Asking Better Questions In Church Renewal

Getting the right answers is useless if you’re asking the wrong questions. Yet, how often do we pause and zoom out to make sure we’re asking the right questions in church renewal?

• Church renewal begins not with activity but with clarity. It is easy to rush toward launching new programs, forming new committees, and managing new projects. However, even more important is the willingness to slow down and ask foundational questions.

Below are questions I have found especially helpful in the work of church renewal.

 Six Questions Every Church Should Ask

Question 1. Are We Aiming at the right goal?

• The most basic question is often the trickiest. Church leaders can easily assume everyone is aiming at the same target — but are they? Are your congregants (especially council and staff members) clear about the vision/mission? Are there competing goals? Are there too many goals? Are the goals too nebulous and vague?
• Ask people to describe the church’s mission. If you plot their answers on a target, does it look like a sniper’s rifle or buckshot? If responses are scattered, your first step is to refine and communicate the vision more clearly. If your church is not unified around a shared vision, everything else will become harder — and some things will become impossible.

Question 2. Are We doing the right things?

• Even when the mission is clear, ministry can still be ineffective. Why? Strategies and methods may not be aligned with the mission. We may be pouring energy into activities that do not move us closer to the goal.
• Programmatic bloat can sap the church’s energy. Church calendars often reveal plenty of “busy work” with little connection to the mission. While it is difficult to retire beloved programs (“sacred cows”), doing so is essential. Without the courage to focus, staff members and volunteers will remain stretched too thin to make a real impact.

Question 3. Is this still the best way?

Strategies that worked well in the past often become less effective over time. The pull of nostalgia is strong. People remember the “good old days” when everything seemed better. But rose-colored glasses distort the past, and they do not help us see the future.

• Wise leaders honor the past without being bound by it. When changing strategies are anchored in the unchanging gospel, it creates space for creativity, experimentation, and innovation — all in service to the shared mission.

Question 4. How do we measure results?

• We all want to do what works, but how do we know what is working? Too often, we rely on gut feelings or simply listen to the loudest voices in the room. There is a better way.
• In addition to qualitative data (conversations, stories, testimonies, etc.), we should also track quantitative data. If you want to measure what matters but do not know where to start, check out our previous article on measuring church renewal.

Question 5. Are we dreaming big enough?

• Without the inspiration of visionary leadership, church councils and staff teams often default to maintenance mode. Safety becomes the goal, and comfort becomes the norm. However, God rarely calls people to comfort; he calls us to courage!
• A key task in church renewal is helping people dream again. How can we stir up holy imagination that inspires people to dream bigger dreams and pray bigger prayers? How can we help them wonder, “What if God wants to do more than we can ask or imagine?”

Question 6. Is fear of faith driving our decisions?

• Who is really in the driver’s seat in your church — fear or faith? Behind every decision, one or the other is the primary motivator. Change is scary because it can lead to criticism, decline, and loss. However, refusing to change can also lead to all of those same outcomes.
• Church renewal requires courage rooted in confidence — not confidence in ourselves, but in Christ’s promises. Fear avoids hard discussions and hard decisions. Faith leans into them, trusting God even when the outcomes look uncertain.

Church renewal is not about having all the right answers. It is about cultivating a community that asks hard questions, wrestles with them together, seeks the Lord’s will, and trusts him for the ultimate outcome!