Research Findings

Knowing which ministry essentials have strong links to growth and life changing impact can be enormously helpful to leaders in prioritizing next steps.

If you want to grow numerically, for example, you can see from Table 1 that the total quality of all seven ministry essentials has the highest correlation with growth. Among the seven ministry essentials, life-changing impact, leadership, and transforming teachings have the most impressive impact on growth.

Table 1. Links to Church Growth and Life Changing Impact

QUALITY of Ministry Essentials	(A) Church Growth	(B) Life Changing Impact
1. Worship	.58***	.82****
2.Leadership	.61***	.74****
3. Empowerment	.58***	.74****
4. Trans. Teachings	.62***	.68***
5. Purpose	.58***	.67***
6. Prayer	.55***	.70****
7. Life Changing Impact	.63***	---
Average Quality of Ministry Essentials	.68***	.86****
QUALITY of Secondary Essentials
a. Connect & Belonging	.50***	.36**
b. Serving Experiences	.40**	.43**
c. Quality Small Groups	.32**	.47**
d. Quality Youth Ed.	.29*	.47**

**** Very strong correlation. *** Strong ** Moderate * Low

It’s rare to see correlations as robust as those in Table 1, based on Robert’s 25 years of experience in clinical research. Correlations this strong mean that the Church Life Survey measures, with a high degree of accuracy, the ministry elements that play a key role in growth and impacting lives.

Table 1 shows that almost all of the four secondary essentials have statistically significant but moderately strong correlations with growth and life changing impact. Notice that the quality of youth ed. is moderately related to life changing impact but not to growth. We find, however, that poor quality youth ed. can become a barrier to growth. If people with children perceive poor quality in youth education, most will not return.

We used Cronbach’s alpha statistic to determine the reliability of the seven ministry essentials and the four secondary essentials. These reliability coefficients ranged between .73 and .92, indicating that the items measuring these ministry areas had good reliability.

What creates a strong life changing impact? As seen earlier in Table 1, the average quality of ministry essentials 1 through 6 is very strongly correlated with life-changing impact (r = .86). This means that significantly more lives are changed when people participate in ministries that are strong in worship, leadership, empowerment, prayer, teachings and purpose.

Table 2 shows how strongly life-changing impact affects growth. Eighty-five percent of growing ministries had a very strong life changing impact. In contrast, only 4 percent of declining congregations had a very strong life changing impact.

Table 2. Life Changing Impact in Growing, Plateaued and Declining Churches

Life Changing Impact	Growing Churches	Plateaued Churches	Declining Churches
Very Strong	85% (N = 22)	45% (N = 17)	4% (N = 1)
Strong (normal)	15% (N = 4)	24% (N = 9)	13% (N = 3)
Below Normal	0% (N = 0)	32% (N = 12)	83% (N = 20)
N of Churches	N = 26	N = 38	N = 24

Principles that Lead to Healthy Growth.

What leaders actually do with their survey results makes all the difference. The following section shows what happens when ministries successfully implement three principles.

Principle #1. Quality in Ministry Essentials Attracts People.

Table 3 shows that when church communities achieve high quality in ministry essentials, they typically grow. As shown below, 85 percent of growing ministries offer high quality.

Table 3. Quality in Growing, Plateaued and Declining Churches

Av. Quality of Ministry Essentials	Growing Churches	Plateaued Churches	Declining Churches
High Quality	85% (N=22)	34% (N=13)	0% (N=0)
Average (normal)	15% (N=14)	21% (N=8)	12% (N=3)
Below Normal	0% (N=0)	45% (N=17)	88% (N=21)
N of Churches	N = 26	N = 38	N = 24

In contrast, none of the declining churches offer high quality in ministry essentials! The data in table 3 comes from 88 ministries with complete survey information on all essentials.

As seen in Table 3, some plateaued churches with high quality did not grow. In examining why, we found that congregants in some high quality ministries like the way things are and have little interest in seeing things change or new people coming.

Principle #2. Changing Lives Produces Enthusiastic Ambassadors.

Primarily, it is “lives changing” that creates enthusiasm among congregants with they talk with others about their church. The correlation between enthusiasm and “lives changing’ is very high, namely, .91!

As seen in Table 4, 92 percent of strong life-changing ministries have high percentages of people checking yes to “I feel enthused when talking with people about this church.” In contrast, zero percent of low life changing ministries have high percentages of people checking yes.

Table 4. Enthusiasm in High, Moderate and Low Life Changing Churches

Enthusiasm Level	High Life Changing	Moderate Life Changing	Low Life Changing
Very Strong	92% (N=22)	37% (N=14)	0% (N=0)
Strong (normal)	4% (N=1)	26% (N=10)	12% (N=0)
Below Normal	4% (N=1)	37% (N=14)	100% (N=24)
N of Churches	N = 24	N = 38	N = 24

Principle #3. Accountability Leads to Success.

Paul Borden’s approach to helping 72 percent of his region’s churches grow is a remarkable success story! Borden found that accountability plays a key role. For him, accountability includes: (a) identifying what needs to change, (b) working hard to make those changes and (c) objectively measuring improvement. Borden discovered that in most churches, “Almost no one is held accountable for anything.” Consequently good intentions are just that, intentions.

What Happens When Ministries Practice All Three Principles?

Thirty churches surveyed a second time. By comparing first and second survey results, we could identify which ministries successfully practiced all three principles, which includes objectively measuring improvement in the quality of ministry essentials and life changing impact. By comparing the number of surveys completed during their first second surveys, we also could tell which churches grew significantly.

As seen in Table 5, 15 of these 30 re-surveying churches grew an average of 14 percent per year ! Attendance in six of these 15 churches increased between 20 and 24 percent, three grew 10 to 16 percent, and six grew 5 to 9 percent per year.

In these 15 growing churches, quality in ministry essentials improved 6.0 percent and life-changing impact increased 6.6 percent! These changes are statistically significant.

Table 5. Success Comes from Practicing All Three Principles.

Churches	N	Quality in Min. Essentials	Life Changing Impact	Attendance Changes
Growing	15	+6.0 av. % gain	+ 6.6 % gain	14% / yr.
Plateaued	7	+0.8 av. % gain	+ 1.2 % gain	0% / yr
Declining	8	+0.6 av. % gain	-0.7 % loss	-18% / yr

In contrast, the plateaued and declining ministries had no significant changes, either in quality, life changing impact or growth. In fact, attendance in the declining churches decreased an average of 18 percent per year.