7 Secrets of Healthy Churches

A recent article in the Adventist Review (reprinted from an article by Thom Rainer) presents a conclusion from a research on church growth, outlining practices of healthy growing churches.

Seven high standards are set:

1. The church’s leadership and the laity hold to a high view of Scripture, holding fast to all Biblical teachings.

2. The churches and their leaders seek to be relevant, addressing real needs without compromise.

3. The churches and their leaders hold to the primacy of preaching, bringing into it preparation, power,

4. The churches have a healthy small group structure. From small groups in Sabbath Schools to small groups that met in diverse locations, these are nurturing and holistic communities. Pastors and church leaders are involved in groups. Membership in the church is linked to belonging to a group.

5. Healthy churches emphasize corporate prayer and church prayer ministries. They do more than give lip service to the importance of prayer.

6. Churches that are healthy take membership seriously. They do not have inflated membership rolls that have little integrity, means little or nothing and has no level of accountability. A casual attendee does not has the same level of accountability as a long-term leader.

7. The healthy churches are highly intentional about evangelism. They have ministries, programs and emphases that lead members to reach out with the Gospel to their unchurched friends, relatives, co-workers and acquaintances.

Tonight our elders will meet to dialogue about trends in our church. One urgency that is obvious is the need for small groups, communities of care where everyone will be connected, given an opportunity to develop their spiritual gifts, and an opportunity to be loving and loveable. As the leadership team works to develop plans and strategy for improvement, we seek your prayers.

Focus on the relationships in our Sabbath School

Last Sabbath at Gibbons Park the Sabbath School council met briefly to plan for improving what we do during the most significant part of our Sabbath experience – the Bible Study groups.

A month ago group of our leaders attended the rally in Toronto with J.Alfred Johnson II, the director of Sabbath School & Personal Ministries for the North American Division. The highlights of his presentation were to move our teachers from lecturing to facilitating, from class-room to holistic group where caring and sharing takes place. He placed a strong emphasis on the relational importance in the Sabbath School. The Sabbath School class is not a formal unit coming for a purpose of conducting a scholarly investigation once a week for 60 minutes. The Sabbath School class is a group of friends who disciple each other and keep each other accountable for growing in Christ, through the daily study of the Word, through the prayer and ministry to others.

Analyzing our current trends of church health I made an observation that while the understanding of Group’s relevance and necessity has increased significantly in our church, the process of multiplication, process of developing disciples has not improved. Imagine if the “open chair” concept would be the part of every group in our church. “Open Chair” stands for acknowledging that we always have an open room, and an extra seat for a new person in the group. This alone would motivate us to invite people. Once nurtured and integrated the group size would naturally produce a new daughter group. The Sabbath School has always been the primary tool of evangelism. Make it your priority – first to belong to a group, then to grow the group, and finally to reproduce the group and add a new group.

Elder Johnson emphasized the 5 goals of the Sabbath School: study, fellowship, outreach, mission and nurture. A special emphasis was given the last aspect – the Nurture. While different terms may be used the concepts are the same – the 4W of group life: Welcome, Word, Worship, Work. Welcome part is where fellowship begins. Worship is where fellowship is expressed in praise, where mission is celebrated. The Word segment is where the study takes place, and challenge to a mission is given. Work – is self-explanatory – the mission and outreach itself. The nurture takes place in every one of these phases of group life.

We nurture our body as we are welcomed to eat together in fellowship, we nurture our soul as we share and give praises together in worship. Our spirit is nurtured as we meditate on the Word in study. We nurture others as we work, and we are ourselves nurtured by God as we become His co-workers in the work of Evangelism. Think of these things, and may Nurture be the intrinsic part of our Welcome, Worship, Word and Work life together.

If we would have the Mind of God….

Seven years ago at the 57^th General Conference of our Church in Toronto a church historian George Knight published an article entitled “If I were the devil…” musing how devil distracts the church from fulfilling it’s mission. Recently he published a book, critically expanding those concepts. He’s right on many negative trends that are obvious in many churches today. May I suggest that if the church would have the Mind of God the following would be true:

We would put the best energies into accepting and caring for the ideas and plans of the upcoming generation of youth, who are innovative and creative, and encourage the youth to take over responsibilities for the church;

church should think BIG – not just numerical increases, but reaching the entire world for Christ through the magnitude of the latter-rain faith;

people would be allowed to see many alternatives and ways of reaching different minds, different methods of evangelism, and of “doing’ church;

Amplify importance of new technologies in communicating the Message;

Pastors and administrators will not be seen as the main workers, but as equippers of every believer for the work of ministry; churches would be training centers for believers and not entertainment sets for spectators;

The importance of the local congregation should be vanguard, as the health of the larger body depends on the health of each of it’s constituent members;

We would have less administrators hid behind desks and covered with paper, busy with committee work, and more workers who are in touch with people, freeing people and money to finish God’s work of saving people;

Church would not be “afraid” of the Holy Spirit Presence and work among us;

We would stop playing the numbers game and put money where we can get the most conversions for the least investment, but take on the mission field in our own backyard, where it is the most difficult, costly and laborious;

We would never forget our apocalyptic heritage, our roots as a prophetic movement based on Revelation 10-14, we will continue to be a movement instead of becoming a monument or a museum; we would help people see the ongoing apocalyptic events in the framework of today;

We would focus on saving relationships with Jesus as the very center of Adventism, above all doctrines, recognizing that we have no creeds, and our doctrines are just a present-day expressions of ever progressing revelation;

We would never fight each other regarding worship styles and standards;

We would stop thinking tribally, nationally and racially, and develop mechanisms to enrich our multiculturalism and internationalism, emphasizing that we are from one flesh and blood, brothers and sisters, a family of God;

We would never look miserably on Sabbath, we would never treat Sabbath as a penalty for being Adventist, a price of getting a future rewards, but revel in Sabbath as a sign of our Salvation and the day of our blessings and intimacy with God.

We are what we think. Let’s think these thoughts, having the mind of God and beating devils game-plan everywhere we are.

(paraphrased from George R.Knight If I were the Devil. Seeing through the enemy’s smoke screen. A contemporary Challenges facing Adventism. (2007))

Saved?!..... Changed? or just kidding?

Almost two months passed since that tragic Virginia Tech shooting where a 33 lives were lost, yet memories are still troubling many. Recently I watched a student reflecting on his survival. He pretended to lie dead on a classroom floor. Saved by pretending?!

Would that work in Eternity’s perspective? Saved by pretending? Saved by doing certain things to appear certain way in order to be saved? This whole church experience is about being saved. Interacting with people daily I find that many are concerned about having hope, having future. Church comes to attention as a way of getting salvation. But often people in the church don’t look like being “safe” or “saved.” Many disagree with what it means “being saved.” Evangelicals use this term “saved” loosely where it is applied to anyone who accepted Jesus as Lord, anyone who call on the Name of the Lord, just as Acts 2:21 describes the early church experience.

Being saved was the main subject of conversation for disciples and early Christians. Mark 16:16 presents salvation as a result of believing and being baptized. Saved means deliverance from…. , redemption for …., reclaiming of ….., preserving through…... And it also means healing as a process of change, transformation, healing. In the days of Jesus people were healed/saved by faith. We are receiving God’s power while being saved. It is something that happened (Titus 3:4-7), is happening (1 Corinthians 1:18) and is yet to happen (Romans 5:9).

The Apostle Paul made the objective of all his ministry to communicate this Good News: “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:8)

Are you saved? Have you been liberated from hold of sin, from hurts of past, from restraints of guilt, from debt? Jesus has certainly offered that and continues giving it freely. Are you saved from this world’s pain, trials, problems? Not until the process is over, not until the Lord comes to end all things. What are you saved from, for, through….? Churches are split over the meaning of this. Yet any of single definitions are heresy by themselves. It’s only when one considers broad, all-inclusive, comprehensive meaning of “saved” that the truth becomes complete.

The reason I want you to ponder these things is because it is our main purpose of coming together is to be saved together, as God wills for all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). Luke 15 presents three parables about three aspects of Salvation and three roles of God as Savior. Jesus the Good Shepherd looking for a lost sheep who does not know she’s being lost, and will never be saved unless the Shepherd goes out. Coin being lost “in the house” and not thinking it’s being lost, until the light of the candle, the Holy Spirit, illumines it being “out-of place.” And then there is the Father, who son is lost, and is quite capable of returning into expecting embrace of the Loving Father, yet he meets a bitter brother who does not want to offer acceptance.

After all this “salvation” thing is all about relationships we have with the One that cares for us. It’s something we cannot make up, act up or pretend. That’s why Paul recommends to all “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) Can’t just pretend…..

Church?!..... Why bother?

That’s how Philip Yancey titled his book some 10 years ago. He grew up in the Deep South as a fundamentalist, attending a Baptist church where people talked about Grace but lived by Law, spoke of Love but showed signs of hate, where controlled environment squeezed out all sense of mystery, and spiritual intimacy. He defined the reason for his breakaway from the church as “Christianity kept me from Christ.” He’s not alone in such frustration.

At our last ministerial meeting an evangelical pastor prayed for a corporate repentance of having poison introduced into church teachings that resulted in an arrested spiritual growth of those who call themselves Christians. At our last Prayer meeting at the North Church Wednesday morning we were studying Hebrews 5 where Paul expresses his frustration with believers almost 2000 years ago who being Christians for a long time where as infants needed someone else to care for them, and were not trained to live responsibly.

Famous atheist Friedrich Nietzsche was asked why he was so negative toward Christians. He replied “I would believe in their salvation if they looked a little more like people who have been saved.” Winston Churchill once said that he related to the church like a flying buttress – he supported it from the outside. Another notable Christian leader, writer C.S.Lewis experienced church as a hindrance to his faith rather than help.

So, if the church is so horrible to many, and people are asking “Why bother?” why are many still come? There must be something there to make people return…

J.F.Powers penned these words: “This is a big old ship. She creaks, she rocks, she rolls, and at times she makes you want to throw up. But she gets where she’s going. Always has, always will, until the end of time. With or without you.”

When one begins to interact with people who abandoned this ship we call church, who because of some dislikes or upset feelings walked away from the gathering of believers one realizes that it is them who suffered, not the church, it is them who are at loss and not the church. Saint John of the Cross wrote “The virtuous soul that is alone is like a burning coal that is alone. It will grow colder rather than hotter.”

The Church is Jesus’ idea, not ours. We may mess it up on the long journey, bringing our baggage with us, throwing anchors overboard and clinging to debris as we navigate into the future, but it is moved not by our power, but by the Holy Ghost power, and it will get where it’s going. While we are on it we better tidy it up, make it secure for others, help it become the kind of place God intended.

As we are waiting for the results of our church health survey we are asking you to pray for your leaders, who will be implementing recommendations and designing the strategy to lead us forward. After all “we should remember that the church, enfeebled and defective though it be, is the only object on earth on which Christ bestows His supreme regard. He is constantly watching it with solicitude, and is strengthening it by His Holy Spirit.” (Ellen G.White, Manuscript 155, November 22, 1902)