Leading Ideas: A Resource for Church Leaders

August 31, 2005

In this issue:

Defining Congregational Effectiveness

Web Review: US Congregations

The Right Question

Remember . . . that many fruits of your labor will not become manifest for many, many years.

Marian Wright Edelman

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Defining Congregational Effectiveness
by Ann A. Michel

What makes a church strong? Too often, measures of church success seem illusive and intangible or, alternatively, superficial and arbitrary. However, new broad-scale empirical research is helping to define the qualitative factors of congregational effectiveness and their impact on growth.

In 2001, the U.S. Congregational Life Survey queried more than 300,000 worshipers in over 2,000 congregations throughout the United States. It claims to be the most representative profile of U.S. worshipers and their congregations ever undertaken. Principle survey authors Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce present its findings in Beyond the Ordinary: Ten Strengths of U.S. Congregations (Westminster John Knox Press, 2004). It is helpful to consider their work along side that of German researcher Christian Schwarz in Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches (ChurchSmart Resources, 2003). His research, aimed at identifying the causes of church growth, was conducted in the mid 1990s with 1,000 churches in 32 countries.

Web Review

US Congregations
www.uscongregations.org

The “US Congregations” website houses information on the U.S. Congregational Life Survey. Anyone expecting to find a storehouse of data on the 300,000 worshipers surveyed in 2001 will be disappointed. But the recently revamped site does connect its visitors with resources aimed at helping congregations and church leaders learn from the survey’s results.

The Right Question

Leaders do not need answers.
Leaders must have the right questions.

Finding ways to experience renewal is always a challenge for leaders. Even religious leaders often find Sabbath experiences missing in their lives. Someone who has spent many years on committees interviewing candidates for ordained ministry has found this question helpful:

If you had a whole day to do just what you wanted to do,
how would you spend the day?

A frequent follow up question is,
“How long has it been since you spent a day like that?”

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Lovett H. Weems, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Church Leadership and Director of the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership, is editor and principal writer for Leading Ideas.