The Vital Congregation: by Herb Miller

The Vital Congregation, by Herb Miller is only 134 pages long but it's jammed packed with things that vital congregations do. There is no way for me to even hit the highlights in a review.

The book compels me to make my own critical assessment of my church. We, in fact, do many things well at Westmount. The problem I'm left with after reading Miller's book is which one of several dozen things I could initiate to make things even better.

One thing he cautions about evangelism is that it has to be about the right thing: evangelism has to be about bringing new people to God. Many, many churches struggle financially, and if we go out to find 'new recruits' for the purpose of helping us meet the budget ... or simply to survive, then we're bringing people to church for the wrong reasons. Ironically, studies indicate that new Christians will not be the saving grace for financial woes: they tend to give, on the whole approximately only 20 percent of what an established parishioner offers each year.

On meeting with resistance in regards to evangelism, Miller is bold to the point of being harsh. "If we are not actively engaged in this kind of fishing (evangelism), then we may need to ask ourselves who or what we are following. It may be something other than Jesus. Churches that lack evangelism motivation may not need a new evangelism program so much as they need more biblical Christianity."

When I interviewed a senior minister of the denomination he said that when he is asked, "Why do we need to grow?" his answer to that is, "You're asking the wrong question. The right question is, 'What are we here for?'" Answer: to bring people to God!

Evangelism brings some chaos to congregations. That's why with the great reward of bringing people to Christ, there are many challenges too. But to survive, we MUST be up for these challenges! New people want and need to be involved and established church members have to let these new folk pick up the ball and run with it ... as long as the new direction is theologically sound!

Resistance to change, Miller says, is often about established members having a 'serve us' mentality, rather and a service mentality. Resistance to change is often expressed as, "that's not our way." The response to that is, "church is not about us! It's about serving God." In other words we must be flexible enough to allow new Christians to join our ranks. As the church membership continues to age, allowing change for new, younger Christians will be all about the degree of flexibility of our established membership.

Following are two curiosities from Miller's book.

ONE

1. A home visit from a lay person within 36 hours of someone new attending church increased the likelihood they will return by 85%.
2. Visit them within 72 hours and the number is reduced to 60%.
3. Wait seven days? 15%.
4. Send clergy instead of laity: cut all of the above numbers in half.
5. Telephone instead of personal visit: cut the above numbers by three quarters.

TWO

A study published by Princeton Religious Research Center indicated that the top priority of Christians is "concentrating on the spiritual growth of one's family and self." From 1978 to 1988 the percentage of children receiving religious education grew from 60 to 69 percent. "Churches are growing numerically when they provide meaningful opportunities for people to grow in their understanding of the Bible and in their sense of spiritual relatedness to God through Prayer." He later goes on to say, "Small groups and classes do not, by themselves, cause growth and vitality in a congregation, but vital congregations always have them. Therefore, the only appropriate response so someone who wants to start a new group is, "Why not?"