Replant, by Mark DeVine and Darrin Patrick

I have long been attracted to and fascinated by crumbling churches that have been left behind by suburbanization.  It saddens me to see a church that clearly had some former glory, only to be abandoned by its congregation as they moved on to greener pastures in the suburbs.  In Replant: How a Dying Church Can Grow Again, Mark DeVine and Darrin Patrick tell the story of the reanimation First Calvary Baptist Church in Kansas City.

DeVine, at the time a professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was asked to serve as interim pastor at First Calvary Baptist Church, a historic congregation that had seen several decades of decline.  He was entranced by the beauty of the sanctuary, and compelled to take on the challenge of leadership in the face of what he knew would likely be a losing proposition.  The first few chapters of Replant recall his struggles to unseat the "cartel" of four long-time members who ran the church.  In a sickeningly amusing (and distressingly familiar, to many church leaders) series of events, DeVine led the body to reject the grip of "leadership" the cartel had been administering.  But this left the church in search of fresh leadership.

DeVine knew the church was on its last legs, and realistically did not have the internal resources to resurrect itself, so he began to seek another church in town which would take on FCBC as a satellite or mission church.  This didn't work out, but he became acquainted with the Acts 29 church planting movement, which had an active ministry in St. Louis.  Ultimately, FCBC became Redeemer Fellowship, an extension of The Journey, a multi-site church in St. Louis.

The partnership model DeVine and Patrick write about (Patrick is a leader in the Acts 29 network) is an interesting solution to the problem of a dying urban church.  As Patrick writes, "Urban soil is the most difficult place for any church to grow."  But any urban church planter, pastor, or ministry director will tell you that is where the need is.  What a great example of a church reestablishing a beachhead for the gospel in an urban setting.

I was left feeling a bit misled by the whole transition from FCBC to Redeemer.  Some of the core members of FCBC stuck around, but from an outside perspective, it sounds like very little of FCBC is left, aside from the building.  It reminded me of white congregations who sell their buildings to an ethnic congregation in neighborhoods where the demographics have changed.  The building is the same, but the culture is very different.  Of course, when an ethnic congregation takes over a building, the original congregants don't normally stick around.  As Redeemer Fellowship stepped in, many FCBC members stayed.  (It's also interesting that the Redeemer Fellowship web site states that the church started in 2008, without reference to the history of the building or FCBC.)

I admit I am a bit old-fashioned and skeptical of the multi-campus church or satellite church model, which was key to the establishment of Redeemer.  But I have to admit that it was also key to FCBC not being completely shut down.  I don't know Kansas City at all, but from DeVine and Patrick's account, I can get excited about Redeemer's commitment to the city and the life the church has brought back to the neighborhood.

Speaking of the neighborhood, one thing I found lacking in DeVine's exploration of solutions for the church is a reflection on the FCBC neighborhood.  Surely one factor in the declining attendance was changing demographics.  It sounds like the church retained its character as a white, middle-class church while the neighborhood around the church changed.  DeVine mentions that many members drove in from outside the area for services, but says little about ministry and outreach to the neighborhood.  The fact that he doesn't mention it doesn't mean they didn't do it; I don't have enough information to make a judgement either way.  But I would have been interested to hear how that factored into the church's decline.

All in all, Replant is a hopeful model for declining churches to look to and consider.  On the other end of things, perhaps churches with a surplus of leadership and resources can look to partner with a struggling church, bringing new life to old bones.



Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Was this review helpful to you?  If so, please give my review at Amazon.com a helpful vote!