The Congregational Vitality Team’s focus is to partner with laity, pastors, churches/charges, leaders and congregations throughout our area in order to breathe a Christ-led spiritual breath of fresh air into all those who live in our communities.

We build all we do upon the strong foundations of:

• The Great Commission (see Matthew 28:18-20)
• The Great Commandment (see Matthew 22:36-40)
• Jesus’ heart for the lost (see Luke 15:3-7) ONE > 99
• The West Virginia UMC Conference mission and our focus on discipleship and leadership

Our Mission is to discover, develop, and deploy passionate spiritual leaders who make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

• Our Conference Leadership Standards [click here for PDF] and the principles of Loving, Learning, and Leading.

The Congregational Vitality Team is guided in our work from the following core values:

• Prayer & Discernment
• Continuous Learning & Leadership Development
• Laity Involvement
• Coaching
• Evangelism & Discipleship
• Outside Perspective
• Next Steps

What is a vital congregation? Vital congregations are:

• Spirit-filled, forward-leaning communities of believers that welcome all people (Galatians 3:28)
• Places where disciples of Jesus Christ are made through the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20)
• Communities that serve like Christ through justice and mercy ministries (Micah 6:8, Luke 4:17-21)

A vital congregation has:

• Inviting and inspiring worship
• Engaged disciples in mission and outreach
• Gifted, equipped and inspired lay leadership
• Effective, equipped and inspired clergy leadership
• Small groups and strong children’s programs and youth ministry

Vital congregations are led by and made up of vital disciples. These are some marks of vital disciples:

• Disciples worship
• Disciples make new disciples
• Disciples engage in growing their faith
• Disciples engage in mission
• Disciples give to mission

Vital congregations information on the UMC.org website