“Always ready to worship and serve.”

Congregational Development

The resources on this page are intended to assist churches who are looking at means to foster growth in their congregation (spiritual for those already present as well as numeric by adding new persons). There is no silver bullet on this page which will easily accomplish that task.

Congregational development involves discovering the gifts already existing within the congregation and the needs in the community and bringing these two together in order to more fully live into being the body of Christ. This is never easy, but neither is it optional. The resources below are offered to assist in this process.

The Church Toolbox
This is an online resource created by the Diocese of Virginia Commission on Church Development. Included are pages on:

• Keeping People Who Visit

• A Hospitality Check List

• Common factors in churches that are growing

Congregational Development from The Episcopal Church
This is the web page for congregational development within The Episcopal Church with areas on:

• Research and Statistics in which you can find unbiased data on the demographics of your church's area and how your church's data as culled from annual reports and placed into a chart at Studying your Congregation and Community.
  There is also the research study Congregational Size and Church Growth in The Episcopal Church which finds that "Small churches are more volatile than larger congregations. They are more likely to die, but they are also more likely to grow. Furthermore, they add more to the growth of the Episcopal Church than do larger congregations."

• Congregation Vitality is a helpful series of booklets in PDF format including Sizing Up a Congregation and The Life Cycle in Congregations

• Ten Tips for Congregational Development

• Manual of Business Methods in Church Affairs is not a church growth publication, but it is vital to keep a congregation's business affairs in order if that church is to grow.

Congregational Resource Guide
This is an effort of the Alban Institute and the Indianapolis Center for Congregations created to help congregational leaders connect with resources to foster vitality in their communities of faith.
 

"To grow and to continue growing, it is necessary for each mainstream church
to become a vital religious institution, vibrant with the presence of God.

It must develop a clear religious identity, a compelling religious purpose,
and a coherent sense of direction that arises from that purpose"
Rerouting the Protestant Mainstream: Sources of Growth and Opportunities for Change

(C. Kirk Hadaway and David A. Roozen, Abingdon, 1995, p. 86)