How to gauge if your church is unified

Bob Whitesel June 6, 2019

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In Acts 2:44-45, the author and apostle Luke describes a growing trust within the fledgling church. This resulted in them selling their possessions to help one another. Some throughout history have taken this passage to suggest that true discipleship is only to be found by living a communal lifestyle where all possessions are shared. 

However, if communal living was to be the norm for the Christian church, then Paul, Peter, James and others would have admonished churches in Corinth, Antioch, Philippi, Jerusalem and elsewhere to adopt a communal lifestyle.  

Scholar Everett Harrison adds an interesting insight, “this was not the forsaking of the principle of private ownership, since the disposal and distribution of their possessions was occasioned ‘as anyone might have need.’ When the need became known, action was taken based on loving concern.” 

What Luke emphasizes is a heightened trust and unity that is growing in the church.  Followers were becoming confident they could rely on one another, even in things they formerly valued most: their money and assets.  

Such actions describe a deeper unity and trust among believers than they had known before.  This is another type of church growth and makes more sense to track than conversions or attendance.  

Growth in unity is one way to label this emerging inter-reliance. Again, measuring this will be subjective and require some effort to calculate. But, a simple congregational questionnaire administered yearly and anonymously can glean congregational perceptions of whether unity is growing or waning.

Degree of unity is an important measurement that is often overlooked by denominational measurement methods too. For instance, Pastor Jerry had inherited a badly divided congregation.  His hard work had brought about an improvement in unity, as exemplified in a congregant’s comment that, “we’re much more united than we were before Jerry came. If that is all we got out of his leadership … well maybe that’s enough.” However, because the church was experiencing a plateau in attendance and the denomination was not tracking growth in unity, Jerry’s progress was not evident to the denomination.  

We might ask ourselves, “Was Pastor Jerry growing the church?” Yes. “Was he growing it in a way that was helpful and valuable?” Yes. “But, was this growth evident to the denomination?”  No. Herein lies the problem. We are measuring things like conversion and attendance, which human leadership has only limited ability to influence, and we are overlooking important metrics of church growth, such as a church growing in unity. 

Tracking a church’s growth in unity

Congregants usually have a good sense of whether unity in the congregation is improving or waning.  A simple Likert-type scale with two questions can be administered to congregants once a year, and improvement or deterioration in a church’s perceptions of unity can be tracked.

As far as tracking unity among congregants and with leadership, the purpose is not necessarily to score high, but to be moving higher.  Each question measures a different attribute of unity that should be increasing.

Question 1:  Assesses perceptions of unity among congregants.

Question 2:  Assesses perceptions of unity of the congregation with church leadership.

Again these numbers should not be bantered around between congregations. These scales are not relevant to boasting or bravado. Rather these scales measure progress (or regress) in congregational unity. 

For example, a church that has low self-esteem may initially score poorly on this scale. But, in subsequent years if the numbers move upward them the congregation’s perception of its unity is increasing.  

This does not mean unity has always increased, but it does indicate that something is going on that is increasing a congregational sense of unanimity.

Excerpted from Organix: Signs of Leadership in a Changing Church, by Bob Whitesel (Abingdon Press). Used with permission. 

Photo source: istock 

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Bob Whitesel (D.Min., Ph.D.) is a foresight coach, professor, and award-winning author of 14 books. For over 30 years, he has guided leaders and churches to pivot and engage what’s next. He holds two earned doctorates from Fuller Theological Seminary and teaches on leadership foresight, church health, and organizational change. His website is www.ChurchForesight.com. Learn More »

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