What Is a Healthy Church?
What is a healthy Church?
The word healthy church is debatable as what some may consider healthy to the next person might not be healthy at all. Also, it is a word that can be misinterpreted as meaning a perfect church as we all know there is no such thing as a perfect church. If you find one, leave it cause you will spoil it as you are not perfect.
Definition of a church
For most people, a church is a building where you wear your best clothes and you hear the Bible being preached. In the New Testament, the word used for church is a Greek word called ecclesia which means the called out one. The closest word in English is the word assembly. Sometimes it was the word used for the general assembly or gathering of people not specifically church (Acts 19:32,39,41. In the New Testament Christians used this word to describe their gathering.
How it is used in the NT it does not refer to a building but the emphasis is that it is people. The people of God are called out to be together. They are an assembly. Another picture that we get of the word church is to describe the body of Christ. We see this mainly in the writings of the Apostle Paul (Romans 12:4-6, Ephesians 4:11-12). The concept of the body of Christ also highlights the variety of gifts.
Who is the founder of the church?
The founder and head of the church are the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:20). The apostles were not the ultimate founders of the church. It was Jesus they were simply carrying out his instructions Colossians 1:18 makes this very clear.
Purpose of the Church?
A church is a gathering of people who come together for worship and fulfilling the mission given to them by Jesus. Church is not a building that you go to on a Sunday or any day of the week.
It is the people who engage in the activities that take place in the building. The church is not everyone who gathers in the building. It is the people who have experienced the salvation of Christ and have converted together to live as a family redeemed by Christ.
The church must submit to Christ just as a wife submits to her husband (Ephesians 5:22-24) According to the Bible the church is both universal and local. The universal church comprises all those from the beginning of human history up to the end who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 12:23, Ephesians 5:25-27).
The local church should comprise those who have repented of their sins and who put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. All Christians should belong to a local church and its not optional. It is in the local church where they will experience the richness of Christian fellowship with other believers.
We are communal beings who are made to love God and others. When God made humanity he did not create an individual but he created man and woman.I am a person in community . This is what Tim Chester and Steve Timmis say about being in community as Christians “ By becoming a Christian, I belong to God and I belong to my brothers and sisters. It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ.”
Church being Word and Gospel centered
The Church should be Word-centered because God rules through his word. In the life of the believer and the church God still rules through his word so the church must be gospel centered and the good news about the birth, life, death, resurrection and rule of Jesus Christ must be preached and prioritized. God’s word is central as He spoke the world into existence through His word (Gen 1)
Being gospel centered means by being word-centered and being mission-centered. The church exists through the gospel and for the gospel. One of the skills that is required of the church leader is that they are able to teach and apply the word of God. The Bible is God’s word and we as believers should submit to it.
Church is mission-centered
The church should be mission-centered because God extends his rule though the gospel. Matthew 28:19 Jesus sends out his disciple on mission to preach the Good news and make disciples and it is the commandment that Jesus makes to the church today to go out and preach the gospel. Mission
The church has to evangelise the sinner and call them to repentance and bring them to Christ. We are not fulfilling the great commission that Jesus gave his disciples to go out to the ends of the earth and make disciples if we keep it only to those in our local church. The church is encouraged to go out and bring sinners to the Lord and that can be done via evangelism and other ways that the church deems to be helpful in bringing sinners to Christ. This is done through preaching the gospel.
Mission for the church should not be one of many activities that the church does. In all we do it should be missionary, to reach the lost and this involves a lot of sacrifice. This does not mean the only thing a church should do is proclaim the gospel to unbelievers. But it does mean that the training, teaching, prayer, pastoral care, youth work etc. must all contribute to the mission of the church. There is no greater excitement than seeing Christ glorified before our eyes as men and women submit to Him.
Church is where godliness and truth are upheld when the gospel is preached faithfully
The church is a place where godliness and truth are upheld. Where those who claim to be Christians and live a life of sin or teach heresy they should be disciplined through the public or excommunicated (1 Corinthians 5:1-15)
The gospel is also important to the life of the church because of its key role in helping Christians to grow in their faith. We start our spiritual lives as believers by hearing and believing the gospel. We also grow our spiritual lives as believers also by hearing and believing the gospel. It is crucial for the church to be a place where the gospel is preached and proclaimed faithful otherwise that church is spiritually dead (Col 2:6-8)
The gospel is also important in the life of the church because it is when Christians reflect on the way in which God has saved them from sin that true worship is inspired in their lives. Without the gospel the church soon loses true worship and can keep its members by turning to entertainment, it becomes a social club or a burial society.
