Two Paths to Renewal: What Church Revitalization Research Teaches About God’s Work in Declining Churches
- Brent Madaris
- 6 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Brent Madaris, D.Min.
Drawing insights from Sherwood Patterson (2019) and Brent Madaris (2024)
Introduction
Every pastor knows what it feels like when a church’s pulse begins to weaken. Attendance slips, morale fades, giving drops, and the spiritual energy that once filled the congregation seems to have drained away. The question many shepherds quietly ask is, “Can this church live again?”
In recent years, several studies have explored that very question. Two works—one from a Southern Baptist context, the other from an Independent Baptist setting—help clarify how God restores life to declining congregations and what kind of leadership He uses to do it.
This article summarizes and compares two key studies:
Sherwood Patterson (2019), Identifying Common Procedures for Revitalization Leaders When Initiating Turnaround Strategies in Declining Churches, and
Brent Madaris (2024), Characteristics Identified That Contributed to the Survival and Revitalization of Two Independent Baptist Churches: A Multiple Case Study.
Together, they reveal two complementary perspectives on church renewal: Patterson focuses on what pastors do; my own research explores how faithful pastoral leadership sustains revitalization once the work begins.
Patterson’s Study: Procedures That Sparked Turnaround
Dr. Patterson’s study examined successful revitalization efforts among Southern Baptist churches in the San Diego area. By analyzing multiple examples, he identified six common procedures among effective revitalization leaders:
New leadership — most turnarounds began with a fresh pastor bringing renewed direction and courage.
Prayer — personal and corporate dependence on God before any programmatic change.
Assessment — honest evaluation of the church’s health and community context.
Biblical preaching — expository, gospel-centered proclamation that redefined the mission.
Renewed vision — clarity about purpose and direction anchored in the Great Commission.
Community outreach — outward engagement and evangelism as a natural overflow of spiritual renewal.
Patterson’s findings offer a reproducible pattern of turnaround—a way to identify what works when a church has lost its momentum. His focus is primarily procedural: identifying steps leaders take in successful revitalizations.
Madaris’s Study: Characteristics That Sustained Renewal
My own research, completed in 2024, examined revitalization within the Independent Baptist context through a multiple case study of two churches that had both declined and recovered.
In both cases, new pastors were called at the onset of decline, but what distinguished these men was not that they were new—it was that they stayed. They endured. Their leadership was faithful, consistent, and spiritually grounded through the long, difficult seasons that revitalization requires.
From this study emerged five core characteristics common to both turnarounds:
Pastoral leadership — a spiritually mature, long-term leader whose faithfulness, preaching, and personal investment guided the church toward health.
Community engagement — intentional outreach and relational presence in the local community.
Discipleship — renewed focus on spiritual formation and mentoring rather than event-driven activity.
Evangelism — a genuine, Scripture-centered commitment to reaching the lost.
Programmatic emphases — ministry organization that supports, rather than substitutes for, spiritual vitality.
Underneath those surface themes ran deeper spiritual threads:
Scriptural authority and doctrinal stability
Pastoral endurance and emotional resilience
Prayer and dependence on God
Congregational unity and relational repair
Adaptation without compromise
These layers combined to form a portrait of pastoral faithfulness that both guided and sustained revitalization.
Two Studies, Two Lenses, Two Paths To Renewal
When compared side by side, Patterson’s and Madaris’s studies illuminate two paths to renewal, or two sides of the same reality:
⚖️ Two Studies, Two Lenses
When compared side by side, Patterson’s and Madaris’s studies illuminate two sides of the same reality:
Patterson’s research shows the procedural structure often present in effective revitalization. My findings reveal the character, conviction, and consistency that allow those procedures to bear fruit. Both studies affirm the same theological truth: revitalization is a work of the Spirit through faithful, prayerful, Scripture-saturated leadership.
Lessons for Today’s Pastors
Prayer is dependence, not a step.
Both studies show that renewal begins on the knees, not on a whiteboard.
Preaching restores rhythm.
The faithful exposition of God’s Word re-centers the congregation on Christ’s mission.
Leadership must stay the course.
Churches need pastors who will remain long enough for renewal to take root and bear fruit.
Community connection is essential.
Revitalization thrives when pastors and members are known in their neighborhoods and seen as genuine servants.
Health precedes growth.
Assessment is not about metrics but about spiritual diagnosis—discerning what’s healthy, what’s diseased, and what needs healing.
Programs serve the mission; they do not replace it.
Biblical structure and thoughtful organization should strengthen, not substitute for, spiritual vitality.
Revitalization is shepherding, not spectacle.
God revives churches through shepherds who feed, lead, and love their people toward biblical health.
Linking the Research to the “Vital Signs” Framework
While my 2024 dissertation never used medical terminology, its findings later inspired my “Vital Signs of a Healthy Church” framework—a pastoral-practitioner model that applies those same spiritual characteristics in diagnostic form.
Just as a clinician evaluates the health of a patient through vital signs, labwork, radiology, etc., pastors can discern the health of a congregation through its spiritual indicators: biblical fidelity, relational unity, prayerfulness, discipleship, and evangelistic heart.
This “vital signs” approach builds upon the same empirical themes uncovered in my research—that spiritual health, not numerical success, determines a church’s longevity and vitality.
📖 A Theological Reflection
Both studies ultimately testify to the same truth echoed in Psalm 85:6:
“Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?”
Renewal is not manufactured; it is ministered. It is not produced by clever strategies, but by faithful shepherds and a praying people. Procedures may organize the work, but the Spirit animates it.
When pastors yield to that divine process—when they embody both conviction and compassion—God still breathes life into declining churches.
Renewal That Lasts
Church revitalization is not about replicating another church’s method, but about recovering Christ’s mission in our own.
Patterson (2019) shows us what God often uses—steps of obedience and wise leadership procedure.
Madaris (2024) shows us what God often blesses—faithful pastoral leadership, community engagement, discipleship, evangelism, and biblically ordered ministry.
Together they remind us that the lasting work of God in any generation is not built on innovation, but on intercession; not on ambition, but on biblical authenticity.
Revitalization is not just a method to manage—it is a mercy to experience.
Pastors and ministry leaders interested in a deeper look at the research behind this article are welcome to request a copy of my 2024 dissertation, “Characteristics Identified That Contributed to the Survival and Revitalization of Two Independent Baptist Churches."