Seven Signs of a Thriving Congregation

Introducing a new series that explores the theology of Cultivating Communities

Photo by Yoksel 🌿 Zok on Unsplash

Today we’re starting a new series…

which will be interspersed with Jim Aldrich’s series of posts on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age. The backbone of this new series will be a brief document that has guided our work at Cultivating Communities over the past 5+ years: Seven Signs of a Thriving Congregation:

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How did we get here?

These signs emerged from the particular experience of our life together as a church at Englewood Christian Church on the Near Eastside of Indianapolis, and certainly are NOT an exhaustive list of the characteristics that comprise a thriving church. These signs, however, describe the goals and ideas that orient Cultivating Communities (and the organizations with whom we partner, including Missio Alliance, The Ekklesia Project, and Lawndale Christian Community Church) as we work with churches.

The first version of this list of seven signs was written in 2020 as we reflected on our church’s journey, and the convictions and practices that have pressed us into a deeper shared life with one another and with our neighbors. The list was included as a key part of our proposal for a grant from the Lilly Endowment, as part of their Thriving Congregations initiative. Apparently, the folks at the Lilly Endowment also found the list compelling, because we were awarded a 5-year grant that began in January 2021.

Over the last five years, we have been working with three beta cohorts of very diverse churches in distinct geographical areas: here in Indianapolis, in the Appalachian region of East Tennessee, and in the Lawndale neighborhood of West Chicago. This work with churches has—more or less—followed the contours of these seven signs. Our initial grant period has ended, but we continue to walk alongside these churches as they are now exploring initiatives to embody some of what we’ve learned together.

Now we’re entering a new and exciting phase, working with individual congregations rather than cohorts. We’re looking for more churches across the U.S. that might be curious to explore the seven signs with us and to discern together what it would look like to grow more deeply connected within their congregation and with their neighbors. If this post intrigues you, and you think these signs might resonate with your church, reply and drop us a line or leave a comment below.

I want to briefly introduce each of these signs in this post, and then in subsequent posts, we will dig deeper into the scriptural, theological, and practical roots of each sign. (The first two signs provide a foundation of sorts on which the remaining five signs rest.)

1. A coherent theology of the church centered on the way of Jesus.

This first sign contains our deepest convictions: first, that the way of Jesus is at the absolute center of the sort of life to which we aspire, and secondly, that God desires for the way of Jesus to be lived out in an embodied, day-to-day community we know as church. A church embodies the way of Jesus in its particular place, and in spite of its immaturity and —at times—unfaithfulness, its neighbors get glimpses of the love, healing, and compassion of Jesus. It’s foolish to assume everyone in a congregation holds the same convictions about God and faith, and of course, churches should be communities in which people with diverse ideas gather together. And yet, the church’s life and work must be animated by a cohesive understanding of the person and work of Jesus. The hard work of uncovering and articulating this theology is a foundational step toward becoming a thriving community. [READ MORE HERE]

2. A growing capacity for ongoing conversation and discernment.

If you’ve been following along here for any length of time, you’re not surprised to find conversation at the heart of this exploration. Conversation is the primary means by which a congregation listens to and discerns the presence of the Spirit in their midst. A body exists as a conversation between many diverse members, and coordinates itself and moves in exquisite ways through this intricate conversation, carried out over long periods of time through the nervous system. Conversation is therefore vital to our capacity to embody Christ and the Spirit, who lives among us and guides us moment-by-moment deeper into the way of Christ. [READ MORE HERE]

3. A commitment to a common life.

To be a community (whether church or any other kind), is to organize ourselves around that which we share in common. This doesn’t unfold by coincidence, but rather requires our commitment to seek and cultivate this ethos. (And of course, conversation is the means by which we learn what we share in common and nurture imagination for the deeper sharing of life.) This is not just about spending time together in small groups; it is about communion with one another over time, as we experience life’s many ups and downs and transitions. [READ MORE HERE]

4. A robust economy of the Spirit where worship, work, and play are shared.

This sign goes hand-in-hand with the previous one: at the heart of a common life is a shared economy, driven by the Spirit’s presence among us. (For a compelling image of this sort of economy, consider the life of the earliest church community in Jerusalem, as depicted in Acts 2-5.) The Spirit calls us to share life together in holistic ways, including worship, work, and play. The Spirit also provides rich imagination for how this sort of holistic economy emerges and is cultivated over time. [READ MORE HERE]

5. A place-based, permeable identity.

The geographic place in which we gather as a church matters, and gives rich flavor and meaning to our life together in Christ. At the same time, this is not merely for our own benefit as a church, but rather we share life together in and among our neighbors. We’re not interested in building fences or walls that keep neighbors out, but live as a permeable sort of community in which neighbors can join in to parts of our life together (just as we join in parts of the common life of our place). [READ MORE HERE]

6. A community of exiles practicing hospitality.

As a community that follows the way of Jesus and bears witness to God’s reign that is emerging throughout creation, we are never fully aligned with the empires, powers, or political parties of our land. We will thus, inevitably, always be exiles, but exiles who practice hospitality. Thriving churches create spaces in which conversations can unfold, trust can be cultivated, and strangers come to know one another. We extend hospitality, first, to one another within our congregation, but in doing so, our hospitality also flows outward to neighbors, siblings in Christ from other places, and to strangers who wander in. [READ MORE HERE]

7. A missional community oriented toward “being with” neighbors.

We are ambassadors of Christ’s reconciliation, repenting of all the harm we have done TO our neighbors and all the well-intentioned things we do FOR our neighbors, and instead striving to learn how to simply be WITH our neighbors. The hope is for members of a congregation to walk alongside one another, truly seeing and hearing one another (yes, you guessed it, in conversation), and caring for one another and for the place we share. [READ MORE HERE]

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How do these signs of a thriving congregation square with your own experience?

Is there a particular sign or two that piques your curiosity, especially related to what it might mean for your church?

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Other News…

Englewood Press has put our first Lectionary Poetry ebook on sale for Lent…

Lectionary Poetry (Year A, Volume 1):
Classic & Contemporary Poetry for Walking Through the Church Year

$2.99 Directly from us - OR - $4.99 in the Kindle store.

(Volume 2 will be available later this spring, in time for Pentecost!)

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AND, if you tend to read a lot of theology books, The Englewood Review of Books has just published a list of Ten Important Theology Books released in February. The list is wide-ranging, and I suspect you might find a book or two that grabs your interest. Check it out!

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