The congregation at Gospel Light worships March 31. Gospel Light is a church revitalization effort in Rose Park, Utah. Photo courtesy of Luke Bylsma
In 2019, 4,500 churches closed, and only 3,000 new churches opened, according to the most recent data from Lifeway. Churches that remain open are increasingly smaller, with the median size hovering around 65 people, according to Faith Communities Today.
These larger patterns of decline are reflected in individual churches across the country. Church revitalization seeks to infuse new life into a diminishing congregation, hoping to save a local church from becoming another statistic.
“Church revitalization can refer to a church that just loses its vision and direction and purpose,” said Luke Bylsma, the lead pastor at Gospel Light Church in Rose Park, Utah. “Things like a lack of concern for the building can sometimes happen.”
As a church shrinks, the members can turn inward — so focused on its problems that they stop reaching out to the community, Bylsma said.
Bylsma did not have church revitalization on his radar until early 2022, he said. At the time, he served as a youth pastor at Lakeshore Baptist Church in Grand Haven, Michigan.
Bylsma said he and his wife desired to move to “Gospel-needy places” but were unsure of where that would lead on the map. Then, they met Will Galkin, who leads Plant for the Gospel, a network of churches in Utah.
Galkin invited their youth group to Utah for Plant Camp, a ministry which partners teens with churches in the network to serve at outreach events and Gospel witness, according to their website, Bylsma said. After the Bylsmas saw the need and met with Galkin, they realized where God was leading them.
“At that point, we were both just realizing the Lord was softening our hearts toward Utah,” Bylsma said. “Will Galkin just met us right where we were and recognized some of the struggles we were going through, and he's like, ‘What about church revitalization in Utah?’”
Bylsma and his wife recognized this as a specific answer to their prayers, he said.
“We felt like the Lord had gifted us more for work like this,” Bylsma said. “There's a particular level of energy you need for church planting, and there's a different sort of energy you need for church revitalization– and we are more inclined toward that.”
After a year-long fellowship with Gospel Grace, the central church in the Plant for the Gospel network, Bylsma and his family moved to Rose Park, Utah, he said. Bylsma moved from the classroom of ministry to real life.
“It's just like when someone gets married,” Bylsma said. “You get excited about marriage, but you don't know exactly what it feels like to be a husband or wife. When it comes to revitalization, it is the same. There's a lot of books we've read and topics we've addressed, but you never know exactly what it feels like.”
Bylsma and his team centered their revitalization efforts on Cornerstone church, which formally started as Rose Park Baptist Church in 1951. Bylsma said Cornerstone ministered in Rose Park for years, reaching out to diverse neighborhoods with Spanish, Korean, Japanese and Russian language services.
“We've got a very broad spectrum of diversity,” Bylsma said. “That's actually celebrated a lot in Rose Park. Demographically, it's a lower income area. It’s very much blue collar and people who are proud of their community.”
Cornerstone’s pastor, James Gomez, served faithfully in The Church, even as Sunday morning attendance dwindled to around 20-40 people. Although church membership was in decline, Bylsma said many resilient members committed to aiding the congregation.
“A number of people have given sacrificially to keep the lights on — just faithfully teaching, week in and week out, or faithfully carrying out deacon responsibilities,” Bylsma said. “Some of them have been a great encouragement to Pastor James, just being there for him when he's really doing a lot on his own.”
Bylsma said he partnered with Gomez to breathe new life into Cornerstone, beginning with a new name: Gospel Light. They lit the beacon, literally and figuratively, of the church’s new identity.
The change brought new church documents, new musicians on the worship team and a new leader at the helm, Bylsma said.
Gospel Light’s worship team leads the congregation in song at Gospel Light — from left to right, Corey Gomez, Nic Higgins, Zach Read, Mary Castillo and Jose Castillo on March 31. Gospel Light added new members to their church when Bylsma brought a team to revitalize Cornerstone, he said. Photo courtesy of Luke Bylsma
“It's still the same church that has been there for 70-plus years but just a new name and a new season of ministry there,” Bylsma said.
With Cornerstone’s rich heritage in the community, Bylsma said they wanted to honor the congregation’s past while bringing it into the present. They do this by keeping the same people in leadership and honoring the past of the church.
For example, Gospel Light’s website features a page on the church’s history to honor its mission within the Rose Park community.
Gospel Light’s next step is community outreach, Bylsma said. After the last six months of internal change, this summer, they plan to grow the presence of the body of Christ in the community.
Volunteers will pass out thousands of door hangers to the surrounding neighborhoods, alerting people to the name and heart change at Gospel Light, Bylsma said. They will also hold church in the local park for a few weeks, encouraging community engagement with the Gospel.
The congregation at Gospel Light worships on Sunday, March 31st. New and old members of Gospel Light worship side by side, Bylsma said. Photo by Luke Bylsma
Bylsma said he has found so much joy in joining with the original members of Gospel Light as they revitalize the body of Christ.
“When you're bringing together two families and they have different perspectives and different cultural norms, that always presents challenges,” Bylsma said. “The joy is whenever people show grace in the midst of that. They're committed to the big picture, as opposed to what their particular desire is.”
Bylsma said he is most encouraged by the way Gospel Light shines with the redemption of Christ.
“Jesus loves His Church, and because Jesus loves His Church, He is willing to call it back to greater health,” Bylsma said. “When we think about Jesus offering up His life for His bride, it's not just for new church plants, but it's for churches that have been around for 50, 75 or 100 years that are going through seasons of health or decline.”
Bylsma said he tells people to not run from revitalization, but run toward it, because in the difficulty, there is delight.
“Church revitalization is really hard,” Bylsma said. “It's hard to sacrifice your preferences and desires for one another. It's hard to walk through, but it's a very God-honoring thing to see churches not die. That's never God's intention and desire. We have an awesome opportunity to look at older churches and love the people there who have been faithfully following Christ. It's a beautiful picture of the Gospel of redemption.”
Margaret Fipps is a junior Journalism student at Cedarville University and the editor-in-chief of Cedars Magazine. As a journalist, she wants to revive beautiful writing with a purpose: to engage communities in conversations with each other. As a former pastor's kid, she deeply cares for The Church and loves seeing Jesus proclaimed through his bride.
