The Thriving Church, Part 1: Indicators

Hey You!

Acts 2:47 CEB

They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved.

The Thriving Church

Vine tractor crash.

At least there were plenty of other vines. After all, it was a vineyard. If there is only one vine it’s not called a vineyard. Just called a vine.

I could have done everything possible to keep that vine healthy and producing fruit. By not running over it with my tractor, for starters. But no matter what I did, it is inevitable, that vine would have grown old.

Not sure when or how a vine will meets the end of its life expectancy.

Until Jesus returns, Growing old is inevitable.

Indicators are helpful…

find story ark.

Old isn’t bad.

in a vineyard. They can withstand the elements better, the fruit can be more high quality, develop resistance to pests, and offer benefits to the vineyard.

In a vineyard, old vines can withstand the elements better, the fruit can be of higher quality, develop resistance to pests, and offer other benefits to the vineyard.

However, if the vineyard grows old without parts growing young, it will have a short life expectancy. It will end in a dead vineyard. Because every vine has a life expectancy, new vines need to be cultivated in order for the vineyard to have longevity.

A goal of vineyard management is a thriving vineyard.

Good numbers of mature vines, good numbers of healthy vines, with stable trunks, roots, and foliage, and an ecosystem fed with ample nutrients while maintaining integrated pest management. All that is needed for stability. And they are indicators of a vineyard that is alive and perhaps stable.

But a thriving vineyard will have all of indicators of a stable vineyard with the addition of crops of fruit and rejuvenation by way of new and young vines.

When fruit is absent or low yielding in a vineyard, and when the vines that die off aren’t replaced with new or young growth, the voids becomes very obvious. We see places where things are missing. And if nothing is done about it, if there is no intervention, the vineyard will eventually decline and die.

Helping the vineyard thrive is the goal in vineyard management. When the vineyard ceases to thrive an intervention needs to happen. Otherwise, as each vine slowly dies, and with no new growth, new vines, there is no rejuvenation, and the life expectancy of the vineyard will be cut short. Because with good vineyard management, a vineyard can live indefinitely. That’s where I came into the equation in those days. To consult and help the vineyard owner turn his or her ailing vineyard into a thriving vineyard by applying an intervention. More fertilizer, better pest control, irrigation, transplanting, grafting, etc. Keeping tractors from running over the vines.

As a vineyard manager, one should consistently assess the vineyard and ask, “is this vineyard thriving?” If not, then an intervention is needed. Otherwise, the vineyard will succumb to a short life expectancy.

You know, Christ uses the metaphor, of the vine and vineyard many times in his teaching when talking about the relationship of us, the church, and himself.

Let us draw on this metaphor in relation to the church as a vineyard.

And one of our jobs as members of the church, manager of the church, laborers of the vineyard, is to ask the question, “is our church thriving?”

And just as a goal for a vineyard is to thrive, so a goal of the church is to thrive.

Let us We can draw from the comparison and ask the question, “is our church thriving?”

And as a vineyard has an indefinite life expectancy, Shelf life relates to life expectancy. Even local churches have a life expectancy that is inevitable unless there is an intervention to counteract.

Churches should be thriving.

And just as

Look!!

Look at the picture of the church in Acts 2:47

Acts 2:47 CEB

They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved.

The church in was thriving.

I would say that the church was thriving.

Do we compare to this picture of a thriving church?

Look around the areas of your life and the church. Can you think of people you know who you wish were in the vineyard? Do you see empty spots where you wish someone was filling? Do you wish for more fruit, new and young growth, growth of any kinds, and signs of thriving?

It’s important to understand our status as a church. To look for the indicators of a thriving church. Are we thriving? Are other churches thriving? And if not, what can be done about it?

We need to define our reality.

Our Reality

TC church growth stats

Age stats

Close to a plateau on growth.

We need to apply an intervention in order to thrive.

However, a higher percentage of young growth compared to the old growth. In other words, baptisms are more from our own children. It’s biological growth. That’s great.

Surely we can agree we can try to do better and get more growth and young growth from outside.

We are placing young people in leadership and focusing huge amounts of attention to them. Youth ministries, Pathfinders, Adventurers, family ministries.

Yet overall, we are a good spot to intervene so we get away from the plateau.

If you are wondering why we are observing numbers that suggest we are not thriving or growing as much as possible, we are not alone.

As we define our own reality, we also must define the reality around us, because it is part of our reality.

The reality is that most churches are not growing and not getting any younger.

Religious Affiliation

According to an extensive survey by the Pew Research Center, the share of adults in the US who identify as Christians fell from 78 percent to 71 percent between 2007 and 2014.

Nones = “religiously unaffiliated” (meaning atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular”)

Powell, Kara. Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church . Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

7% rise in “Nones” over 7 years. 16% - 23% rise in Nones.

Identify as Christian reduced from 78% - 71% during the same period.

These stats on the decline of the number of Christians, varies from denomination and congregation. Some are declining, some are plateauing. The Adventist church shows up as an outlier. Although we are growing slightly in the US, it is attributed to immigration growth and not as much from direct outreach and conversion of nones into Christians.

In other words,

“No major Christian tradition is growing in the US today. A few denominations are managing to hold steady, but that’s as good as it gets.” - Kara Powell. Growing Young, Fuller Theological Seminary.

And at the congregation level,...

Powell, Kara. Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church . Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Quotes from forgotten ways

Burril quote

“Fully 80-85 percent of all Adventist churches in North America are plateaued or declining.” -Russell Burrill, Waking the Dead

-Russell Burrill, “Waking the Dead”

North Pacific Union quote

Growing young quotes

Those who study this believe that the decline in church attendance is linked with young people’s religious practices or lack thereof.

According to 2015 US Census Bureau data, adults ages 18 to 29 comprised 17 percent of the adult population. Yet that same age group represents less than 10 percent of church attendees nationwide.

Let’s make that statistic a bit more personal. Visualize a photograph of the young people in your congregation. Now imagine holding a red pen and drawing an X through almost 50 percent of their faces.

In other words...

One in two young people will drift from the church.

Life expectancy.

Powell, Kara. Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church . Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

And as a vineyard has an indefinite life expectancy, Shelf life relates to life expectancy. Even local churches have a life expectancy that is inevitable unless there is an intervention to counteract.

Everything it seems has a shelf life. Bread, milk, veggie links, Even twinkies. Macaroni and Cheese as well. By the way, the gooy concoction Costco sells by the bucket that has a shelf life of 20 years is sold out at the moment.

Even the church has a life expectancy. It won’t last forever, if left unmanaged.

Life Cycle of the Church- Birth, Growth, Maturity, Decline, Death Average Lifespan 70 Years

Birth, Growth, Maturity, Decline, Death Average Lifespan 70 Years

Birth

Growth

Maturity

Decline

Death

Average Lifespan 70 Years

-Russell Burrill, “Waking the Dead”

70 Years

-Russell Burrill, “Waking the Dead”

Average lifespan of the church is seventy years. - Russell Burrill, Waking the Dead

I believe it’s safe to say that we see this is an urgent matter to pay attention to.

I

I believe you are not satisfied with the shrinking and aging of churches today.

And we feel a sense of urgency to pay attention, since our church is getting close to 70 years. We won’t want to sit back and let the average life expectancy of a church run its course.

If left unattended, unmanaged, we will have a story

Our Hope

Guess what? There’s good news. Let’s move to good news. It’s not all gloom and doom. There are bright spots that can illuminate our way in becoming a thriving church.

There may not be single denominations that are thriving in the context of growing, and growing young. But there are places we can find local churches, congregations, and groups, that are bright spots, thriving and growing young.

As we look at them in this series we can learn from them.

We learn that lasting vitality, a vibrant congregation, a thriving congregation can be fostered by growing young.

Powell, Kara. Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church . Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Just like a thriving vineyard that is rejuvenated with new and young growth and fruit. The same holds true for the church. Every church needs young people. Passion, energy, curiosity, freshness.

Young people need a thriving church. It grounds them and sends them out into the world as disciplemakers.

The church needs young people and they need the church. One without the other is incomplete.

In the August 2017 Gleaner editorial, John Freedman, North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) president, expressed that "we can no longer ignore statistics that show our Seventh-day Adventist denomination in North America is aging. Our older, wiser members are precious to our church and essential to our God-given mission. However, we have a generational crisis that is not adequately being addressed. We are failing to adequately incorporate young adults into church ministry and mission."

"we can no longer ignore statistics that show our Seventh-day Adventist denomination in North America is aging. Our older, wiser members are precious to our church and essential to our God-given mission. However, we have a generational crisis that is not adequately being addressed. We are failing to adequately incorporate young adults into church ministry and mission." - John Freedman, North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) president, August 2017 Gleaner editorial.

We should continue the momentum we are doing here. Funding, particiapteing , planning, praying, being involved in young people’s lives.

As we continue on and address issues we need to address, we will grow more and grow younger.

Furthermore, as congregations grow young, the other indicators of a thriving church also improve, like evangelism, dynamic worship services, prayer life, discipleship, mission and service, and authentic warm community.

Growing young energizes the entire church.

Also we will see that growing young takes everyone. It can’t be done alone.

Regardless of age, you can play a key role in the church thriving and growing young.

Young people need you to dream new dreams that affect this generation.

Extensive studies show WE DON’T NEED TO BE list...

A precise size

A trendy location

An exact age

An off the charts cool quotient

A big modern building

A big budget

A contemporary worship service

A watered down teaching style

A hyper-entertaining ministry program

Our hope is in following Jesus.

Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, "Follow Me." -Ellen White, Ministry of Healing, p. 143

-Ministry of Healing, 143.3

See! (Explain the passage)

Bright spots

Key items that foster thriving churches

Acts church verse showing growth..

Acts 2:42–46 CEB

42 The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. 43 A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. 44 All the believers were united and shared everything. 45 They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. 46 Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity.

This is a thriving church following the example of Jesus.

They did all this without a cool quotient.

Early Adventist church grew without even having fancy sanctuaries. They met in barns and people’s living rooms.

Key items that foster thriving churches from looking at the New Testament, Early church, early Adventist Church, and examples of the bright spots here and there are...

The areas to focus on to become a thriving church are:

Discipleship/Evangelism

2. Discipleship/Evangelism

Leadership

Empathy

Community

Priorities

Neighbors

The fine details of these we will explore in each installment of this series.

Bright spot stories....

*****

produce ample fruit,

However, everything works together for the goal of a vineyard with fruit and , but without fruit

However, anything, any organism that does not have some way to become rejuvenated, will cease thriving and end up in decline and death.

Assessment details: society and church

What does a thriving church look like?

Bright spots

Early church

others around us

Indicators of thriving in the early church

Indicators of thriving today.

See! (Explain the passage)

Key items that foster thriving churches

Do! (Make application)

Pray For...

Firt Name Last Name

Firt Name Last Name

Firt Name Last Name

Start through prayer. End with prayer. Pray without ceasing. Pray as you specifically look at the voids in our congregation. The ones that need to be filled by new growth and young growth. It’s easy. Think of someone who you know or want to know, who isn’t here, but you want them to be here to fill the void and be that growth.

Write their names down on your notes, device, in your mind, and pray for them. Pray that you will be inspired in the coming weeks to take the ideas, inspiration, guidance from this series and apply it towards making this congregation one that goes out to embrace them to disciple them, love them, be the hands and feet of Jesus to them.

Prayer - on your notes, smartphone, in your mind. List a few people

We need to grow, to thrive, and to grow young

We need each other. Young, old, and in-between to work together to achieve this goal for the Lord’s glory.