Corporate Worship: A Baldrige-based Congregational Assessment For Religious Institutions

The current state of people exiting religious institutions in America are increasing at alarming rates. Change and Innovation may be the key to congregational sustainability and growth. A willingness to challenge the status quo and to retain and grow congregational membership with new and diverse worship methodologies is becoming the norm for survival for many congregations. The continual danger confronting religious institutions is irrelevancy.Congregations are going through a renaissance of change in offering various types of worship experiences and options for their various member and stakeholder groups. Many congregations are at the crossroads of change and are witnessing a mass exodus of many members who are becoming less satisfied that their corporate worship experiences are meeting their 21st Century lifestyle needs. In a rapidly changing world thriving congregations tend to change and innovate themselves, as opposed to, struggling congregations who fear change and have difficulty in revising their overall operations and membership offerings. Many progressive congregations are redefining their vision, mission, community involvement and congregational offerings. Progressive congregations are becoming more inclusive in the process of growing spiritual vitality among current and new members and identifying 21st Century lifestyle offerings to attract prospective members. A wiliness to challenge the status quo and to attract new members with diverse worship, leadership and community opportunities appear to be showing some signs of growing congregations. Congregational leaders need not choose between tradition and innovation. A new way of thinking aligns these two together and provides ongoing vitality and growth within religious institutions. Congregational leadership is the most important aspect for institutional creativity and innovation. No congregation can transform or renew itself unless the leaders put the process in motion and sustain it. Therefore, congregations need creative leaders to manage the change/innovation process. Creativity and innovation of a congregation depends on how leadership designs and creates a congregational environment that allows change and creativity to develop. It can also depend on how leaders encourage and manage diversity in the congregation. Finally, it depends on how congregational leadership inspires everyone to bring out his or her best creative and innovative self and use that to help lead and transform the congregation to new and unimagined heights and opportunities for growth and relevancy. The opportunity and the challenge for congregations is to assess their overall operations, and member/stakeholder offerings and to ensure that they are providing relevancy in their worship experiences for 21st Century lifestyles. Congregations have an opportunity to change and to innovate the way in which they operate and serve their various members, stakeholder groups, and their overall community. Identifying and Incorporating the use of new delivery methods and technology can help expand a congregations mission and vision for the future. Conducting an assessment can help a congregation take inventory of their overall effectiveness in serving their present members, stakeholders and their community and in identifying new and exciting opportunities for future growth and service opportunities.This manual can be used to conduct a comprehensive corporate worship congregational assessment based on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework. These guidelines for developing, evaluating or revising an existing Congregational Change/Innovation Plan and/or developing a new plan, can provide a unique perspective regarding identifying various vulnerabilities and opportunities regarding change/innovation that exist within the overall congregational operations and infrastructure. Read more