It is the central calling of the church to consistently place participation in God’s mission at the center of its life and ministry, and to choose God’s mission and reign before treasured traditions, personal preferences, and valued relationships.

• Everything depends on passionate prayer through which leaders and members of a congregation humbly seek God’s guidance, discern God’s mission, obey Christ’s call, and depend upon the Holy Spirit’s power.

• Revitalization requires a congregation to address strongly held convictions, values, and practices; and that, in turn, necessitates ongoing changes and adjustments as it moves towards participation in God’s mission.

• In congregational revitalization, as in all areas of life, God determines the fruitfulness—numerical growth, transformed lives, renewed communities.  Faithful congregational leaders discern God’s will; pray for God’s power; balance change and continuity; act with Spirit-shaped creativity, courage and obedience; and trust God for the results.

• It is a central responsibility of the church, which owes its life to an incarnational gospel, to contextualize its faith and to share the gospel in concrete ways in its context, through word in deed, with leaders modeling the way.

God’s transforming grace leads to the personal renewal of pastoral and congregational leaders; which leads to ongoing congregational transformation; which results in gospel impact in the world.

• A primary responsibility of leaders is to grow as faithful followers of Jesus; to personally engage in ministry; to lead, equip, and empower increasing numbers of people within a congregation to join Jesus in ministry locally and beyond, and exercise faithful, consistently courageous leadership.

• As a congregation moves outside its walls to bless its community and the world, congregational leaders help channel the overflow from that ministry into deep, systemic congregational change.

By God’s grace, God-directed, Christ-shaped, Holy Spirit-empowered congregational revitalization continually leads to the transformation of disciples, leaders, ministries, mission and congregations, which, in turn fuels further health and multiplication at all levels.