Hallmarks of a Healthy Church - Part One

Introduction

President Obama is concerned with the health care of the U.S. nation. It seems that the press are dragging in the U.K. to compare our N.H.S. with their system. Perhaps if the president was more concerned with the health of the Church in the U.S. then it might solve some of his problems in government.

Jesus talked about the health of our bodies in Matthew 6 : v. 22-23. He used this as a challenge to our spiritual health. If we lose our sight, functioning can be very difficult and challenging. It is the same if we lose our spiritual health. Jesus said that it’s not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. (Matt. 9:12)

The Church in the U.K., measured by New Testament principals is very sick. If we don’t want to catch this sickness, then we need to apply the Biblical standards of our new series.

I am going to call the series, 7 spiritual health checks. In the U.S. people often go to the doctor for a 1 year health check. In the U.K. we tend to go when there is something seriously wrong. The problem with our attitude is that when we do go it can be too late. The damage is already done without us knowing it. Regardless of how we all personally feel about our spiritual health, a check up against Biblical light, will always reveal growth areas.

I want to start by asking a couple of questions.

Q. Do we understand God’s purpose for Emmanuel Baptist Church.? If we don’t by the end of the series we will. Applying it is another matter!!!

Q. What does it mean for E.B.C. to be faithful? The series will answer that question.

Q. How can we at Emmanuel tell if we are succeeding or failing.? I just want to touch briefly on this question.

A lot of large Churches in the U.K. judge their success or failure on attendance at their Sunday Services. They feel that numbers are proof that what they are doing is right and is being blessed by God. Although it is difficult to argue against this on a human level, discerning pastors know that this is not the way to measure success.

I have been teaching on Oak Hall Holidays for about 7 years, both summer and winter. It is a privilege that has enabled me to mix with hundreds of young people who attend large churches. Although it is difficult to generalise, most of these young people have never read the Bible, cover to cover. They don’t study the Bible for themselves and their quiet time disciplines are rather erratic. This is one of the reasons I keep teaching on these holidays, to challenge people to grow through reading and studying the Bible and to encourage them to get involved in mission in their home church.

If you have a Church full of people who are not growing, then they are dying and the Church is not a very healthy one according to the Bible. Although we can’t measure success by numbers, we can measure true growth in our fellowship. The series will give us a guide on how we can measure spiritual health in our own Church.

This series is important. Therefore I am going to ask Andrea if she could put it our internet web site. This will enable people who don’t or can’t come on a Sunday night to gain access to the text. Sadly we will give access to the whole world but if it does another Church some good it can’t be all bad.

I am going to tackle two unpopular subjects, Church membership and Church discipline. So watch this space.!!!

Farmers know that it is the nature of sheep to go astray and for Wolves to eat. A Healthy Church should prevent sheep from straying and protect them against wolves. Jesus gave solemn warnings about this in Matthew 10.

A healthy church should be a place that young and old can grow together. Sixty percent of Sidmouth has a retired population. This is often reflected in our town Churches, although if we are honest it is more like 85%. Older people have the challenge of remaining young at heart and young people have the challenge of learning and listening to mature disciples of Jesus.

If our Church is healthy it should be a place where wounded marriages can find healing. A place where everybody is important and everybody has a ministry that is important. A place where the Holy Spirit has free course and is Glorified, through the salvation of souls, unity in the body of Christ and much more, the list goes on.

Just as physical fitness takes disciple, we need to exercise our spiritual disciples in the areas where growth can flourish. (Prayer, the Bible, Obedience, personal Holiness)

Tonight is just an introduction but I am already excited that with our Autumn programme ready to go, we might well see a healthier Church in 2010.

So where do we start?

John Stott said in one of his very early books that the marks of an ideal Church can be found in the book of Revelation.

He says that there are 7 marks. These are Love, Suffering, Holiness, Sound Doctrine, Evangelism, Humility and Genuine life style.

So these are the things that Jesus would like to see at E.B.C.

There is one further thing in my introduction that is worthy of note and that is Church History. Surely over 200 years we have learnt something about Church health.

Well 200 years of Church History tell us that 3 things have kept the true church healthy during its history.

These are: 1. The true preaching of the gospel. This includes a faithful bible teaching ministry. 2. Proper observance of the sacraments. This being the Lord’s Supper (Communion) and Baptism (believers) 3. Church Discipline – dealing effectively with moral and theological issues.

So it is clear that these issues must be included in our 7.

The final point of my introduction is to ask the question, why do we need to do this series.

The main reason is that there are three popular Church models today that most people follow, we don’t want to follow them and go down into a cal de sac. So we are going to start next week with a Biblical basis on how we should do Church and hopefully make any changes at the end, after our Autumn series. 2010 could be an exciting year in the life of E B C. If we are willing to take on board all that the Lord has to teach us.