Alabama Baptists challenged to maintain, promote good health in all areas of life

Focusing on health, rather than problems, keeps churches and members healthy, suggested Leith Anderson during the Healthy Leaders, Healthy Churches conference March 8–9.

Anderson, who is pastor of Wooddale Church, Eden Prairie, Minn., spoke to a crowd of about 175 gathered March 9 in the annex of First Baptist Church, Pelham.

Anderson said every year, people die going to hospitals and doctors. But the chances of that are lower if you go to a hospital whose integrating motif is health, not sickness.

The same applies for Alabama Baptist churches. “Too often we talk about the bad cases,” he said. “It’s difficult to define health and healthy, but we know it when we see it.”

Anderson also said that at his yearly physical, the doctor tells him the results of a number of tests and compares those to standards in the healthy range.

So Anderson gave seven standards for healthy leaders and healthy churches and encouraged attenders to take a corollary look at themselves and their churches.

Healthy leaders and healthy churches

1. Are centered on glorifying God. “To glorify God is to make God look good,” Anderson said. Churches cannot improve on God, but they need to enhance His reputation in the world; to line it up with the reality of Who God is. “Is your church enhancing its own reputation or the reputation of God?” Anderson asked.
2. Focus on mission more than method. Using the example of the Lockheed 1011 aircraft that crashed in the Everglades several years ago, Anderson said the Federal Aviation Administration concluded the plane crashed because no one was flying it. The pilots had gotten involved in a discussion and forgotten their main objective. Anderson said, “In unhealthy churches, there is a focus on methods. We cannot escape the basic question: What has God called us to do and have we done (it)?” Healthy leaders say the mission will drive them, not the extras. “Leadership is about knowing what God wants us to do and doing it.”
3. Maximize spiritual gifts. “Healthy leaders and healthy churches have parts that do what they’re designed to do,” said Anderson, referencing 1 Corinthians 12, which talks about spiritual gifts, and how the body of Christ is made up of many parts doing what they are supposed to do. Instead of filling needs in the church with the first available person, Anderson said churches should  fill them with the person who is spiritually gifted to fill that spot. “Everyone has spiritual gifts,” he said. “(A spiritual gift) is assigned by the Holy Spirit and is a job to do.”
4. Face problems and deal with them in positive ways. “Healthy leaders are always looking for opportunities to take the difficulties of life and use them in a positive way,” Anderson said. Instead of stumbling over the difficulties, leaders and churches can use them as opportunities for growth.
5. Are places of trust. He encouraged churches and leaders to trust Christians in the church to fulfill their duties in a Christian way, which eliminates the need to micromanage every aspect of church life. “Trust is powerful in a healthy system because people rise up to meet that trust,” Anderson said.
6. Don’t reward dysfunction. Instead of tolerating unhealthy, dysfunctional behavior like gossiping within the church and those who “rant and rave” inappropriately in church meetings, “we are to call Christians to Christian beliefs and behavior,” Anderson said. “Healthy leaders and healthy churches confront and help (their members) to no longer behave in that way.”
7. Get outside help. “Healthy leaders and healthy churches don’t pretend they have all the answers, they always go and get help,” Anderson said. He gave the example of New Zealand’s Baptist churches. When an unhealthy church is seeking healing and help, a member from a healthy church is asked to sit on the unhealthy church’s board, but not be a member of the church. This gives the unhealthy church a board member with an objective, healthy perspective.

Concept of health goes beyond the physical

One of God’s most wonderful creations is sitting in your seat,” Tommy Yessick told those attending the Healthy Leaders, Healthy Churches conference March 8–9 at First Baptist Church, Pelham.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this because I care about you,” continued Yessick, who is the director of research and development for Upward Unlimited in Spartanburg, S.C. Upward Unlimited provides churches with materials for a range of faith-based sports programs such as Upward Basketball, Upward Cheerleading and others.

Quoting Romans 12:1, Yessick said Christians have a biblical responsibility to take care of themselves. Using the biblical definition of a sacrifice as that which was without spot or defect, Yessick said, “If you’re supposed to be a living sacrifice and you’re living so you’re at risk for disease, what are you doing? Look at your own living sacrifice. What are you trying to present Him?”

The concept of health does not just include physical health, however.

It also encompasses the areas of emotional health, social health, intellectual health, vocational health and spiritual health. These are all interconnected so it is hard to say which one is most important.
He said the temptation, as spiritual leaders, is to put spiritual health above the others. However, “If you have the spiritual (health), but don’t have the emotional or social or family health, what good is it?” Yessick asked.

Quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Mark 12:30, Yessick said, “We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength. You can’t push the idea of taking care of your physical health to the side.”

Jesus physically took care of Himself, Yessick said, referencing 3 John 2, Luke 20:40, 42. If not, He would not have been able to withstand the beatings when He was crucified.

He also encouraged church leaders to help their congregations be physically fit, citing the fact that obesity is nearing epidemic status in the United States. “You care about your people, you ought to be doing something to help them with that,” Yessick said.

Yessick said God created the human body to live to be about 120–150 years old. Christians should take care of that body so the quality of life matches the quantity of life.“You can make a difference,” he said. “You can make more of a difference longer if you’ll just take care of the creation God’s given you.”

Parents key in shaping youth to be leaders

Richard Ross, professor of youth ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, told Alabama Baptist church and denominational leaders they should step into a new era of shaping young people to be future leaders in the church.

He was addressing the closing session of the Healthy Leaders, Healthy Churches conference March 8–9 at First Baptist Church, Pelham.

Ross said an effective approach to growing future leaders is three pronged. One, parents should actively teach the Bible to their own youth. Two, churches should encourage, equip and enhance those efforts. Three, churches should organize missions trips for youth to experience missionaries doing their work.

He longs to see the day when youth participating in missions trips is the norm among Baptists everywhere. Once they become Sunday School teachers, deacons and/or choir members their missions backgrounds will permeate church life. This approach has the potential to create stronger, missions-minded churches engaged in evangelistic activity.

But parents must lay the foundation for this change in today’s youth, according to Ross.

He said parents “talking the things of God” to their teenagers is God’s “Plan A” for the spiritual health of the church and its future.

“Teaching the Bible at home will create more life changes in the life of a youth than anything the church can do,” he said.

If parents shoulder the responsibility of inspiring and equipping today’s generation of youth and churches grow exponentially from that, then these youth could be the next great revival generation and the next generation of leaders for tomorrow’s churches, he said.

It’s not enough for the church to just pat youth on the back and thank them for being there, he said. Too often pastors and youth ministers are happy if the youth of the church are occupied with worthwhile activities and staying out of trouble, he said. But this kind of approach neglects finding, nurturing and equipping the potential leaders of tomorrow’s churches.

“I want church leaders to have a vision for youth that goes beyond just not having problems with them,” Ross said.

Instead, Ross said, churches should implement practical ideas to invest in the lives of its younger members from the beginning of their lives.

He suggested churches consider incorporating into their baby dedication services the presentation of a check for $25 to the child’s parents for a missions savings account. The idea is that money could be added to the account by parents, family and friends so by the time the child becomes a teenager enough money would be there for them to participate in a short-term missions trip.

While parents are living out these principles at home, pastors should preach about God’s call from their pulpits and educate young people on what it means to be called, Ross said.

“Youth need to be taught how God’s call sounds so when sitting in the back of the church they don’t wonder if what they feel is God’s call or a bad pizza,” Ross said.

He explained that God’s call is holy and initiated by God’s Holy Spirit. It is a feeling, a communication from God. But Ross said that oftentimes youth are struggling with identifying the numerous feelings going on in their lives as they develop emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually.

As youth work through their life decisions church leaders should do practical things to truly get to know their youth, and when their gifts are discovered they should be given ample opportunity to practice their gifts before the church.

Manage stress to improve, maintain physical health

Learning to manage stress is a key factor in improving physical health, according to Tommy Yessick, director of research and marketing for Upward Unlimited.

Yessick presented talks on nutrition and managing stress during the two-day Healthy Leaders, Healthy Churches conference.

There are four things that affect the body’s cells and the way they function, he said. These are physical activity, enzymes and supplemental vitamins, nutrition and stress. “When your cells are out of balance, you’re more likely to get sick, can’t think straight, etc., and so you can’t do the work God called you to do,” Yessick said.

Although many people think of stress negatively, it is a necessary part of life, he said. If the stress from work, family, social relationships, spiritual activities was no longer present, there would be nothing left in life.

Yessick defined stress in a variety of ways:

1. An event or condition that may be purely physical, social or psychological — including anticipation and imagination — that triggers a stress response.
2. The confusion created when one’s mind overrides the body’s basic desire to “choke the devil out of someone” who desperately needs it.
3. An emotional response to a situation you shouldn’t be in or can’t get out of.
4. Anything that upsets the homeostasis, or balance, of the cell.
5. Change.

And while there are good and bad sources of stress, dealing with it improperly can let it beat you and affect you not only physically, but also emotionally and socially.

Three ways people deal with stress improperly are by ignoring it, being unrealistic about it and staying in the middle of it.

When stress is ignored, several things happen physiologically. The thymus gland shrinks, lymph nodes shrink and white blood cells disappear. Lipofusion occurs, which means waste products build up because the lymph nodes and white blood cells are not functioning correctly. The immune system is suppressed, the adrenal gland enlarges and bleeding ulcers develop.

Being unrealistic about stress means having unrealistic expectations of yourself and others — Yessick said it is like thinking you are Superman.

He added that people stay in the middle of stress by not giving themselves time to relax after experiencing stress. When stress occurs, the body goes through three stages:

1. Alarm reaction. The body prepares for the fight by producing hormones and other physiological changes.
2. Resistance. The body channels the stress and alarm reaction results to specific organ systems.
3. Exhaustion. The body is exhausted by the extra effort and physiological changes.

Yessick also suggested five ways to deal positively with stress. One way is to not collect stress. Chronic stress is the most detrimental type and comes as things pile on and they are not dealt with or are held onto.

Yessick also suggested F.I.D.O. — Forget It and Drive On. Some things are not worth worrying about.

And finally, build a foundation of resistance to help fight stress. Invest in that by practicing good nutrition and some form of exercise that works large muscle groups to work off the physiological changes stress causes.

Healthy worship involves discipline, benefits worshiper

Alabama Baptist worship leaders received a checkup on their attitudes and actions during the Healthy Leaders, Healthy Churches conference March 8–9.

Wendell Boertje, who is minister of music at Central Baptist Church, Bearden, in Knoxville, Tenn., said healthy worship benefits both worshipers and the church.

He explored this theme during four breakout sessions, beginning by looking at emotional strength and health in worship.

Boertje said there are five disciplines to follow during worship: thankfulness, praise, sacrifice, service and submission.

Following these disciplines can foster the growth of spiritual and worship qualities in worship leaders. These emerge in a progressive order, Boertje said. He added that actions sometimes precede the will to act but will lead to an internalization of these qualities of worship.

The first quality is reverence, which means showing respect by walking in the ways of God. “How can we worship truly a God we have no reverence for?” Boertje asked.

That reverence will lead to a sense of humility in leading worship. Quoting from Isaiah 42:8, Boertje said God will not share His glory, and pride on the part of a worship leader is an affront to God.

Once humility is developed, it leads to a sense of the need for holiness and purity. “Of all the spiritual qualities of a healthy worship leader, humility, holiness and purity have to be the hardest,” Boertje said. But “a life of humility and purity leads to a life of intimacy with our Lord.”

Through intimacy with God comes an increased faith. “Faith in the life of a worship leader indicates expectancy,” Boertje said. “I don’t depend on myself as a healthy worship leader, it all depends on God.”

He said as all of these qualities develop, they are drawing worship leaders into a closer relationship with God. “We give Him humility, intimacy and faith and He gives back joy,” Boertje said. “In worship, faith and joy find expression.”

Boertje also gave a checklist for worship leaders of elements common to all worship experiences.

1. Focus on God and not achieving an experience.
2. Be sincere, open and honest with Him.
3. Give your best and do so because you love Him.
4. Look beyond events and experiences to see God and the work He has for you to do.
5. Be willing to pay the price to get to know God better.
6. Realize that the wonder of God must excite and humble the worship leader and worshipers.