515,516,517,492,486,447],"class_list":["post-45831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annual-meeting","category-annual-meeting-archive","category-developing","category-expanding","category-news","category-providing","category-sharing","category-statewide","category-stories","tag-church-revitalization","tag-cliff-lea","tag-elevate-church","tag-family-church-village","tag-fbc-leesburg","tag-fbsc23","tag-fbsc23-tampa","tag-idlewild-baptist-church-tampa","tag-kevin-smith","tag-louis-egipciaco","tag-m","tag-mission-hill-church","tag-panel-discussions","tag-paul-purvis"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69203,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45831\/revisions\/69203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}