Congregational Vitality
Over the last 70 years, the ways in which the health and vitality of a congregation are measured have changed dramatically.
At one point, the health and vitality of a congregation was measured by the number of baptized members. Since nearly everyone was a member of a group, the congregations with the most baptized members were considered healthy and vital.
Somewhere along the line, churches realized that not everyone who was a member participated in the life of the church, so average worship attendance became the main measure for health and vitality. Leaders assumed that large numbers of people on a Sunday morning meant greater health and vitality for the congregation.
Church leaders eventually learned that measuring average worship attendance or donation trends or volunteer hours didn’t necessarily teach us much about the faithfulness and spiritual maturity of the people in the congregation.
While in most places, we haven’t stopped measuring worship attendance patterns, donation trends, or volunteer hours, there is a realization that building a healthy congregation will require a new and renewed effort to develop communities of Jesus that nurture life-changing relationships with God, with one another and with the world.
Renew 145 builds on this approach and focuses on helping congregations become places where individuals are:
- growing deeper in relationship with God,
- growing deeper in relationship with one another, and
- growing deeper in relationship with the community around them.
Obviously, these three characteristics aren’t as easy to measure as worship attendance, donation trends, and volunteer hours, but by focusing on building relationships in these three areas, the hope is to nurture a place and a people where God’s life-changing love is visibly active.
Reflection Questions
- What words or phrases would you use to describe your congregation to someone who has never been there before?
- How do those words or phrases speak to the health and vitality of the congregation?