This is a great story that talks about how one pastor, following the leadership of the Spirit, turned a congregation around and in to an effective ministry for the Lord. Enjoy and many thanks to Carl for the article.
By Carl Stagner,
It’s a scene all too familiar in many churches across the country: plenty of pew space but only a few occupants. New Beginnings Church of God in Meadville, Pennsylvania, was a church struggling to see Sunday morning attendance reach twenty. In the face of certain demise, God stepped in and showed he’s still active in the local church today. As is often the case, he used an unlikely character to lead a major turnaround at New Beginnings. Once a congregation on the brink of defeat, New Beginnings Church of God now sees regular attendance in excess of one thousand. Like a giant, the enemy was set to declare victory over this church; like David, Pastor Harold Ferraro obeyed God’s call and took a stand.
In March of 1993, the Church Growth Team of the Church of God in Western Pennsylvania asked Pastor Harold Ferraro to lead a revitalization effort at New Beginnings Church of God in Meadville. At first, Pastor Harold was reluctant—he said no three times. It became clear, however, that this was where God was leading.
The New Beginnings Church of God in Meadville was established in 1939. In recent years, the church had begun to experience significant decline. Pastor Harold explains that the church’s recent history is marked by not having full-time leadership—and only a fill-in pastor, who commuted on weekends from out of town. When Pastor Harold arrived, he recognized the effects of inconsistent leadership. He also observed a serious lack of purpose and an absence of community outreach. He remarks that the church needed change from the bottom up. “God’s Word doesn’t change, but methods have to,” he notes. He also observed a poisonous mindset among the small congregation: “Many churches expect pastors to do all the ministry,” he says. “My job is to equip the congregation to do the ministry.”
With the support of the Church Growth Team, Pastor Harold moved in and presented the church with a plan—one that would test the resolve and ultimate desire of the church. New Beginnings was dying and needed complete renewal. Pastor Harold explained to his new congregation that he would fill the pulpit and provide consistent leadership if the church would agree to give up control to the Church Growth Team. The church agreed. In order to start afresh, New Beginnings had to ensure there was no chance that the “we’ve-always-done-it-that-way” mindset would slow progress. They scrapped their bylaws and dissolved their boards. Pastor Harold describes his role as that of a “benevolent dictator,” yet accountable to God and the Church Growth Team. After three years of growth and a sense of freedom from the church’s history, the pastor’s steering committee would establish new and relevant bylaws.
Pastor Harold grew up in Meadville. When he returned to the pastorate at New Beginnings, local news publications ran headlines such as “Local boy comes home.” These articles, as well as advertisements and mailers announcing to the community that New Beginnings Church of God was having a grand re-opening, contributed to an immediate rise in Sunday morning attendance to fifty-four. The church experienced rapid growth from the start: the following year, attendance in services was averaging ninety-four people, and by the third, it had risen to several hundred.
Pastor Harold stresses the importance of clear communication with the local church. He says that during these years especially, changes were communicated well. Whether in print or via a regular “state of the church address,” the congregation was kept completely in the loop about what would be taking place. They set clear goals and were not surprised. For example, each year, they asserted, the attendance would average that of the previous Easter Sunday service.
Pastor Harold says that from the beginning, New Beginnings experienced rapid growth. When the size of the congregation exceeded the capacity of the original facility, the church began holding midweek services in a nearby retirement center. The retirement center allowed them to meet for no charge. For the first couple of years, the Church Growth Team’s budget took care of Pastor Harold’s salary. These were only a couple of the numerous ways in which God provided for the church’s ever-increasing financial needs.
After four years of meeting in the original facility, and with attendance averaging 385 with four weekly services, the church relocated to a new building. The church bought seventy-three acres only a mile away from the original site. In order to gain more press coverage and more awareness in the community, the congregation planned to make a mass exodus from the old facility to the new. That Sunday morning in 1998, police escorted the congregation as they walked the victorious mile to the new church. With much anticipation, they opened a new chapter in the history of New Beginnings Church of God.
Over the past sixteen years, Pastor Harold has seen his church grow and reach out deeper into the community. Nearly fifteen hundred people have been saved or restored. Pastor Harold says that more than 40 percent of the church’s growth has come through the counseling services the church provides to the community. Through Mercy House, which was founded along with the rebirth of the church, countless souls have received help for addictions, habits, and struggles. The growth promoted by the counseling center fueled additional growth in the church because, as Pastor Harold explains, the “greatest evangelists are new Christians.”
For Pastor Harold, things weren’t always so pleasant. For many years as pastor, Harold Ferraro worked long hours, dedicating much time and energy to the ministry. He found that he was taking care of his flock and family but not ensuring that his own health was up to par. Eight years ago, after a fierce struggle with cancer, which sent him into a deep depression, Pastor Harold discovered a need to take better care of himself. Doctors had given him little hope for survival, but today Pastor Harold is cancer free. He explains that this experience gave him a passion not to waste time with those things that are unimportant to God’s big picture. Pastor Harold had also suffered a car accident after which doctors also gave him little chance that he would walk again. Today, he’s walking just fine. Pastor Harold has seen God provide even in the darkest times. Now he wants to spend the additional time God has given to him building the Kingdom.
What can pastors and churches do to experience revitalization in their communities? Pastor Harold suggests that much of the problem among churches today is a lack of vision and little sense of purpose. He stresses the importance of strong leadership that seeks to please God first, ahead of the needs of the congregation. He emphasizes that contrary to popular opinion, the church is not a democracy; it’s a theocracy. Democracy in the church doesn’t necessarily lead to God’s ultimate plan. He says the church needs to be constantly casting vision while at the same time engaging in clear communication with the congregation. He asserts that people adjust to change much more smoothly if they aren’t surprised by it. He adds that “congregations have to be to the point where they’re willing to die before they can come alive again.” Let go, and let God lead.
Carl Stagner is a mass communications major at Anderson University
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