Foundational commitments for healthy churches

Foundational commitments for healthy churches

Interim director of missions, Morgan Baptist Association

Most churches truly want to be healthy and grow. Ministers and members have diligently and prayerfully searched for the right thing at the right time for their church to become a healthy church, a growing church. And yet we realize that we are not where we want to be or where we want our churches to be.

We are well aware that in order to build the right structure in anything, we must have the right foundation. Scripture records for us the words of our Lord in regard to the two foundational elements of a truly healthy church. The Great Commandment (Mark 12:28–34) and the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20) express the absolute basic essentials for growing a truly healthy church. Before we quickly protest and say, “Of course, everyone knows that,” we need to participate in some self-analysis. 

Is our love for God obvious in everything our church does? When people visit our church do they go away saying, “those people really do love God”? 

Is a passion for the Great Commission truly evident in all that we do? Can we truly say that the activities, programs and expenditures of our church are Great Commission activities, programs and expenditures?  

Perhaps if we are courageous enough and serious enough we can move toward true healthiness.