We’re Not Here to Sustain the Church: We’re Here to Regenerate It

Rethinking Stewardship for a New Season of Mission

There’s a word I recently came across that stopped me in my tracks: adaptive stewardship. It came from Allen Williams, a leading voice in regenerative agriculture, whose work on healthy land management has wide-reaching implications. I’ve spent a good deal of time studying adaptive leadership in the church, so the phrase caught my ear. But it was the second word—stewardship—that made me sit up.

For most churches, stewardship is a word we associate with budgets, pledge cards, or “time, talent, and treasure” campaigns. We often treat it as a financial management system to keep the institution afloat. At best, it’s an annual emphasis. At worst, it’s the silent anxiety humming under the surface of everything we do.

But what if stewardship is meant to be more than maintenance?What if it’s not about preserving what we have… but about cultivating what God is growing next? That’s the promise of looking through the lens of adaptive stewardship. I believe it offers a new way forward—not only for how we manage our church’s finances, people, and ministries, but for how we step into the next season of our life together.

After all what are we even doing? I wonder if even our best efforts are more directed at staving off decline and finding a sustainable sweet spot rather than a true and full devotion to the great commission. 

We find our selves entangled with the notion of church sustainability rather than regeneration. We forget that in all of the conversation about church leadership and positions within the body that each of us is a steward of the church.  The church is not ours to own.  It ours to care for, to nurture, to guide, and build up so that the next wave or generation can faithfully move it forward with their gifts and response to the Holy Spirit.

From Sustainability to Stewardship That Regenerates

We live in a moment where sustainability has become a buzzword. And while the intent behind it is good, in church life, the word has taken on a meaning that may not be serving us well.

Sustainability often sounds like this:“How can we keep things going?”“How do we make this last?”“How can we avoid running out?”These are not bad questions. But they can quietly slide into a mindset of scarcity and self-preservation. I remember coming a quote from William Stringfellow that said that the nature of fallen institutions is that their primary focus is self-preservation.  When we find ourselves there, we begin to hold onto what we have at all costs. We avoid change. We protect the familiar. We fear disruption, we want to the disruption to be manageable and controlled. In other words, we begin to believe that the highest goal of stewardship is survival.

But that’s not the Gospel.  That is not the commission. 

And it is not the holy responsibility that we have been given.Jesus didn’t come to preserve the status quo. He came to bring life—and life abundantly. The early church didn’t survive by maintaining; it multiplied by adapting, investing, and risking for the sake of the kingdom. In the natural world, sustainability might keep the soil from degrading as much as it normally would. But regeneration restores it, heals it, and makes it fruitful again. That’s what adaptive stewardship is about. Not simply sustaining what is, but regenerating what can be.  That is where our role as stewards of the church comes to a head. 

Adaptive stewardship is a Spirit-led approach to church life that recognizes our changing resources, relationships, and realities—and invites us to faithfully invest what we have now to cultivate what God is growing next.

Let’s look at this for a second.  Below is a crude table to illustrates a bit for you the differences between sustainability and the perspective of adaptive stewardship.

Sustainability vs. Adaptive Stewardship

Sustainability is about preservation.

Adaptive stewardship is about participation in God’s ongoing creation.

The Three Rules of Adaptive Stewardship

The Rule of Compounding

Small, faithful acts over time yield exponential results. This rule reminds us that transformation rarely comes through a big splash. It comes through consistent, faithful presence—even when it feels small. In regenerative agriculture, it’s not one big event that heals the land, but years of good grazing, planting, and rest. In the church, it’s the same. Every act of love, generosity, service, prayer, and mentoring compounds. The prayers of our elders, the quiet service of a deacon, the faithful presence of a Sunday School teacher year after year—it all builds into a legacy that cannot be measured in budget lines or attendance counts.

This rule also has a downside.  While small, faithful acts over time yield exponential positive results, small acts that may not be as true or faithful also have a compounding negative effect.  For example, if you continue to live outside of your means so that you avoid the discomfort of pruning your lifestyle, it will catch up to you in ways that will be injurious and not simply painful. 

We are living right now on the result of years and decades of compounding  effects.  The rule of compounding is a certainty.  We love to talk about it when it comes to our retirement accounts, but we often fail to remember it when we make decision about our life together as the church and even the small decisions we make daily in our personal lives.

The Rule of Diversity

Health and resilience come through a wide variety of contributions working in dynamic relationship. Monocultures—whether in farming or in church—are fragile. If one generation, one voice, or one type of giving is over-relied on, the system weakens. But when every part of the system brings its strength, the whole flourishes.

Monocultures are not natural.  They are not healthy.  They are not strong. 

Anyone who tells you that a monoculture is a good thing, then you  must know that they are not speaking from a healthy and holistic place.  They are usually trying to sell you something, sabotage something, or are afraid of something.  But I can almost promise you they are not speaking to you faithfully (regardless of how many times they tell you that “God put it on their heart to say it”).

Our church must lean into the full spectrum of our community: Young and old, Wealthy and modest, Teachers, caregivers, storytellers, encouragers, and visionaries. This isn’t just about intergenerational ministry—it’s about valuing the many ways people give: time, prayer, mentorship, presence, wisdom, finances, skills, and compassion. When we honor this diversity of giving, we build a resilient church culture that doesn't just survive change—it thrives through it.  But let’s be clear this isn’t about some giving, but all giving.  Our gifts of our heart, focus, prayers, support, finances, and time are to build up the body.  And it takes all of us to do that!

The Rule of Disruption

Disruption is necessary to renew and regenerate.This one is harder—but vital. In nature, disruption is what prepares the land for new life. Fire clears overgrowth. Grazing patterns change to restore balance. Even storms have a role in stirring up the soil. In the church, disruption often feels like loss. But it may actually be grace in disguise. Maybe a program ends. Maybe a generation retires from leadership. Maybe the building feels emptier than it used to. These might be failures or maybe that has nothing to do with it. When we experience these moments, we usually see them as negatives, and don’t we love to talk about all the negatives! In reality, these moments of realization are invitations to release what no longer bears fruit so that God can plant something new.

Disruption doesn't mean something’s wrong. It means God is at work.  Disruption means that something new needs to break through!  And it may not be what is on our agenda, but on God’s!  After all, that is our primary concern as the church.  What is on God’s agenda in us, for us, and through us?

There has to be death in order for resurrection to occur.  Death is not the end.  Death is a new beginning.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” – John 12:24

Why This Matters Right Now

We are in a season of holy transition. Our church membership is aging. Our context and culture are changing.And the temptation in a season like this is to try to sustain what we’ve always done. But God is calling us to steward what we have now to cultivate what comes next.

That’s adaptive stewardship.

It means:

• Our elders are not “done”—they are legacy-bearers who can shape the next generation through prayer, story, mentorship, and wisdom.

• Our financial giving isn’t just about meeting a budget—it’s about planting seeds for the church our children and grandchildren will inherit.

• Our decisions as leaders aren't about protecting comfort—they're about tilling the soil so that the next harvest can come.

What We’re Invited Into

We are invited to use the lens of adaptive stewardship as a posture:

A posture of trust

A posture of surrender

A posture of investment

We don’t want to just keep the lights on. We want to be light for the world.

We don’t want to maintain what has been. We want to join God in creating what will be.And to do that, things are needed.  Your prayers. Your stories. Your presence. Your giving. Your trust. Your faith.

A Final Word: The Church as a Field

Let me leave you with a picture.The church is not a machine we maintain. It is not a fortress we protect. It is not an institution we preserve. It is a field we tend. And adaptive stewardship is how we water it, how we plant, how we prune, and how we wait.

Adaptive stewardship is watching to see where there are natural things happening that enrich the life and future of the church and determining how we can cooperate with what God would like to regenerate in our churches and communities.

I can almost promise you that it won’t come from a bookstore, website, or even another church.  I truly believe that if we attend to the local church before it is completely degenerated, then everything we are seeking from God for regenerating it is already in our midst.

That’s not survival. That’s kingdom faithfulness.