- No church has a problem with genetics: we are born again with incorruptible seed.
- Most churches I know personally don't have a problem with spiritual diet: they get healthy doctrine every week.
- Our biggest problem seems to be lack of exercise. Paul often compared his evangelistic work to exercise. Imagine if every believer "worked out" three times per week for 30 minutes, praying, meeting people, and telling them about Jesus. I imagine they would get grilled with questions they do not know how to respond to; I imagine that would drive them to study the Scriptures. I imagine they would meet people who are suffering; I imagine that would drive them to be less selfish.
30 March 2009
Church Health
A church is a body. My doctor tells me that a physical body's health depends on genetics, diet and exercise. A church's health depends on the same three factors:
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3 responses:
David:
I like your optimism on #2 but I fear that in too many American churches the diet is peeps like there is one true Bible version and Calvinism is bad or on the other hand the pork rinds of whatever is the latest "evangelical" trend!
Thankfully there are a lot of churches where we do get good doctrine and we must just need to get out and exercise by showing that we really do BELIEVE!
Jon
You're right that many churches don't get healthy teaching; furthermore many of their members feed on spiritual junk food all week (worldly philosophies through media outlets like TV, radio, Internet). However, as a missionary I have been blessed to have been connected with some fabulous churches with fine teaching. To be honest, this post was the kernel of a message I preached in one of our own mission churches here, one whose biggest health issue would be #3. And MY biggest health issue would probably be #3 too. So, as I often do when I preach (or blog), I get the first finger pointed in my own face!!
Amen on #3. I have been asked a lot of tough questions by both believers and unbelievers in the past couple weeks that have made me dust off a lot of my theology, dig deeper into the Word, and get a better grip on key Scriptures. It's definitely major spiritual exercise to venture out into the fray! It's very humbly to see how flabby I am after being fed to the gills growing up in the States.
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