We talk a lot about church vitalization and a desire to see soul-winning, disciple-making churches in the ABNWT PAOC region. We aim to reach the 4.4 million souls in ABNWT and be a part of reversing the trend of decreasing Christian influence in Canada.
When you look at various churches, it can be hard to determine, “Are these vitalized churches”? The reality is every church is on a trajectory, and we can’t look at an individual month or year, but we need to look at the overall trends and characteristics of a church that is vitalized. Let’s look at five characteristics of a vitalized church:
People are making decisions to follow Jesus. This is a paramount characteristic of a vitalized church. Healthy churches see at least 10% of their attendance number make first-time decisions to follow Jesus (i.e., a church of 40 will see four people make decisions over the year). This can happen anywhere in the life of the church: Sunday morning, Alpha, kids/youth ministry, personal evangelism, outreach, etc. What you’re looking for, though, isn’t “hands raised” but people with whom you or your congregation members know and are in personal relationships. This allows for follow-up and discipleship to take place.
People are getting baptized. This really is the follow-up to the first one. If people are making decisions and are in the life of the church, the obvious next step is a public confession of their faith in baptism. Churches baptize two categories: converts (new Christians) and disciples (children/youth/young adults who have grown up in the church and are making decisions to follow Jesus). Both are good. But it’s positive to see first-time Christians going through the waters of baptism.
The church is relentlessly outbound. Vitalized churches are relentlessly outbound. They are always looking for ways to engage their community and make a difference in the place they are located. Churches who coast on this find themselves looking inward. Vital churches are focused, weekly, on the lost through prayer, outreaches, stories, pop-up blessings and more. They don’t take their foot off the gas when it comes to building bridges into the community that people can cross over to become part of the family of Jesus.
There is a discipleship pathway. The point of church isn’t to come back again and again and again. The point is to be on an intentional pathway of discipleship, following Jesus and knowing more and more each day. Churches that are vitalized have a clear discipleship pathway for people to be intentional about their walk with Jesus. Discipleship doesn’t happen in just classrooms. It’s a full-life immersive experience that includes serving, small groups, prayer, devotional, growing in faith, growing in understanding, deepening worship and more. You can’t pack it into a brochure, and you sure can’t program it. However, you’ll see the values and environments that make disciples throughout the church.
There is multiplication. We say, “Healthy churches multiply,” and this is true. We don’t need to get bigger; we need to multiply our ministry efforts to more communities and more people. Multiplication is the math of the early church, and as more people came to Christ, more ministries and churches were started. Vital churches multiply their ministries, their leaders, their services, their churches and their reach. They aren’t looking to get big. They’re looking to make a bigger impact. This means more people, more ministries, more locations, and more access points to the gospel.
There isn’t a single pastor I know who doesn’t want to be in a vitalized church. The key is to look at your characteristics and compare them with this list. What’s missing? What needs to happen in our leadership to steer us towards this more and more? May God allow us to see more and more vital churches.
Jeremiah works as an Effectiveness Coach with the ABNWT District of the PAOC. He is a passionate and creative leader who believes that the church is the hope of the world. He uses collaboration, innovation, and inspiration to challenge churches and their leadership to engage in the only mission Jesus ever sent his church on: making disciples.