The Diocese of West Missouri is pleased to announce the launch of the Congregational Vitality Assessment (CVA), an innovative online diagnostic tool designed to provide meaningful insights into the health and sustainability of our diocesan churches. This comprehensive assessment explores 11 critical areas of church life:
- Vision, Mission, and Discernment
- Lay Engagement and Empowerment
- Context Awareness and Inclusion
- Change Readiness
- Managing Differences and Conflict
- Worship
- Spiritual Life
- Formation, Education, and Training
- Outreach
- Leadership and Organization
- Stewardship
The CVA offers a nuanced approach to congregational assessment by scoring each area individually. This tool recognizes that every congregation has unique strengths and challenges. It’s not about creating a competitive ranking, but instead about understanding and supporting our churches.
Initial test congregations, including St. James in Springfield, Calvary in Sedalia, and St. Augustine’s in Kansas City, have already begun using the CVA and will be using the results to inform their planning for the new year. This diocesan-wide initiative will provide valuable insights to parish leaders, diocesan leaders, and our incoming Bishop-elect.
The Rev. Canon Chas Marks and leaders from the Diocesan Council will assist parishes in administering the assessment and interpreting the collected data. By implementing this tool over multiple years, we’ll be able to track meaningful trends across our congregations.
It’s important to emphasize that the CVA is a supportive resource, not a punitive measure. It is to help us support our churches, not close our churches. Our goals are to:
- Identify congregational vitality and sustainability trends – this means we will be looking for trends across churches in order to see in what areas we need more support.
- Develop targeted learning opportunities – based on the assessment results, we’ll create and plan specific training opportunities and make resources available.
- Create strategic intervention strategies – diocesan leadership will develop practical, actionable plans to help our diocese address the specific challenges we are facing.
Fr. Chas will be reaching out to church leaders soon to schedule times with each congregation for administering the assessment. We look forward to completing this process before Bishop-elect Amy Dafler Meaux’s arrival, providing her with a comprehensive understanding of our diocesan landscape.
