The DNA of a healthy congregation: four essentials for growing healthy communities of faith

After years of enduring the Pandemic and still experiencing multiple variations of Covid, many churches are not as concerned about thriving as they are about surviving. Anecdotal evidence supports this hypothesis.

1. Sunday on-line worship attendance by members has dwindled to a fraction of early pandemic numbers
2. Post pandemic in-person attendance has seen a significant drop.
3. Financial giving has reduced proportionately or even more.
4. There is a heightened sense of anxiety in the membership. This is not related to church per se but applies to all six areas of wellbeing.
5. Ministers and paid staff are struggling to contend with a situation that they have hardly been trained to cope with: leading in turbulent times and adapting to rapidly changing environments. The mental and physical impacts of these challenges are overwhelming.
6. The rate of mainline churches either closing or amalgamating has increased.

Simultaneously, the nature of congregational practice and composition is changing rapidly too.

1. Live streaming (i.e., the early pandemic strategy to connect with online viewers) has changed to online engagement as a default with many showing reluctance to return to in-person gatherings. Hybrid worship is the next new innovation.
2. Rural communities are seeing an influx of retirees who are exchanging their urban lifestyles for a more relaxed and cheaper one
3. Online connection offers so many benefits that we did not avail of before.
4. Migrant communities of faith (especially from the majority world) show much more resilience and intentionality in gathering and engaging in faith practices.

Not every congregation is in survival mode. Those who are finding their way are doing so by experimentation, adapting and discovering new pathways to vibrant congregational living. Such congregations are relatively few and many had already begun this way of being, prior to the pandemic.

Ihave been investigating and exploring contemporary research on congregational health and vitality, pre and post pandemic. A synthesis of this research reveals at least four main strands of DNA that, when combined, could contribute to growing a healthy and thriving congregation. Many of these strands have been captured through research, observation and /or anecdotally. However, none of this is new: the early church (which was an organic system) had these principles built right into their DNA and the result was a thriving, rapidly growing community they called Christians. Over the centuries however, these genetic attributes have mutated and been replaced and/or modified by diverse influences including institutionalism and a predilection towards religious rites and rituals.

Resultantly, none of these are quick or easy-fix remedies. Tearing down and growing a new culture takes time, intentionality and commitment or, as in the words of Eugene Peterson, it requires “a long obedience in the same direction”.

The four strands of DNA are:

1. 1. Looking beyond: Hopeful/Adaptive, willingness to risk, experiment, learn, innovative
2. Outward focused: open hearted and open handed
3. Inward directed: Centred on Jesus, growing in spiritual maturity: spiritual disciplines of prayer, bible study, fellowship
4. Empowering, gifts-based leadership — servant hearted, catalytic

The middle two strands (2 & 3) are what every believer/member of the congregation need to have written into his/her genetic coding; Loving God and loving neighbour, the two greatest commandments given by Jesus himself. And this then leads to the fruitfulness that Jesus talks about in John 10: “ I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit”. These two strands paired together produces whole-life discipleship.

The first and last strands are organizational necessities — hope/vision and leadership. Believers who grow in an environment that enables them to love God, love their neighbour, exercise servant hearted leadership and keeps hope and vision alive, thrive. This is not a formula; it is a way of life, of being.

Looking beyond: Hopeful/Adaptive, willingness to risk, experiment, learn, innovate

Congregations that are able to see the big picture, take a long-term look and see beyond the present give themselves an opportunity to nurture hope: in God’s ability to change circumstances and in their own ability to partner in God’s mission.

This is where vision resides and the hope that God is calling us to, to become more of what the body of Christ, should look like. There is a sense of excitement at what God can do: where challenges are seen as opportunities and discernment is ongoing, a spiritual practice in itself. This is where the willingness to listen, learn, adapt and change define the character of the congregation; where the church is anchored to principles instead of tradition and rituals that can keep them from pursuing the path that God wants to lead them on.

Congregations that have hope, a sense of purpose and direction are able to embrace the uncertainty of the moment and adapt and/or innovate into a new future that may not look like the past. Just as healthy organisms adapt and thrive in changing environments, churches that are healthy are quick to learn and change, without compromising their core purpose or calling.

Closely tied to the above is the willingness to take a step in to the unknown. To experiment, to be curious and learn are marks of a congregation that is learning the skill and art of adaptive and agile leadership. Risk opens us to increased vulnerability which teaches us that often, the outcomes of the ministry initiatives that we engage in are in the trustworthy hands of the Spirit. Letting go of control and trusting God for the outcome is a very comforting and refreshing place to be as a congregation. Read the nine characteristics of hopeful, innovative congregations listed in the article referenced below.

Outward focused: open hearted and open handed

Congregations that have their faces and eyes turned outwards tend to do better than those whose attention is turned inwards. Flourishing congregations are tuned in to the needs of their communities, discerning their contexts and constantly assessing what God is doing around them. Engaging proactively with those outside the church is soul exercise; it keeps the congregation in constant learning mode, humble and always looking for opportunities to serve.

“Loving your neighbour” is an abiding principle in these congregations; where love is authentic, not contrived or cloaked with an agenda. This is where radical hospitality is practiced and is enculturated as a way of life. These congregations practice the principle of stewardship of all of Gods blessings including their fixed, movable and people assets. Money is not spent on bigger and better but rather on serving and equipping. This congregation sees faith lived out and bearing fruit in the everyday spheres of every believer where every believer is equipped, empowered and mobilized to be fruitful on the frontlines. Members of these congregations consider the days in between Sundays equally or if not, more important in terms of ministry. They are trained and encouraged to look for opportunities to be ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20) who by their lives and words model the gospel of Jesus to people who may never darken the doors of a church building. Their circles of influence and engagement become the sand box they play in where every encounter with another (family, co-worker, neighbour, fraternity group member) is an opportunity to demonstrate and share the good news of the gospel.

Inward directed: Centred on Jesus, growing in spiritual maturity: spiritual disciplines of prayer, bible study, fellowship.

This describes congregations that pay attention to soul care i.e. engage in regular individual and corporate spiritual practices, offer training and equipping opportunities for its members at the individual, family, generational and fraternal level. Loving God by learning the disciplines of praying, studying and obeying the bible are critical to growing a healthy congregation.

This is where great emphasis is placed on the spiritual maturing process of every believer — from cradle to grave. Faith formation across generations is tailored to everyone, with the purpose of equipping and empowering them to be the best version of themselves as Christ followers. This congregation encourages and creates environments for the seed of faith in believers to take root and grow. There is a yearning for (and demonstration of) engaging in spiritual practices in community and a willingness to let the Holy Spirit control and guide every believer and their community of faith. Lifelong, inter-generational faith formation is a hall mark of congregations that gives priority and resources to the work of strengthening the root system and watching how faith formation contributes to growing the eco-system of Christian discipleship and community . Evangelism and growing disciples become a natural outflow of obedience to Jesus and fruit that lasts will be produced as they remain connected to the vine.

Empowering, gifts-based leadership — servant hearted, catalytic.

Thriving congregations exhibit leadership that encourages, equips and empowers members to engage in all of the above. Catalytic leadership strives to take the attention away from paid staff primarily being the doers of ministry to training and preparing all of its members to live as Christ’s ambassadors in the world.

Leadership is modeled as a combination of a servant posture and a gift based (functional) approach. The primary goal of leadership is to equip, empower and mobilize the whole congregation, forming them in the ways of Jesus and teaching them how to use their spiritual gifts while following Jesus, in community. Leadership is not positional but functional and is definitely not centred around an individual and his/her personality, talents and abilities. Catalytic leadership engages the whole body and captures the best in everyone as they pool their gifts together to catalyze engagement and participation in God’s kingdom. And once this culture of shared, servant hearted, gift-based leadership is established, the congregation will experience healthy relationships all around, notwithstanding the reality that there will be instances of conflict that will need to be resolved.

If any one of these broad strands of congregational life is weak or compromised, health and vitality is at risk. On the other hand, fixing one will not necessarily solve the problem either, because they are interconnected and inter-dependent. Each ingredient melds with and complements the other. Outward focus without a growing inner grounding (in the faith) will become just another expression of social work devoid of the total transformation that the gospel offers. Leadership without a sense of hope and vision will turn into unhelpful busyness. Hope without leadership would die stillborn. Inner grounded-ness without outward focus might look more like a meditation exercise. All good things but not necessarily the best.

The good, the bad and the ugly news

The good news is that all four strands can be developed and nurtured in small organic ways in the congregation and scaled up as they take root. Although the fruit will take time (5 -10 years at least) to show, the outcome could result in robust and vibrant congregation(s) that look much more like the early church. Practically speaking, these four strands could be evidenced in a small group of 8 persons that meet in a home or common (third) space or a group of 500 who meet in a gymnasium but without the need for extra funding, acquiring large buildings or being bound by religious rules and regulations. In fact, none of the research that was conducted named buildings as a key to vitality. Having said this, it is also true that the larger the groups grow, necessary support structures and resources need to be put into place to support and facilitate such growth. Human and financial resources, polity and governance frameworks, doctrinal and theological standards will become necessary aides to proper functioning of these communities of faith. And, as long as these ‘support” and not control and/or stifle growth, they will provide the infrastructure necessary to enable groups to flourish.

The bad news is that, in order to make room and devote time and energy for this, many current programs, activities and practices in the church may need to be set aside or modified. This is a huge challenge for congregations that subscribe to a particular church culture. Change is hard and comes at a cost. Dismantling existing programs in order to release and redirect resources requires good leadership and the ability to see outside and beyond existing paradigms.

The ugly news is that it will get messy before it gets better. You may lose more congregants and for a congregation that is already hurting (due to member loss), this can get extremely unattractive. Changing to a new way of doing things is always challenging. Lack of a good process which includes wise leadership may also jeopardize the outcome.

The Congregational Vitality Initiative has and is curating resources and processes that address all of these. We would at the same time like to know how your congregation is doing in these four areas and invite you to take a short survey found here: https://forms.office.com/r/PYPjvJKqth). Thank you for taking the time to help us help you.