Search This Blog

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Healthy Things Grow 07/03/14

There is no doubt that Church spiritual health is a key element to church growth.  Fact:  Living things grow if they are healthy.  Living things get and stay healthy when they are nourished.

Did you know you don’t have to MAKE healthy, living things grow? It’s just natural for living organisms to grow.  

We have learned at Casa Canote you are supposed to feed and water your children three times per day.  And from experience we can tell you that when you do, they grow!  When each one of our children was was born, after we checked the usual weight, length, gender, eye color, etc. Do they have ten fingers and ten toes?  THEN we wanted to know:  Are they healthy?

Healthy babies grow up to become healthy adults.  We don’t force them to grow.  We help them along with good nutrition and a safe and healthy environment.  BUT, growth is natural and automatic.  When a farmer puts out good feed, the cows come.

The same principle applies to the Church.  The Church is a living organism.  The Church IS alive.  It should grow... if it is healthy.  The Church is a Body, not a business.  It is an organism, not an organization.

Our bodies have systems:  circulatory, respiratory, digestive, skeletal, etc.  When the systems are all in balance, the body is healthy.  When your body is out of balance, it is not healthy; it is UN-healthy.  When the Body of Christ gets unbalanced, disease begins to grow.  Health and growth only happen when everything is in balance.

Are We Healthy...Are We Growing?
What Do "Healthy" Churches look like?

We can learn from the early church.  The Book of Acts shows us a clear picture of a "healthy" church.

Healthy churches:
  • Have a passion for God
    • "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer" - Acts 2:42
  • Walk humbly WITH God
    • "Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles." - Acts 2:43
  • Are united in purpose
    • "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts," - Acts 2:46
  • Have the needs of people as a priority
    • "They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need." - Acts 2:45
And, not surprisingly, God honored the early church by adding to it's numbers daily, growing by the thousands in a very short period of time.

It would the do the Church of today some good to stop trying to reinvent the wheel.  "There is nothing new under the sun."  Jesus Christ started the church...just the way He wanted it.

No comments: