The picture above can be seen two ways: 1. It is a person with a vision of what the landscape could be, or 2. It is a person looking at the current landscape through the picture of what it once was. How you see it depends on your perception of what is real.
Now if you are one of the people who falls into group 1, it is obvious to you that the current reality is a bleak landscape with little to no life present. You see the need for something to be done to transform the current reality into a perceived future that is green and growing. People in group one can not understand how people in group 2 can't see the desolate landscape they are in.
People in group 2 remember when the land was green and vibrant and since they only see the picture of the past, they have no reason to think that it is any different. Their only perspective is looking at a representation of the good old days and when people in group 1 try to convince them of the reality of the situation, they think the group 1 people are the ones without an understanding of the current reality. There is nothing that the people in group 1 can offer that is more beautiful than the view that they are staring at.
In the end each group is frustrated by the other because of their refusal to see the world as it truly is.
I am a group 1 type of person because I am always looking at what things could be rather than what they are. I am especially this way when it comes to churches. I see a lot of churches that could be so much more than they are right now if they would just put the picture of the "good old days" down and look at the situation they are currently in. There are many congregations that need to undergo a revitalization process to help restore some of their former glory and become part of the ongoing mission of God in their community.
Jesus talks about revitalization in Matthew 23. In this passage we see five characteristics that are present in churches that need to be revitalized.
Characteristic #1: The people in the church strive for honorary titles and the praise of people. In verses 5-7 Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for doing everything for show and looking for the praise of people rather than the praise of God. If the people in your church see certain positions in the church as something to strive for and if they place the people in those positions on a pedestal, then you have a problem because they are more interested in "my kingdom come" than "Thy kingdom come."
Characteristic 2: The people in the church substitute the love of God for rituals. Jesus warns about looking good on the outside but being dead inside (vss. 25-26). This happens in the church when we have a check list of things we need to do if we are to be a true church. We need to have certain music groups, certain bible studies, certain kid programs and when we worship on Sunday there is another list of items that must be in the program. Individuals check off the things they do in the church and they look at their activity as time with God, but it is just time at church. What tends to happen in churches that have this second characteristic is that there is no passion for God and when there is no passion for God then there is no passion for people, especially people outside of the church.
Characteristic #3: The people in the church elevate secondary traditions to a place of prominence. Jesus cannot believe that the church leaders are placing secondary items to be of greater importance than the primary sources of tradition. In vss. 25-26 we see that the Pharisees are placing things on the altar or in the Temple as being more important than the altar or the Temple. In our churches this is a problem when we put an emphasis on secondary things like what we wear or items in the church as being more important than a love for God. People love traditions and we tend to give traditions "godly" qualities so that it is difficult to eliminate them.
Characteristic #4: The people in the church are more concerned with ritual than the love of others. In verse 23 Jesus gives an example of how wrong the church leaders are when he says that they tithe their spices but forget about justice. You are way to concerned about rituals if you are going through your spice rack and giving 10% to the church! Now that is an absurd thing to do and very few people in the church today would do such a thing, but there may be other rituals that are emphasized in a similarly absurd manner. Let me give you a real life example. A visitor comes to church and before the service starts he goes outside to have a cigarette. The gentleman is about 20 feet from the front door when the head greeter pops his head out and tells the man he will have to leave the church property if he is going to smoke. The head greeter (oxymoron in this case) believed that since the church frowned on people smoking that it was his duty to make sure that people do not smoke on church property. That is ritual being more important than people.
Characteristic #5: The people in the church are more aware other people's sins but not their own. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 23:2-3 ...
"The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach." (New Living Translation)
If people in your church are more concerned with the sins of the people outside the doors of the church than the sins of the people inside of the church, then you have a problem. You have a group of people who are looking at a picture and do not have a concept of what is real. The Gospel makes you aware of your own sin and allows you to see the plank in your own eye rather than the speck of dust in the eye of someone else.
Unfortunately, most congregations that are in need of revitalization will not see any of these characteristics in themselves because they always seem to think the criticism of Jesus is focused on others but not them.
Revitalization is about repentance and without it a new work can not start because it is through repentance that God allows us to see what is real.
Blessings.
