A Portrait of the 2020 Faith Communities Today Study

This article offers an overview of the congregational landscape of the United States using the 2020 Faith Communities Today national key-informant survey. Offering representative results from 15,278 congregations in over 80 different denominations and 4 religious traditions, the article describes the characteristics of the average American congregation as well as significant variations within the results. Overall, this picture is one of diminished health and gradual decline. Following this summary picture, several key trends, including size disparities, aging memberships, generational changes, and a more diverse religious context, are discussed along with their implications for future congregational vitality. These trends further illustrate the challenges facing US faith communities presently. The article concludes with a focus on the most prominent characteristics of those faith communities within the survey that are spiritually vital and growing to highlight possible avenues of revitalization for the country's congregations. These results suggest that congregations need a combination of innovative leadership, a clear sense of mission and purpose, passionate and relevant worship, and an engaged membership willing to adapt and change to address an ever-evolving social and religious context.

Overall Congregational Vitality in the United Church of Christ: Predictors and Implications

This article examines the predictors of overall congregational vitality in the United Church of Christ (UCC), a US mainline Protestant denomination of approximately 5,000 churches and 800,000 members. This analysis is based on data from the UCC version of the Faith Communities Today survey, which surveyed all UCC congregations in early 2020. An overall congregational vitality scale was created from survey questions; factors associated with congregational vitality were tested to see which ones had a statistically significant relationship with a congregation's level of overall vitality. Aspects of congregations that were significantly associated with overall congregational vitality included the fit between the pastor and congregation, innovative worship, racial diversity, and total number of participants, while the percentage of young adults, contemporary worship, founding year of congregation, percentage change in worship attendance over the past five years, current financial health of congregation, and percentage of female participants did not influence overall congregational vitality. This research may be useful for congregations seeking to maintain or increase their vitality and for researchers interested in identifying the components and predictors of congregational vitality.

Bivocational Ministry as the Congregation’s Curriculum

Ambiguities and uncertainties about defining bivocational ministry are an opportunity for theological reflection and religious education. This article begins by acknowledging a context of anxiety about congregational vitality in North American mainline denominations and utilizes Boyung Lee’s communal approach to religious education to facilitate imagining new ways of being church for white-majority congregations, which seem to have difficulty coming to terms with bivocational ministry. The central sections of this article proceed descriptively, exploring the breadth of definitions of bivocational ministry and related terms, organized around several loci: vocation and ministry; jobs and finances; and commitment. Constructively, this article conceives of intentional bivocational ministry as the congregation’s curriculum, a practice of the entire faith community. This article concludes with a call for religious educators to assist in this endeavor.