by Stephen L Dunn
Often overlooked in the move to become an outward focused church serving the community as the Spirit leads is the matter of the church's spiritual health. Sometimes our intensive ministries neglect the cultivation of a spiritually healthy congregation.
Like our physical health, it is important to intentionally and consistently do the work needed to promote and maintain that health. When a church is not spiritually healthy it creates an environment where the people under its care and influence develop patterns, values, actions, and attitudes that undermine the intention of Jesus in John 10:10, “to have life to the full.” The church’s witness and attractiveness are undermined because people outside who know they are unhealthy are reluctant to connect to a church that is not healthy. Or worse, they connect to a church believing that our weaknesses and problems are the norm, and therefore, do not become maturing disciples in Jesus Christ. Unhealthy churches ultimately die. Spiritually healthy churches multiply because they are helping the individual members of the church mature in Christ (who then in turn help others to do so). Spiritually healthy churches reproduce in creating new members of the Kingdom of God.
An important resource for this is
The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazarro with Warren Bird. In their book, they note these characteristics of such churches.
Ten Characteristics of a Healthy Church
1. God's Empowering Presence
2. God-Exalting Worship
3. Spiritual Disciplines
4. Learning and Growing in Community
5. A Commitment to Loving and Caring Relationships
6. Servant-Leadership Development
7. An Outward Focus
8. Wise Administration and Accountability
9. Networking with the Body of Christ
10. Stewardship and Generosity
We attend to a lot of matters in the church, but do we have strategies for being sure that these things are true about the congregations that we serve?
More to come ....
(C) 2012 by Stephen L Dunn
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