Striving to be a Healthy Church (Part 1)

As a local church pastor I am immersed in the Christian subculture on a daily basis. All of my podcasts are church and Bible related; my colleagues are mostly pastors or Christian workers; my reading is almost exclusively Christian based—so questions pertaining to the local church and her purpose are always at the forefront of my mind. The question: “what is the role of the local Church,” is paramount for me. 

If you were to peruse the literature, go to church growth conferences, talk with certain church leaders, you may discover that for many (including myself!) there is a very strong temptation to view success in the church with regard to how many attend on a weekly basis. Success equals numbers. A church is successful when the church grows exponentially. Besides, you never hear advertised at church conferences—“come here Joe Smith, the pastor over first church—the church that has sustained steadily 100 members for the past 10 years!”

This emphasis on numbers equaling success however, has evoked a philosophical change in how many view church ministry. Words like “seeker sensitivity,” “attractional,” and “entertainment driven” are used to describe many church’ view of how to go about organizing their ministerial programming. 

As a result,  the attender becomes the consumer. A family visits the church and their decision to stay or leave is based on a checklist of approved preferences. How was the music? The children’s program? How were the church aesthetics? did the preacher keep my attention? etc… But, is this what Jesus meant when he said “I will build my church?” 

Before I go on allow me to make two qualifications: First, In a society like ours here in the U.S. it is somewhat inevitable that the local church will look much like it does today, with various denominations and styles of ministry. I heard Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, say convincingly: “Religious freedom plus theological conviction equals denominations.” In other words, motivation for our country’s desire for religious freedom has produced an inescapable outcome of denominations. Hence, there will be a natural tendency to find the local church that suits our various pragmatic and theological preferences. 

Secondly, numbers are not bad in and of themselves. Obviously each number represents a person who has come to know christ. And as one Pastor I heard put it: “If God doesn’t care about numbers why did he name a whole book with that title?” The problem is not numbers itself but the temptation to view numbers as an end in and of itself . Numbers are simply a by-product, and both healthy and unhealthy churches can have a lot of people attending them. 

So, what’s the problem? I submit that what Pastors should be concerned with is not so much questions regarding attendance, or programs, but asking this simple question—what makes a healthy church? What are we seeking to do that transforms a church that is, as Paul put it, “straining toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14)?” I suggest that the answer is not found in programs, or in maintaining large attendance numbers, but something deeper, more long-lasting, and ultimately biblically driven. In the next post we will consider three concentrations each church leader should focus on in order to develop a healthy church.