Healthy Church

I heard a report recently. 86% of those who have died from COVID-19 nationwide had serious pre-existing conditions. Of course who knows if that stat is correct. Is any stat correct anymore? But it does seem to track that the healthy any of us are the more likely we are to survive and recover quickly from most ANY sickness. And what is true of people is just as true of congregations. The book I most want to write is called Healthy Church: Secrets to Surviving a Sick Culture. 

Today I was thinking about reasons why a congregation needs to be healthy. I am certain my list is incomplete (and feel free to add you thoughts in the comment section), but here are half dozen or so of reasons why your congregation needs to be healthy:

How is your church doing? Your congregation needs to be healthy …

1. …so it can survive perilous times: Yes, in a sense all times are perilous. There are always those things that will be threats to the church, but it does seem some times have more landmines than others. The truth is healthy churches actually thrive when put under pressure. And that’s rather biblical, check out 1 Peter 1:6-7.

2. …because our children need to see healthy congregations: We’ve all seen the misleading “scare stats” that say we are loosing our young people in the churches of Christ. Closer to truth is that we have always and, sadly, always will lose some of our kids and EVERY STUDY conducted has proven that the secret is NOT to restructure the church into some mongoloid of the latest false but popular fad, but the best thing to assure that is a minimum is to have two spiritually healthy parents! And healthy congregations will help assure that. WHAT I am seeing is that extremist churches tend to have more young people who leave the church: On the right they see hypocrisy, on the left they see no compelling theological reason not to leave for the better show across the street. But while we will always have more older people, because the older we get the more our thoughts turn to the eternal and the end of this life, our healthiest churches keep more of their kids. 

3. …because our culture needs to see healthy churches: There are way to many easy stereotypes out there that paint the church as unloving, disconnected, mean-spirited, judgmental types for those who would discredit the church to pull up. We need our congregation to be healthy so that the culture around us can see what the church is really supposed to be - “the pillar and the ground of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), the people who “do good to everyone” (Galatians 6:10 ESV), people who encourage love and good works (Hebrews 10:24), people who love (1 John 4:19-21).

4.  …because the lost: People who are lost will never be attracted to an unhealthy church. We are to be light, a virtual lighthouse showing people where safety is. If we are not healthy how can we expect people to believe we can light a healthy path for them? There are lost people in your community who need to see God’s Healthy church!

I hope you will remember three important truths that exist in healthy churches: 

- It takes effort: Healthy churches to not just happen. 

- It takes evaluation: Just as with physical health you need checkups and goals, that is true in churches. And it becomes more true the older a congregation gets. Are you evaluating? How are you evaluating. 

- It takes emotion (apathy is a killer)!