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What Does a Healthy Church Look Like? (Part 1)
Finally, a complete guide to the vibrant, dynamic, empowered, totally awesome, and really, robust church.
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Another characteristic of health is being a "real life" church. A real-life church teaches the Bible in such a way that we equip people in their families, work, and relationships. We exist to train people to live life effectively. If you approach church from that angle, then everybody—old Christians, new Christians, soon-to-be Christians—are going to benefit, because who doesn't need to learn to live life? Steve Sjogren is pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Cause-Driven Churchby Erwin McManus The early church existed with a dynamic tension: it was both expanding and consolidating—growing and unifying. The Bible tells us that first century believers "shared everything in common" and that "the church was being added to day by day." We want our church to live in this same tension. This tension is illustrated by two biblical images—the body of Christ and the army of God. The body of Christ is centered on community; the army of God is centered on cause. Healthy community flows out of a unified cause—not the other way around. Jesus called his disciples and said, "Follow me. I'll make you fishers of men." This was not an offer of community. "Follow me and I will give you something worthy of giving your life to" is a statement of cause. But the neat thing is, when they came to the cause, they found community like they never knew could exist. That's the power of the church. One danger of the American church is that we often try to offer people community without cause. Without cause, you're just another civic organization. You don't have life transformation. Jesus said, "I have come to the world to seek and to save that which is lost." The cause of Christ is accomplished by expanding the kingdom of God. Communicating the gospel in a postmodern context can make us feel forced to compete with the entertainment industry. You might be able to compete if you have millions of dollars and that level of expertise. Most of us don't. We have only one advantage that neither Hollywood nor mtv has. We have the presence and power of the living God! Why in the world would we eliminate God's power from our core strategy and actually move to a deficit rather than to an advantage? Erwin McManus is pastor of The Church on Brady in Los Angeles, California. Jesus' Surprising Definitionby Lee Eclov In the second and third chapters of John's Revelation, we find the letters dictated to the seven churches. Here, in a uniquely direct way, we have the Lord's assessment of health indicators for local congregations. |             |
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