This podcast features an interview with Eric Arnson, the market research genius behind the development REVEAL. Earlier in his career, Eric led the North American brand strategy for McKinsey and Company, one of the world’s most respected consulting firms. Cally interviewed Eric to learn more about his perspective on why church leaders should be interested in their congregants’ satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, with the church.

In this episode, we discussed the characteristics of the churches in the Introverted Church archetype, which compromise 17% of churches in our database, making it is one of the largest archetypes. As the name suggests, churches in this archetype tend to be inwardly focused. However, their congregants have strong beliefs in core Christian doctrines and are dedicated to their personal spiritual practices. These strengths provide a solid base for Introverted Churches to implement changes that will lead the church to become more vibrant.

In this episode, we discussed the characteristics of the churches that fall under the Self-Motivated Church archetype, which compromise 10% of churches in our database. Its existence is less intuitive and may be harder to understand at first than many of the other archetypes-like the Vibrant Church or the Complacent Church. Yet this archetype is one of the strongest, and Self-Motivated Churches are well-positioned to move toward greater vibrancy. Their congregants are on a spiritual journey that is, in fact, "self-motivated." They have strong beliefs, well-established personal spiritual practices, and impressive rates of serving and evangelism. The church plays a more limited role in their spiritual lives than it does for congregants in other types of churches.

In this episode, we talked with Phill Tague, lead pastor of Ransom Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Ransom Church took the REVEAL survey in the spring of 2016 for the first time. The church fell into our strongest archetype—the Energized Church.

Phill returned to his hometown of Sioux Falls to plant Ransom Church with his wife in 2009. Prior to that he served in youth ministry in North Carolina. Ransom is a large multi-site church, with more than 1600 adults attending weekend services, and young—one third of the people who took the survey were in their 20s, which is well above our database average. The church meets on two campuses and is preparing to launch a third in 2018. Sioux Falls is a city with a population of 250,000 that serves as a hub for a region of approximately one million people. The surrounding area is largely rural.

Ransom Church’s Approach to REVEAL and to Being an Energized Approach

• The church took REVEAL because its leadership wanted to be sure that their perceptions of the congregation were accurate. They also wanted to be sure that the church was healthy as they sought to plant new campuses and worship venues.

• The Energized archetype reflects the diversity of spiritual maturity in the congregation. Some are very mature believers; others are still deciding whether they want to follow Christ. The result of this mix of where people at Ransom Church are in their faith is that the church is in the Energized archetype.

Ransom Church’s Approach to Creating a Culture of Serving Those in Need

• Keep programming simple. Ransom Church’s only programs are weekend services, small groups, and serving opportunities.

• Make serving the norm, not an option, from the first time someone comes to a newcomer event. This creates a culture where serving is expected.

• Small groups serve together.

• It’s important to talk to city leaders and residents to determine what the needs are and let organizations know that the church is there to serve them.

• The first 10% of church’s budget goes to missions and serving the community.

Ransom Church’s Approach to Small Groups

• Small groups are a work in progress.

• Churches can outgrow a traditional small group structure. When this happens, it is time to re-think the structure. Make sure that the process is serving the people instead of requiring people to serve the process.

• Ransom Church revisited their structure and process and created a new type of group called Friend Groups in addition to their structured Life Groups.

• In Friend Groups, mature believers are trained, resourced, and provided with curriculum and support and then are released to start groups with friends and co-workers outside the structure of the church’s Life Groups. In the first semester of experimenting with these groups, 44 new groups formed.

Ransom Church’s Approach to Strategic Planning

• Momentum covers a multitude of sins, but maturity goes back and cleans up. Whenever Ransom Church has a lull in growth, church leaders re-assess processes and strategies.

• Church leaders and staff pursues a new thematic goal every 18 months (see Patrick Lencioni’s Silos, Politics and Turf Wars). The executive team comes up with a “big idea” that will help Ransom Church keep moving forward and each team defines what it means for them to help achieve this goal. Allowing each team to decide what actions they will take releases their creativity, raises staff morale, and promotes unity.

Phill’s Advice to Pastors

• Manage the tension between leading a growing organization and staying centered in Christ. Prayer is essential, including both personal prayer retreats and praying together as a church staff.

• Be ruthless about sabbath for yourself and your staff. Require staff to take time off and model it for them.

Want to discover your church’s archetype?

The REVEAL for Church survey report provides your church’s archetype and prescriptions for change based on how we have seen other churches in that archetype be transformed over time. Learn more at www.revealforchurch.com

In this episode, we discussed the characteristics of the churches that fall under the Energized Church archetype, which compromise 12% of churches in our database. This archetype is the most likely “next step” for churches that are in some of the weaker archetypes (like Complacent, Average and Extroverted Churches). We have seen many churches move to the Energized archetype after they address issues that show up in their first survey, making the Energized archetype an important one for all churches to get to know.

Four Factors Characterize Energized Churches

• Energized Church congregants express very high satisfaction with their church.

• Ratings for all of their Best Practices are 20 to 30 percentage points higher than the database average.

• They especially hold their senior pastor in high regard, reporting the highest level of satisfaction of any archetype.

• Energized Church congregants express particularly high satisfaction with how well their senior pastor models the ups and downs of his or her own spiritual journey, and then challenges them to take whatever steps they need to take.

• The spiritual profile of Energized Church congregants is somewhat perplexing.

• Their faith in action (activities like evangelism and serving) and personal spiritual practices are average. Their agreement with core Christian beliefs is only slightly above average. This profile is perplexing because the Energized Church is slightly below average in the percentage of congregants in the less mature stages of growth.

• These congregants may be confusing their love for their church—and the time and energy they devote to it—with a love for Christ, and the journey they need to be on to deepen a relationship with him, not with the church.

• Another possible explanation is based on a statement in the survey that is a key indicator of a church’s spiritual momentum: “I am willing to risk everything that’s important in my life for Jesus Christ.” It measures the sacrificial nature of the congregation’s faith. For the Energized Church, agreement is no better than average. These congregants may love God, but they have not yet decided to trust him with everything.

• The Energized Church focuses on small groups.

• Nearly 70% say that their small group system is one of their most distinctive programs, a rate that’s higher than any other archetype. Not surprisingly, they also have the highest participation in small groups, with an average of 55% of them attending a group at least twice a month.

• Like Vibrant Churches, Energized Churches are large and growing.

• They have an average weekend adult attendance of 1000 or more. Seventy percent say their attendance has grown over the past year.

• Most Energized Churches also are young—in two ways. The church itself tends to be young, with more than one third being less than 25 years old and one in five being a recent church plant. Also, the percentage of their congregants over the age of 50 is much lower than congregations in the other archetypes.

How do Energized Churches grow stronger?

The Energized Church is more likely than others to be run strategically. This means they’re more likely to have annual and long-term goals, as well as clear plans for how to achieve them. The church we’ll interview in our next episode fits this classic pattern. If you go to the website for Ransom Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, you’ll find their annual report posted and a video of their annual meeting available, where you can hear all about their plans for the coming ministry season.

Not surprisingly, we tend to find people with business experience serving as elders and lay leaders in these churches. Just recently we talked with an Energized Church that was a two-year old church plant in Ohio. The lay leader who joined the campus pastor to debrief their REVEAL survey results was the Director for Global Tire Engineering at Goodyear. People with this kind of business background are used to having organized approaches for making decisions and allocating resources. This kind of influence is something we often see in Energized Churches.

Want to discover your church’s archetype?

The REVEAL for Church survey report provides your church’s archetype and prescriptions for change based on how we have seen other churches in that archetype be transformed over time. Learn more at www.revealforchurch.com

In this episode, we talked with Jeremy Yancey, lead pastor of Timber Creek Church in Lufkin, Texas. Timber Creek has taken the REVEAL survey twice—once in 2013 and a second time in the spring of 2017. Both times the church fell into our strongest archetype—the Vibrant Church.

Jeremy served as Timber Creek’s Executive Pastor for nine years before becoming the lead pastor three years ago. Timber Creek is a 90-year-old church with its roots in the Assembly of God denomination. Like many Vibrant Churches, it’s large—more than 1200 adults attend weekend services—and it’s also young—one out of five of the people who took the survey were in their 20s, which is well above our database average.

Lufkin, Texas is a community of 35,000, located in the forest country of East Texas. According to Jeremy, high school football is king—like in much of Texas. But at the time of our interview, the town was especially proud of their Little League team that came back from five runs down to win the 2017 National Little League title (five of the 13 players attend Timber Creek). That game was played on the same weekend Hurricane Harvey swamped Houston with massive flooding. Lufkin is 80 miles north of Houston and was spared from the worst of the storm. But Timber Creek jumped in right away to help its Houston neighbors.

Timber Creek’s Approach to Serving Those in Need

• In a crisis like disaster relief, the commitment is long-term and requires an appropriate strategy that goes beyond the immediate needs of the people who’ve been affected.

• Don’t wait for a crisis to be the hands and feet of Jesus to your neighbors.

• Everyday problems are opportunities for Christians to reach out and lend a hand.

Timber Creek’s Approach to Evangelism

• Provide invitation cards in the seats and help congregants see those cards as people who are waiting for a passport into a new life.

• Give congregants candy bars to leave in the breakroom at work with a simple invitation to church attached.

• Church provides designated drivers for a nightclub as an outreach.

• Provide opportunities for congregants to get involved in evangelism at varying levels appropriate for what they feel comfortable doing, and then challenge them to do it.

• Prayer for the “unclaimed” are essential.

Timber Creek’s Approach to Church Planting

• Take time away to be attentive to what God is saying about what is next for your church.

• Communicate your vision clearly to your congregation.

• There are many opportunities for church planting in rural areas where people are wondering if the church has a place for them and are looking for a relevant expression of the gospel.

• Explore where congregants are coming from to attend your church. They will drive a distance to come to your church, but their unchurched friends and neighbors will not.

• A multi-site strategy can be effective in bringing an expression of your church to these areas.

Jeremy’s Advice to Pastors

• Ephesians 1: pray for wisdom and revelation in everyday decisions but also to know Christ better. Stay centered in that purpose.

• Pray for God to show you what He wants to bless and go do it.

• Attend to what God reveals. Be attentive to both the strategic and the spiritual—it’s not one or the other. Let God do what only He can do and you go do what He put you on earth to do.

• In your efforts to simplify your ministry strategy, be careful of cutting too much. Don’t cut the muscle. Simple church is not meant to be lazy church.

• Make it easier for people to take the next step. They don’t need countless options, but just a few. It takes considerable work to reach this level of simplicity, where there is a structure that helps people reach their God-given potential.

Want to discover your church’s archetype?

The REVEAL for Church survey report provides your church’s archetype and prescriptions for change based on how we have seen other churches in that archetype be transformed over time. Learn more at www.revealforchurch.com

In this episode, we discussed the characteristics of the churches in the REVEAL database that fall under the Vibrant Church archetype. The Vibrant Church, which is the strongest of the eight archetypes we described in Episode 10, is also the smallest archetype, accounting for 8% of churches compared with the Complacent and Introverted Church archetypes, which each account for 17% of churches in our database.

Four Factors Characterize Vibrant Churches

• Vibrant Churches have more “fully devoted disciples” of Jesus Christ than any other archetype.

• More than 60% of their congregants fall into the most mature segments on the Spiritual Continuum (Close to Christ and Christ-Centered), compared to 50% for the total database.

• Congregants’ beliefs, personal spiritual practices (prayer, Bible engagement) and faith in action (evangelism, serving) are much higher than our database averages. For example, 30% of congregants in Vibrant churches reflect on Scripture every day, compared with 21% across the entire database. Also, 15% of Vibrant church congregants say that they are growing spiritually at a rapid pace, compared to 9% across all church types.

• Nearly 40% of Vibrant Church congregants very strongly agree with a key attitude: ”I am willing to risk everything that’s important in my life for Jesus Christ.” The database average is 26%.

• Vibrant Church congregants love their church.

• More than 25% of Vibrant Church congregants are “extremely satisfied” with how their church is helping them grow spiritually—ten points higher than the database average.

• When we look more closely, their ratings on every one of the five Best Practices (described in Episode 8) are at least 60% higher than the database average.

• Vibrant Churches are more likely to be large and growing.

• The Vibrant Churches in our database have an average attendance of more than 1100 adults (higher than any other archetype).

• But not every Vibrant Church is large; 25% have a weekend worship attendance of fewer than 250 adults.

• Vibrant Churches tend to be “diverse and Southern.”

• Compared to other archetypes, these churches are more likely to be in urban locations and in the South.

• Vibrant Churches also tend to have fewer congregants who have completed college and they report lower average incomes in general.

• These churches also stand out due to their high racial and ethnic diversity compared to churches of other archetypes.

How do Vibrant Churches stay strong and get stronger?

Vibrant Churches stay strong by paying attention to the discipleship needs of their people, knowing that there are always new and immature believers to be matured and that even more mature believers still need help from the church in growing spiritually. Some examples of ways that Vibrant Churches remain focused on discipleship is through spiritual mentoring programs and small group campaigns.

Vibrant Churches increase their impact by leveraging something we call “spiritual capital.” Having spiritual capital means that these churches have the spiritual resources to be able to expand their impact through multi-site strategies, or to engage big ministry initiative like building campaigns or large-scale community partnerships, or to weather senior leadership transitions well. If a church wants to launch a big ministry initiative, it needs:

• a congregation with strong spiritual maturity, because church expansion requires leadership focus and attention.

• a congregation who is completely on board with its vision and strategies, because they will be supporting the vision with their time and money.

Vibrant Churches have both spiritually mature congregants and sky-high buy-in to the church and its vision, which means they have spiritual capital ready to invest in Kingdom impact and they should spend it. This is the church DNA that can truly impact the world for Christ. Churches that are not yet in the Vibrant category should focus on building spiritual capital before deciding to engage in major expansion strategies.

Want to discover your church’s archetype?

The REVEAL for Church survey report provides your church’s archetype and prescriptions for change based on how we have seen other churches in that archetype be transformed over time. Learn more at www.revealforchurch.com

In this episode, we talked about our discovery of eight types of churches. We call these “archetypes” and they are akin to church “personalities.” Finding the archetypes was a huge breakthrough, not only because it gave us a framework for understanding differences among churches, but because it provided a focused lens to view each church. These archetypes help us see more clearly how a church is wired, so we can understand their results and prescribe a path to greater vibrancy.

How We Discovered the Archetypes

Over the course of hundreds of conversations with church leaders about their REVEAL results, patterns began to emerge. Two churches of different denominations, in different parts of the country, different in size, had results that seemed very similar. Over time, more churches seemed to fit into particular patterns of results. We took these observations and began analyzing REVEAL’s vast database of survey results to see if we could detect patterns in the data.

First, we looked at our data on the spiritual catalyst—agreement with core Christian beliefs, engagement in key personal spiritual practices, and how people put their faith in action in ways like serving those in need and having spiritual conversations with non-Christians. We grouped churches by the level of spiritual maturity of their congregations, but that only gave us part of the picture. Next, we used our insights about five Best Practices for churches (covered in Episode 8). Some churches were delivering the best practices at a high level, while others were doing well at one or two but not paying enough attention to others. Some churches were struggling in all areas. When we put these two lenses together—the spiritual catalyst lens and the best practices lens—the archetypes came into perfect focus. We were able to see where churches landed on the combination of catalysts (what congregants are doing to grow) and best practices (how the church is helping them grow).

A Brief Summary of the Eight Archetypes

• Troubled: spiritual maturity is low and dissatisfaction with how the best practices are being implemented is high. (14% of churches)

• Complacent: spiritual maturity a little worse than in the Troubled Church, but satisfaction with the church—in spite of its apparent ineffectiveness—is average. (17% of churches)

• Average: nothing stands out; congregants lead average spiritual lives guided by a church doing an average job of implementing the best practices. (13% of churches)

• Introverted: has tremendous spiritual strength in its congregants’ strong beliefs and practices, but congregants want more from their church in implementing the best practices. (17% of churches)

• Extroverted: congregants love their church, but they are spiritually immature, meaning the church has a lot of work to do to help them grow. (9% of churches)

• Self-Motivated: a church filled with people who know and love Christ, but they feel let down by their church and want more support for their growth. (10% of churches)

• Energized: are thrilled with their church’s efforts to help them grow, but their spiritual life outside of church activities isn’t quite where it needs to be. (12% of churches)

• Vibrant: these churches are filled with people who are sold out to Christ and who give their church very high marks for all of the best practices. (8% of churches)

The most important thing we discovered is that every church fits in one of these archetypes, and every church can change. Find out more about the archetype in the book RISE: Bold Strategies to Transform Your Church.

Want to discover your church’s archetype?

The REVEAL for Church survey report provides your church’s archetype and prescriptions for change based on how we have seen other churches in that archetype be transformed over time. Learn more at www.revealforchurch.com

In this episode, we talked about what we have learned about the process of spiritual growth based on responses to the REVEAL for Church survey. One key finding of REVEAL’s research is the Spiritual Continuum: four stages of spiritual maturity identified in our earliest research: Exploring Christ (10% of churchgoers on average); Growing in Christ (40%); Close to Christ (25%) and Christ-Centered (25%). Our goal with the Spiritual Continuum is not to put people in boxes. Once we discovered these four groups, we set out to learn what triggered movement from one segment to the next to help pastors determine the best next steps to help their people grow in their relationship with Christ. We call these drivers of spiritual growth “catalysts” because they speed growth much like a catalyst speeds a chemical reaction.

How We Discovered the Catalysts of Spiritual Growth

In all of the REVEAL research, spiritual growth is defined as love of God and love of others (in word and deed). We know that these increase dramatically as people grow through the stages on the Spiritual Continuum. To find the catalysts of growth, we looked across the survey items and compared people in one segment to people in the next segment (e.g., Growing in Christ compared to Close to Christ). We looked at everything from how often people pray, to how strongly they agree with core Christian beliefs like salvation by grace, to how often they attend weekend services and small groups. The factors that were showed the biggest differences when we compared people from one segment to those in the next are what we call the catalysts of spiritual growth.

Movement #1: From Exploring Christ to Growing in Christ

The top five catalysts most highly associated with movement from Exploring Christ to Growing in Christ (essentially the movement to becoming a believer) are:

¥ Two beliefs: Salvation by Grace and the Trinity

¥ Two spiritual practices: Prayer to Seek Guidance and Reflection on Scripture

¥ One church activity: Serve in a Church Ministry (once a month or more)

The most influential catalyst is belief in Salvation by Grace.

Movement #2: From Growing in Christ to Close to Christ

The top five catalysts of spiritual growth for the Growing in Christ segment are:

• One belief: in a Personal God (that God is actively involved in their lives)

• Three spiritual practices: Reflection on Scripture, Prayer, and Tithing

• One faith-based activity: Evangelism – having spiritual conversations with non-believers.

The top catalyst is belief in a personal God.

Movement #3: From Close to Christ to Christ Centered

The third movement across the Spiritual Continuum is in many ways the most challenging of all. The movement from the Close to Christ to Christ-Centered segment is not driven by things people do—it’s driven by inner transformation, which is clear from the top five catalysts:

• Agreement with an attitude we call “Giving Away My Life.” Christ-Centered people strongly agree that they are willing to risk everything important in their lives for Jesus Christ.

• Agreement that they desire Jesus to be first in their lives.

• Agreement that their identity is in Christ; they exist to know, love and serve God.

• Belief in the decisive authority of the Bible over what they say and do.

• Daily participation in reflection on Scripture.

What About the Holy Spirit?

In sharing these research findings we acknowledge that, of course, the Holy Spirit is the driver of spiritual growth. One best practice pastor, Rick Gannon of Palm Valley Church in Mission, Texas, gave us this perspective: “When the Holy Spirit comes together with human intentionality, that’s when transformation happens.” The catalysts simply open the door for the Holy Spirit to work—they are the things that people and churches can do to create an opening for the Holy Spirit to transform a human heart. The best role the church can play in helping people grow is to inspire them to do what they need to do to grow and nurture their own relationship with Jesus.

Want to learn more about how your congregants are doing on the catalysts of spiritual growth?

This work on spiritual growth catalysts is foundational to helping your congregants own their spiritual journey and take next steps to grow in their faith. The REVEAL for Church survey will tell you how well or poorly your people are doing spiritually—from the strength of their beliefs to their spiritual practices. The report churches receive when they take the survey lets church leaders how best to challenge their church to further growth in Christ-likeness. Learn more at www.revealforchurch.com

One of the most influential findings from REVEAL is its discovery of five best practices for churches—specifically, best practices for developing disciples of Jesus Christ. This was a discovery the REVEAL Team intentionally pursued. After we developed the Spiritual Vitality Index (SVI), we were able to identify the top 5% of churches in our database and find out what they were doing to be so effective at discipleship.

Practice #1: Get People Moving

People going to Best Practice churches feel like they’re on a spiritual “moving sidewalk”— there’s always a clear path and a next step to pursue in their spiritual journeys. Instead of an abundance of ministry opportunities and church activities, there is a prescribed path, which is exactly what people need, especially when they first come and experience church. For example, in most of our top churches newcomers are encouraged to go to classes to hear (ideally from the senior pastor) about the vision and history of the church, then they’re encouraged to figure out their spiritual gifts, and challenged to connect to the church through serving and small groups.

Practice #2: Embed the Bible in Everything

Best Practice churches embed the Bible in their culture. They make it easy for people to access a meaningful reflection on Scripture everyday with emails and texts to take away the excuses. They often connect these devotionals to the weekend teaching, so their message has a chance to take root. Some connect their teaching themes all the way through—from weekend services, to small groups, even to the children’s ministries, at least for a couple months in the ministry season.

Practice #3: Create Ownership

Best Practice churches tend to have highly effective small group systems. In addition, the culture of these churches empowers people to go out and make a difference in the world. They inspire their people to believe that they don’t just go to church. They believe they are the church. Top churches blur the dividing lines between pastors and congregants by assigning high levels of ministry accountability to lay leaders.

Practice #4: Pastor the Local Community

To pastor the community means being invested in solving the biggest problems in your community—coming to the table prepared to work with other churches and with non-profits and local government to do something about those issues. We see this kind of commitment in Best Practice churches in their decisions about how to spend resources and how to direct their church leaders and congregants. Best Practice churches set a high bar for serving in the church and in the community. These churches challenge their people to make community service a priority. They also make it easy for their people to find service opportunities that match their spiritual gifts.

Practice #5: Christ-Centered Leadership

It is not easy for church leaders to maintain a focus on making Christ the center of their lives in the very demanding, highly operational world of church leadership. Church work is 24/7. Best Practice church leaders shepherd their churches with a focus on growing hearts, more than growing numbers. For these churches, numbers are a by-product of an unrelenting focus on growing their people’s love of God and love of others.

Want to learn more about how your church is doing on the Best Practice Principles?

This work on best practices is some of the most important research we’ve done to help churches become more effective. About half of the report churches get when they take the survey is all about the best practices. It lets church leaders know how congregants are experiencing (or not experiencing) all five best practices so they know where to focus their energy. Learn more at www.revealforchurch.com