If I Had 90 Days to Revive an SDA Church, Here’s EXACTLY What I’d Do
I’m going to jump right in today.
If I had 90 days to bring a struggling SDA local church from the brink of death to a living, thriving community I would follow a very simple, but proven path.
I’m going to show you exactly what that path is in a moment, but first, let me tell you what I would NOT do.
I would NOT bring in a guest speaker to do a revival series… OR… preach a sermon series on church revival.
Why?
Because the truth is, most Adventist churches don’t need another sermon or another guest speaker to tell them what they already know.
“Mission is imperative.”
“We’ve been called the spread the gospel.”
“People need to hear about Jesus.”
Everyone knows this. No one needs to be convinced.
So save your $5-10,000 dollars (the usual cost of running a revival program with an international guest speaker who leaves your church exactly the way it was at the start…)
And follow this system instead:
Month 1: Find Your WHO and WHY
The biggest mistake virtually every local church makes? They say “we are here to share the gospel with everyone.”
No. You aint.
And the longer you think you are, the longer you will fail at your mission.
Here’s why: You cannot reach your local atheists the same way you reach the local Hindu community. If you want to minister to addicts and the poor, you can’t do it the same way you minister to the wealthy.
Saying you are here to “reach everyone” is like a business saying they are here to “make money”. It’s meaningless. It’s unhelpful. It’s a recipe for reaching “no one” instead.
Want proof? Just look around. How many “everyones” are you consistently reaching year after year?
Apart from a few exceptions out there, I’d be willing to be the answer is zero.
So the first thing I would do is forget trying to reach everyone. That’s the fastest way to reach no one. Instead, I’d get the church together and figure out exactly WHO we are trying to reach.
Week 1: I’d gather the leaders and ask the hard questions: Why do we exist? Who are we uniquely positioned to serve in our city? And I’d write all the answers down and get specific on that WHY and WHO. (Is it single moms? Is it secular students? Is it atheists? Is it Buddhists?)
Week 2: We’d study our local context like missionaries. I want to know what keeps our WHO up at night. What stories they’re living. What language they speak (and I don’t mean English or Spanish).
Week 3: I’d help the team craft a compelling missional identity—a vision for serving our WHO that is so strong it makes people sit up in their pews and say “That’s WHO I’m here for.”
Week 4: We’d design a church culture built around hospitality, relevance, and belonging for our specific WHO. From signage to sermons, everything gets aligned to the specific people we are trying to reach.
If its atheists, I might get my members trained up in apologetics. If it’s Hindu’s or Buddhists, I would equip them in cross cultural mission. I would get to know them and their questions, the things they find meaningful, and what they find offensive. I would ensure our space and culture was primed for meaningful connection with them and so on…
Month 2: Build the Discipleship Pathway
Not only do most SDA churches have no clear WHO or WHY, they have no clear HOW as in, “How is a seeker supposed to grow around here?”
We think indoctrinating folk with a set of 28 doctrines is enough.
Newsflash: the SDA church is super bad at retention meaning we don’t keep the people we baptize. More often than not, they are gone withing the first 2 years. Why? Because all we did was teach them doctrines. And thats not enough.
So here’s what I would do next:
Week 5: I’d design a clear, 5-step discipleship journey—from first-time visitor to leader-making leader. No one slips through the cracks.
Week 6: We’d create intentional environments for each step of the pathway. Interest groups. Mentorship spaces. Skill-building workshops.
Week 7: We’d train our leaders to guide people, not just preach to them. Life on life discipleship over “power point presentations”.
Week 8: We’d launch the pathway with our current members—inviting them to take the journey themselves first. Because you can’t lead people where you haven’t gone.
Month 3: Launch the 10-Year Plan
Whats the final thing most local SDA churches are missing? Not just a WHO, WHY or HOW…
They don’t have a WHAT either.
As in, “WHAT on earth are you actually trying to accomplish?”
What’s your end goal here? Is it just to get baptisms? Is it to grow? (These are terrible goals BTW)
Your WHAT lets you know you are on the right path and it let’s you know when you are slipping. Because a clear WHAT is the only way to know what a WIN looks like.
So here is what I would do next:
Week 9: I’d sit down with the board and map out where this church should be 10 years from now. Number of leaders. Number of small groups. New ministries. Community impact. And church plants birthed from our mother church.
Week 10: We’d reverse-engineer it. What does year 5 look like? Year 3? Year 1? What must we start now to arrive there?
Week 11: We’d build out systems—leadership development, communication plans, quarterly reviews—to keep us on track.
Week 12: We’d throw a Vision Sabbath. Share the dream. Tell the story. Invite everyone to play a part.
Why would I do this?
Because I’ve done it before. In every church I worked in. And the results? None became a mega-church (that was never the goal anyways)… but in each church, member engagement skyrocketed, youth excitement trippled, mission and community impact actually started happening, new guests began attending, and we began baptising double digits every single year… smack in the middle of a deeply secular, post-religious city.
And it happened WITHOUT me having to work 80 hours per week (in fact the above system made my work schedule lighter),
…Without bring in a guest speaker to the tune of $5-$10,000 dollars only for everything to stay the same,
…or without having to become a church growth guru (because this system is so simple, a 12 year old could run it…)
So, if your church is stuck, tired, or quietly dying—I want you to know there’s another way.
Revival isn’t a mystery. It’s a decision.
And it starts with a plan.
Want help implementing the above plan in your own local church?
Join my 90-Day Revival Bootcamp. I’ll walk you through this exact system, step-by-step.
You get video instruction, templates and PDF downloads to help keep you on track, + live coaching from me.
And in 90 days, you get a totally different church.
Interested? Learn more about it here.
P.S. The entire 90-Day Bootcamp costs less than a fraction of running another revival program with a guest speaker. Plus, if you join before the 31st, you get early bird discount. Join the 90-Day Bootcamp today.
