December 2024 | 5
Seeking Struggling Churches, Healthy Churches for Revitalization Partnerships By Mark Jones, SCBO revitalization consultant
I am praying for you. Our SCBO revitalization team is praying for you. We are seeking struggling congregations that are willing to honestly assess themselves so that we can help develope a path to revitalization. Some of our Ohio congregations have decided to replant, others have decided to merge, and a few have chosen to repurpose their property, but most have begun a pathway to revitalization. We are seeking healthy congregations in every region that are willing to foster struggling congregations. Healthy churches who desire to foster are also determined through an assessment. The beauty of fostering a church is that each congregation maintains autonomy, but the struggling church covenants to be cared for and led by the healthier congregation for a period. This is cooperation at its finest. We are seeking prayer for the coming years in the SCBO. This past month, we celebrated all that God has done and is doing in our state among our churches. We are entering into a partnership with Corpus Vitae. Recognizing that more than 70% of our SCBO con- gregations have plateaued or are in decline, Corpus Vitae provides a proven revitalization pathway entitled ReFocus. Congregations are led by a certified pathfinder coach to help discover and determine the direction God is leading them. This will be a major tool in the realm of church revitalization. In August, ten pathfinders rep - resenting every region in the SCBO were certified and half of our pathfinders are currently taking their own congregations through the ReFocus process. For more information on the ReFocus process, go to www.corpusvitae.org. Mark your calendars now for Friday, March 7, and Saturday, March 8, as Dr. Richard Blackaby, president of Blackaby Ministries International, comes to Cuyahoga Falls for “The Ways of God.” This event is for pastors, spouses, and church leaders. More information will follow. Plan now to join us September 19-20, 2025 and spend an evening in Lancaster with Mark Clifton, NAMB executive director of replant. Will you commit to praying for the churches in your association, region, and state to seek revival and a king- dom focus in everything they do? If I can be of any assistance to you or your congregation, please email me at mjones@scbo.org or check out www.scbo.org/revitalize.
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