What Is A Healthy Church?

I'm part of a Young Emerging Leaders group that is mostly made up of pastors and youth pastors. They've asked me to be a point person and to write a blog about 'HEALTHY CHURCHES'. The following is my latest entry to that site:

Measuring a church's health is a subject that there are numerous books and blogs written about and one that every leader should be constantly concerned with. In other words, "Is our church body healthy?" should be a question that all pastoral leadership is asking on a regular basis. At our church we've done everything from handing out surveys to asking the so-called-experts to come in and give us their opinions. Each has been a way of measuring our success in fleshing out the call God has commissioned us with. However, with all the information that is available, I think it is super important to differentiate between Church Health and Church Growth. I, for one, do not believe they are the same thing.

I often wonder what Jesus would say to the modern church growth experts? He sure didn’t seem to care about thinning the crowds. Remember that time He spoke about how everyone had to “eat His flesh and drink His blood” and almost everybody bolted?

Sometimes the crowd thins and people you thought were with you... and in it forever,... leave. And sometimes when they do… they will call you painful names.

Those of us that know, love, and have studied Jesus see that most of what He did was not only radical, but controversial. Yet, was the church He was building – you know, the one that the gates of Hell wouldn’t be able to take down – healthy? Of course it was. So then, what exactly does a ‘healthy church’ look like?

We must always remember that God’s Kingdom is completely, even ridiculously, upside down! Jesus’ philosophy so many times seemed to be the “less is more” strategy. Remember in Luke 21 when the little, old lady put two cents into the offering bucket? Compared to the massive amounts being put in by the rich, hers seemed like nothing. Yet, Jesus says that she “put in more than all of them”. What?!? That makes NO sense! I’m not too old to remember learning in one of my math classes that two cents is less than thousands of dollars. Remember those ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’ signs. Well, in every economy in the world two cents is ‘less than’ the thousands of dollars being placed in by the rich folks… except, of course, in Jesus’ economy. In Jesus’ upside down way of thinking, ‘less is more’. Wow.

Can you believe how easy it is to find a list of churches on the internet that are ranked? If you don’t believe me, just Google it yourself. There are people that want to rank churches according to size, and popular opinion. Crazy. Aren’t these the same churches that worship that Guy who said that the “first will be last”?

So again, what exactly determines church health?

I believe when a church is being sensitive to God’s voice and radically obeying it, no matter what He’s saying, then they will be healthy. Unfortunately, we would rather be given a formula – a process – a new program. The problem with that is that what God is doing here in Liberty, Missouri may be drastically different than what He’s up to in your neck of the woods. Don’t get me wrong, obviously the Message stays the same, but the methods must change. Those ‘methods’ are what I’m talking about.

Oftentimes, how you say something means more than what you say.

How is God wanting you to say what He’s asked you to say? Are you still trying to speak in yesterday’s lingo? Are you making the Message of the ages… boring? Are you coasting by with sermons that worked ten years ago, but aren’t at all fresh for the generation of people who are ravenously hungry for the Way, the Truth, and the Life? Do you relate perfectly with the faithful who consistently pay their tithes and show up on the weekends, but totally lost touch with anyone outside of the ‘already Christian’?

What was Jesus doing? What types of people was He relating to? What would He be doing if He were accepting your pay check and doing your job? The answers to those questions are what is going to make your church, and my church, healthy.

Listen, I'm all about sharing new ideas with one another. However, as we are sharing ideas, may we never forget that we MUST be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is leading US to do in OUR LOCAL CHURCHES. May we never feel lame because someone else's church is larger or cooler than ours. May we never think that because we plug in some program that we're all of a sudden going to be healthy. And may we never forget that awesome conversation that Peter and Jesus had right after all the crowds thinned - "You do not want to go away also, do you?" asked Jesus. "Lord, where else are we supposed to go. You have the words of eternal life. We believe that You are the Holy One of God."

In the midst of lots and lots of words, may we never stop being sensitive to the One who has the words of eternal life. God bless.