Every pastor hopes their church will impact their local community—but even the best ministries and programs have limitations. Often, pastors must rely on the help and leadership of their congregants to invest in their church’s neighborhood. Recently, Barna researchers studied the impact of lay-led initiatives in local communities and what happens when practicing Christians gather together to do good in their neighborhoods. These findings and many more are featured in the Better Togetherstudy, the third in a series of reports from Barna’s partnership with Lutheran Hour Ministries.

The power of lay leaders and individual Christians is still felt even in the unique circumstances of 2020: As churches have joined the world in practicing self-isolation, there are still myriad ways that followers of Christ have continued to be a welcome influence in their communities. But are pastors equipping them?

In this article, an adaptation from Better Together, we’ll take a look at how churches support congregants to serve neighborhood needs. You can order Better Togethertoday—advanced copies are now available for purchase.  

“I want to encourage church leaders to begin to measure the outcomes and look at what it would mean to reorient how we evaluate church leadership and pastors, not just by how well they lead the members who are already part of our church, but how well they help us to serve our communities.” –Glenn Barth, Good Cities

How Churches Nurture & Release People to Do Good Though pastors’ top ministry priorities—worship (29%) and teaching (27%)—center around Sunday services, lay-led initiatives mesh well with many of their stated aims. It’s not hard to see how congregants’ involvement in groups that act in and impact their neighborhoods could provide opportunities for effective outreach and evangelism, relationship building and, of course, community engagement, all ranked among pastors’ priorities.

While groups might gather outside of formal church structures and teaching, such independent initiatives could also be encouraged as part of discipleship—the number-one priority for one in four pastors (25%). These community groups not only may lead to hands-on, in-person experiences in redemptive work but also, as practicing Christians tell us, contribute to personal spiritual growth, as well as many other benefits.

The research findings may be preaching to the pulpit here; pastors already see tremendous value in lay-led initiatives—in fact, the majority prefers them to new church programs (40% agree strongly, 52% agree somewhat) and feels that lay people taking on responsibility is a mark of an increasingly healthy church (68% agree strongly, 28% agree somewhat). Accordingly, nearly all (97%) can think of at least one congregant-led community that has had a positive impact on their church, with more than two-thirds (68%) saying all of them have been a benefit.

Though pastors still assume a lot of personal responsibility in various aspects of sharing the gospel or doing good works, their responses indicate they are counting on everybody in their congregation to take up the mantle of representing the Church in the community. In some cases, they’re more likely to place responsibility on the whole church as a body than on their church staff or even on themselves. Among the things they especially hope any member might embrace are evangelism and outreach (85%), showing others how to live as Christians (79%), helping the poor (77%), teaching others about God (60%) and giving practical help to those in sickness, transition or crisis (59%).

“I think it’s critically important for churches to lead some of the initiative and vision. There are dreamers and there are doers, and there’s a Venn diagram where they cross.” –Emily Gibson, Thrivent Action Teams

Overall, this emphasizes the theme that church leaders endorse empowering laity. But the reality is that pastors may be hoping for much from laity without offering much in the way of growth opportunities. For example, just 9 percent strongly agree their team is good at developing new leaders; another half (50%) somewhat agree. Whether because of high standards or low investment, 41 percent of pastors feel their churches are doing a poor job when it comes to leadership development.

Churchgoers’ Local Presence During a Time of Distance Despite pastors’ doubts surrounding leadership development at their church, a plurality of leaders says that their church and congregants are making an effort to support their local community right now, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In Barna’s most recent pastor panel check in (April 28-May 4), church leaders say their congregations are primarily focusing on helping distribute food and supplies (37%), reaching out to elderly, isolated and at-risk community members (24%) and providing financial resources to those who are struggling (8%). A quarter of pastors (24%) , however, says their church does not have an official or organized response at this time.

That hasn’t stopped lay people from setting out to do good in their community, though. Over half of U.S. pastors (53%) report their people are organizing outside of church programs to meet needs during the crisis. Given the data above on congregant-led initiatives, this is cause for celebration among church leaders and also an amazing opportunity for pastors to equip and encourage their people to continue being a source of comfort, healing and hope in their communities.

Click here to register for the State of the Church 2020 webcast, a free event for church leaders and their teams that will broadcast live on May 20, 2020 at 1pm ET.