Church Vitality

All churches are called to live the purpose (or mission) of the church to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” One of the roles of the Office of Congregational Development is to equip churches to fulfill this call in their context with greater effectiveness and vitality.

Healthy churches regularly examine the current reality of their church and their community. Some tools available for your church include:

• Church Snapshot: quick access to a historical look at several key church statistics
• MissionInsite: an in-depth demographic tool which is available to any United Methodist in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. For registration information and a step-by-step instructional presentation, click here. 

In addition, the Office of Congregational Development can offer a half-day workshop for a group of churches which wants to begin to name their current reality and to begin to identify next steps of faithfulness. 

After discerning current reality, each church is ready to discern God’s call for how they are called to live faithfully in their next season of ministry and to develop a ministry plan as to how they will effectively live on purpose in their ministry context.

As churches seek to live into their ministry plan, the Office of Congregational Development offers equipping opportunities. Equipping opportunities offered through the Office of Congregational Development include:

• Reaching New People
• The Journey of 10X10

For churches which have a clear ministry plan but need encouragement in implementation, leaders can request coaching.

 For more information, contact Sam Rodriguez.