What does a healthy church look like? What do healthy churches do? Question we must look at if we have any chance of being a healthy church.
These are difficult questions for us to ponder because the church in North America for the past 50 plus years that I have been observing it could be described in many ways, but healthy is not one of them. As the population of the country has continued to grow, church membership and worship attendance has been in a rather steep decline. The reputation of the church in the un-churched of our culture has become ugly. Church people are seen as negative, judgmental, narrow-minded, exclusive, hypocritical, mean-spirited and generally not much fun to be around. The positive and helpful impact of the church on the culture has become negated or ignored. If one were to step outside of the church and take a look around, one can easily see that the church is not in good shape.
For those of us who have been a part of the mainline denominational church for many years, our unhealthiness is difficult to see and recognize. We have done church like we are doing church all of our lives and, like a person who has grown up in a dysfunctional family, don’t know any better and think what we are doing is normal. It may, in fact, be normal, but it is not healthy. One of the basic ways we know it is not healthy is that the church is not growing. It is a basic truth that healthy living things grow. The church is the Body of Christ – a living organism – and thus, if healthy, will be growing.
Before we look at how a healthy church looks and acts, let’s look at the outcomes of a church living and functioning in a healthy way. Before we can figure out how we will get there, we need to know where we are going. Too many times, we, the church, have just taken off in a direction not knowing where we are going or what we are trying to accomplish. And then we become so invested in what we are doing (Which may be something or things that have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God.) that we can’t turn loose of this unhealthy behavior. We end up investing our limited resources in doing things that might be nice things but are not things that will produce the results we desire.
What does a healthy church produce. At the core, the bottom line in measuring the success of a church answers these questions: Is the church producing changed lives? Are we seeing other’s lives changed? Are our lives being changed? The Bible says we become “new creatures in Christ.” Are we? If so, how are we, you and me, different than we were five years ago? The Word says we should be “… transformed by the renewing of our minds.” How are we being transformed? In what ways and about what things have you changed your mind in the past few years? Are we growing? Are we being conformed into the image of Christ? (See, I told you I ask lots of questions.)
According to author Gene Mims (The One, Five, Four Principles of Church Growth), a healthy church will produce growth in four ways.
1. Numerical growth. If a church is a healthy, happy, spiritually powerful, life giving, life affirming, grace filled, peace-filled, healing place, the people will come. People will be attracted to such a place. The church will be so attractive that you couldn’t keep people away.
2. Spiritual growth. Many people believe that spiritual growth can’t be measured. And perhaps it can’t. But it has been my experience that spiritual growth can be observed. Spiritual growth positively and profoundly effects how one lives his or her life. Spiritual growth impacts how I treat my spouse, how I raise my children, what kind of employee I am, what I will or won’t do for a living, how I spend and invest my money.
3. Ministry growth. Each year the church should see more and more members involved in the ministries of the church.
4. Mission growth. Each year a larger number of those involved in the life of the church should be found out serving people on the local, national and international mission fields. Ministry and mission are not for the select few. Participation in mission and ministry is what every believer does.
This is where we want to go. These are the results we want to produce. Next we will look at how we reach our objectives.
Copyright © 2012, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
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