Is Your Church Flourishing?

Jim Morgan

Over the last 25 years, nearly 40 million Americans have stopped attending church – the most significant decline in any quarter century in our nation’s history. Any church growth seen today occurs primarily among churches with over 250 on Sundays, but the median congregation size today is only 65. Since the early 1990s, the percentage of U.S. adults identifying as Christians has dropped 25%. Shuffling the deck (a shift toward churches offering more amenities and programs) while the overall pie is shrinking does not indicate a flourishing Church. Those dynamics warrant a closer, biblical look at the definition of church “flourishing”. (Hint: It has little to do with size.)

In our last post, we reviewed Harvard’s 5 widely-accepted (even in Christian circles) flourishing “Domains” – happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships. We discussed Harvard’s 4 “Pathways” to promote flourishing along those Domains – family, work, education, and religious community. We then revised the Harvard Domain and Pathway nomenclature to reflect a biblical world view. Although Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program wasn’t developed from a Christian perspective or intended to apply to churches, their Domain and Pathway terminology actually comes closer to describing a flourishing church than a flourishing person.

Domains:

There may be discrepancies between the perception and reality of flourishing among churchgoers and church leaders:

Happiness and Satisfaction

What Flourishing Is Not…Churchgoers shopping for the best “experience”, engaging more in fellowship than worship, or evaluating performance rather than fulfilling their GC³ responsibilities. Church leaders keeping members happy, hesitant to address unpopular truths and sin in the congregation, or retaining “consumers” rather than equipping disciples to pursue the Church’s intended “customers” (i.e. friends and neighbors who don’t know Jesus).

Flourishing…Bringing enduring joy to congregants and communities, and glory to God, by striving for church as He intended. Instead of member happiness or satisfaction, the Church’s goal should be “Shalom” encompassing peace, wholeness, righteousness, completeness, unity, mission, justice, salvation, as well as right relationships with Jesus, others, and His creation.

Health

What Flourishing Is Not…Churchgoers frequently attending and actively participating, but not transformed; cultural Christians who never become sold-out disciple-multipliers where they work and live. Church leaders measuring health based on “nickels and noses” and inadvertently assessing the value of Religious Community the way Harvard does (by level of engagement).

Flourishing…Pastors, staff, and members not concerned about numerical growth, but spiritual growth in their love for Jesus and one another. A sure sign of a healthy church is a curious community, wondering what must be happening inside a place where people don’t walk out the same way they came in – once hopeless, now healthy.

Meaning and Purpose

What Flourishing Is Not…Churchgoers finding their mission only inside the “4 walls” on Sundays, comfortable serving and speaking about Jesus in secure confines, but relatively inactive and quiet the rest of the week. Church planters abandoning their initial (external) ambitions to radically change their city when growth brings (internal) responsibilities of managing an established church and the risk of now having something to lose.

Flourishing…Much has been written about purpose-driven churches, but a flourishing church treats congregations as Kingdom employees (not customers) and trains them to live out the purposes for which God designed them. Only churches fully leveraging the “power of the pews” can reach those who will never darken a church’s doors. Only pastors willing to unite with others will build the capacity to move the needle on social issues plaguing a city.

Character and Virtue

What Flourishing Is Not…Character, like integrity, involves doing the right thing when no one is watching (although God always is). According to Scripture, virtue is moral excellence. Harvard defines character and virtue along similar lines – e.g. promoting good in all (even difficult) circumstances and deferring personal happiness for the sake of others. By those standards, too many churchgoers and church leaders today fall short.

Flourishing…Confronting members and leaders who are living outside of God’s will, determined to keep the Church holy, unafraid to mention words no longer deemed socially acceptable and largely removed from the Christian vernacular – like sin, repentance, and accountability. Flourishing churches practice personal, intensive discipleship because they understand that teaching and obeying Jesus’ commands are the essence of the Great Commission.

Close Social Relationships

What Flourishing Is Not…Becoming so engrossed in relationships with church members and other Christians that there’s little time to get to know and witness to non-believers in their circles of influence. Many church leaders are too aligned with Harvard around the connection between religious engagement and flourishing, encouraging deeper connections and greater investment of time with members and small groups, knowing it drives loyalty and retention.

Flourishing…Building the Kingdom (rather than “kingdoms”) causes the universal Church, as well as local churches, to flourish. Of Jesus’ commands, His Greatest was to love God and our “neighbors”, citing as an example the Good Samaritan who showed love to someone who didn’t attend their church. Yes, it’s our love for our brothers and sisters that draws people to us, Christ, and His Church. However, all believers are also called into close, intentional relationships with those living without Jesus or in poverty without access to social capital.

As was the case with the 5 Domains, the 4 Pathways that Harvard discovered lead to human flourishing relate (indirectly) to the 4 “pathways” that the Bible says leads to church flourishing. Families (of God), Work (Service), Education (Discipleship), and building Religious Community (through Evangelism) do in fact promote Happiness and Satisfaction (Shalom), Church Health, Meaning and Purpose, Character and Virtue, and Close Social Relationships among both congregations and communities.

Pathways:

Any church wishing to flourish in a biblical context would have to excel in Prayer, Care, Share, and Discipleship:

Family (of God) – A church family should be united in prayer, worship, and fellowship. PRAYER is the foundation for any flourishing family because nothing truly good happens unless the Lord builds the house. Harvard’s focus is on how religious engagement fuels flourishing, but the depth of one’s communion with Christ is the ultimate indicator.
Work (Service) – Not simply “church chores” but compassion for those suffering, first for fellow Christians but also for the materially poor, who hold a special place in Jesus’ heart. Harvard’s focus is on personal flourishing, but it’s impossible for Christ-followers to flourish unless they CARE enough to ensure their friends and neighbors flourish.
Education (Discipleship) – Knowledge doesn’t always imbue or imply wisdom. Wisdom is rooted in truth, whose foundation is Jesus. The more we know about Him, the more we seek to know Him. Yet Harvard suggests that any education drives flourishing, even if it’s based on a flawed world view (i.e. a misunderstanding of the depravity of human nature).
Religious Community (Evangelism) – Not every religious community produces authentic flourishing. Real joy, contentment, spiritual health, purpose, meaning, and virtue are found in Christ alone. Harvard treats all religions as equals. However, it’s most important for Christians (not other faiths) to promote flourishing, by building the Kingdom (SHARE), not just a church.

Biblical church is the ekklesia (“called out ones”) – not facilities, pastors, and staff. When churchgoers flourish along these Domains and Pathways, so does that church.