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 In Search of the Effective ChurchNot all healthy churches look alike, but a few family resemblances can be detected.
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I spent my three-month summer sabbatical on a cross-country tour with my family, visiting 25 of the most effective churches in the United States. Before I left, I expected to find a lot of similarities. The differences, however, surprised me most. I came back without a clear, monolithic model of effective ministry. Instead, I found myself confronted with options and choices. Plotting the SearchI began planning this trip a year before it took place. My ministry experience had been limited to one nineteen-year pastorate in a university town, where our independent church had grown largely in isolation from any one model or tradition. I felt the need to see firsthand how other churches worked. So I contacted a number of respected Christian leaders and asked each to give me the names of five congregations with unusually effective ministries. As my list grew, I noticed some congregations mentioned repeatedly. I contacted their pastors for the names of yet other model congregations. I narrowed the list to 25 congregations, most of which were in the Midwest and West. My limitation of three months for travel dictated that I cut out the Northeast and Southeast. Since I lived in the Southeast, I reasoned I could more easily visit these areas later. I targeted several congregations in specific metropolitan areas (Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas) in order to use my time more efficiently. But I also visited some out-of-the way churches. Then I contacted each of the 25 churches and asked to meet with the staff and lay leaders, observe services, and do whatever they thought would be most valuable for me. I was grateful for the degree of cooperation I received from large and small churches alike. During the trip, I took notes, collected materials, and wrote summaries of each visit. After returning to North Carolina, I shared my observations with our church leaders and let it all soak for several weeks. Then I started formulating some conclusions. A Startling VarietyI quickly observed that it takes different kinds of churches to reach different kinds of people. The congregations I saw varied from large megachurches like Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois to relatively small (200 attenders) Trinity Church in Seattle. Some were predominantly black, like Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas; some were charismatic, like the Vineyard Fellowship in Anaheim, California; some were denominational, like Covenant Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana; while others were independent, like Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Most were quite different from our congregation in Chapel Hill, as I had hoped. I was less interested in critiquing than in learning. It's hard to do justice to the great diversity I saw, but let me suggest four broad categories that distinguish these churches. I realize that if asked to describe themselves in terms of my categories, most of these congregations would say they're striving for a balance. And because my visits were relatively short and not nearly as thorough as I would have liked, I run the risk of being too intuitive in my assessments. Nonetheless, from my observation each church tended to emphasize one theme over the others. |             |
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