On Church Vitality

Thoughts on Church Vitality

from

The Annual Meeting

of the

Pacific Northwest Conference

United Church of Christ

April 29, 2017

Rev. Dr. Tom Sorenson

On Saturday, April 29, 2017, I attended the Annual Meeting of the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Church of Christ, in which I hold ordained ministerial standing. There were three presentations that offered ideas on the issue of church vitality. They were presentations by Rev. Courtney Stange-Tregear, the Conference’s Minister for Church Vitality, the Rev. Mike Denton, the Conference’s Conference Minister, and Rev. John Dorhauer (by video), the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. Here are some of the ideas about church vitality that I took away from those presentations, with some expansion on my own part.

A vital church knows that it is not there for itself. It is there for God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and their work in the world. A church that focuses too much on itself is not vital and will not survive. A vital church looks out not in.

A vital church is grounded in the threefold vision of Micah 6:8: Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. A vital church does justice. It discerns what injustice exists in its context and works to counter that injustice. It doesn’t just talk about justice, it works to do something about it. A vital church is a kind church. It’s members are kind with each other and with all people, especially those in need. A vital church is a humble church. It knows that it is a fallible human institution. It knows that the world belongs to God not to the church. It humbly responds to the call of the Holy Spirit. It does not believe that it possesses or controls the Holy Spirit.

After every answer a vital church asks “so that?” For example, say a very small church is concerned that it can’t afford to maintain the old building it owns and in which it meets. They say they want the resources to maintain the building. If it is a vital church it will then ask “maintain the building so that?” It answers, so that we’ll have a place to gather and worship. Again, you’ll have that so that? Perhaps it answers so that we can survive as a congregation. So that? So that we can witness to the Good News of the Gospel in this place So that? So that we will respond and do good work in this community. Then back to the original question: Do you need a building so that you can do that? Maybe the answer is no. Maybe this vital church will look at other ways of being church. Maybe it will decide to sell the building that is causing it so much concern so that it can focus on why the church is really there. Every vital church asks over and over again “so that?” Continually asking that question sometimes leads to some unexpected but vital answers.

A vital church believes in its reason for existing and in its future. A vital church first of all knows that its reason for being really is. Asking “so that” over and over may lead it to the answer of why it exists. A church that doesn’t know why it exists will have no focus. It will have no direction. It will just sit there, and eventually it will die. A church that doesn’t believe in its future will do the same thing. It will never live into a future it doesn’t believe in, doesn’t believe is possible or will ever happen.

To put that another way, a vital church knows what its particular mission is and is committed to living out that mission. Just having a mission of being a church isn’t enough. What is the church’s specific mission in its time and place? Every vital church can either answer that question or is working diligently to reach an answer to that question. There are lots of possible answers, but they all relate in some direct way to God’s call to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. A church with no clear mission has no clear reason for existing.

A vital church “fails forward.” That means it dares to do new things, and sometimes those things will not succeed. When they don’t the church doesn’t give up. It learns from the failure and moves forward. A church that is afraid to fail will never do anything new. A vital church sees failure not as a cause for despair but as an occasion for learning. A vital church acts, fails, learns, and acts again.

Perhaps most of all a vital church focuses on the resources it has not on the resources it doesn’t have. Small churches so commonly say we don’t have the resources to…fill in the blank. They focus on the money and the people they don’t have. They think that what they need most of all is to grow. But church vitality is not directly correlated with size. If there is a church, it has resources and can be vital. It has people. Maybe it has only a few people. Maybe those people are elderly. Maybe they aren’t rich. They are still people, and people have gifts. A vital church focuses on those gifts. It discerns what they are, then it figures out how to use them for the life of the church and of the church’s context. Focusing on what is missing rather than on what is present leads to a loss of vitality. It can lead to despair. It leads to the death of the church. A church does not have to be big to be vital. It just has to know why it exists, what its mission is, and what gifts and resources it has without worrying too much about the ones it doesn’t have. For small churches like the one I serve, that is perhaps the most important lesson of all.