by Corey Schlosser-Hall

"Many churches have a tendency to focus on weakness, and want to fix things that are wrong instead of focusing on what's strong and building on that," Woolever said.

So what makes a church strong?

Vital churches usually exhibited three to five of the 10 strengths identified in the 2004 book, Woolever said, "but they are not necessarily the same strengths. . Churches are like snowflakes. I thought we'd see patterns, but churches were all over the map."

The authors said they were surprised in some cases by what researchers didn't find.

"Congregational vitality does not depend on size," Bruce said. "Small congregations excel in many of these areas." She said small churches are especially good at helping people "grow spiritually, . participate in congregational life, . and encourage a sense of belonging." The congregations included in the survey had an average worship attendance of 90.

"Mega-churches (those with worship attendance above 2,000) get a huge amount of press," Bruce said, "but there are 350,000 churches in the United States, and only 800 are mega-churches."

Despite the Presbyterian chorus of "We're losing members!", the authors said, lots of churches in all denominations are growing - and not for the reasons you might expect.

"The three factors that do predict growth in almost every case are the percentage of new people in the congregation . caring for children and young people . and participation in the life and leadership of the congregation," Bruce said. "Growing churches are place where lots of people are involved in lots of activity; where lots of people lead different aspects of the church."

What is the most important strength?

"There's not one magic answer that if you knew it you could fix it," Bruce said. "Congregations need multiple strengths, and each needs to ask what are their unique strengths and what is God calling them to be and do."

The books - and sometimes the authors as well - are available at the PPC booth in the Assembly exhibit hall.