In this episode, we talked about some of the key words and concepts that you need to know to understand REVEAL’s findings and the content we will share on the podcast in the weeks to come.

The Spiritual Vitality Index

The Spiritual Vitality Index (SVI) was formulated in response to requests from pastors for a single number to “net out” the results of their REVEAL survey report. The average for the SVI is 70, like a grade of C. It consists of three parts: Personal Spiritual Practices, Faith in Action, and Church’s Role in Congregant Spiritual Growth.

The Spiritual Continuum

The spiritual continuum consists of four categories along the road of spiritual maturity: Exploring Christ, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ, and Christ-Centered. About 10% of respondents to the survey fall into Exploring Christ—some are seekers, some have been coming to church for decades. Growing in Christ is 40%, making this group the largest voice in most churches. They tend to be very dependent on church activities. Close to Christ (25% of respondents) represents people moving into a stage of owning their faith and doing more things on their own to grow in their faith. The Christ-Centered stage (25% of respondents) is marked by an attitude of surrender—being willing to risk everything important in my life for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Growth Catalysts

Catalysts in science are things that help chemical reactions happen more quickly. Spiritual growth catalyst are the things that help people move forward along the spiritual continuum. For each movement, the key catalysts are:

• From Exploring Christ to Growing in Christ: core Christian beliefs

• From Growing in Christ to Close to Christ: personal spiritual practices

• From Close to Christ to Christ-Centered: faith-in-action

The Best Practice Principles

The Best Practice Principles were discovered after interviewing the highest scoring churches (top 5%) on the SVI. There are five BPPs:

1. Get People Moving: building a “moving sidewalk” so that everyone knows what their next step to keep growing in Christ-likeness.

2. Embed the Bible in Everything: making the Bible central to everything that happens at the church, from meetings to small groups to one-on-one conversations.

3. Create Ownership: congregants don’t go to church—they are the church, embracing the mission of the church and living in community with each other.

4. Pastor the Community: making the church externally focused, serving the community to the point that the church has a reputation in the community for their service beyond the church walls.

5. Christ-centered Leadership: the pastor is laser-focused on helping people grow in their relationship with Christ.

For more on the SVI, Spiritual Continuum, Catalysts, and Best Practice Principles, see the book MOVE: What 1,000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth.

Archetypes

Archetypes are one of the most recent findings from the REVEAL dataset. They bring together the Best Practice Principles and the spiritual growth catalysts. There are eight archetypes, which are patterns or personality types that represent similarities between churches.

The archetypes are: Troubled, Complacent, Introverted, Extroverted, Average, Energized, Self-Motivated, and Vibrant.

The purpose of the archetypes is to help churches use their REVEAL results to understand what the best next step is for their church to move toward greater vibrancy. More to come on all eight archetypes in future podcasts, or see the book RISE: Bold Strategies to Transform Your Church.