What is Rethinking Church?

#RethinkingChurch Strategies is a limited liability company established in 2020 by Rev. LaKesha Womack. LaKesha has more than 15 years of experience as a consultant with Womack Consulting Group. Through the firm, she has worked with clients worldwide to provide Brand Management, Business Planning, Marketing Strategies, and Political Advising. As a result of her work with colleges, corporations, small business owners, and not-for-profits, she began working as a Church Growth Consultant in 2016. She created the concept of Rethinking Church to challenge congregations to rethink how they engage with their members and communities. 

Through her consulting, LaKesha recognized that many congregational leaders were not connected with the demographic trends in their communities, the global technology evolution, or the growing ministry needs and expectations of those they serve. As the congregations were experiencing a decline in membership, their models of engagement were not adaptable. Many also lacked access to resources that would lead to sustainable change.

Based on her findings, the Rethinking Church project evolved from a workshop series to a workbook to an engaged community of over 2,000 members. In July 2020, LaKesha launched the #RethinkingChurch Virtual Summit featuring more than 60 sessions over four days to address how churches think about Church Administration, Christian Education, Digital Discipleship, Advocacy, Evangelism, and Mental Wellness. The organization also hosted a Voter Education Symposium, a Digital Discipleship Symposium, a Pastor's Do More Than Preach Conference, the 2021 #MinistryThatImpacts Virtual Summit, and an Economic Empowerment Symposium.

#RethinkingChurch Strategies is categorized as a social impact community focused on providing tools and resources for ministry leaders to create healthy congregations and communities. The community is where the practical, academic, and spiritual come to work with a dedication to thinking, asking questions, and creating solutions. We believe in the liberation of all people - full stop. In that liberation, we break free of the strongholds that prevent us from being all that God has created us to be in service to others (Luke 4:18). Although we serve the religious community, we are not affiliated with a specific denomination and encourage all faith communities to participate in our programming.

In our collective service to others, we have provided scholarships for international leaders and young adults to attend our 2020 Virtual Summit, awarded four grants to assist ministry leaders with their projects, and raised over $2,000 within a week to help a family in Texas during the energy crisis.

In 2021, the #RethinkingChurch community was recognized by Meta as a Facebook Community Accelerator participant. More than 10,000 community leaders applied, and #RethinkingChurch was selected as one of 131 communities to receive coaching and access to tools to build a sustainable community.

We plan to be an economic driver in our community by providing resources to increase the capacity of ministry leaders to serve their congregations and communities.