By Waylon Bailey, Pastor First Baptist Church Covington
Over the last few years, churches and church leaders have learned that health is a key metric for churches.
Find a healthy church and you will normally find a growing church with positive influence in its community. Healthy churches grow healthy followers of Christ, and they make a difference in the world.
What is it that healthy churches emphasize?
First, healthy churches emphasize the past. They do this in two ways.
Healthy churches remember their foundation both in the church and in Christian history. They emphasize their biblical roots. As the church magnifies the gospel – the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ–it builds on an enduring foundation.
The healthy church also remembers those who established the foundation of their local congregation. Remembering the former leaders helps the church recognize its past and encourage its future. A look back to other leaders also helps the church’s humility.
Second, the healthy church emphasizes its present.
We have to live in the present. We can’t relive the past, and we are not yet in the future. The healthy church makes the most of every opportunity to do good and to proclaim the gospel.
Healthy churches are busy establishing a culture that encourages health. The culture means that you can say, “we don’t do that here,” or “this is what we do.”
Third, the healthy church looks to the future.
The church does this in two ways. First, it remembers whose they are and the finished work of Christ. The healthy church knows that its future is secure in Christ. His kingdom is eternal. Healthy church members look to God to complete their joy.
Second, the healthy church has a preferred vision it wants to accomplish as long as they are on earth. The church emphasizes the vision, and the congregation buys into it.
I am either contributing to health or sickness in my local congregation. I have a profound influence on what my church will be.
May God grant health to His churches.
