The Healthy Church

A perfect example of a healthy church is seen in Acts 2:41-47. They worshipped, they ministered, they evangelized, they fellowshipped, and they taught each other. A healthy church has all of these elements. And the results of that the church grows. “And day by day the LORD was adding to their numbers those who were being saved” (Acts2:47)

Healthy churches are balanced churches. They keep these five purposes balanced. Most churches tend to emphasize just one of these purposes. And as a result their church takes a certain shape.

Gary Hutchison

http://gracearlington.com/home.aspx     

The Experiencing God Church

The focus of this church is experiencing the presence and power of God in worship. Key terms for this church are praise, prayer, worship, spiritual gifts, power and revival. In this church, the worship service, or special meetings and conferences get the most attention.

The weakness or unhealthy part of this church is that there isn’t usually much outreach. The church will grow primarily through transfer growth, not conversion growth. Fellowship is usually week as well. The focus is me experiencing God. Corporate meetings and the “anointed” leader tend to be dominant.

Those who emphasize ministry-loving their neighbor -tend to become

The Social Conscience Church

This kind of church focuses on changing society. Key terms for this church are needs, serve, share, minister, take a stand, and do something. In this type of church the people are heavily involved in politics, social issues, fighting injustices, and mercy ministries.

The weakness or unhealthy part of this church is usually that the temporal becomes more important than the eternal. We do need to feed the poor, but without the gospel they will still go to hell. Another weakness of this kind of church is that is that they are usually good at the horizontal but weak in the vertical. They are weak in worship. And as a result, they tend to be weak in character and integrity, and the ends begin to justify the means.

Those who emphasize evangelism tend to become

The Soul-Winning Church

This kind of church focuses on the reaching the lost. The terms you are likely to hear are witnessing, evangelism, salvation, decision for Christ, baptisms, altar calls, and outreaches. In this type of church, even the church services are usually evangelistic.

The weakness of this type of church is usually discipleship. Many get saved, but they don’t usually get trained and equipped. Every church service is another altar call and another invitation for salvation.

Those who emphasize fellowship their-tend to become

The Family Reunion Church

The focus of this church is to care for its members. Key terms for small church are love, belonging, fellowship, caring relationships, potlucks, small groups, and fun.

This church is held together by relationships and rarely grows over 200 people. About 80% of the churches in America fit into this category. The weakness of this type of church is usually in evangelism and ministry to those outside of their web relationships. The church tends to focus on itself exclusively.

Those who emphasize ministry teaching-tend to become

The Classroom Church

The focus of this church is teaching. Key terms for this church are teaching, the scripture, the Bible, the Word, discipleship, equipping, training overhead projectors, Greek and Hebrew, and Scripture memory.

The approach to ministry in this type of church is that they tend to see worship- as the warm up for the main event-sermon. They tend to be big on discipline, but short on love; big on knowledge, but short on application.

Each of these churches is partly right. But they are also out of balance. And it is balance that makes a church healthy. The problem is that each of these churches considers their church to be the most spiritual. And the people who are attracted to those kinds of churches usually have corresponding passions and giftedness. We all want to be a part of a church that affirms what we think is important

The truth is all five of these purposes are important and must be balanced if the church is going to be healthy.

We are all on a mission to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Our five central purposes are worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship and discipleship. These are the things that we must be about.