*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Book review: Reforming Church: How God is at work in revitalisation ministry by George Crowder

by
08 March 2024

A would-be revitaliser reports a tough task, says Mike Starkey

ONE of the tools in the church-growth toolkit is revitalisation, an intentional strategy to bring new life to an existing church that is struggling or has closed. The usual model is for a new priest with fresh vision to be appointed, and for members of a larger congregation to relocate to help provide momentum.

A key word in the literature on revitalisation is “partnership”. For the model to be effective, there needs to be good will between old guard and incomers and a sense of shared mission. During my time in Manchester diocese, we saw revitalisations transform the life and witness of a few ailing churches.

George Crowder (Diary, 16 February) tells the story of his own appointment to revitalise a struggling Cheshire church. He is disarmingly honest, saying that his account is not a success story. The congregation remains fragile, with no outside resources, and the journey remains “raw and slow”. The most moving parts of the book are stories of individuals who find faith rekindled through the changes in the church.

Crowder’s book has two distinctives that give it a different flavour from most revitalisation narratives. One is that he writes from a defiantly Reformed perspective. The clue is in the title. Crowder’s approach is shaped around Bible and Covenant, and uses theological categories such as God’s preceptive and decretal will. His role-model is the Puritan Richard Baxter.

Similarly, his understanding of the parish has more than a Puritan tinge to it. Far from seeing inherited folk religion as something to build on, he compares it to Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones, and the incoming leader to Jeremiah buying land in the destroyed city of Anathoth. When Crowder uses the term “churchiness”, this is not a compliment.

The other distinctive is that Crowder takes no team with him. This is revitalisation as solitary vocation: an Evangelical minister called to revive a non-Evangelical parish.

Crowder’s story will be welcomed by those who share his core assumptions. Those with a different vision for saving the parish will find here much to tut-tut over.


The Revd Mike Starkey is a London-based writer, and former Head of Church Growth for Manchester diocese.

Reforming Church: How God is at work in revitalisation ministry
George Crowder
Church Society £6*
(978-1-7395160-1-7)
*available from churchsociety.org

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Church Times Bookshop

Save money on books reviewed or featured in the Church Times. To get your reader discount:

> Click on the “Church Times Bookshop” link at the end of the review.

> Call 0845 017 6965 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-5pm).

The reader discount is valid for two months after the review publication date. E&OE

Forthcoming Events

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

The Church Times Archive

Read reports from issues stretching back to 1863, search for your parish or see if any of the clergy you know get a mention.

FREE for Church Times subscribers.

Explore the archive

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)