The Process
How Does It Work?
We begin with a parish-wide online survey—we call it the Spiritual Life Inventory—to determine current beliefs, spiritual practices, and the community involvement of parishioners. Next, a small group of lay leaders, staff, and clergy participate in four guided workshops exploring their own spiritual journeys while diving into the results of the parish’s compiled inventory data.
We also share the best practices for spiritual vitality and growth discovered in other Episcopal and non-Episcopal churches. Ultimately, the workshop team crafts a final report using the results of their church’s inventory, tailored to the unique needs, goals, and desires of their church community.
The workshops are approximately two hours in length and facilitated by a lay leader chosen by the participant church. The lay leader is supported by a comprehensive Facilitator’s Guide and by the RenewalWorks team.
Is RenewalWorks right for your church?
Our methodology provides summary data from your church’s parishioners around what Episcopal beliefs congregants most value, how they currently utilize spiritual practices, and how they put their faith into action in the church and the community.
Churches have used RenewalWorks to:
- re-orient the church culture around discipleship,
- begin or accelerate church growth,
- elevate and identify lay leadership,
- create a parish-wide strategic plan for increased spiritual depth,
- determine future spiritual formation emphasis,
- determine a parish-wide community service project,
- assist with clergy leadership changes (assisting with a parish profile),
- re-center parish life on how God is calling each of us to grow,
- and more.
More ways to use RenewalWorks
The standard RenewalWorks process might not be an exact fit for your church, or perhaps you are interested in using the data gathering and analysis in another way. We can help!
We work with small churches to customize the process to fit their context. Please contact us if you are considering RenewalWorks and have an ASA under 50.
Or perhaps a diocesan or regional initiative is right for you. Several dioceses have used RenewalWorks with all their churches, providing both congregational data, as well as aggregated data on the whole diocese. We have also worked with clusters of churches in a region to form a local cohort and build relationships among the group of churches.
Thinking of another way to harness the RenewalWorks process and findings? Please contact us to discuss customization.
Visit our FAQ page for more information.
"As we near the end of the RenewalWorks process, I’m aware how much of a gift it has been to do this work … How wonderful it would be if the joy of our being able to gather was undergirded by transformation for the whole community, if we could harness that joy and offer the community a new path forward. For us, this has been a wonderful time to refocus, to plan, and to imagine what our life will look like in the season ahead."
The Rev. Marissa Rohrbach,
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Wilton, CT
