New Again Two years ago, in July of 2011, my wife Evelyn and I were called by God to plant a new

church called CityLife in North Hollywood, California. We have a vision to see our city and its people transformed by the life found in Jesus. We are a multilingual congregation with two services every Sunday; one in English and one in Spanish. We believe we have a unique call in our community to bring English and Spanish speakers together as one in God's kingdom. We want to see rich and poor, young and old and everyone else join together as one body of Christ. Our first year was amazing! Our attendance grew by 50%. We saw many people make decisions for Christ and had the privilege of baptizing them. We were opening up small groups in homes and other places. Things were looking great! We couldn't be more excited about the direction our church was moving in. Then things changed. Our attendance plateaued. We weren't multiplying small groups like before. People were not as excited anymore. Many of our volunteers were unhappy. It felt like we were stuck. And stuck we were! It wasn't until February of this year that I began to sense that something had shifted. I couldn't tell what it was. I realized that we weren't progressing the same as before. And, to be honest, I was shocked! How does a church that's only two years old already face a plateau? How is it that we had lost the energy, passion, and drive that we had started with? After all, we had our name, our vision and our values. Isn't that enough? I took a few months to review what was going on. I prayed. I sought out mentors, including pastors with much more experience than me and peer mentors who are currently in the trenches of pastoring new churches. During that journey, I realized that we desperately needed something: We needed RENEWAL. Many times, when churches are stuck, we attempt to try something new. We think that by adding on new programs or new ministries, we will be able to get out of the place where we are stuck. I understood the exact opposite. I knew that if we were to get unstuck, we needed to go back to the heart of who we were when we first started. By recapturing that which we had so quickly lost, we would be able to put ourselves on the growth track again. In Revelation chapters 2 & 3, John shows us letters written to seven churches. Notice what he says:

To the church in Ephesus: 4 But I have this complaint against you. You dont love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first." (Revelation 2:4-5, NLT) To the church in Smyrna: "But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life." (Revelation 2:10, NLT) To the church in Pergamum: "...yet you have remained loyal to me." (Revelation 2:13, NLT) To the church in Thyatira: I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things. I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come." (Revelation 2:19, 24-25, NLT) To the church in Sardis: "Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly." (Revelation 3:3, NLT) To the church in Philadelphia: "Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown." (Revelation 3:11, NLT) To the church in Laodicea: "So be diligent and turn from your indifference." (Revelation 3:19, NLT) The message that John transmits is this: Hold true to who you are -or- Return to who you were. That's it! No amount of church names, vision statements, value changes and ministry additions will change things in our churches. If your church is faithfully committed to carrying out what God has called you to, then continue on and keep growing in it! And, if your church has lost what you originally had, then renew and recover it! At this point, you may be wondering where my church is at. We have started to implement some changes to recover that which was lost. We are at a new beginning once again. I can't wait to see what God will do!