Healthy Churches By Leslie Holmes, Moderator T
hey stand together like the legs on a three-legged milking stool! If one is missing, the stool cannot stand. The Moderator’s theme for this year: “Building Healthy Churches! Birthing Healthy Christians!” is for Christ the Head of the Church, and to His glory alone.
What is a healthy church? Mere numerical growth by itself is not a sign of a healthy church. If it were, then Sun Myung Moon’s Unification
Church would probably have been the most successful church of the last century. You will perhaps remember how Moon conducted mass weddings where he married as many as 5,000 couples at a time. His church was neither healthy nor Christian. It was a cult. We find that Scripture ascribes to the church a three-fold mandate for health. First, the Church of Jesus Christ is called
to Exalt the Lord in Worship. Psalm 95:6-7 says, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” “Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (He- brews 10:25). What are you doing about Bible-centered, God focused worship in your life and your church? Second, as the church of Jesus Christ, we are called to Equip the Laity for Work. Ephesians 4:11,12 says, “He gave
the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastor-teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” What plans are in place now for you to grow in your ministry work? Doing Church is never a spectator sport. We are all needed in the work of the Kingdom. Third, the Lord of the Church, Jesus, says that we are to Evangelize the Lost through our Witness. Because the Chris-
tian Gospel always exists only one generation from extinction, one of the primary assignments our Lord gives His church is to intentionally reach the lost in our local communities and around the world for Him. Contrary to what many church members seem to think, this task is not only for pastors, but for every individual Christian as opportunity and gifts permit. We call it the, “Great commission” in part because it was the last charge Christ Jesus gave to His followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mat- thew 28:19,20).
What kind of outreach program does your church teach? What are you doing to bring the lost to Jesus? Recently, when I was preaching, I asked some ARPs, whom I’ve known
for a while, “What are you doing for missions?” They answer, “We can’t afford to do missions. We’re trying hard to hold on to what we have here.” I reminded them that Jesus has something to say about that too, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). A healthy church is a giving church! It’s a church focused on missions at home and globally. Oswald Smith, founding pastor of Toronto’s People’s Church, where I once had the privilege of preaching for their annual mission’s conference, said, “When the church takes care of missions, God will take care of the church!” Again, the Bible instructs us clearly, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38). Our only hope for being saved from the foolishness of trying to save ourselves is to ruth- lessly give ourselves away for Christ and His Gospel! That is a Bible principle that has an application not only for our local church but for our personal life as well. To build a healthy church we are called to exalt the Lord, equip the laity, evangelize the lost! These three Bible pillars
on which the Church of Jesus Christ is to stand, stand together like the legs on a three-legged milking stool. If one leg is missing that milking stool simply will not stand. Similarly, in the church, if we neglect one of these three priorities, our church will not stand for long. Pastors and elders, what are your church goals for the next three years, five years, or ten years? Do you have a Vision
Statement? A vision statement is a statement of what we aspire to be. Do you have a Mission Statement that spells out how you will make your vision come true in God’s grace? Healthy churches know where they plan to go and they have a design for how they will get there!?
Building Healthy Churches! Birthing Healthy Christians! September/October 2019 3
Moderator’s Challenge
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