What is the key to a healthy church? United Methodists have paid big bucks to find out.
The church recently concluded a study of more than 32,000 Methodist congregations across North America, seeking the “key factors impacting vital congregations.” The study surveyed everybody from bishops to district superintendents to people in the pews.
Working with New York-based Towers Watson consultants, researchers constructed a “vitality index” to measure each church and concluded “that all kinds of UMC (United Methodist Church) churches are vital — small, large, across geographies, and church setting.”
The report identified four key areas that fuel vitality: small groups and programs; worship services that mix traditional and contemporary styles with an emphasis on relevant sermons; pastors who work hard on mentorship and cultivation of the laity; and an emphasis on effective lay leadership. These four factors “are consistent regardless of church size, predominant ethnicity, and jurisdiction,” the study concluded.
Problems like the rising average age of both clergy and parishioners, and continuing downward trends in worship attendance and baptisms, prompted researchers to launch a more holistic study of church vitality, they said.
Of the many problems facing U.S. churches, “one is clearly economic pressure of the cost of the infrastructure, which is increasing at a rate that is greater than the giving,” said Neil Alexander, president of the Nashville-based United Methodist Publishing House.
A second, however, “is a creeping crisis of relevancy,” which is signaled by “(the number of) young people not growing as a percentage of the participants” in the church, he said.
Palmer said the study cost “several hundred thousand dollars” and was geared to go “beyond the anecdotal.” Because of its size and cost, this project should be considered a “once-in-a-decade kind of enterprise.”
The study concluded that church health couldn’t be pinned on any one of the four essentials identified by researchers, or even the size or scope of those programs. “An essential finding of the research was that it’s the combination of factors that contribute to vitality, rather than any one or two,” the report said.
The study did turn up some surprising results. According to the data, it did not matter whether ministers held seminary degrees; whether pastoral ministry was a first or second career; or how long the minister had been engaged in pastoral ministry.
In addition, the number and types (global or local) of outreach programs did not have a significant impact on vitality, so long as a congregation had some sort of outreach program. (RNS)
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