At the recent area Joint Board Training event, my friend and colleague in Christ, Marie Couts, Director of Christian Education, presented a charming and insightful workshop about the joys and responsibilities of being leaders in the church. One last handout she used during closing worship, we shall use through the next few weeks of our Lenten journey.  (By the time you read this, we will be three weeks into Lent.)  Like the old caged canary in the mine, read this list of healthy traits of a congregation and see if our “canary” is still singing?  Read on.

Characteristics of a Healthy Congregation

Moravian Church, Northern Province ~ August 2009

   The Triune God – Creator, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit – as revealed in the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments – is the core of who we are and why we are the church.  Every aspect of a healthy congregation is grounded in scripture and rooted in prayer.  God’s Word informs how we live, and prayer connects us with God and all God’s people.  Healthy congregations frame their life together in the Ground of the Unity and the Moravian Covenant for Christian Living. (To read these documents, see http://moravian.org/believe/the_ground_of_unity.pdf and http://moravian.org/believe/covenant_christian_living.pdf.)  Within this environment, a healthy congregation exhibits these seven basic characteristics:

Purpose – A healthy congregation has a clear understanding of its identity, purpose, and vision as a Moravian congregation.  Members have a shared ownership of how “who we are” and “what we do” gives life and direction to every facet of ministry in and around the congregation.

Mission and Service – A healthy congregation serves God’s people within and beyond the congregation.  These ministries include everything from serving those in need, to spreading the Good News, beginning within the neighborhood where the congregation is located and moving outward to those around the world.

Community – A healthy congregation extends God’s welcome to everyone as an expression of the grace we have received through Jesus Christ.  It celebrates diversity within the unity of faith by living the Moravian Motto: In essentials Unity, in non-essentials Liberty, in all things Love.  We offer hospitality to all, as congregations and as partners in our ecumenical witness.

Spiritual Formation – A healthy congregation is fully engaged in the lifelong process of forming disciples in Christian faith so that people of all ages know the Biblical story, understand God’s invitation to discipleship, and have multiple opportunities to respond to God’s call to daily living as a Christian disciple.  Healthy congregations recognize that both spiritual formation and mission service are essential to faithful discipleship.

Worship – A healthy congregation gathers regularly to worship God with joy and vitality, offering praise and thanksgiving to God through Word and Sacrament.  The people of God participate in worship, using a variety of liturgical and musical expressions and styles.

Leadership – A healthy congregation equips and empowers its leaders, both lay and clergy, to further God’s mission through the ministry of the congregation.  Healthy congregations support and encourage all leaders as they learn and grow in their ministries, and work toward partnership with and accountability to God and to one another.

Stewardship – A healthy congregation understands the reality that God has provided all its needs to fulfill, with excellence, the ministries to which it is called.  The people of God respond generously to God’s abundance with joy and thanksgiving.

   Using this barometer for our congregation, how do we rate at Dover First as signs of a healthy congregation? I think the Lord has blessed us with a splendid ministry, a voice full of clarity, a rising high, and a new insight for mission and ministry.  Let us walk with purpose and grace to the Easter tomb.