What does it look like when a church is healthy? How does a church get healthy? In order to understand what a healthy church looks like and how it is supposed to get there, we must ask and answer what is a church supposed to do or accomplish. Why did Jesus set up this organism called the church? There have been a number of very excellent and highly intellectual discussions of what makes a healthy church, but I want to be very basic here. The church exists to do five things: Worship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Fellowship, and Compassion. These can be seen in Acts 2:42-25 and individually in Jesus commands in Matt 4:10; Matt 28:18-20; Matt 4:19; Matt 5:44-47; John 13:33,34. Therefore a healthy church is one in which those things are happening.
Let’s dig a little deeper into these basic elements of a healthy church. Worship in a church is the development two types of adoration and praise into lifestyle habits in the life of believers: direct worship where God is praised directly in prayer, song, speech and action; indirect worship where God is praised through how we live our lives. Discipleship in a church is the development of systems to produce overflowing amounts of Biblical love in the 10 major relationships of life and understanding of the 10 doctrines that make up a Christian world view. Evangelism a church is the development of a pre-evangelism strategy; an evangelism strategy; and a follow up strategy. Fellowship in a church is the process of attaching authentic friends to each believer’s life for encouragement, support and correction during the journey of faith. Compassion in a church is assessing the needs of the community and where the love of Christ can make the largest difference.
Almost all churches emphasize one or two of these purposes over the other three, which is fine as long as all five are happening. I am a firm believer that we tend to hit what we aim at. Therefore, we must constantly aim at all five of God’s purposes for the church. We must plan on accomplishing all of these: Evangelism, Discipleship, Worship, Compassion and Fellowship. We cannot just hope a purpose of the church happens. Church leaders must consciously pray and aim at pleasing Jesus with what they are doing. That means trying to the best of their ability to fulfill in God’s power and grace all five purposes of the church. Many churches have stopped aiming at a particular purpose; therefore these churches are sick. I know some very large sick churches and some very small sick churches. Health is not a function of size but of life, growth, strength, accomplishment. It is not possible for a church to be healthy where any one of these five purposes is nonexistent.
Yes, these major purposes of the church will look different in various churches. These purposes are not cookie cutter elements that look the same in every culture, age group, socio-economic grouping or sub-cultural group. But all five will be present in healthy churches. Yes, there are settings where accomplishing one or more of these purposes will be hard or slow. But all five will be present in healthy churches. Yes, some well meaning Christians will resist one or more of these purposes for all kinds of high sounding reasons. But all five will be present in healthy churches. Yes, certain purposes will be more in vogue than others and dominate the “what’s new” discussions about churches. But all five will be present in healthy churches.
The goal of a district is that all of the churches would be healthy. Let me give you an analogy. The human body has 10 different systems that allow it to function at peak efficiency: the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, the skeletal system, the digestive system, the muscular system, the lymphatic system, the endocrine system, the male and/or female reproductive system and the urinary system. If any of these systems become damaged, blocked, diseased or compromised in some way it is not long before the whole body becomes unhealthy. The same is true in the church. There are 10 systems in the church: five major systems and five support systems.
Since we have delineated the five major systems in a church, let’s talk about the five support systems in a church that are required for a church to be healthy. The two obvious support systems are finances and facilities. A church must have a reasonable inflow of money coming in with proper management. A healthy church must also have reasonable facilities that allow ministry to take place. But a healthy church cannot spend all its time talking, planning, acquiring and maintaining finances or facilities. It is very easy to get side tracked to discussions of buildings and budgets. We have all seen churches where all crucial planning and decision meetings are dominated by conversations about the buildings or the offerings instead of Worship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Fellowship and Compassion. The church does not exist to have buildings and collect money. We exist to glorify God, mature believers into righteous living, bring lost sinners to the Savior, develop authentic community and reach out with the love of Christ to the poor, afflicted and oppressed. The other three support systems that often lay hidden are the leadership development system, the equipping or recruiting system and the targeting or purpose system. How are you doing in with these systems? Is there a constant and steady stream of new godly leaders who are coming up to take leadership of key areas of ministry? Does the church have a system of personal, mass and crisis recruiting that is working? Are people being trained and resourced so they feel adequate for the jobs they are given? Does the church have a proven system and key people tasked with keeping people from drifting off the mission of the church?
It is very easy for a church to settle into its way of doing church and agree within itself that their way is right. Everything is great from their point of view except nobody is becoming a Christian, or very few are growing and changing into more loving people, or people are not swept up in adoration, praise and thanksgiving to God, or the poor, oppressed, afflicted and marginalized are not loved and embraced, or people don’t make friends at the church they stay disconnected. Churches with the symptoms mentioned above will often call the district to help them grow but they don’t want to hear that they are sick. They often want to do more of what they already like doing. Health often lies down a road that has hardly been traveled by that particular church. Unhealthy churches come in all sizes and shapes, but healthy churches focus on Worship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Fellowship and Compassion; whatever that looks like in their context.
It is the district’s job to help a church realize the whole of the mission of being a church. It is the district’s job to help a church know how to get back on track with accomplishing all that Jesus wants that church to accomplish. It is the district’s job to have the hard conversation about health and God’s purposes. It is the district’s job to help the pastor and the board to introduce new steps, new strategies and new ideas to bring back health and vitality. Many times a church is not willing to discuss their state of health until after a pastor leaves or a major crisis develops. It is the district’s job to be an objective voice in the sea of their own subjectivity. It is the district’s job to keep calling a church out of its comfort zone to engage with God’s purposes and not just settle for something less. Does the district do this well in every case? No. Sometime we are too soft. Sometime we are too hard. We try and help those who want to hear and encourage those churches who are still fighting the good fight. Those churches that have become increasingly or completely self-deluded as to their state of health do not want the district’s help.
The district provides multiple vehicles to assess health in each congregation. We invite pastors to 3 local clusters through the year to meet with other pastors in the area. These groups are led by a Superintendent at Large who will teach, counsel, assist, suggest and mentor the pastors in his region. The district also provides two all day seminars each year where highly skilled leaders address specific issues regarding church health. The district also recommends conferences and seminars that deal with various issues that could benefit the churches. Also the district superintendent is available to each and every pastor and church leader on matters of church health. The district is also able to connect pastors and church leaders to other church leaders within our district and/or nationally who can help. The district also makes available national denominational leaders who can speak to a particular issue that impacts churches. We have tests and assessments that a church can take on itself which will help it with its own assessment of its strengths and weakness.
