Putting the Best Practice Principles to work in the church

What are the Best Practice Principles?
In years of work with congregations, in extensive research with more than 1,800 congregations and almost half a million church-goers, researchers noted a number of churches that seemed to exhibit distinctive vitality. They gathered a select group of leaders from these congregations to find out what they were doing. The churches were varied. Some were urban, some suburban, some rural. They were denominational and non-denominational. Some were large. Some small. But despite this diversity, basic themes emerged in these conversations that led researchers to identify five Best Practice Principles common to these congregations:

• The Heart of the Leader
• Get People Moving
• Embed the Bible in Everything
• Create Ownership
• Pastor the Community

We are thrilled to see these principles at work in Episcopal congregations and we wanted to share some of the examples of that work and also direct church leaders to resources that might allow for these principles to be put to work.