The process of becoming a healthy church

I am going to keep saying it - the issue for our church is not church growth but church health. How can we become healthy once again?

One of the ways is this...are you ready? We must embrace, fully embrace a season of growth and change. We must honestly ask ourselves: Are we willing to grow? Are we willing to change? What is our attitude about lifelong growth?

When we lived in Battle Creek, there were several oak trees in our back yard. They are beautiful, but then there comes fall and raking the leaves....I digress.

How does an oak tree grow to full maturity? Through seasons of growth, nurture and patience.

How do we "turn around" a 100 year old church? Through seasons of growth, nurture and patience.

Don't forget this: the oak tree is one of the strongest trees God ever created. Isaiah writes (61:3), "They will be called oaks for righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor."

What keeps an oak tree healthy? Deep, healthy roots.

In order to nurture deep, healthy roots in our church family (to mix metaphors), we must:

Reflect. We must take the time to hop off the treadmills of our hectic ministry lives and ask ourselves come basic questions about who we are, what we are accomplishing together, where we would like to go in the future, and how we hope to get there.

Affirm. We must acknowledge the truth about ourselves and our church and affirm the gifts that have been given to us so that we might continue to build his kingdom.

What are our greatest strengths, our most obvious needs? How can we maximize our strengths and our openness to change?

Evaluate. We must honestly evaluate everything we are doing in ministry. We must realize that BUSYNESS DOES NOT EQUAL PRODUCTIVITY. Tenure does not make a ministry effective. Cultures change.

The other day I heard a wonderful CD that Erik gave me from a speaker (I forget his name) at a conference he went to.

He said this (I paraphrase): "Basically, at every meal, you and I eat one of four things, chicken, cow, pig or fish." Every time we sit down to eat, it's one of those four things. Why don't we get bored with it? Because the presentation is different each time. Sometimes its fried chicken, sometimes it is baked, sometimes chicken in a salad or chicken curry. The presentation changes, but the basic food group stays the same."

Our message is timeless. But we must be sensitive to the presentation.

We must love each other enough to be honest with each other, give each other permission to fail and restore conflicts as they inevitably occur, and strive for true change in the hearts, minds, and wills of the people with whom we "live with" at Stone Church.

Apply

We must pray and apply God's will for our church. I do not want to pray blessing upon what we are doing as much as I want to do what god is blessing.

Just some thoughts for a Wednesday morning.