A story of revitalization and the risks and rewards attached to it

By Aaron Patton

Do you remember when your church was started? When the movement began? If you do, I’m sure you will remember a time of outward focus and energy. You remember times of prayerful passion to reach others with the Good News. There were stories of God working in amazing ways and of life change that was just incredible. When I arrived at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Kansas City, Kansas, people there had memories of all those things. Many remembered when Jim Gray and his wife started the church with four families meeting in their living room. Many remembered praying and sharing Christ and how God blessed as the church grew up spiritually and numerically. Many remembered services with 600 to 700 people in attendance. But when I arrived at the invitation of the pastoral search committee, there were only 40 in attendance.

“What happened” is a question I have been asked over the years, but a better question formed in my mind as time went on: What now?