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Energizing and Equipping Local Churches
in Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World
Vital Congregations
Vital Congregations
The mission of the churches of the Central Texas Conference is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. (Matt 28:18-20 & Matt 22:36-40) This mission is achieved through vital congregations that equip and empower people to be Disciples of Jesus Christ in their homes and communities around the world.
A powerful tool put out by the United Methodist Church to help energize and equip local churches as they work to identify the strengths and opportunities for their congregations is the Vital Congregations website. The many tools found within this site can exponentially increase a church’s capacity to set the goals necessary to reach the vision of becoming a more vital and healthy congregation. It also helps teach church leaders how to effectively measure progress against those goals. The Call to Action Research showed that there exists a lack of measures and accountability within the United Methodist Church. The Vital Congregations tool walks leaders through how to set goals based upon 5 measurable indicators of vitality: Disciples in Worship (Average Worship Attendance); Disciples making new Disciples (Professions of Faith); Disciples growing in their faith (Number of Small Groups = Groups that meet together regularly in order to support, encourage and hold one another accountable in their relationship with Christ); Disciples engaged in mission (Number of Disciples doing outreach in the community and in the world); Disciples sharing their resources for mission (Amount of financial resources given to mission – including World Service, etc.)
The Vital Congregations website is designed to be a resource for all leaders in The United Methodist Church and it is a tool that has been determined by Bishop Lowry and the Cabinet as vital to the health of the conference as well as the local churches. It is simple, user-friendly and easily accessible. If you haven’t gotten to know and love Vital Congregations, please do so soon by clicking on the image to the right and exploring the site, watching the excellent (and short) instructional videos and siting down with a nice cup of your favorite beverage and watching the replay of the overview seminar.
