10 Signs of Life: Your Church Might Just Make It

Last updated on: April 21, 2015 at 10:08 am by Erin Wathen

10 Signs of Life: Your Church Might Just Make It 2015-04-21T10:08:26-07:00 Erin Wathen

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I once took a group of church leaders on a planning/visioning retreat. We read and discussed a great article, something to the effect of “10 Traits of a Healthy Church.” Or a growing church… Thriving church? Something like that. And it wasn’t the usual variation on a theme, this particular piece was insightful and inspired. And it was exactly the right mix of challenge and affirmation for where that congregation was at the time.

In preparation for a similar gathering this week, I tried to find the same article. I’m not having much luck. Ask Google or Siri about “Traits of a Growing Church,” or “10 Signs Your Church is Thriving,” or “10 Habits of Healthy Churches.” Go ahead, I’ll wait… If you tried it, you will find pages of pages of results. And a whole lot of nothing.

If anybody knows what thing I read (3, maybe 4 years ago?) that went beyond the usual formula, please let me know. In the meantime, most of what’s out there is strictly “Biblical” (10 Bible verses about what the church is supposed to be– with no helpful context or relevant application) or entirely corporate (formula for how much $$ you should make based on how many ## are in worship and the derivative nature of their belief + some demographic %… That is not ministry, it’s algebra. And I went to seminary so I wouldn’t have to do any *&^*@# algebra).

Gauging the well-being of a church cannot be just about the gospel—but it certainly can’t be without it. It can’t be just about numbers—but numbers cannot be ignored. Somewhere in the middle is a good framework for ministry. But how do we measure it? What practices help us get there? And where are our role models for what ‘good’ church looks like these days?

I struggled with the title for this post… Most of us are trying to move away from “growing” church as the goal. “Healthy” church sounds passive. “Successful” is too coporate. “Vibrant” is a little too precious, and “vital” sounds too clinical–like we are just so glad we still have a dang pulse.

I started with something like this: 10 Traits of Healthy Growing Vital Successful

TEN SIGNS YOUR CHURCH MIGHT MAKE IT TO THE NEXT QUARTER WITHOUT HAVING TO SERVE THE CHEAP COFFEE!!

Anyway. I’ve got ten things. Call them what you want. Ten hopeful things. Ten signs you might be OK. Ten traits of ministry that looks like the gospel and will also keep the lights on. And yes, there are some chicken-and-egg issues with this list: do these practices lead to good ministry, or does good ministry contribute to these characteristics? That is a whole other conversation. Meanwhile, this is a working litany of what ‘good’ ministry might look like:

There is room for doubt. Hard questions are welcomed and encouraged as a healthy part of faith and growth, and not a threat to the institution.
Unnecessary meetings are discouraged. And necessary ones are concise, productive, and clearly connected to the church’s mission.
There is room for everyone. Diversity is a church-family value. This may look different from one church to the next, but is an intentional conversation–not an accident.
Members and leaders have minimal anxiety about finances. And giving patterns reflect a healthy balance; 90% of members giving 90% of the income, etc. (As opposed to the ‘average,’ 20% of members giving 80% of the income. Wherein one person dies and one family gets mad and leaves, and you are royally and biblically screwed…)
Frequent and intentional turnover in leadership roles. And a healthy balance of old and new members in leadership, as well.
Children are welcome in worship, and youth serve visibly in worship and other roles (beyond youth Sunday and church clean-up day).
Members can clearly articulate the mission and values of the church, and neighbors in the surrounding area have at least a passing awareness of/familiarity with the church’s identity and impact on the community.
People come early and stay late because they genuinely want to spend time together; BUT at the same time, guests are noticed, greeted and included. (if you can get this balance down, folks, you have found the secret Holy Grail of Christian hospitality; how to greet the new visitors while you are having SO MUCH FUN with your church friends??… it is an art, not a science.)
The primary role of the lead/senior/solo pastor is to equip and empower other staff and lay leaders to carry out the church’s mission.
Church staff and leaders regularly ask “Who is missing? What neighbors have we not met? What part of the population are we not reaching/serving?” And are prepared to have difficult conversations about the responses.

Based on my experience in multiple settings, if a church body has even a few of these dynamics in place, it can set intentions towards the others and live into them over time. This is by no means THE comprehensive map for an “alive” kind of church. But from what I’ve seen, churches that don’t have/do most these things are in trouble, in one way or another.

This is already a pretty long post so let’s stop here for air. I’d love to hear your feedback, insights, and experiences. I could easily write a whole post on each individual point, so if you’re game, I will run a series over the next 6 weeks or so.

Meanwhile, there are lots of good resources and conversation starters out there for those of you who are thinking about how to measure success growth health well-being of church and ministry life. I’d recommend starting with these three. Then come back and let’s talk some more. I’ll just be over here, striking through more words that offend my poetic and biblical sensibilities.

The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community, by Paul Sparks, Tim Soerns and Dwight J. Friesen

Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus, by Chris Smith and John Pattison. (Check out their Patheos blog).

Shrink: Faithful Ministry in Church Growth Culture, by my friend and ministry neighbor Tim Suttle, who also blogs on Patheos.

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