10/12/2026
NO PLAN B
The pews may be thinning. The pastors may be exhausted. The work may be harder than ever. But Jesus hasn't abandoned His Church. Neither has 6:14 Ministries.
Text by Josh Givens
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There's particular kind of silence that settles over a church sanctuary when Sunday morning is over. The music has stopped. The congregation has gone home. The last few bulletins are scattered across the pews, a forgotten Bible sits near the back, and somewhere in the building, a light that should have been turned off is still burning.
For most people, another Sunday has come and gone. For the pastor, another week has just begun. There are hospital visits to make. Sermons to prepare. Families to counsel. Budgets to balance. Volunteers to encourage. Difficult conversations to navigate. And somewhere between the Wednesday night Bible study, the Saturday morning men's breakfast and the phone call that comes at the most inconvenient hour imaginable, there is a family of his own that needs his time, attention and affection. He is a shepherd, a counselor, a teacher, a husband, a father, a friend and, on particularly unfortunate occasions, an amateur plumber.
Depending on the size of the congregation, he might also be the church secretary, the maintenance supervisor, the worship coordinator, the website administrator and the fellow who has to figure out why the projector refuses to recognize the laptop five minutes before the service begins.
He wears a dozen hats. Most of them don't fit particularly well. And every Sunday, he stands behind a pulpit and reminds the people entrusted to his care that God is faithful...even when he is struggling to remember it himself. There is a kind of exhaustion that doesn't come from working too many hours. It comes from carrying too many burdens.
And across the American Southeast, in little churches tucked between pine forests, cotton fields, subdivision streets and stretches of two-lane highway, there are shepherds who know that exhaustion all too well. They are the men whose names will probably never appear on a bestseller list. They aren't filling arenas, building sprawling campuses or attracting thousands of followers on social media. They may never preach to more than 50 people at a time.
But they are preaching. They are praying. They are showing up. And some of them are hanging on by a thread. The trouble is, hardly anybody knows it. Because when you're the one everyone turns to for encouragement, admitting that you've run out of your own can be a terribly lonely business.
That's where the story of 6:14 Ministries begins. Not with a building. Not with a budget. Not with a slick marketing campaign or a particularly clever approach to church growth. With a burden. A burden for the men who carry the burdens of everyone else. And a conviction that the local church is still worth fighting for.
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THE CHURCH AT THE END OF THE ROAD
Drive long enough through Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, or any number of communities throughout the Southeast, and you'll see them.
Little white churches with steeples that have weathered generations of Gulf Coast thunderstorms and maybe even a hurricane or two. Brick sanctuaries surrounded by neighborhoods that look considerably different from the ones that built them. Church signs announcing Sunday school at 9:45, worship at 11 and a Wednesday night prayer meeting that has been a fixture on the calendar longer than anyone can remember. Probably as long as sister Hazel has been bringing her famous casserole dish to every church function for the last eighty years.
Some are growing. Some are struggling. Others are surviving from one Sunday to the next. And increasingly, some are disappearing altogether.
The reasons are rarely simple. Communities change. Families move away. Congregations grow older. Leadership transitions become complicated. Financial pressures mount. Longstanding traditions collide with changing cultures. Sometimes, the people charged with carrying a church into its next chapter simply cannot agree on what that chapter should look like. And sometimes, after years of faithfully pouring themselves into a congregation, pastors run out of strength before they run out of love.
It's tempting to evaluate these little churches by the numbers. Attendance. Giving. Square footage. Budgets. Baptisms. Social media engagement. There is a place for measuring the health of a congregation, of course. Numbers can tell important stories. But they seldom tell the whole story.
A spreadsheet cannot measure the significance of a widow being visited after her husband's funeral. An attendance report cannot capture the courage of a young father walking into a church for the first time in years. A financial statement cannot calculate the eternal value of a child learning that Jesus loves her. And an aging sanctuary with 35 people scattered throughout its pews might be doing more for its community than anyone outside those four walls could possibly imagine.
This is the part of the story 6:14 Ministries refuses to forget. Because a church is not merely a building where religious people gather once or twice a week.
At its best, it is a lighthouse. A refuge. A place where generations gather beneath the authority of God's Word, where broken lives encounter grace, where ordinary believers learn to love their neighbors and where the Gospel of Jesus Christ is carried from one life into another. It is where a frightened teenager can discover that his life has purpose. Where that young college girl can learn that her identity is found in Jesus, not in what culture says she should or shouldn't be. Where a struggling marriage can find wise counsel. Where a recovering addict can find fellowship, accountability and hope. Where an elderly saint can spend her final years surrounded by people who still remember her name.
It is where the Word is preached, the weary are strengthened, the believers are discipled, the lonely are welcomed, and the lost are introduced to a Savior.
Take away that presence from a community, and something far more significant than a Sunday morning gathering may be lost.
And while not every church building can or should remain open forever, the mission entrusted to the Church cannot be allowed to fade into irrelevance. Because there is a fundamental conviction beating at the heart of 6:14 Ministries. Jesus Christ has not finished His work through the Church...Not by a long shot.
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NO BACKUP PLAN
Two thousand years ago, Jesus made a declaration that has outlived empires, survived persecution, endured cultural revolutions and withstood every attempt to render Christianity obsolete.
"I will build my church," He told Peter in Matthew 16:18, "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
He didn't say He would build a movement around celebrity personalities. He didn't promise a particular denomination a permanent place of prominence. He didn't commission His followers to establish an institution defined by elaborate facilities, political influence or impressive attendance figures.
He promised to build His Church. Then, before ascending to the Father, He gave His disciples an assignment that would stretch across continents, cultures and centuries: Go. Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them to obey everything He commanded. And He promised to be with them to the end of the age. That commission has never been rescinded. The methods of communication have changed. The cultures receiving the message have changed. The technologies available to carry it have changed. But the mission has not.
The global Church remains Christ's commissioned body on earth, entrusted with proclaiming the Gospel, making disciples and demonstrating His love until He returns. There is no Plan B. No replacement institution waiting in the wings should the Church decide its assignment has become too difficult. No alternative Great Commission. No revised set of instructions for a generation that happens to find the original ones inconvenient.
Christ is the Hope of the world. And He has entrusted His Church with carrying the message of that hope into the world.
That means the little congregation at the end of the gravel road matters. The church struggling through a painful leadership transition matters. The pastor wondering whether anyone is listening matters. And the communities beyond those sanctuary doors matter more than ever. If the Church is to fulfill its calling, it cannot afford to spend its remaining days merely maintaining its buildings, protecting its traditions or entertaining the people already inside.
It must reach beyond its walls. It must disciple the next generation. It must teach people to know God through His Son, Jesus Christ. It must be willing to meet a changing world without compromising an unchanging message. And it must remember that a mission of eternal significance is worth every ounce of effort required to carry it forward. The question is not whether Jesus still has a purpose for His Church. The question is whether His people will faithfully participate in it.
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A BURDEN BECOMES A CALLING
For Pastor Stan Givens, that question has never been merely theoretical.
A Mobile, Alabama native, Stan has spent more than four decades in pastoral ministry, including more than 26 years leading Northside Bible Church in his hometown. He has preached through seasons of celebration and seasons of sorrow, navigated the complicated terrain of church leadership, heartache, betrayal, and walked alongside families during some of the most difficult chapters of their lives. He knows the joys of ministry. He also knows the weight. He's been on the mountaintops and walked through the valleys.
And over the years, and after many late night pastor huddles at Camp Eunice in Georgia, one reality became increasingly difficult to ignore: Too many pastors were attempting to shoulder that weight alone. They were discouraged. Overwhelmed. Exhausted. Some were wounded by church conflict. Some were watching their congregations dwindle. Others had simply spent so many years pouring themselves into everyone else that there was precious little left in the reservoir. Many needed encouragement and advice. Others needed practical assistance. Some needed a trusted friend who understood the unusual pressures of pastoral life and could listen without judgment. And some desperately needed to be reminded why they had entered ministry in the first place.
What eventually emerged from that burden was 6:14 Ministries, launched in 2018 by Stan and his son, Josh. The name comes from Stan's life verse, Galatians 6:14, where the Apostle Paul declares that his only boast is in the cross of Jesus Christ. It is more than a Scripture reference on a logo. It is the theological anchor of the entire endeavor. The goal was never to establish another religious empire, compete with existing congregations or create a platform from which to tell struggling churches everything they were doing wrong.
Quite the opposite, actually.
The mission was to come alongside those churches, encourage their shepherds, strengthen their leaders and help them rediscover the purpose for which they were established. In short, to bring help and hope to the local church.
Stan brought decades of pastoral experience, biblical teaching, counseling and the hard-earned perspective that comes from spending a lifetime in the trenches. Josh brought a background in worship leadership, communications, journalism, branding, digital media and a passion for equipping pastors and churches to reach people in a world increasingly shaped by technology.
Different gifts. Different generations. Same heartbeat. Because revitalizing a church is rarely accomplished with a single conversation, a weekend conference or a fresh coat of paint.... Sometimes it begins with a pastor admitting that he is tired. Sometimes it begins with a congregation acknowledging that something needs to change. And sometimes it begins with a simple question that can be remarkably difficult for church leaders to answer: Why are we here?
Not why the building was constructed. Not why the congregation chose its particular worship schedule. Not why one generation preferred a certain style of music over another. Why does this church exist? What has God called these people to accomplish? And if the surrounding community is changing, how can the congregation remain faithful to that calling while learning to reach the people who live just beyond its doors? For 6:14 Ministries, those are questions worth asking. And helping churches discover the answers is work worth doing.
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A SHEPHERD FOR THE SHEPHERDS
There is something awfully cruel about burnout in ministry. The person experiencing it may feel that admitting exhaustion is somehow an admission of spiritual failure. After all, pastors preach about perseverance. They counsel people through hardship. They encourage congregations to trust God's promises and remain faithful when life gets difficult. Not to mention that they're often seen as spiritual Supermen capable of handling anything that comes along.
So what happens when the one delivering those messages begins to struggle with discouragement himself? Who encourages the encourager? Who listens to the listener? Who shepherds the shepherd? These are not rhetorical questions for 6:14 Ministries. They're central to its very existence. Pastors are not immune to anxiety, disappointment, financial strain, relational conflict or emotional exhaustion simply because they have been called to ministry. They are human beings. They have families. They have limitations. They have difficult days.
And they need the same grace, compassion, accountability and encouragement they are called to extend to their congregations. One of the ministry's foundational priorities is to provide that support through pastoral counseling, personal relationships, prayer, practical coaching and a network of fellow shepherds who understand the work. Sometimes it means helping a pastor address conflict within his congregation... providing pulpit coverage so he can attend to an urgent need...Sitting down over coffee, opening the Scriptures and working through a difficult decision together. And sometimes it means doing little more than listening to a man who hasn't felt free to speak openly in a very long time.
There may be no dramatic breakthrough. No miraculous turnaround. No photograph to post on Facebook afterward. But something significant can happen when a discouraged pastor discovers that he is not alone. The burden may not disappear. But it becomes easier to carry when someone else is willing to help. Stan has long summarized his philosophy with a conviction that cuts straight through the noise surrounding modern ministry: "Ministry is a calling, not a career." And callings are not sustained by applause. They are sustained by faithfulness, obedience and the grace of the God who issues them.
A pastor doesn't need to become a celebrity to be effective. He doesn't need a stage filled with dramatic lighting, a perfectly produced livestream, a worship band that just got a record deal, or a congregation large enough to require its own traffic-control team.
He needs to know the Word of God. He needs to love his people. He needs to make disciples. And when the work becomes difficult, he needs brothers and sisters who will help him remain faithful to the task. That is the kind of encouragement 6:14 Ministries exists to provide. Not another burden for the pastor to carry. A few more hands to help him carry the ones he already has.
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COME, LET US REBUILD
There's an old story in the book of Nehemiah about a man who looked at the broken walls of Jerusalem and refused to accept that the ruins represented the end of the story. The damage was real. The obstacles were enormous. The opposition would be fierce. But Nehemiah saw something beyond the rubble. He saw a people who needed to remember who they were. And in Nehemiah 2:17, he issued an invitation that has become a rallying cry for 6:14 Ministries: "Come, let us rebuild."
Not you rebuild. Not someone ought to do something about this. Let us. There is a world of difference in those two little words. And they help explain why the ministry has never been content to remain behind a desk in Mobile dispensing advice to churches from a comfortable distance. Instead, its work takes place in the communities where those churches are actually serving. From Alabama and Mississippi to Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas and beyond, 6:14 comes alongside congregations with their own histories, challenges, personalities and opportunities.
There is no universal blueprint. One church might need leadership development. Another may need help strengthening its discipleship efforts. Another might be working through a difficult transition or struggling to determine how to reconnect with its neighborhood. Others need practical support that would hardly make the agenda at a large church leadership conference. How do we train volunteers when we barely have enough to staff Sunday morning? How do we communicate with younger families? How do we establish an online presence when nobody in the congregation knows how to build a website? How do we move forward without abandoning the biblical convictions that have sustained this church for generations? And, perhaps most importantly, how do we help our people see the mission as something they are called to participate in rather than something they pay the pastor to accomplish?
There is no glamorous answer. There is simply the steady, patient work of rebuilding.
Consider Azalea Hills Christian Church in Mobile. During a significant season of congregational transition, the church began the process of establishing a renewed independent identity and looking carefully at its future. 6:14 Ministries became a partner in that process. There were conversations about leadership, worship, facilities and reaching the next generation. Practical training helped volunteers navigate digital communications, social media, live-streaming and other aspects of church life. And around the study of God's Word, a congregation continued working through the questions that shape its identity and mission.
Stan eventually stepped into the role of interim pastor, adding another layer of personal investment to a relationship already built around encouragement and support. The story is still being written. And that is precisely the point. Real revitalization is rarely a dramatic before-and-after photograph. It takes place in conversations, decisions, acts of service and ordinary evenings when believers gather around open Bibles and begin considering what obedience might look like in the days ahead.
A congregation doesn't become spiritually healthy simply because it has a new logo, a better website or a more attractive sanctuary. Those things can be useful. But they are tools, not the mission. The real work happens when people return to the Word, rediscover their calling, strengthen their leadership, embrace discipleship and begin looking outward toward the community God has placed around them. It happens when ordinary church members realize that the Great Commission belongs to them, too. And it happens when a weary pastor begins to see signs of hope where he once saw only obstacles.
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AN ANCIENT MESSAGE IN A DIGITAL WORLD
Of course, the landscape surrounding the little country church has changed considerably since the days when a painted sign beside the highway was all the advertising a congregation needed. The front door of the modern church is often no longer made of wood, glass or steel. It's digital. Before a family ever walks into a sanctuary, they may have visited the church website, scrolled through its social media posts, watched a portion of a worship service or searched online for information about children's ministry.
For many congregations, particularly small and midsize churches operating with limited staff and resources, adapting to that reality can seem overwhelming. This is another area where 6:14 has found an opportunity to serve. Through hands-on training, branding assistance, communication strategy, media resources and practical coaching, 6:14 helps churches learn to use today's tools without losing sight of their timeless message. Josh's work in this arena is particularly focused on the volunteers, administrative assistants and pastors who find themselves responsible for church communications without having any formal training.
The goal is not to turn every little church into a slick media operation. It is to help churches communicate clearly and authentically with the people they are trying to reach. The recently launched podcast The Digital Shepherd, hosted by Josh and graphic designer Jon Carlson, extends that mission by offering accessible conversations about design, technology, digital outreach and the practical challenges of communicating effectively in a small-church environment. Meanwhile, The Shepherds Circle, featuring Stan alongside fellow pastors and ministry leaders, provides another form of encouragement through conversations about church revitalization, leadership, ministry and the realities of pastoral life.
Conferences and gatherings such as the annual Shepherds Summit create opportunities for leaders to find fellowship, exchange ideas, sharpen their understanding of Scripture and discover that the challenges they face are rarely theirs alone. These efforts may look different on the surface. A counseling conversation. A podcast episode. A leadership seminar. A worship gathering. A social media training session. But underneath each one is the same conviction. The Church has work to do. And the people entrusted with that work deserve to be equipped for it.
As Stan has reminded fellow ministry leaders, "We're not called to entertain. We're called to equip." It is an important distinction. Because the goal is not merely to fill pews. It is to fill hearts with the truth of God's Word and equip believers to carry that truth into their homes, workplaces, neighborhoods and communities. A church can possess every piece of technology imaginable and still fail to make disciples. It can also have a modest sanctuary, limited resources and a congregation small enough for everyone to know each other's middle name; and be extraordinarily effective in fulfilling its calling. The determining factor has never been the size of the platform. It is faithfulness to the One who gave the mission.
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THE WORK BEHIND THE WORK
Ask most people what it means to rescue a church, and they might imagine a struggling congregation experiencing a dramatic transformation. Attendance increases. Giving improves. New families arrive. Volunteers return. The parking lot begins filling up again. Those things can certainly be encouraging. But they are not the only measures of success.
Sometimes, the most significant victories are the ones nobody outside the congregation ever sees. A pastor who was considering resignation decides to remain faithful to his calling. An elder board learns to lead with greater wisdom and unity. A husband returns home to his family with a renewed sense of peace after finally sharing a burden he had carried alone. A congregation begins praying for its community instead of complaining about how much the community has changed. A volunteer discovers that serving the Lord doesn't require professional credentials, only a willing heart and a desire to learn. A church that has spent decades looking backward begins asking what God might still accomplish through it in the years ahead.
None of those stories necessarily make the news. But heaven keeps a different set of records. And the work of the local church has always been about far more than what can be counted on a Sunday morning. For 6:14 Ministries, that understanding also shapes the meaning of the word rescue. The ministry does not claim the power to save churches. That work belongs to Jesus Christ. Nor does it presume that every congregation can be restored to its former size or that every church building must remain open indefinitely. Sometimes faithful stewardship requires difficult decisions, including mergers, transitions and endings. But a struggling church should never be written off simply because its greatest numerical success appears to be behind it. And an exhausted pastor should never be considered expendable because his congregation is no longer growing.
The Gospel doesn't become less powerful when the room gets smaller. The Great Commission doesn't become optional when the budget gets tighter. And the Lord's faithfulness isn't measured by the number of cars in the parking lot.
There may be churches that need to change. There may be traditions that need to be reconsidered. There may be leadership practices that need to be corrected, relationships that need to be repaired and difficult truths that need to be confronted. But those realities are reasons to pursue biblical health, not reasons to abandon the Church Christ loves. This is why the work requires patience. Why relationships matter more than programs. Why a phone call can sometimes accomplish more than a conference. And why an ordinary conversation between two pastors may have consequences that ripple through an entire congregation for years to come. The work behind the work is rarely glamorous. It is simply faithful.
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UNTIL HE COMES
There is a tendency in modern culture to become infatuated with whatever is newest, biggest and loudest. The fastest-growing organization. The most innovative strategy. The most impressive facility. The latest trend promising to revolutionize the way things have always been done. And in the midst of all that noise, it can be easy to overlook the pastor of a little church who has spent the past 30 years faithfully teaching the Scriptures to the same congregation.
He may never have a viral sermon clip. He may never speak at a national conference. He may never write a book. But he might spend his life discipling a young man who eventually becomes a missionary. Or encouraging a family whose children grow up to serve the Lord. Or walking alongside a struggling believer whose life is forever changed by the patient teaching of God's Word. He may never know the full reach of his faithfulness on this side of eternity. But that doesn't make it any less significant.
The Kingdom of God has always advanced through the obedience of ordinary people doing extraordinary things by the power of an extraordinary Savior. Sometimes those things happen before thousands. Sometimes they happen before a congregation of 35. And sometimes they happen in a quiet conversation long after everyone else has gone home.
The heart of 6:14 Ministries is found in the belief that those moments matter. That shepherds matter. That churches matter. That the Gospel still changes lives. And that the Church Jesus promised to build remains His chosen instrument for carrying the message of salvation to a lost and broken world until He returns. There is urgency in that conviction. Not panic. Not desperation. Not the frantic pursuit of every passing church-growth trend. Urgency born from the realization that our communities are filled with people who do not know Jesus. Neighbors. Coworkers. Friends. Families. Children growing up without any meaningful understanding of the Gospel. People searching for belonging, purpose, forgiveness and hope in a world increasingly skilled at offering distractions but remarkably poor at satisfying the human soul.
The Church cannot afford to turn inward while that need remains outside its doors. It cannot spend its energy fighting over preferences while generations are growing up without a clear understanding of the Savior. It cannot confuse preserving its past with fulfilling its purpose. And it cannot abandon its shepherds when the work becomes hard.
The answer is not to invent another mission. It is to return to the one Christ gave. To preach the Word. To make disciples. To love our neighbors. To strengthen the weary. To equip the saints. To carry the Gospel into the communities where God has placed us. And to do it with the humble confidence that the One who promised to build His Church has not forgotten His promise.
That is why 6:14 Ministries exists. That is why Stan and Josh continue investing in pastors and congregations that the world may never notice. That is why pastors gather around tables, volunteers learn new skills, churches wrestle with difficult questions and ministry leaders drive the miles between one struggling congregation and another. Not because there is glory in rescuing an institution. But because there is eternal significance in loving the people Christ died to redeem. Because the church on the corner is more than a building. The pastor behind the pulpit is more than a Sunday morning voice. The community beyond those doors is more than a demographic waiting to be reached. And because the cross of Jesus Christ remains the only boast worth making.
The work isn't finished. The calling hasn't changed. And the Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep has not stopped caring for His flock.
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Somewhere tonight, a little church will sit quietly beside a country road. Its parking lot will be empty. Its sanctuary will be dark. The sign out front may need a new coat of paint, and the pastor inside may be wondering how much longer he can keep going. Tomorrow will bring another set of problems. Another phone call. Another sermon to prepare. Another family to love. Another opportunity to do the difficult, beautiful, frequently exhausting work of shepherding God's people.
He may not have all the answers. He may not know what the next year holds. He may not even know where the strength for another Sunday will come from. But he does not have to walk that road alone. And the congregation entrusted to his care is not beyond the reach of the God who established it. That little church still has a mission. That weary shepherd still has a calling. And until the day Jesus Christ returns in the flesh, there will still be communities that need to hear His name.
There is still a Gospel to proclaim. Still a generation to disciple. Still a Kingdom to serve. Still a Church to strengthen. No Plan B. Just the cross, the calling and a Savior who isn't finished building His Church.
Come, let us rebuild.
