Surface to Soul: Coaching Spiritual Vitality in Congregations is a workbook for leaders who seek spiritual vitality for themselves and the congregations they serve. it’s for pastors who have a passion for living out the Great commission and want to help people go deeper in their journey of faith. it’s for volunteer leaders and program staff who realize that the current way of practicing faith and doing church is not working and are willing to rethink assumptions, methods, and behaviors to get a different result. it’s for elders and council members who long to help reinvent the church but aren’t sure where to start and how to navigate the change that’s needed. Surface to Soul is for everyone who desires to live a vibrant faith that is authentic, available, and affirming!

When we talk about the process of creating deep and sustainable change among churches and their members, our Vibrant faith ministries team frequently describes the current faith formation process as a tattoo, where the actual change is skin deep and rubs off after a time, particularly after confirmation. Vibrant faith ministries aims to help pastors and lay leaders create home and congregational ecosystems that support lifelong faith formation and congregational vitality. in short, we’re about going deeper than a tattoo, that is, going from “surface to soul” to make vibrant faith part of your dNa—both at home and in your congregation. This workbook outlines our six-step coaching process that pastors and lay leaders may follow, with or without the assistance of a coach or consultant, to nurture spiritual vitality in congregations. This workbook is also a response to individuals who have attended our training events and have struggled to live into the change we advocate. it is for those who say, “We tried your program for a year and not much happened, so we dropped it.” We have found that these efforts take a commitment for the long haul and require leaders who will devote time and attention to the process. it’s true that without a consistent, long-term investment of time and leadership, congregational change efforts will fail, no matter the approach taken.

Following the introduction on vibrant Christians and vital congregations. The workbook will guide you through five essential steps that support a thriving congregational culture

1. CONNECT - Create an authentic, Christ-centered community
2. HIGHLIGHT - Review your purpose, passions, strengths, and identity
3. ALIGN -
4. NAVIGATE faithful next steps using a ministry road map
5. GUIDE
6. EVALUATE & EXPERIMENT  

So, if you were hoping for the quick fix, wanting to try the ministry flavor of the month, or ready to pursue ten easy steps to a growing congregation, this workbook is not for you. But if you yearn for a vibrant congregational culture that actually transforms the spiritual lives of its faith community and are willing to invest the necessary time, energy, and resources over a period of time to make vibrant faith part of their DNA, then by all means, read on!

Jim LaDoux
Vibrant Faith Ministries

i attended worship last year at a congregation in the Washington, d.c., area. i located it via Google and was impressed with their inviting home page. Then i discovered that most of the links to other pages and articles were inoperable. upon arriving, i noticed a big welcome sign out front but i was hard-pressed to find appropriate signage directing me to the sanctuary. entering the sanctuary, i observed the colorful “Welcome to Worship” message on the screen and found the pianist to be playing some delightful background music. Then i was handed a worship bulletin by someone who seemed more interested in checking her e-mails than making me feel welcome. as worship progressed, i found the sermon engaging and the eclectic blend of music delightful but other portions of the service bland and disjointed. driving back to my hotel i couldn’t help but feel conflicted about what i now call my bipolar worship experience. four key learnings came out of this experience for me:
• People experience rather than only read or hear about a congregation’s mission and values.
• This experience of a congregation’s mission, vision, and values occurs before (website, signage), during (greeters, sermon, bulletin, music), and after (refreshments, take-home gift, greeters in the parking lot) the main event.
• All aspects of the experience have to be in alignment or the congregation’s main message will suffer.
• The overall experience has to be sufficiently life-changing that the visitor would be interested in coming back, and perhaps even bringing a friend.
alignment, the third step in the process of coaching cHaNGe in congregations, is that optimal state in which the experience of mission, vision, values, strategies, people, products, and processes all work in concert to fulfill the mission, providing a life-changing experience for everyone involved. aligned congregations — from the lead pastor to the new member— understand not only the strategy and goals of the organization but also how his or her work contributes to them. everyone can articulate what the congregation is about and has his or her own elevator speech about the congregation. it culminates in an experience that exemplifies the dNa of the congregation. for people to experience the essence, or dNa, of your congregation, the following areas must be aligned in a manner that supports the fulfillment of the congregation’s mission, vision, and values:

• • Structure, strategies, and goals help fulfill the ends (mission, vision, and values) of the organization
• • Language
• • Processes
• • Practices
• • People
• • commitments

Alignment of Strategy
Leaders must ensure that the strategic direction of the congregation is clearly articu- lated and fully aligned with people’s experience of the congregation. These elements include the organization’s mission, vision, strategic plans, organizational goals, and strategies and the expectations of everyone involved. a congregation i work
with had invested a considerable amount of time, money, and effort developing a new strategic plan. When i asked to see the plan, not a single leader had a copy of it at their meeting and it quickly became apparent that the plan was not being used regularly
to frame their conversations, evaluate their progress, or inform their decisions. unfortunately, this is often the case for congregations that create a strategic plan. The plan- ning process helps leaders envision the future and become more proactive, but the end result—the plan— often ends up on a shelf in the church library where few people ever refer to it. The fault is often the document itself. many of the plans i see are lengthy, cumbersome documents that are not organized in a way that facilitates easy implementation. Specifically, the plans do not
• identify measurable goals, ones that you can easily
determine have been achieved or have not been achieved. include specific timelines for when the actions steps should be completed.
It’s hard to develop a strategic plan without first identifying the core values of your congregation.
• list the person or team members who will be held accountable for fulfilling the goal.
The plans i see often have a laundry list of strategies but lack focus as to which strategies are most important and which ones are to be addressed first. Sometimes the plans i see look more like notes from a brainstorming session than an action plan for living into God’s preferred future.
i’m a fan of clear, concisely written plans that limit each strategic initiative and their accompanying strategies to just a few pages. The action steps are in bullet form and arranged in chronological order by their anticipated completion date. The plans i create usually have a four-page executive report, which is made available to everyone in the congregation and provides all the necessary talking points for living into the vision. my hope for every congregation is that they would have a plan that would be used regularly to guide leadership conversations, set meeting agendas and inform decision making, dictate what people write and talk about, and serve as a measuring stick for ministry effectiveness.
it’s hard to develop a strategic plan without first identifying the core values of a congregation. There’s no shortage of ideas related to the values a congregation might wish to embrace. i’m particularly fond of the core values espoused by robert Schnase, bishop of the missouri conference of The united methodist church. in his book Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations he identifies the following core values:
radical hospitality

Passionate worship
intentional faith development risk-taking mission and service extravagant generosity
i believe that people are searching for congregations shaped and sustained by these qualities, which can serve as both core values and congregational practices. The values are clear, compelling, and contagious and easy-to-remember sound bites.
These core values also capture some of the core process by which God makes disciples:
• radical hospitality extends the gracious invitation, welcome, and hospitality of christ, allowing people to experience a sense of belonging.
• Passionate worship ushers people into God’s presence and, through the work of the Holy Spirit, shapes souls and changes minds.
• intentional faith development reminds people of the importance of growing deeper in faith and becoming intentional followers of christ.
• risk-taking mission and service moves people beyond the congregation’s walls and helps them discern God’s call and to be change agents for christ every day, everywhere.
• extravagant generosity inspires people to give generously and to be sources of hope, joy, and blessing to others.

The words describe a shift from abstract intentions to practical and personal directions for ministry, charting a path for growth in personal discipleship. Below is a list of core values from Lord of Life Lutheran church in fairfax/clifton, Virginia. The church is in the process of deeply embedding these values into everything it does:

Sample Core Values
Christ-Centered Worship and Programs: We reflect the word of God in all our ministries that are lived out faithfully through the fellowship of our community of christian believers. Lifelong Faith Formation: We equip and nurture all ages in the principles, practices, and experiences in the christian faith that are inherent in leading a fulfilled and faithful life of discipleship.
Serving Our Neighbor: We embrace the stewardship of time, talents, and financial resources to serve local, national, and global opportunities.
Hospitality: We strive to be an inclusive community where all are welcome, cared for, and challenged to be witnesses for Jesus christ.
Courageous Risk Taking: We seek ways to make the gospel relevant to the culture in which we live. We are willing to explore new frontiers of ministry to capture God’s work among us.
for more assistance in identifying core values and assessing them, consider complet- ing “What are Your ministry rocks?” found in the cHaNGe agent’s Toolkit (Tool 19). To ensure that you deeply embed your core values into all aspects of your congregation, complete Tool 21, “integrating Your core Values.”
a trend Vibrant faith ministries team members are seeing in the congregations we work with has been the creation and use of congregational covenants. They are used to reinforce the congregation’s identity and are recited in multiple settings throughout the month, reminding people of how they are to treat one another as part of the body of christ. Here is an example of one congregation’s covenant:
as a ministry team, we will

• • affirm, encourage, support, pray for, and bless one another and the ministries we represent.
• • appreciate and affirm each other’s gifts, backgrounds, and viewpoints.
• • arrive on time for meetings, fully present to address issues at hand.
• • speak well of each other to build up the body of christ.
• • communicate with each other in honest, open christlike ways.
• • commit to ongoing personal, professional, and spiritual growth.
• • honor each other’s individual pace and working style, and offer grace to one
• another.
• • be open to new ways of seeing and doing things.
• • strive to live in a culture of ongoing regard.

Alignment of Language
Just as any sport uses key words and phrases to describe what’s going on in the game, congregations need a common language that helps focus the efforts of their people. if a congregation chooses to work with Vibrant faith ministries, you can be pretty sure that some of the common language is going to be around the phrases related to our five Principles:
• faith is formed by the power of the Holy Spirit through personal, trusted relationships—often in our own homes.
• The church is a living partnership between the ministry of the congregation and the ministry of the home.
• Where christ is present in faith, the home is church, too.
• faith is caught more than it’s taught.
• if we want christian children and youth, then we need christian adults.
You can expect to hear the following words and short phrases woven into our sermons, news articles, small group settings, and planning meetings:
• caring conversations, devotions, service, rituals and traditions (the four Keys)
• do less, go deeper!
• Theology matters.
• You can’t expect households to practice faith at home unless they’ve first learned
how to practice faith in the congregation.
• Parents, grandparents, and godparents are the primary faith shapers of young
people.
• aaa christians: people who are authentic, available, and affirming
a congregation’s common language must draw people’s attention to its mission, vision, and values. it should remind people of the primary principles and practices that lead to the fulfillment of the mission. one of the first steps in the alignment process is to develop a common language around faith formation, mission, vision, and values. Listed below are four steps to create a common vocabulary for your congregation:

Creating a Common Congregational Vocabulary
The following are four ideas for generating a common vocabulary in your congregation.

1. Emphasize common language by creating a “Soul Script.” Begin by writing a one- page script that can be shared with every leader. it typically includes your mission statement, vision statement, core values, goals, key messages, and your congregational covenant (if you have one). People crave clarity, and good leaders provide clarity on a regular basis. if you can communicate those key items in a simple, clear, and consistent manner, people will start to remember them. find ways to integrate your talking points into worship services, meetings, and other congregational events. recite your mission statement during your weekly worship services. read your script at all leadership meetings. embed key talking points into your website and all publications. Pour your mission and vision into all your words and actions. When people start repeating your talking points to others you know that you’re making headway! a “Sample Soul Script,” Tool 22, can be found in the cHaNGe agent’s Toolkit.
2. Share the congregation’s Soul Script with new members and new leaders. use new member gatherings and new leader training events to communicate your congregation’s dNa. Share stories of how the congregation lives out its dNa within and beyond the congregation. Walk through each key message or talking point and share stories and examples of how it is lived out, and invite participants to consider how they might align their words and actions with the congregation’s dNa.
3. Provide annual refresher trainings for all leaders based on the talking points Soul Script. alignment of language will either increase or decrease based on how well people in your congregation consistently communicate the same messages. Provide council or session members, team members, teachers, and mentors with resources and tools for communicating the congregation’s dNa in their particular ministry settings. Provide multiple training opportunities and vehicles to ensure 100 percent participation in refresher trainings. in many congregations, the pastor is the only person who communi- cates these key points, and when the pastor accepts a new call, the mission, vision, values, and key message leave as well. This can be avoided when everyone is equipped to share the congregation’s key talking points.
4. Develop your way. executives from around the world pay big bucks to attend disney seminars on “the disney Way”— learning how they do business, how they treat employees and their guests, and how they maintain their unique culture. for a time, Hewlett Packard was known for their egalitarian, decen- tralized culture, known as “the HP Way.” a congregation i once served modeled their ministry after the Simple church movement where everything they did had to help people “connect with God, connect with each other, or connect to the needs of the community.” if it didn’t honor one or more of these three intentions, then it wasn’t part of this congregation’s way. Write down what your way would look like if it was infused into every individual and team. consider creating a congregational covenant that would help capture the way for your congregation. Share the way by reading your covenant at all meetings and major events. a“Sample Leadership covenant “ (Tool 23) is found in the cHaNGe agent’s Toolkit.

Language alignment is reinforced by what business consultant Tom Peters calls “management by walking around.” a pastor i coach
practices walking-around management by regularly asking people questions, such as “mary, in what ways do you see us fulfilling our mission?” or “Susan, what
are your thoughts about our three main goals for this year?” or perhaps “Tom, which of our five core values are you most energized by?” The pastor states, “i get a weekly reality check about which messages are getting through to our people and what messages i need to pay more attention to in the future.”

Developing a CHANGE Script
in many coaching situations, Vibrant faith ministries also helps congregations create a cHaNGe script that provides a narrative for managing the transition that will occur as a result of implementing the needed changes. This narrative must address the following questions:

• What’s the purpose for making these changes?
• What’s the picture of what this will look like and feel like for people?
• What’s the plan for getting there?
• What’s the part each person will play in the change process?
• What’s the process for dealing with the tension of change?

Alignment of Processes
congregations become much more nimble and adaptive when the congregation’s policies, procedures, and practices are clear. i once served a congregation where it took the leaders nine months to find out whether i had continuing education funds. i often work with program staff that haven’t had a performance review for years and are unsure what they’re responsible for. one congregation went through a particularly rough time when their administrator died of a heart attack. Staff members and leaders quickly realized that nobody knew where he kept access codes, keys, payroll records, background check information, and legal contracts. it cost the congregation huge amounts of time, energy, and resources to get back up to speed, and it derailed their efforts to address more pressing matters related to their mission. Listed below are some of the questions i ask congregations about their operational procedures:

• • do you have a current policies manual?
• • do you have a current employee handbook?
• • do have current job descriptions for employees?
• • do the job descriptions reflect the priorities of the congregation and its mission?
• • do you provide employees with a compensation summary letter each year?
• • do you have a formal evaluation process for pastors and paid staff? for key volunteers?
• • do paid and volunteer staff set annual goals? are they held accountable for these
• goals?
• • do programs and teams set goals and share them with others?

Leaders are always surprised when i ask them about these details. i usually remark, “if you have these tools and procedures in place, we won’t have to spend any time in the future fighting unnecessary fires.”

The two most important process questions i focus on are these:

• • do you have a plan or process for inviting and welcoming people into your congregation?
• • do you have a plan or process for helping people form faith and become lifelong followers of christ?

I find that if a congregation does not have a clear process for inviting people into its faith community and a plan for helping them become mature in christ, the growth of the congregation will stagnate. Typically only one out of eight congregations has an adequate response to these two questions.

Alignment of Practices
at Vibrant faith ministries training events, we tell people, “if you want to change your congregation, change what you talk about.” our conversations must be aligned with our mission. Therefore, if you want your congregation to live into its mission, then make sure that your sermons, meeting agendas, programs, events, and publications all address how you’re fulfilling the mission. if you want to revitalize your congregation, spend time at council or session meetings talking about ideas and steps that lead to congregational vitality. i can usually tell how committed a congregation is to their mission or a particular project simply by looking at their meeting agendas. most agendas are filled with commit- tee reports and sections called “old business” and “new business.” The last two categories are usually filled with whatever items people want to talk about. They rarely have any connection to the congregation’s mission or strategic plan. Sometimes i challenge meeting conveners by saying, “Help me understand why you think this annual goal is important when nothing was said about it during your session meeting.” What gets measured gets done. What gets discussed gets traction. Be intentional about what you’re measuring and what you’re discussing. it will change your life and your congregation! To consider how you might plan future meetings differently, refer to the “meaningful meetings checklist ” (Tool 23) found in the cHaNGe agent’s Toolkit. meeting practices can make a huge difference in how transformation unfolds. Here are a few other practices that can easily be intro- duced to the congregation and reap profound results:

• • recite your congregation’s mission, vision, and values during worship and at all meetings.
• • Set aside five to ten minutes for caring conversations during meetings and events.
• • Set aside three minutes at the end of all meetings and events to evaluate the time
• spent together.
• • Teach one new faith practice per month during worship or at a leadership meeting
• • Have leaders share how lives are being changed as a result of the ministries they
• oversee.
• • capture and share one video clip of “what God is up to” in the lives of people in
• your congregation.
• • Provide monthly updates in the newsletter regarding progress being made on
• congregational goals.
• • Gather feedback from people in the congregation once a month related to how
• they’re growing in faith.

Alignment of People
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” This quote, widely attributed to marga- ret mead, reminds us of the influence a few, committed people can have on an organi- zation. i have yet to find a revitalized congregation that didn’t have a multitude of “thoughtful, committed” aaa christians aligned around a common vision and purpose. The process is similar to the flash mob videos on YouTube (check out the I Believe video). The alignment process starts with a key leader, like the lead pastor, and then it spreads to other staff, and then the governing council. Soon it is passed on to Sunday school teachers and mentors. Then a buzz about what’s happening starts. The “faith flash mob” continues to unfold: Some households start modeling the desired
behaviors and telling their stories. choirs start talking about it and begin
living the vision. Before you know it, the new vision has moved
beyond a few individuals to being mainstream, affecting the major-
ity of people in the congregation. The people who are initially
involved must believe they can make a difference and that
their efforts will have a ripple effect on their congregation.
There is certainly no shortage of books and Bible verses that describe the qualities of a good leader. i’ve discovered, however, that a few essential leadership qualities are often overlooked. When i’m looking for the individuals who can create the energy that arises out of a flash mob mentality, i’m specifically looking for leaders who are
• nimble and adaptive. They are willing to try new things in
new ways and are okay with failing if it leads to new insights about themselves or their organization. They are open to the Spirit working in their life, molding their ministry. They view life and faith as an adventure.
• comfortable with chaos and conflict. These individuals understand that
ministry is messy and that chaos is part of the transformation process.
They’re okay with not having to control everything and not having a ready answer. They understand that people can agree to disagree agreeably and, therefore,
are willing to speak their truth in grace-filled ways, realizing that others may have different and equally valid viewpoints.
• willing to be held accountable and to hold others accountable. They live out of their commitments rather than their excuses, refusing to play the role of a victim. They expect others to hold them accountable for the promises they make, and they will hold others accountable for the commitments they agree to.
Alignment of Commitments
a common challenge congregations face is the need for reducing ministry silos and learning how to collaborate more intentionally with other leaders to achieve common goals. This assumes that congregational leaders set collective goals, take time to explore how each person can contribute to the fulfillment of each goal, and then hold each other accountable for fulfilling their portion of the goals. achieving common goals depends on individual commitments. i suggest that leadership teams limit their collective goals to no more than three to avoid diffusing their efforts. after collective goals have been set, they need to be reviewed at every meeting, with team members listing what their next step will be toward achieving each collective goal. People’s next steps can be listed on an assignment log or incorporated into the next meeting agenda to make sure that they’re reviewed every time team members gather. Leadership team members play a very important role in driving accountability throughout the entire organization by ensuring that progress on collective goals is regularly reviewed, and that action is taken when team members fail to fulfill their next steps. ideally, a team member’s contribu- tions toward collective goals are woven into the annual performance review process to ensure accountability.
Deep Change
alignment is sustained when congregations “go deep” in their change efforts. a congrega- tion i worked with had as one of its goals to become known for extravagant hospitality. its plan for enhancing hospitality only focused on training ushers and greeters and providing better signage around the building. These were good places to start but only scratched the surface in creating a memorable experience of hospitality for visitors. Their members needed to go deep by evaluating how well their website provided a visitor-friendly experi- ence. They needed to go deep by rethinking the color schemes of their building; the type of coffee and refreshments they served; and how one might be treated if visiting other portions of the building. They needed go deep by rethinking how hospitality would be experienced in small group settings and how accessible staff were on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. They needed to consider how to make worship an engaging and transformative experience and how to make the worship bulletins more user-friendly. They needed to go deep by considering what they hoped a visitor would experience after the worship service and after the person returned home. Whatever your congregation’s core values are, go deep by considering how that value might permeate every program and point of contact for people. (if you haven’t already completed Tool 21, “integrating core Values,” please do so now for each of your stated core values.)
You can also encourage households to go deep in areas such as practicing faith at home. When my own family made a commitment to be more intentional about practic- ing faith every day, everywhere, we created a one-page summary of what that would look like for our family based on our responses to the following questions:

• What prayers and caring conversations might we have at the dinner table?
• What books, topics, or questions might we discuss in the car?
• What might our bedtime routine look like?
• in what ways could we serve each other better?
• What community service projects should we participate in this year?
• When can we have the grandparents share their life and faith stories with our kids?
• How can we more fully involve godparents in the faith lives of our children?
• What are our favorite family Scripture passages? Why?
• When is the best time to have family devotions? What might we do during these times?
• Who should we keep in our prayers? How will we remember to pray for them?
• How can we make birthday celebrations sacred moments?
• What are some ways we can have fun together as a family?

The most successful leaders are those who are congruent and fully aligned within themselves and with their congregation. There is simply no substitute for total alignment and congruency within a leader. When this is multiplied throughout an organization, the power is undeniable. What’s your plan for helping individuals and teams become more fully aligned with the congregation’s mission? as this alignment takes shape, the results will be tangible and transformative!

QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1. in what ways are the actions of the pastors and lay leaders not aligned with the congregation’s mission, vision, values, and goals?
2. What steps might your congregation take to be more fully aligned, strategically (for example, in mission, vision, values, goals, structure, personnel)?
3. What are some of the words and phrases that should be part of your common language?
4. What procedures, practices, and processes do you need to tighten up or address?
5. What qualities do you look for in congregational leaders?

1. How does the congregation nurture these qualities in our current leaders? 
2. What’s the next step for integrating your core values into your congregation? 
3. What kind of alignment would you like to see in your life? Your household?