By Robert Dilday
Two months after launching an organization aimed at enhancing the spiritual and organizational health of congregations, director Bill Wilson says the Center for Healthy Churches is poised to shape and engage an emerging “healthy church movement.”
The new church consulting group, which began operations Jan. 1, has developed a roster of 20 nationally based coaches and consultants and on Feb. 28 announced a collaboration with the Virginia Baptist Mission Board — the first of several partnerships, Wilson said.
“I believe there is an emerging ‘healthy church movement’ that addresses all five components of health: spiritual, organizational, emotional, financial and physical,” said Wilson. “We want to shape and be at the center of that conversation. Crossing denominational and geographical boundaries, we will give ourselves fully to churches and clergy who want to get, stay or become healthy.”
The CHC grew out of a shift in strategy at the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, which since 1992 has operated the Center for Congregational Health as a joint venture with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Wilson had been director since 2009 of the Center for Congregational Health, which is transitioning to a new name — FaithHealthNC.
“After 21 years of cultivating a focus upon congregational organizational and spiritual health, late last year the hospital shifted its attention to a more clinically focused model,” said Wilson. “They invited me to take the national consulting and coaching work out from under the hospital organization. “
Since then, Wilson, who will remain in Winston-Salem for now, has initiated conversations with “groups around the country who share our commitment to church and clergy health and who want to think innovatively about how we might partner together.” For the former Virginia Baptist pastor, a partnership with the Virginia Baptist Mission Board was a natural first step, and may provide a blueprint for other collaborations.
“Denominational bodies are awakening to the multitude of options that exist for them to provide genuine help to congregations,” he said. “Unprecedented downward financial pressure is stimulating us all to think more creatively. The VBMB has been on the forefront of innovative thinking in that regard, and it’s a pleasure to be able to craft a ‘win-win agreement’ with them. For a fraction of the cost of hiring additional staff, we will be able to help them broaden and deepen a vital service for their churches and clergy.”
VBMB executive director John Upton said the arrangement will help the Baptist General Association of Virginia’s 1,400 churches navigate critical pastoral transitions.
“It is my prayer that this collaborative partnership will provide additional congregational solutions that bring hope and wholeness to our churches, lay leaders and clergy during critical stages of church transition,” Upton said in a press release. “We are blessed to have this opportunity to partner with such a progressive and innovative group in church health solutions.”
The partnership creates the CHC’s first regional satellite in Richmond, Va., where VBMB staffer Travis Collins will serve as coordinator.
Collins recently resigned as pastor of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond to become regional coordinator for Fresh Expressions, an international movement which helps churches engage postmodern culture by establishing new creative communities of faith. The VBMB coordinates Fresh Expressions in the United States.
His Fresh Expressions and CHC roles will complement each other, Collins said. “I’m excited for this opportunity to walk alongside our churches as a solution provider. This unique combination of CHC’s focus on church health and [Fresh Expressions’] focus on churches being missional provides us with a tremendous opportunity to make a significant difference for the Kingdom.”
As the “face of CHC-Virginia,” Collins will work closely with the VBMB’s field strategists and the five CHC associates who live in Virginia, Wilson said. “Establishing a satellite of the CHC is an example of the power of virtual presence blended with the physical, and means churches will be better served on a more timely basis in the future.”
A cost-sharing approach will make the CHC’s services available to BGAV churches at a reduced rate, a pattern that Wilson said will be replicated with other partners.
Cost-sharing is a component in a financial “three-legged stool” which Wilson expects to fund his organization. A second source of revenue is individuals willing to contribute to make services available to clients who cannot pay the full costs of services.
“Third, we use a fee-for-service approach that assumes many clients will be willing to pay for the services we offer, if we keep the costs reasonable,” he added. “Our vision is to be able to do this work using an economic model that makes these services available to everyone, regardless of financial capacities.”
Though the CHC’s mission of “improving the spiritual, emotional and organizational health of churches and ministers” is consistent with Wilson’s previous work with the Center for Congregational Health, training of intentional interim pastors won’t be among the services.
“The old traditional training events for intentional interim work will remain as an offering of the medical center,” he said. “The CHC will be working to identify and develop a new and more relevant approach to interim work that acknowledges the new realities of the congregational landscape.”
But Wilson added he’s exploring a wide range of options to make the CHC effective.
“It’s a very engaging and exciting time for entrepreneurial thinking,” he said. “Anything we can do to accomplish our mission is being considered. Stay tuned — there are interesting opportunities and possibilities that will emerge.”