Gallup helps churches develop engaged congregations

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By BOB REEVES/Lincoln Journal Star

Evangelists and preachers generally assume that believing leads to belonging. 

In other words, get people to have a spiritual commitment to God, and they’ll naturally want to be part of a church or other faith community.

In fact, it’s the other way around, says the Rev. Al Winseman, author of the book “Growing an Engaged Church.”

“Belonging leads to believing,” he said.  Research shows that people who first develop a strong sense of engagement in a congregation   go on to develop a strong faith and spiritual commitment as well.

Winseman, a former United Methodist pastor, is global leader for Gallup Faith Practice, based in Omaha.  The division of Gallup Inc.  offers research-based tools to help churches and other faith communities improve their effectiveness.

One of the keys to encouraging engagement, Winseman said, is helping people discover and use their strengths.

Engaged members “regularly have opportunities in their congregations to do what they do best,” he said, because leaders “have invested time needed to discover their members’ greatest talents and gifts.”

As an example, Winseman points to St. Gerard Majella, a Roman Catholic Church on Long Island, N.Y., that has made extensive use of Gallup research and human development tools.

Monsignor Bill Hanson, pastor at St. Gerard Majella, told in a telephone interview how Winseman helped revitalize his congregation.

“My parish council and I had been saying to ourselves, ‘We’re having a great time here — why aren’t more people joining us?’”  he said.

Then one day he got a letter from Gallup, signed by Winseman, inviting church leaders to a training session on church engagement. 

Instead of trying to figure out why people weren’t coming to church, Winseman said they should be talking to the people who already come and find out what they like about the church — and what new things they’d like to try.

As a result, they had every member take the Clifton Strengths Finder, a Gallup assessment tool that is widely used in the business world. 

They created lanyard-style cards with members’ photos and a list of their top strengths to wear at church and identify themselves — a method also used by staffers on the Gallup campus.

One woman said she had always thought of herself as a busybody, but the assessment identified her as an “activator,” a person who is good at getting things done.  That encouraged her to be a leader in the church.

He told about another church member who saw a young woman visitor at church crying.  At first she felt reluctant to intrude on the visitor’s privacy, but then she remembered that the strengths assessment had identified her as empathetic. She sat down and talked with the woman, who afterward told the pastor, “You have the nicest people in this church!”

Instead of just classes for kids, the congregation started  “whole community catechesis” nights, with a dinner, social activities and religious instruction for all ages.  People who hadn’t attended  worship for years felt comfortable in the casual setting and made new friends.

“After a while, a lot of them started coming to Mass on Sundays,” Hanson said.  

Some people wanted the evenings to close with prayer, so they added a devotional time with songs from the children. “When we did it the first night, the parents were all crying because the kids were so into it,” Hanson said.

Attendance at the evening events jumped from 30 to more than 130 within two months, all by word of mouth, he noted. 

“The big change is we used to sort of arm-twist people to try to get them involved,” he said. “Now without our  having to say anything, they’re telling us what they want to do.”

Winseman was the founding pastor of St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church, which began in 1991 in Omaha.  He went on to become senior pastor of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Lincoln from 1998 until 2000, when Gallup leaders sought him out for the new Faith Practices team.

“Gallup has done 65 years of survey research on faith issues,” he said.  “This is taking all of our best research methodology and our work with strengths development and effective organizations and puts the two together to help congregations, parishes and faith communities be more effective in their missions.”

In his years as a minister, Winseman said, “there are some things I managed to get right without knowing it,” but now he can use proven research to back up his advice.

He is co-author of a previous book, “Living Your Strengths,” which helps church members discover and use their God-given talents.  His latest book, subtitled “How to Stop ‘Doing Church’ and Start Being the Church Again,” focuses on tested ways to build congregational engagement.

“Gallup research demonstrates that congregations with engaged members are spiritually healthier, are better able to carry out their missions, attract more new people, are better able to fund new ventures and have a higher percentage of spiritually committed individuals,” he writes. “In short, they are more effective than congregations with non-engaged or actively disengaged members.”

Engaged churches reach out to people and make them feel valued and wanted, he says.  They have a clear set of expectations for members, but also make it clear what members can expect from their church.  They let members know  their opinions count and that their participation is important, he says. 

Winseman tested the engagement tools at his former church, St. Andrews  Methodist, from 2001-2004 and saw dramatic changes.  The level of congregational engagement grew from 22 percent to 38 percent in a two-year period, while active disengagement dropped from 25 percent to 13 percent. 

“We’ve found engagement theory to be really exciting,” said the Rev. Bruce Davis, senior pastor at St. Andrew’s.  “We’ve learned that if we can get people plugged into the church, engaged in the church, people will grow in their faith.” 

In one example of how engagement leads to spiritual growth, St. Andrew’s members committed themselves to MOPED (an acronym for a “Minute of Prayer Every Day”), but moved on to HARLEY (“Heavenly Activated Righteousness, Love, Empathy and Yes, Yes, Lord!”).  In other words, making a commitment to spend more time in prayer brought them to a closer relationship with God, Davis said.

“We’ve found consistently that as people experience the first returns of spiritual engagement, they will grow in faith and understanding.”

St. Andrew’s members took the Gallup engagement assessment twice last year, and will take it again this month.  Each time the engagement level has increased. The very act of taking the survey “tends to engage people” because it shows that leaders care how members feel about their church, he said.

Often churches look at membership rolls or levels of giving as signs of a healthy church, but that isn’t what makes a church exciting or vibrant, Winseman says.

Having an invite a friend Sunday doesn’t result in a long-range increase in attendance, and an occasional sermon about money doesn’t have much effect on giving.   On the other hand, when people have a high level of engagement, they don’t see  serving or supporting the church as a duty, but “frequently describe it as a joy,” he said. 

“Engaged members don’t burn out; they only become stronger, more energized and more engaged.”

Winseman travels extensively,  consulting with congregations and religious organizations about how to improve their effectiveness.  Priests and ministers also go to Omaha for leadership training by the Gallup staff. 

In addition, Gallup and Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, have teamed up to offer a doctor of ministry degree in strength-based congregational leadership.

Engagement theory applies to all denominations and churches, liberal to conservative, Winseman said. What makes for a successful church “is not so much the theology as it is the community or sense of belonging.”

The response to “Growing an Engaged Church” has been very positive, he said. “Many people tell me that this resonates with what they’ve known all along, but they’re glad to have the research to support it.” 

Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.