Drivers of Vitality
At a finance meeting we had a conversation about growth in the church. Of course, the finance committee doesn’t make strategic decisions about the direction of the church, but I can appreciate their concern for “the bottom line” and the need for the church to both grow and manage financial resources responsibly. The discussion spurred me to want to share one of the best resources the United Methodist Church has ever put together. The research project was called The UMC Call to Action: Vital Congregations Research Project and it was put together by the Towers Watson team. In it drivers of vitality were identified. When churches do these 16 things, churches are sure to be vital. It doesn’t matter what size the church, or where in the country they are, or even the environment (such as urban or rural); when churches take these steps vitality is the result. So, what are these drivers of vitality? There are four categories. They are: Small Groups & Programs, Lay Leadership, Worship Services and the Pastor. Let me share the specific drivers in each area:
Small Groups & Programs
Driver 1. Vital churches have more small groups for all ages appropriate to each congregation
Driver 2. Vital churches have more programs for children (under 12 years old).
Driver 3. Vital churches have more programs for youth (age 12-18).
Lay Leadership
Driver 4. Vital churches focus on increasing the effectiveness of lay leaders by equipping them to understand their role and carry out their roles effectively.
Driver 5. Vital churches have lay leaders who demonstrate a vital personal faith (regular worship, intentional spiritual growth, personal devotional life, and giving financially).
Driver 6. Vital churches place an emphasis on rotating lay leadership in order to involve more people over time.
Driver 7. Vital churches call, equip, use and support more lay leaders than non-vital churches. (the goal is 20 percent of worship attendees describing themselves as current or past leaders.)
Pastors
Driver 8. Vital pastors give attention to developing, coaching, and mentoring lay leadership to enable laity to increase their ability to carry out ministry.
Driver 9. Vital pastors use their influence to increase the participation of others in order to accomplish changes in the church.
Driver 10. Vital pastors motivate the congregation to set and achieve significant goals through effective leadership.
Driver 11. Vital pastors inspire the congregation through preaching.
Driver 12. Vital pastors, when they are serving effectively, stay for a longer period of time. (Short-term appointments of effective pastors decrease the vitality of a congregation.)
Worship Services
Driver 13. Vital churches offer a mix of contemporary (newer forms of worship style) and traditional services.
Driver 14. Vital churches have preachers who tend to use more topical sermon series in traditional services.
Driver 15. Vital churches use more contemporary music (less blended music that includes traditional tunes) in contemporary services.
Driver 16. Vital churches use more multi-media in contemporary services.
Some of these drivers, you’ll notice, are things the church used to do. We once had small groups for children beyond Sunday morning worship. We used to have a long list of laity who considered themselves leaders in the church. The church used to have both traditional and contemporary worship. Now that last one might be the most controversial. When the church moved away from just traditional services many of the church’s troubles happened, too. Yet, we could also point to the many very large contemporary churches in our community who were thriving at the same time we were declining. How come the drivers of vitality didn’t work? Obviously, the drivers don’t work in isolation from each other. Just because you are doing one thing on the list, doesn’t mean you can ignore the other 15 drivers of vitality. Pastors clearly have a huge impact on the church and if the pastor isn’t serving effectively its hard to have a vital congregation, but the same is true with the people. If there is conflict, if people are hurting each other and choosing to damage the church, we will not grow. You need all 16 drivers and a congregation that is working together.
As I read through these drivers of vitality, though, there are some important points to be made. One is that we are moving in the right direction by focusing on and hiring someone to do Family Ministries in our church. We need more small groups for children and I am confident we will see fruit from this move in the next year or two (driver 2,3). We also need more small groups for adults, so this is a very real area of need (driver 1). Could you be the person God is calling to lead the next small group for our church? I hope you’ll reach out to me if you are!
That leads naturally to the second area – lay leadership. Laity just means “people” and the people of the church need to be the church. Too often churches become dependent on the pastor for just about everything. Need a small group? Have the pastor start one! Need help with the finances? Ask the pastor to reach out to people. Is there a problem with the facility? Shouldn’t we get the pastor to tackle that problem? When a church has this mindset there is no chance the church can survive. Its pure and simply not possible for the pastor to do the vast majority of jobs needed to keep a community growing. The church has to take on the burden of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We could summarize the work of disciple making with the classic aspects of church work: worship, small groups and missions. You can see these classic aspects of the church sprinkled throughout the 16 drivers of vitality. Though missions doesn’t show up per se, it is a part of vital faith, spiritual growth and giving (driver 5). It is also part of the significant goals a church may set out to accomplish (driver 10). The church needs to do these things in order to develop the people and be vital. Have you taken time to serve as a leader in the church? If not, your gifts might be exactly what we need in this next season of the church!
You may have also noticed that many of these drivers of vitality are things we are already doing. When I first arrived at Grace in 2020, I noticed that the nominating system for selecting new leadership in the church had broken down. That was one of the first things I set out to fix, because healthy leadership is dependent on rotating the leaders (driver 7). Our slate of leaders is far fuller in 2025 than it was in 2020, and that should lead to more people identifying themselves as “leaders” in the church. We ask all of our leaders to serve for 3 years and then come out of those positions. Are some people still in positions for more than 3 years? Yes. Would it be better for the church to have those people rotate out of those positions? I would wager it is. Its not about having one particular person doing the job, as skillful or excellent as they may be at it. Its about sharing the burden and having many people understand the way the church works and how we can work together for the good of our community. As I work with many people in many groups, I see regularly the ‘silos’ we can get ourselves into. As we do a job, we see things one way; our way! When we rotate out of that position we are able to start seeing things in a new light and how all these different pieces need to fit together. That’s where vitality comes from! Its not from one person doing it all; its from the body working together for the good of everyone.
The drivers of vitality around worship need a word or two. Contemporary worship is not a panacea; it cannot fix all of our problems. When Grace tried to offer contemporary worship (multiple times) it did not last. Now that doesn’t mean contemporary worship may not be a future answer for the church, but so far it hasn’t been sustained. As a person who grew up in contemporary worship, I would point out that there is a big difference between playing contemporary songs and authentic contemporary worship. As the drivers show contemporary worship has to have contemporary music (driver 15). Contemporary means it is from 2025, not 1995. Also, just because our church does not currently offer contemporary worship does not mean we are off the hook. Churches are vital when they offer a variety of worship services (driver 13). Though the gathered congregation is smaller in size, we have to be mindful of offering a variety of worship services. Usually this is best in offering two services with two distinct styles, but variety in our one service would surely benefit us as well. (In previous surveys of the congregation, people almost always said they preferred variety over either traditional or contemporary worship). Demographics in our community reveal a similar truth. About 28% of the population in our area prefers traditional worship. About 30% prefers contemporary worship. That leaves 42% (the majority) that does not prefer either traditional or contemporary worship. If we are going to do contemporary worship we must do it with excellence. If we are going to do traditional worship we have to do it with excellence. If we are going to grow as a church we must offer a mix of options and whatever we do must be done with excellence.
Finally, it would be unfair to talk about the drivers of vitality without touching on my own role in our vitality. Pastors have a unique contribution to the success of a local church. I’ve been aware of the drivers of congregational vitality for many years, and reflecting on them has made me change how I lead the church. Throughout the year I receive many positive comments about the sermon series that I do (driver 14). I love inviting the congregation to offer their thoughts and suggestions on felt needs and taking a time of spiritual retreat to listen closely for God’s voice as to what our church needs to hear in the next year. I hope the series we do will continue to inspire our church (driver 11). I work with several people in the church each year in a coaching model to help them grow in their position. This year we have several new leaders in the church and meeting with them is a top priority so they can learn the ropes and lead well (driver 4, 8). I need to use my influence to see people participate in positive change happening in the church (driver 9) and also set significant goals (driver 10). I’m excited that we are engaging in the Normalize Next process with Olu Brown. I’m hopeful that many excellent ideas and fruitful ministries will spring from the work being done in that process. We’ve already hired a family ministries director, changed our online systems to save money and better serve an online audience, and put together a membership committee. We need to do hospitality, outreach, increase generosity, become more efficient with the resources at our disposal and create new spaces for people to connect with our church. These are lofty goals and I cannot do it alone. It only happens when we dare to dream together about the next right thing, and often that means the next right, difficult and challenging thing, for our church. This is not an easy road, and especially not with the prevailing society around us, but people long to feed their spirit. The question is whether we will dare to do it in new, creative and dynamic ways that will reach the next generation.
If we do take on this challenge, we will want to make sure we stick together as vital ministry is taking place (driver 12). Maximum effectiveness of a pastor doesn’t happen until around the 10 year mark. So let’s not ignore the problems, or blame one another. Let’s address the trouble spots and move toward vitality by using all 16 drivers of vitality over the long-haul. It’s not to bring glory to ourselves, or glory to our particular church; it’s to see disciples transforming the world and God’s kingdom coming here to this very earth. God bless!
In Christ,
Pastor Brian Neville