St. Paul's to be Part of Reveal Study
The Willow Creek Association has been doing some pretty interesting and revealing research over the last few years into spiritual health and growth. They've been asking the question, "what really helps people grow spiritually? How can churches really help people develop spiritual health?"
The survey (which they are now calling "Reveal") has "revealed" some pretty interesting and challenging things. Check out this brief video from Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor at Willow Creek:
(You can watch the full 13 min video here... it is worth watching!)
They have now completed several rounds of research including additional churches. This fall/winter, they are entering the next phase that includes 500 churches. They are purposely looking at a diversity of churches--denominations, size, geography, age, etc. St. Paul's Collegiate Church will be one of those 500 churches. Our survey will be administered (online) this coming January and we will get results for us in the Spring. Ultimately, the power of this will be the combined results of 500 churches.
One of the constant questions we come back to at every leadership level here at St. Paul's is how do we get better at what we do? How do we help people become fully-devoted followers of Christ? How to help people take their next spiritual steps? We know we are a growing church (Sunday attendance is up 78% from last fall!), but are we a healthy church?
We love data and surveys here at St. Paul's. We did our first extensive congregational survey this past Spring and learned a ton. We've already implemented a number of changes as a result of that survey, and more will come. We will repeat the survey again this Spring so that we can see how we are doing one year later. The Reveal survey will add to--not replace--this important tool.
Lately, not a single staff meeting or board meeting goes by when we are not asking these questions. Often some of us will be sitting at dinner (on a day off, nonetheless) and we'll start sketching ideas out on napkins, asking questions like how to help people become self-learners? How do we help people think more biblically? Is what we are doing working? How do we get better at what we do well?
This is the stuff that keeps me up at 2:00 AM...
I consider it the greatest privilege in the world to be part of the leadership team of St. Paul's. I have never had so much fun in ministry as I am right now. But I also know that the stakes are high and that we need to constantly get better at what we do.
I believe that we are a healthy church. Not a perfect church, but a healthy one.
My hope and prayer is that as we continue to grow numerically--as I full expect we will--we will also continue to grow in quality, depth, and transformation.
I am excited to be part of the Reveal study because of what we will learn about ourselves as a church--and for what we can contribute to the broader conversation about healthy churches.
One of the things I love about UCONN is that it is a Research I institution with a serious commitment to contributing new knowledge and insight to the world. UCONN professors and students are involved with some cutting edge research, both in the hard and soft sciences. I think we can learn from UCONN in this regard -- research, data, innovation... these are all good things for the church too!
Read Comments
There are no comments yet. Contribute!