The massive survey, which includes churches of all types-old line Protestant, evangelical Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and other world religions-factored in results from more than 2,500 randomly selected congregations.

For leaders, FACT 2008 will reiterate what most already know: The healthiest churches are those who reproduce. Among the congregations surveyed, those whose leadership spent the most time recruiting and training other leaders were the healthiest. Similar results came from leaders who promoted a clear vision and emphasized evangelism. Interestingly enough, the study also revealed no significant correlation between a church's spiritual vitality and its emphasis on administration or representing the congregation within the community. What it did show, however, was the advantage of standing out as a unique church. Those congregations who identified themselves as "very different" from others in the community showed a high spiritual vitality, whereas those who didn't see themselves as offering anything particularly unique were less vibrant.

"It is a story of concern, but also a story of hope," concluded FACT 2008's authors. "It is the story of an emerging, persistent and broad based downward trend in congregational vitality. But it is also a story of pockets of vitality that are suggestive of the potential for moving forward." [fact.hartsem.edu, 9/9/09]

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