Jesus Still Writes Letters (And Your Church Should Read Them): A Conversation with Dr. Ken Quick (Part 1)

Corporate spiritual renewal isn't just about individual transformation—it's about the whole church body hearing what Jesus is saying together. This profound insight forms the foundation of Dr. Ken Quick's ministry approach through Blessing Point Ministries, as explored in a recent Church Renewal Podcast episode. His work centers on helping congregations recognize and respond to the corporate message Jesus has for their specific church community, similar to how He addressed the seven churches in Revelation.

Many church leaders and members instinctively focus on individual spiritual growth, assuming Jesus speaks primarily to individuals rather than to churches collectively. As Dr. Quick points out, "People are used to hearing coming to church and expecting Jesus to speak to them as an individual, they don't know what it means to have Jesus speak to a church about what's going on." This individualistic approach misses something crucial: a significant portion of the New Testament consists of epistles addressed to entire congregations, not just individuals. The letters to the seven churches in Revelation provide a clear model of Jesus speaking corporately, addressing commendations, challenges, critiques, and offering guidance specific to each community's context and struggles.

The process that Blessing Point uses takes approximately three months and follows a structured approach. It begins with a paradigm-shifting seminar, encouraging church members to think corporately rather than individually. The congregation then examines their history through board minutes and congregational records, highlighting moments that align with the pattern in Revelation 2-3: commendations, challenges, critiques, and wisdom. After six weeks of this introspection, they conduct a historical retreat where the church community walks through its history together, looking specifically for "hinge moments" or "Kadesh Barnea moments" where significant decisions created lasting impacts, either positive or negative, on the church's trajectory and health.

The culmination of this process is a solemn assembly, typically held 4-6 weeks after the historical retreat. This powerful event invites back people who may have left the church wounded, creating space for leadership to take responsibility for specific issues that Jesus has revealed through the process. The results can be transformative. Dr. Quick shared the remarkable story of a church that had experienced five consecutive immoral pastors, with one having inappropriate relationships with fourteen women from the congregation. After going through this process of corporate examination and repentance, the church experienced profound healing. Twenty years later, Dr. Quick reports the church remains healthy. As he states emphatically, "Ken Quick couldn't do anything like that. That is what the Lord of the Church does." This approach recognizes that failing to wrestle with our past in the present dooms us to repeat it in the future. Churches experiencing "sand in the gears" despite good leadership and solid teaching may be sensing Jesus' invitation to address unresolved corporate pain before moving forward effectively.

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