Before you go to church this Sunday, ask yourself these questions:
- Do our church leaders support trying new things?
- Are leaders willing to evaluate and use what works, and put aside what doesn't?
- Is there joy and laughter in this church?
- Does this church really show people how to pray through sermons and classes?
- Are we continually reminded here of God's love for us?
- Are the sermons here almost always inspiring and interesting to me?
- Does this church community help me identify and use my spritual gifts?
- Are the congegational songs here uplifting, inspiring and easy to sing?
- Is the special music of this church excellent and soul satisfying?
Why?
- Because answering these questions positively is shown to be highly correlated to congregations that grow.
- Because they are from the Church Growth 101 document that you can download here for free.
- Because they can be used to measure the health of your church congregation through the Thriving Churches Ministry Survey.
Why Now?
- Because, for the meantime, the survey is free.
Do these questions make sense? If so:
- Forward this link on to your church leadership.
- Leave a comment to this post
- Share this post on Facebook
These questions were developed from over 10,000 surveys from 37 congregations gathered over twelve years of work ...
Thriving Churches Ministry may be Unity's best kept secret. Revs. Robert and Janet Ellsworth, who are Thriving Churches, have actually made two great contributions to Unity, and their work continues to bless and prosper the Unity movement:
First, you might know of them from their work in helping churches implement prayer ministry and their well-known books, Come Apart for Awhile and Building an Effective Prayer Ministry. Here is how we used them to build our prayer ministry in Georgetown. Robert and Janet's guidance helped us tremendously.
But, second, is this Thriving Churches Survey Ministry. Robert and Janet both have graduate degrees, and Robert's is a Ph.D. in psychology at Penn State. Their work guided the seven month launch of Unity Georgetown, resulting in an 80 person congregation, with ten weeks of operating income in the bank and a happy, enthused congregation. Their program works.
For more information, see their paper "What Really Grows Life Changing Churches" (click here for a free download).
Call me if you wish to send a tithe or donation to the Ellsworths. I will forward you their mailing address. If you wish to conduct a survey at your church, I will help you as best as I can.
I admire their work. They inspire me. And I am grateful for their contribution to the Unity movement.
