I recently wrote an article for Baptists Today entitled, Marks of a Healthy Faith Community. After agreeing to write the article, I quickly found out that I had undertaken a difficult task. My starting point was to find a good definition of health that could be applied to congregations. I started looking and quickly ran across this broad definition of health from the World Health Organization (WHO): “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Unfortunately if complete well-being (in any category) is necessary to achieve health, most individuals—much less faith communities—will never achieve it. I moved on in my search and quickly found that health—particularly congregational health—has been defined in many different ways by various individuals and groups.

Some writers such as Donald McGavrin, C. Peter Wagner and others from the church growth perspective have defined a healthy faith congregation in terms of growth and development (with an emphasis on numerical growth). In a somewhat related but different approach to defining a healthy congregation, Christian Schwarz (Natural Church Development or NCD)  identified eight characteristics of (healthy) growing churches: empowering leadership, gift-based ministry, passionate spirituality, functional structures, inspiring worship, holistic small groups, need-oriented evangelism and loving relationships. Despite NCD’s popularity in some circles, there remain questions about the validity and methodology used to identify these eight characteristics.

Another perspective on the health of faith communities can be found in the arena of family systems perspectives on community life. Edwin Friedman developed a family-systems approach to congregational health and leadership that grew out of his training as a family therapist under the tutelage of Murray Bowen. Utilizing this perspective, a healthy faith community might be defined as one in which relationships are marked by appropriate self-differentiation and non-anxious leadership. While a systems approach to thinking about health has been insightful and helpful to many leaders, the concepts remain somewhat difficult to grasp and even harder to measure in terms of health or effectiveness.

Another aspect of health used at least anecdotally to describe a healthy community of faith has to do with resources. A common parochial way of saying this is “numbers and noses.” Faith communities that have a sound financial footing, little (or manageable) debt, adequate physical facilities, and capable professional and lay leaders are often thought of as healthy communities of faith. Often tied to this benchmark is also average attendance. For most churches, regardless of their denominational or religious affiliation, more is almost always better. Better yet, healthy churches are often viewed as those that are growing numerically.

Diana Butler Bass in her book, Christianity for the rest of us, described her findings about healthy or flourishing churches within mainline Christianity in the United States. Despite the common perception that they are declining or failing as a group, Bass discovered many flourishing mainline Christian churches. Her findings challenge many of the assumptions about what constitutes a thriving community of faith. She identified ten “signposts of renewal” which might also be utilized in describing healthy churches. Bass’ signposts include hospitality, discernment, healing, contemplation, testimony, diversity, justice, worship, reflection and beauty.

I finally settled not on a definition, but on the idea that healthy congregations share certain core characteristics. Here’s the list I came up with: Constructive conflict management, adaptation to change, authentic community, ministry that reaches out as well as in, good communication, a balance between clergy authority and lay leadership, and clarity of identity and mission.

How would you define a healthy congregation? I’d love to hear your thoughts as a way to move the conversation forward and help congregations focus on the things that matter most.

Chris Gambill July 2010