FPC Log: Marks of a High Vitality Church (vii)

The windmills of Lewis County, NY

This is the seventh posting in an ongoing if intermittent series on First Presbyterian Church, Lowville, and the decline of mainline churches, which began (here).

In a research report entitled, "A Decade of Change In American Congregations 2000-2010." author David A. Rozen summarizes the findings of a series of local church surveys conducted from 2000 through 2010.  According to the data, churches with high vitality show the following characteristics:

• they engage in innovative and contemporary worship;
• they use a variety of technologies;
• they actively engage in at least two "signature" mission projects or programs;
• they have an absence of conflict;
• they are able to change and innovate; and
• they place an emphasis on spiritual practices.

By-and-large, the research found that evangelical churches are more likely to display these characteristics than what it calls "oldline" (mainline) churches.  In particular, it notes that oldline churches find it difficult to change and innovate because of dwindling resources and an aging membership, which is less able to adapt itself to changing times.  From all of the statistics contained in the report, one of the graphs that is most troubling is the one entitled, "Figure 29: Most Disconcerting! A Sharp Erosion of Spiritual Vitality."  It shows that the the percentage of congregations "with high spiritual vitality" in the U.S. dropped from 42.8% to 28.4% in just five years, from 2005 to 2010.


The study also reports that  during the years 2000-2010 American congregations showed continued growth in innovative, adaptive worship, rapid adoption of various technologies for church life, an increase in racial-ethnic churches esp. by immigrant groups, and an increase "in the breadth of both member-oriented and mission-oriented programs."   It also found, as we would expect, that there has been a "steep drop" in the financial health of local churches, a continuing high level of conflict, and an aging membership.  The report says in summary that overall there are fewer people attending worship and there is  "decreasing spiritual vitality."

A congregation in decline that seeks reverse its decline, in sum, is very much swimming against the current, which is not to say that churches cannot discover new life.  It is just not easy.  And, of course, high vitality does not in and of itself guarantee that a church will necessarily be able to fully reverse its decline.  Other factors, including geographical location, have to be figured into the equation.

Not every generation has to face such challenges.  Not every generation gets the chance to face them!