Marine drummer strives to develop strong churches and healthy pastors |
“God broke my heart for New England,” says Gary J. Moritz, who committed his life to Christian faith at age 24 and has served since October 2019 as director of church revitalization for the Baptist Convention of New England (BCNE). “Revitalization is happening in churches around America! As a pastor or church leader, you are responsible for shepherding and caring for the congregation God has given you,” the Bayshore, Long Island, native wrote in “Ten revitalization steps for 2021. ”
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Gary Moritz, the BCNE’s director of church revitalization, shown at City United Church, provides pastors with both the biblical encouragement and contextualized resources they require to stabilize a church and to thrive personally. |
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The Baptist Foundation of New England invested $24,000 to help implement Mortiz’s vision of strong churches and healthy pastors, and the Georgia-based Cecil B. Day Foundation, longtime partners with New England ministries, pledged another $35,000 for program expenses that include two-day vision-casting retreats with small groups of pastors. Supporters of the BFNE Church Health Fund are stakeholders with Moritz, who works closely with BCNE’s regional coordinators to “mobilize people with Jesus’s vision” for New England and the world. “His last command must be our first concern,” challenges Moritz, with reference to Acts 1:8, in which Jesus calls on Christians to “be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth.”
“Certain actions can help you be more effective and successful in guiding the church where God has planted you toward renewal,” he tells pastors. These commitments include persistent prayer, decisive leadership, a carefully planned strategy, health and integrity goals, and a desire to “redeem the world.” Moritz provides pastors of some ninety churches (thirty congregations in 2021) with both the biblical encouragement and contextualized resources they require to stabilize a church and to thrive personally (see www.bcne.net/revitalization and www.garymoritz.com/blog). He likens a church revitalization coach to a rudder that steers a boat towards the best possible harbor and away from hidden dangers.
Moritz, 47, practices what he preaches. He was a sergeant and a drummer in the United States Marine Band (1998–2002), performing at the White House and living in Washington, DC, when he was invited to join the staff of Capital Baptist Church in Annandale, VA, where he ministered for thirteen years. “God broke my heart there and I left my home church to obey the call of God to a place I did not know.” After he decided to “get up, get out, and get going” for Christ and not unlike Abraham (Gen 12:1), Moritz accepted a call from an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church that had racked up a substantial debt and was treading water in an old building while trying to retain their seventy members. In 2013, he and his wife, Jana, and their children, relocated by faith to Lunenberg, Massachusetts, a rural town north of Worcester. He relaunched the congregation in 2018, renamed it City United Church, and patiently urged it to grow to a Sunday attendance of some 400 people (pre-pandemic lockdown), most of whom are young families. Contemporary-style worship (pictured above) is held in person and online. “My desire,” he tells anyone who will listen, “is that spiritually healthy and self-feeding Christians will move out of their comfort zones and take the next steps in their walk with Christ, like I did.”
Moritz also teaches Strategic Leadership for Church Revitalization and related courses online for Liberty University, the Virginia school started by Jerry Falwell Sr. He graduated from Liberty with two master’s degrees and, in 2013, a doctor of ministry from Liberty Theological Seminary. His doctoral thesis, “Creating and Sustaining a Health and Wellness Ministry within the Local Church,” is available online and will be published. He also received a bachelor’s degree in music education from the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam, NY.
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A Word from the
Executive Director
Dr. Terry W. Dorsett
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A bright future for your “potato church”
“You want a ‘steak pastor,’ but you are a ‘potato church.’” This was the assessment 20 years ago of a denominational leader to a small, rural, struggling church when, seeking to survive for another year, they contacted the denominational office for help.
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You can imagine their disappointment when they learned that, in the denominational leader’s opinion, the church was too small, too poor, and offered too little potential for the denomination to provide assistance in finding its next pastor. Fortunately, another leader in the same office helped and then invested a lot of energy by mentoring the new pastor for two years.
The faithful leader’s willingness to see past the current struggles and glimpse a bright future for the church made a huge difference. Now that congregation is healthy, growing, planting other churches, and thriving “on mission” for Christ.
Many New England churches are struggling. They need help. Thankfully, the Baptist Convention of New England, in partnership with the Baptist Foundation of New England, is willing and ready to help these struggling churches. We want every church to have healthy and growing pastors and leaders that can guide them in finding a pathway forward.
While the Convention provides mentoring and direction, the Foundation helps provide the needed funding. Together, churches are being revitalized. It is exciting to watch and join in this process. You can revitalize New England churches by giving generously to our Church Health Fund. Thank you for your partnership. We believe the best is yet to come.
Dr. Terry W. Dorsett
Executive Director
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“God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds, and He can just as easily supply them ahead of time as afterwards, and He much prefers doing so.” ––James Hudson Taylor
[source: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/437298]. A British missionary to China, Taylor founded China Inland Mission in 1865. He spent fifty-one years in China. By 1934, CIM (now OMF International) counted 1,368 missionaries serving 364 stations in China.
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