HOW HEALTHY IS YOUR CHURCH PART 2

Luke 11:1-12:59 

Understanding and evaluating the marks of a healthy church ensure a community that thrives spiritually and fulfills its mission. What does a healthy church look like? The simplest way to evaluate the health of a church is to look at Scripture. A healthy church exhibits signs like genuine love for one another (John 13:34-35), a commitment to prayer (Acts 2:42), and a passion for spreading the Gospel (Matthew 28:19-20). These Biblical principles guide us in recognizing and cultivating a church that reflects God’s heart.

God established the church to be the primary agent for carrying out His purposes on earth. The church is the body of Christ—God’s heart, hands, feet, and voice reaching out to people in the world. Healthy churches come in every shape and size. While numerical growth may be an indicator of health it does not guarantee the well-being of a church. The healthiness of a church is measured in spiritual and biblical terms rather than numerical.

A healthy church teaches sound doctrine based on the whole counsel of God’s Word. When believers meet together, the Bible should to be the center of the teaching. Faithful interpretation and everyday application of sound biblical doctrine will produce wholesome Christian living. The centrality of scriptural truth preserves the well-being of the local church as well as its leadership. And when biblical truth and sound doctrine are prioritized, safeguarded, and taught without compromise, then all other traits of a healthy church will naturally follow.

A healthy church emphasizes discipleship, which produces faithful followers who aren’t perfect, but who know and love God and seek to obey His Word. Discipleship includes getting involved in the life of the church, building authentic relationships with other believers, exercising gifts of ministry and service, growing in sanctification and bearing fruit (John 15:5-8).

The early church was devoted to biblical doctrine, meeting together for prayer, worship, and communion. These early Christians fervently dedicated themselves to one another, forming a loving, generous environment where members cared for one another. A healthy church today will exhibit similar enthusiasm for authentic Christian living and participate in the purposes and work of God.

THE HEALTHY CHURCH IS CHARACTERIZED MORE BY PRAYER THAN BY ITS PERFORMANCE: (Luke 11:1-4)

A church in prayer is in its most distinctive state. Prayer is both the distinctive act and the distinctive attitude of the church. In Luke 11:1-4, Jesus' disciples made this request, "Lord, teach us to pray," (Luke 11:1). Jesus' response was short but offers a model of the healthy church at prayer.

We live in an era that prizes performance and achievement. The healthy church understands that its role is to be a channel for God to perform through and for God to achieve his purposes through. Prayer positions the healthy church to be God's instrument.

THE HEALTHY CHURCH IS CHARACTERIZED MORE BY ITS DISCERNMENT THAN ITS DECISIONS: (Luke 12:54-57)

Often we find ourselves evaluating a church by how wise or timely its decisions are. The budget committee is praised if its budget projections come close to actual gifts and expenditures. The personnel committee is praised for its insightful handling of a new staff insurance program. We are sensitive to the results of the decisions made in a church.

Less visible is the church's capacity to discern, to spot spiritual challenges, to establish spiritual priorities. In Luke 12:56-67, Jesus clearly articulated the church's primary need to discern.

The word "analyze" in this passage comes from the Greek word dokimazo, which often meant to assay metal, to test or scrutinize so as to ascertain a basis for approval. In particular Jesus seems to be calling for the church to discern those things which are of God's intent and action, and which are not.

THE HEALTHY CHURCH IS CHARACTERIZED MORE BY ITS COMMITMENT TO OPENNESS THAN BY ITS CONCERN FOR OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY: (Luke 11:33-36; 12:2-3)

Secular organizations have a driving need for efficiency; communication is used to ensure uniformity and compliance. In the church, communication serves not to force uniformity but to enhance interaction. The church is not a religious mechanism; it is the organic body of Christ. For the church, openness in all it does is to be an essential characteristic. Such openness may well result in what appears to be much useless discussion and much wasted time. But the church exists to do God's will not to be simply a goal oriented, efficiency driven organization. God is much more concerned with transparency in our dealings with one another and with the world.

In Luke 11:33-36, Jesus called for the church to "be full of light" (v. 36). In Luke 12:2-3, He noted that there will be a time when "whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light" (v. 3). Christ himself was called by John "the light of men" (John 1:4). In the Sermon on the Mount, he called for his disciples to be "the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14).

The healthy church maintains an openness that maximizes visibility and sharing. It is not willing to sacrifice participation merely for the sake of smooth operations. Its primary concern is not operational efficiency; rather, it is openness. The church is a community not a company, an organism not an organization.

THE HEALTHY CHURCH IS CHARACTERIZED MORE BY ITS GODLY PRIORITIES THAN BY ITS HUMAN POPULARITY: (Luke 11:43; 12:49-53)

A church's success is sometimes gauged by the crowd drawn to its programs. Since the growing church is customarily viewed as an effective church, it is easy to get caught up in the process of developing more and more activities to appeal to the varied congregational segments. The assumption in many churches is that more is better, more space, more people, more budget, more programs.

In Luke 12:49-53, however, Jesus addressed the inherent conflict between God's priorities and human popularity. The church today is called upon to place a priority on God's holiness. In a real sense the church stands opposed to the worldly system. Too often the church announces a one-sided message of love and forgiveness while avoiding its calling to confront the world's sinful and hostile rebellion against God. In Romans 1:18-32, Paul spoke of the battle line drawn between the church and the world.

Today more than ever the healthy church must be characterized by what it stands against. It must champion causes of holiness, sacrifice, and justice in a world increasingly hostile to such a message. Seeking to be popular and acceptable must inevitably compromise the church and damage its capacity to be used of God.

THE HEALTHY CHURCH IS CHARACTERIZED MORE BY THE QUALITY OF ITS MOTIVES THAN THE QUANTITY OF ITS MONEY:

Many churches show a noticeable concern for money, getting it and spending it. Church programs for the year are often tagged to expected revenues. Wise stewardship, we are told, demands that churches be fiscally conservative. Luke 12 contains a rather long discourse concerning Jesus' view of money.

The church must be aware of any tendency to spend too much time and energy on issues of financing. While the church needs to handle money responsibly, there is a tendency to elevate, for instance, the finance/budget committee, to the place of the most important committee. In too many churches the finance committee acts de facto as the program committee, making decisions as to what the church's program agenda will be.

The healthy church is sensitive to the spiritual implications of financial matters. Too often budget decisions are made without real spiritual discernment. Budgets should reflect spiritual priorities. Furthermore, when a church is experiencing financial difficulties, it ought to trigger the prayerful search for spiritual as well as fiscal causes.

The healthy church knows that its handling of money sends a message to the world. A church that piles up debt beyond its ability to pay "advertises" that the Christian community is irresponsible and out of control. A church that spends 90 percent of its budget to finance internal operations "advertises" that the Christian community has little vision and limited faith.

 Churches are healthy to the extent that they serve God spiritually. Even though numerous organizational measures of church health can be cataloged, it is the spiritual attributes that really matter to God.

Jesus was speaking to churches as well as individual Christians when he entreated us to seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God. In so doing, the local church will thrive spiritually in the body of Christ and will indeed have all things added to it.