What Describes a Healthy Church?

Not long ago I was asked (as part of an email group) to submit a definition of a healthy church. After all, everybody is talking about having healthy churches. But what does it mean? Much has been written on the subject in the last few years. I’d like to give my perspective.

Rather than a definition, as was asked, I would like to offer a description.

The apostle Paul started me thinking about it. He described the church as “the body of Christ.” (See Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 for examples.) With some pertinent Scripture (all from the NIV) and without a lot of amplification, here is my description of a healthy body of Christ.

A healthy church has…

1. Godly vision
   A healthy church must have a vision of what is to be done; that vision can only be imparted by the Lord of church, Jesus Himself.
   And [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy (Colossians 1.18).
2. A loving heart
   A healthy church must follow the Great Commandments, having a supreme love for God that leads to worship in the every sense of that word and a similar love for others that is demonstrated in care and concern for them.
   “The most important [commandment],” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12.29-31).
3. Serving hands
   A healthy church is characterized by love, not merely in word, but in action. We are the hands of Jesus. He sees what needs to be done in the world. He is counting on us to be his body and obey!
   If you love me, you will obey what I command (John 14.15).
   Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 4.10-11).
4. Proper nutrition
   A healthy church will only stay healthy when it practices proper nutrition—taking regular meals of the “milk” and “meat” of God’s word. By the way, do you only eat once a week?
   Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Peter 2.2-3).
   But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5.14).
5. Calloused knees
   James, the half-brother of Jesus, was called “Camel Knees” because of his devotion to prayer. A healthy church is a praying church. Should we quit having meetings for prayer simply because not “enough” people attend? Or should we realize we can’t be a truly healthy church without it?
   They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2.42).
6. Healthy children
   The church is not only called the “body of Christ,” it is called “the bride of Christ.” There is no question that Jesus is healthy. So, if the bride is healthy in every sense of that word, what will be the result of their unity? Right—children! And what is the child of a church? Christians? Well, think about it this way: what does a mother gorilla give birth to? Right—a gorilla. What does a human mother give birth to? Right—another human. So what does a mother church give birth to? A healthy church will help plant other churches!
   (See passages such as Acts 13.1-4 and Philippians 4.15-16.)
7. Vital relationships
   “No man is an island.” As God said it, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” A healthy church has vital relationship both within and without. By within, we mean that the “members” (you and me as hands or feet or whatever) work together in harmony to achieve the goal of the head. If I am uncoordinated, my hands may not work together. So a healthy church has coordinated members within the body—there is unity within the fellowship even though we are different members and all do not have the same function. By without, we mean that just as we are made to have friendships outside ourselves, healthy churches should cooperate with other “bodies,” i.e., we should have partnerships with others so that we can do together what we cannot do alone.
   (See passages such as Romans 12.4-8 for “within” and 2 Corinthians 8 for “without.”)
   
8. Beautiful feet
   A healthy church takes the good news of Jesus to others—across the street and around the world. The term “beautiful feet” comes from the Bible itself and describes our mandate to be witnesses to Jesus Christ to all people everywhere.
   And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10.15).
   And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2.47).

So—is our church healthy? Just as we get a physical for our own bodies regularly to evaluate our health, we can use this as a checklist for conducting a physical (or is that a spiritual?) for our church.

One last note. I used this as a simple, easy to remember message in training a couple of hundred lay pastors in Uganda. The message was translated into another language. At the end, Pastor Moses gave a summary of the message in his language, and his remarks were translated back into English. God gave me fresh insight when the translation that came back as the topic was not a healthy church—instead, it came back as the description of a living church. I will leave you to meditate on the significance of that for yourself!

God bless!

Pastor Fred