3 Things We've Learned About Church Vitalization

Last month, Hannah and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary since starting as Co-Lead Pastors at Oceanside Community Church (OCC serves the Oceanside communities of Parksville, Nanoose, Errington, Coombs, and Qualicum Beach, BC).

It's just wild to think of what things were like 10 years ago compared to now (Oceanside’s story in five minutes on YouTube).

We've grown from less than 50 people when we started — with only one person under age 55 and attendance in decline for eight straight years — to a church that well over 500 now call home.

An easy snapshot comparison is Easter, which is usually an indicator of your church's maximum reach. In 2015, we had exactly 60 people. This year, we had nearly 600, including over 100 kids. For years, our kids were the only kids in the church most Sundays!

“For nearly 60 years, the church hovered between 40 and 80 people.”

What I love about our story is that our church has been established in the community since 1963, but until recently, its average annual attendance had never cracked 80. So, for nearly 60 years, the church hovered between 40 and 80 people.

Now we're seeing nearly 80 people participate in our Alpha or new believers' course almost annually, or just that many kids on a Sunday. We feel so blessed to be a part of it.

Again, so much to say, but here is an ever-so-brief description of 3 important lessons or words of advice.

1. Think Big, Start Small

I've used this advice so much with our church, especially early on. Many churches have big dreams and think big: "We could do (fill in the blank)" or "Wouldn't it be awesome if we...", but concrete action steps to move toward those goals are often lacking.

We definitely dreamed and thought big together, but we didn't just talk or dream. We took steps, often very, very, small steps, that could move us toward entertaining bigger goals.

For example, yes, we dreamed of actually having a kids' program. But we didn't just talk about it and hope kids would show up, and that we could all of a sudden run a kids' church. We started by just putting a little kids/play area in the back corner of the sanctuary so that if a few kids did show up, it looked like we had thought of them and there was something for them to do. That was our "program." It wasn't much, but it was the best we could offer to start, and it worked!

Very similarly,

2. Change Things, Yes. But Do It In a Way (Most) People Can Handle

One of the things we're most proud of is that through all the early changes, we didn't lose a lot of people. Yes, we lost some who wanted absolutely zero change: nothing you can do about that. But for the most part, we moved slowly enough that it didn't alienate the people who were there.

For example, there were literally a thousand tweaks or changes that were needed in the building (I don't think I'm exaggerating). Trinkets everyone (I remember a Disney plate on display with a ceramic horse next to it at one of the display tables at an entrance?! So random!), a jar of Canadian Tire money labeled "missions" that had obviously been there for many years, weird plants everywhere, you get the picture! And those were just the small things.

But we didn't just come in and "clean house" overnight. It sounds funny (and maybe a bit sneaky!), but I would literally often just remove one thing a week early on so that it wasn't too noticeable or too jarring for people. Eventually, the "change snowball" will pick up, but if you do it slowly enough at first and earn people's trust first, more people will hop on that snowball with you!

Related…

3. Listen First, Then Act

People want–need–to be heard. We tried to always listen to what the people were saying before we acted. That doesn't mean we always did what people wanted, but we always listened so that people felt a part of the process.

For example, we worked together for over a year on our Vision, Mission, and Core Values. Why did it take so long? Because we allowed pretty much every person to share what they thought God's calling on this specific church was. We took congregational surveys. We did a retreat with our board to simply pray, listen, and write down things or key words we felt the Lord saying. We spent months organizing the material and all the feedback, and submitted many drafts to the board and other key leaders.

Could Hannah and I have written a vision statement and Core Values we liked in a few days, and just gone ahead and announced them? Sure. And I've certainly seen pastors do that (note: it majorly alienates people!). I've even been on church staffs where I wasn't a part of any discussion about the church's vision or mission before they were presented.

So even though we had to wait over a year to finalize these guiding statements or values and spent lots of our time on them, it was well worth the time because the buy-in was so high. And they have served us well over all these years (note: we recently added the Intergenerational Ministry core value as it would have been weird to have that early on when we weren't that!).

Concluding Thoughts

I have so many more thoughts. Honestly, this isn't my favourite subject to write about, so I haven't done much on church health or growth. Part of that is because it can come across as being about yourself or your leadership.

This church's story is not about us or how we did all the right things: trust me, we did not do it all right! We made SO MANY mistakes. But the church allowed room for those mistakes and for us to all learn and grow together. Our testimony is mainly one of patience and perseverance, more than anything.

The church's story and our longevity here are a testament to the people's patience with us and with God's unfolding plan. Pastors' long-term longevity in a church is as much a reflection of the congregation as it is of the pastors.

Lord willing (and thy will be done, whatever it may be), we're looking forward to 10 more years!

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